The Overlook with Matt Peiken

If you hike, bike, hunt, hammock, picnic, forage or just otherwise like to wander around the Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests, you care about how these forests are managed. And the history and culture of this region play into the mistrust some people feel about management at the hands of federal officials. Today's guest is Jack Igleman. When he’s not teaching economics courses at Warren...

Today's episode began with a question: Why does Asheville struggle to attract large corporations and the thousands of highly paid, highly skilled jobs that come with them? For answers, we turn to UNC-Asheville assistant professor of economics Jonathan Brown. Our conversation spans the region’s history, culture and livability amid a heavy dependence on tourism. We also talk about how remote wo...

Owners of the Asheville Tourists baseball team insist McCormick Field needs $30 million in renovations. If Asheville and Buncombe County leaders don’t agree to carry most of that cost, the team is threatening to leave Asheville . Our guests today say that’s an age-old play: Owners of pro sports teams leveraging cash-strapped cities for new or improved stadiums. Today's guests have studied thi...

This week's Story Parlor audio residency features an interview with the creators behind The Big Beautiful Crankie Project—a multidisciplinary arts collaboration utilizing a unique and timeless form of storytelling.  Support the show Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign ! Advertise your event on The Overlook . Instagram: AVLoverlook | Facebook: AVLoverlook | Twitter: AVLoverloo...

Secret Shame is a young Asheville band that has already caught waves of national attention. The songs are built around the darkened headspace of vocalist Lena, who says her battles with mental illness have been a double-edged creative sword. In this episode, Lena talks at length with host Matt Peiken about the difference between expressing herself on paper and reliving her traumas every night in p...

Are you wondering why Asheville lacks affordable housing? For answers, step into the February gathering of the Goodwill Industries Business Advisory Council . The Overlook brings you the illuminating Q&A session, featuring panelists are Robin Cape of EXP Realty ; Andy Barnett, the executive director of Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity ; and Anna Zuevskaya, executive director of Asheville-Bu...

New hotels are blooming in and around Asheville like wildflowers in the spring. Some are new construction. Other projects, particularly in the River Arts District, plan to repurpose older buildings. But the connecting thread is undeniable—this city’s dependence and deference to tourism is only deepening. Today’s guest, Jason Sandford, is the founding journalist of AshVegas , who now channels most...

Sarah Honosky, the city government reporter with the Asheville Citizen-Times , has extensively covered the varied angles of homelessness in Asheville. In this conversation with host Matt Peiken, Honosky details the goals of city and county officials to cut the city’s growing population of the unhoused by half. We also go through a report calling for major structural change in how local officials h...

Our Friday audio residency from the stage of Story Parlor , in West Asheville, continues honoring Black History Month with performances from Kelly Morris, Mildred Barya and Jasmin Morrell.   Support the show Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign ! Advertise your event on The Overlook . Instagram: AVLoverlook | Facebook: AVLoverlook | Twitter: AVLoverlook Listen and Subscribe: All ep...

Luzene Hill didn’t think of herself as an artist until well into midlife. Today, she’s untethered by discipline in her feminist and Native American matrilineal expression. Hill is an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians living in Cullowhee. A series of recent drawings and a new performance video are at the core of “Revelate,” an exhibition of Hill’s work on view through May 15 a...

It can be frustrating to think these two problems coexist in our community — food scarcity and food waste. Food Connection is an Asheville nonprofit addressing both sides. Today’s guests are founder Flori Pate and Marisha MacMorran, the executive director. They call their work food rescue, delivering prepared foods to residential centers and individual homes. We talk about the details of that work...

Sally Kestin of AVL Watchdog has done extensive reporting showing Asheville City Council members have skirted the spirit, if not the letter, of North Carolina’s open meetings laws for years by holding closed-door sessions in groups of two or three. I talk with Sally Kestin about her reporting on this issue, what’s potentially happening in these meetings outside of public view and the effects on a...

Asheville Police have been public about their challenges recruiting and keeping officers. Daniel Walton, today’s guest, has covered the travails of the Asheville Police as a reporter and city editor with Mountain Xpress . Host Matt Peiken talks with Walton about the department’s checkered history both on the streets and within its ranks. Walton also details some of the factors keeping Asheville fr...

The Overlook is devoting Friday episodes to the Asheville community in the form of "audio residencies." Our first block of Friday episodes are curated by Erin Hallagan Clare, the founding director of Story Parlor . It's a West Asheville that opened in 2022 and has quickly become a go-to hub for storytelling in a variety of stripes. In this first episode of the residency, Clare spotl...

In the pantheon of rock operas, “Tommy,” “The Wall” and “Jesus Christ Superstar” come first to mind on the list of classic titles. Could we someday add to that list “Happyland?” Host Matt Peiken talks with Zach Knox and Brayden Dickerson, the Asheville creators of “Happyland,” an ensemble-cast musical premiering this month at the Magnetic Theatre. We talk with about the theatrical nature of their...

Hospice care in the United States is largely defined and shaped by health insurers and Medicare. The Center for Conscious Living and Dying , set to open this spring, is a new nonprofit in Swannanoa driven to reposition hospice as a communal passage. Host Matt Peiken talks with Dr. Aditi Sethi, the center's founding director; and Hannah Fowler, a registered nurse and the center’s director of e...

If you travel Merrimon Avenue in North Asheville with any regularity, you probably have a strong opinion about it. The road diet of last fall cut four driving lanes to two with a center turn lane and new bike lanes on the margins. Host Matt Peiken talks with Mike Sule, the founding director of Asheville on Bikes . Some people applaud the lobbying he and his group did to bring the road diet forward...

For every question Asheville officials have answered about what happened with the city's water system over the holiday calamity, another hangs in the air, unanswered. Host Matt Peiken talks with AVL Watchdog 's John Boyle, the dean of shoe-leather journalism in Asheville, about the checkered history of the city’s water system; how the city handled public communications in the latest fail...

Imagine two of public radio’s most popular shows— The Daily and Fresh Air —come to Asheville, N.C., meet up with a doula and have a baby. That baby is  The Overlook, a new daily podcast all about Asheville, from award-winning journalist Matt Peiken. Support the show Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign ! Advertise your event on The Overlook . Instagram: AVLoverlook | Facebook: AVLo...