The Hometown Holler

Why does one seat in the North Carolina State Senate matter more than almost anything happening in Washington? Daniel Squadron joins the Hometown Holler to make the case that state legislatures—not Congress, not the White House—are where American politics is actually decided. A former New York State Senator who took on a 30-year incumbent and won, Daniel went on to co-found The States Project, the...

Psychedelics have gone from a symbol of the hippie counterculture to a serious conversation in state legislatures and medical research labs. This week on The Hometown Holler, the Fellas chat with, Gina Giorgio founder of Carolinas for Care , about the growing movement behind psychedelic-assisted therapy, North Carolina's bipartisan HEAL Act, the mental health crisis facing veterans, and what t...

What does it mean to be the best state for business... and the worst state for workers? Quinn and Daniel sit down with Nikki Marín Baena, co-founder of Siembra NC, to talk about wage theft, workers' rights, immigration, and the growing movement to build a North Carolina that works for ordinary people. From helping workers recover hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen wages to organizing c...

Raised in the Jehovah's Witness, Naomi Dix was knocking on doors and leading prayer meetings by the time she was 13. Today she's one of only five drag queens in history to own a gay nightclub. The road between those two things is one of the wildest stories we've heard at the Holler. This Pride Month, we talk to the Durham native and Tar Heel drag icon about what drag actually is (and i...

What happens when someone spends more than a decade behind bars, survives nearly 1,000 days in solitary confinement, and comes home determined to change the system that failed him? This week on The Hometown Holler , Quinn and Daniel sit down with Kerwin Pittman , formerly incarcerated advocate, nonprofit leader, and the man turning a former North Carolina prison into a first-of-its-kind reentry ca...

Nobody told Auntie Bev she was supposed to be famous. She was just in her living room, doing a favor for her grandson... and somehow that turned into 3 million people waiting on her next word. Beverly Mahone, better known as Auntie Bev, is a Durham educator who built one of the most wholesome corners of TikTok one vocabulary word at a time. This week she visits the Holler to talk words, wisdom, an...

Retired 82nd Airborne Captain and member of Veterans for Responsible Leadership, Scott Peoples, joins the Holler for a Memorial Day conversation about service, democracy, political division, and what it means to defend the Constitution after taking off the uniform. They chat about what Memorial Day actually means beyond beach trips and cookouts, to jumping out of planes at Fort Bragg, the growing...

Senator Mark Kelly joins the Hometown Holler to talk about space, war, and what it's like to have the president call for your execution. Arguably the most interesting member of the US Senate, Kelly has been to space four times and flown combat missions over Iraq and Kuwait. Recently, President Trump called for his execution after Kelly made a video reminding service members they don't have...

Corporate influence, stock trades, citizens united - oh my! This week the on the Hometown Holler the fellas sit down with political finance watchdog and Stocking the Capitol founder Nico Agosta for a conversation about stock trading, corporate PACs, and why so many Americans feel like Congress is working for everyone except them. From insider trading allegations to campaign cash, Nico breaks down...

A few years ago, Trae Crowder went out to the woods, pointed his phone at his face, and started yelling. Hundreds of millions of views later, he's still basically doing that... just with a shirt on now. Trae joins the Holler to talk about the origin of the Liberal Redneck (North Carolina played a bigger role than you'd think), what it's like to be the guy who's supposed to represen...

This week on The Hometown Holler, the fellas sit down with Governor Josh Stein to break down what’s happening inside the General Assembly, why billions of dollars are on the line, and how decisions being made right now could shape the future of our state. We get into it all, from teacher pay and tax cuts to data centers popping up in folks’ backyards and who’s actually footing the bill. If you’ve...

What happens when the President wakes up and starts firing off tweets that sound more like warnings than leadership? This week on The Hometown Holler, we sit down with North Carolina Congresswoman Deborah Ross to break down Donald Trump’s latest unhinged social media posts, what’s actually happening behind the scenes in Washington, and how members of Congress respond in real time when things feel...

After 12 years in the North Carolina General Assembly, former NC Senator Graig Meyer sits down with The Hometown Holler to share why he’s stepping away and what’s actually happening inside NC politics. He talks about the “internal politics and pettiness” that pushed him to leave, what it’s like working inside a superminority, and why so many good ideas never see the light of day. From the lack of...

In 2016, Pat McCrory ran for reelection as North Carolina’s governor on the same ticket as Donald Trump. Trump carried the state, but McCrory lost by just over 10,000 votes out of more than 4.5 million cast. In the decade since, McCrory has watched the Republican Party move in a direction he no longer fully recognizes. This week, he sat down with the Holler to discuss January 6th, HB2 (the so-call...

Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Tift Merritt joins the Holler to discuss her career as a working musician, the process of writing songs, and how streaming and AI are reshaping the future of music. She breaks down what artists actually earn from streaming, why it can take millions of plays to break even on a record, and how the shift from CDs to digital platforms like Spotify changed the busines...

New York Times bestselling novelist Wiley Cash joins the Holler to talk about storytelling, Southern identity, and what it means to be a North Carolina writer. Wiley reflects on growing up in Gastonia around religious family members who spoke in tongues, the small-town dynamics that shaped his novels, and how homesickness while living in Louisiana pushed him to write the book that launched his car...

Bob Crawford of The Avett Brothers joins the Holler to discuss his new book "America's Founding Son" and how a touring musician ended up writing a sweeping history of John Quincy Adams. Bob recalls studying American history in the back of a tour van and falling down a rabbit hole that led him to one of the most fascinating and overlooked figures in American history. We talk about why...

Harnessing the mystical power of Diet Sun Drop, we summoned Former NC Governor Roy Cooper to the Holler. Roy opens up about growing up in Nashville, NC (the original Nashville), working summers on the family farm, losing money on pigs and watermelons, and his short-lived career breaking horses. From blocking Phil Ford's shot in a high school gym to leading NC through hurricanes and COVID, Roy trac...

Representative Rodney Pierce joins the Holler to talk about what it means to represent one of North Carolina’s most overlooked regions. A public school teacher and first-term legislator representing Halifax, Warren, and Northampton counties, Pierce discusses rural population decline, public school funding, bipartisan bills that never got hearings, and what rural voters want from their elected lead...

Richard Ojeda swings by the Holler to talk about service, sacrifice, and what real representation looks like in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District. A retired Army major and former West Virginia state senator, Ojeda discusses leading troops in combat, surviving political violence, and why he believes members of Congress should put boots on the ground back home. We talk veterans’ health car...

Kate Barr returns to The Hometown Holler to explain why she’s running as a Republican in a heavily gerrymandered North Carolina congressional district. We break down gerrymandering, voter suppression, GOP primaries, party strategy, and the political machine built by Tim Moore — and whether it’s possible to win inside maps designed to keep power in the same hands. Support independent North Carolina...

Historian Heather Cox Richardson returns to The Holler to chat about American democracy, authoritarianism, and why history keeps echoing into the present. We talk Reconstruction, the Wilmington Coup, North Carolina’s unique political history, and what it means when people say, “it can’t happen here.”👉 Support independent NC storytelling: thehometownholler.com

This year, Quinn and Daniel are unwrapping a holiday special packed with all the comfort and chaos of a good ol’ fashioned Carolina Christmas. Daniel’s sister and brother-in-law — Sarah and Austin McCombie of Chatham Rabbits — are in town, which means it’s time to uncork the bourbon and share a little Christmas cheer 🎄🎶 If you’ve seen Chatham Rabbits live, you already know the deal: homegrown tu...

The Holler sits down with Kamal Bell — farmer, activist, and founder of Sankofa Farms , one of North Carolina’s most groundbreaking community agriculture projects. Kamal shares how growing up in Durham opened his eyes to food deserts, why unequal access to healthy food is no accident, and what it takes to build real solutions instead of waiting on policymakers. From food justice to community power...

The Holler sits down with David A. Graham — staff writer at The Atlantic and author of The Project: How Project 2025 Is Reshaping America. David breaks down why dictators love elections, why 2026 may actually be the most important election of our lifetime, and how North Carolina has quietly become the canary in the coal mine. From ICE raids to gerrymandering, media intimidation, and “competitive a...