What does it take to strengthen the systems people rely on in southeastern NC?
Health is often talked about as a matter of personal choice. But the truth is, our well-being is shaped by much more than individual decisions — it depends on...
Inside Black Rural Life: What We Miss When These Stories Aren’t Told
Black communities have long been central to rural life in the South, helping shape the culture, economy and civic life of the places they call home. In North Carolina,...
A North Carolina Winter Storm As Seen Through Lyft Ride-Share Data
Inclement weather exposes our transportation options—and where we most need to go. In the case of Wilmington, NC, as winter storm Gianna hit, data showed residents used the Lyft...
How Access Shapes Trust in Rural Health Systems
In southeastern North Carolina, residents in Columbus County face some of the steepest challenges to living a healthy life. They consistently have the lowest health outcomes in the state....
Dr. Mayra Galeano on Viewing Wilmington’s Life Expectancy Gap Up Close
Send a text Data showing that the community surrounding Portia Mills Hines Park has the lowest life expectancy in Wilmington is stark. But what does that reality look like...
Building rural power with Down Home North Carolina
In this week’s episode, we visited Down Home North Carolina, a non-profit organization that builds rural, multiracial and working-class power across the state through local campaigning and community organizing....
Urbanist Andrés Otero on Carlessness in Wilmington, N.C.
Send a text “New Hanover County has one of the highest shares of households without vehicle access in North Carolina—about 6 percent—according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s...
Who Gets to Define Rural Communities?
In our first episode, we ask: Who gets to shape the stories that define rural communities? Welcome to Rural Narratives, a new podcast about public health in North Carolina’s...
Fixing Wilmington’s Pedestrian Safety Gap
Send a text Recently, the Wilmington StarNews and Cape Fear Collective dug into Wilmington, N.C.’s life-expectancy gap. It turns out there are similar disparities regarding the city’s pedestrians. “Wilmington consistently...
The Real Vanessa Gonzalez: A Wilmington, N.C. Immigration Lawyer Found a Disturbing Profile on Facebook, Why Won’t Meta Help?
Send us a text In this episode, Shoresides talks with Vanessa Gonzalez about what it means when people looking for help can’t easily tell the difference between a real...
North Carolina lawmakers go all in on partisan gerrymandering in state’s Black Belt
Send us a text North Carolina’s latest congressional map is part of Republicans’ efforts nationwide to gain more seats in the House of Representatives ahead of the 2026 election. ...
Explaining NC’s latest redistricting of Black Belt counties
Send us a text Ahead of the 2026 Election, North Carolina’s Republican lawmakers — at the request of President Trump — have passed a new congressional map intended to...
