Throughout the South, state legislatures are adopting and expanding school voucher programs designed to allow parents to use public funds to pay for private school tuition. But this modern day push for school choice is connected to a dark past that recalls America’s long and sometimes forgotten history of resisting integration in the classroom.

Featuring:

• Jennifer Berry Hawes, reporter with ProPublica
• Crystal Sanders, author of “A Forgotten Migration: Black Southerners, Segregation Scholarships, and the Debt Owed to Public HBCUs”

Links:

• Read Jennifer Berry Hawes reporting on segregation academies and school vouchers here.
• You can find a transcript of this episode here.

Donate: The Broadside is made possible by contributions from listeners like you. Support WUNC-North Carolina Public Radio and this podcast by making a donation here.

Sign up for WUNC's new Politics Newsletter here.

In 2018, the US Supreme Court ruled that states could legalize sports gambling. Since then, 38 states have taken the plunge, including our home state of North Carolina. The payoff has been lucrative. But it also has a human toll.

Featuring:

• Jason deBruyn, Supervising Editor for Digital News at WUNC
• Jason Quick, Senior Writer at The Athletic

Links:

• Check out Jason Quick's incredible reporting about gambling addiction.
• You can find a transcript of this episode here.

Donate: The Broadside is made possible by contributions from listeners like you. Support WUNC-North Carolina Public Radio and this podcast by making a donation here.

Sign up for WUNC's new Politics Newsletter here.

On a chilly evening in 1961, a B-52 crashed in rural eastern North Carolina near the town of Goldsboro. Any plane crash is bad, but this one was particularly dangerous because onboard that bomber were two nuclear weapons. The event was perhaps the closest the United States has ever come to accidentally detonating a nuclear bomb—and kicking off a nuclear war.

Featuring:

• Jay Price, Military and Veterans Affairs reporter at WUNC and The American Homefront Project
• Stephen Schwartz, independent nuclear weapons expert and author of “Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Since 1940”

Links:

• Read Jay's article from 2018 marking the 50th anniversary of the Goldsboro nuclear accident.
• View photos of the Mars Bluff Crater left behind by the nuclear accident in Florence, South Carolina.

Donate: The Broadside is made possible by contributions from listeners like you. Support WUNC-North Carolina Public Radio and this podcast by making a donation here.

Sign up for WUNC's new Politics Newsletter here.

This week, we visit the small town of Marshall in western North Carolina, a region ravaged by Hurricane Helene earlier this year.

But this story isn’t about the storm or climate change or the walls of water that rushed through the Black Mountains in September. It’s about what happened after. How people create systems to help each other. And how the best aspects of humanity can shine in the wake of a disaster.

This episode comes to us from Outside/In. Produced by our friends at New Hampshire Public Radio, it’s a podcast where curiosity and the natural world collide.

Credits:

• Outside/In host: Nate Hegyi
• Reported, written, produced, and mixed by Justine Paradis
• Edited by Taylor Quimby
• The Outside/In team also includes Felix Poon, Marina Henke, and Kate Dario.
• NHPR’s Director of Podcasts is Rebecca Lavoie
• Special thanks to the folks at Poder Emma and Collaborativa La Milpa in Asheville. Thanks also to Rural Organizing and Resilience (ROAR).

Donate: The Broadside is made possible by contributions from listeners like you. Support WUNC-North Carolina Public Radio and this podcast by making a donation here.

Sign up for WUNC's new Politics Newsletter here.

In this special holiday episode, we meet the Jewish man from Gastonia, North Carolina who became the world's largest manufacturer of Christmas ornaments and used his power to make his home more tolerant of all religions.

This episode comes to us from Jeremy Markovich. Jeremy is the creator of a newsletter and podcast called the North Carolina Rabbit Hole, where he explores the strange and quirky corners of his home state. You can find all of his incredible work at ncrabbithole.com.

• This story was adapted from: "The Unlikely Ornament King of Gastonia" which appeared in Our State's December 2016 issue.

Music in this episode:

• "Dad, Get Up" by Peter Lamb and the Wolves (Raleigh)
• Additional Music: Blue Dot Sessions, U.S. Marine Band

Special Thanks: The Rauch Family, Jack Betts, Don Walser, Kimberly Simpson, Alexis Castanos, and Todd Dulaney.

Donate: The Broadside is made possible by contributions from listeners like you. Support WUNC-North Carolina Public Radio and this podcast by making a donation here.

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On a rainy day in 1979, a photograph was taken of a young girl skateboarding down a street in Fayetteville, North Carolina. 45 years later, that photo went viral with a little help from the most famous skater who ever lived: Tony Hawk. This week, we find out who the mystery girl in the picture was and why the snapshot was so ahead of its time.

Featuring:

• Jeremy Markovich, writer of the North Carolina Rabbit Hole
• Tony Hawk, skateboarder
• Shaunda Shane, skateboarder

Links:

• Check out Jeremy's article about tracking down Shaunda Shane.
• View photographs of Shaunda skateboarding from the Fayetteville Observer.
• You can find a transcript of this episode here.

Donate: The Broadside is made possible by contributions from listeners like you. Support WUNC-North Carolina Public Radio and this podcast by making a donation here.

Sign up for WUNC's new Politics Newsletter here.

From the White House to your living room, North Carolina’s iconic Fraser fir is the most popular Christmas tree in America. But this holiday season, something is threatening to wipe it out — and the $250 million dollar industry associated with it.

Special thanks this week goes out to Kate Sheppard of The Assembly.

Featuring:

• Steve Riley, contributor at The Assembly

Links:

• Check out Steve's article about the race to save America's favorite Christmas tree here.
• You can find a transcript of this episode here.

Donate: The Broadside is made possible by contributions from listeners like you. Support WUNC-North Carolina Public Radio and this podcast by making a donation here.

Sign up for WUNC's new Politics Newsletter here.

For more than a century, people near Brown Mountain have witnessed unusual displays of shimmering and sometimes even exploding lights. A skeptical scientist has spent years trying to solve the mystery.

This week, we’re heading to the mountains of western North Carolina for an episode produced by Atlas Obscura in partnership with Visit North Carolina.

Donate: The Broadside is made possible by contributions from listeners like you. Support WUNC-North Carolina Public Radio and this podcast by making a donation here.

Sign up for WUNC's new Politics Newsletter here.