Send us a text In this episode of Shoreside, host Nicholas Merino explores the long-standing struggle for food access in Wilmington’s Northside neighborhood—classified by the USDA as a food desert. But as guest Sierra Washington, Executive Director of the Northside Food Co-Op, explains, “desert” doesn’t begin to capture the systemic inequality at play. Instead, she…
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Send us a text In this introductory episode of Temperature Check: Coastal Edition, hosted by Natalia Sanchez Loayza, we explore the impacts of extreme heat in coastal North Carolina. Natalia speaks with Jordan Clark, a climatologist and senior policy associate at the Heat Policy Innovation Hub and the Water Policy Program at the Nicholas Institute…
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According to research conducted by Shoresides, the National Weather Service Office in Wilmington, North Carolina, which played a pivotal role in predicting and tracking Hurricane Florence in 2018, may now be understaffed. In this episode of Storm Stories, we hear from the meteorologist at Joe Zambon about the 2025 hurricane season and the challenges of…
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Send us a text In Robeson County, North Carolina—home to some of the state’s highest youth violence rates—community-led prevention efforts were working. Until they weren’t. In this episode of Shoresides, host Nicolas Magrino speaks with Paul Smokowski, founding executive director of the North Carolina Youth Violence Prevention Center(NC-YVPC), and Leon Burden, lead violence interrupter and…
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Send us a text In this episode of Shoresides, we follow a community-led effort to uncover chemical contamination, protect public health, and rethink how we communicate environmental risk in places where food insecurity runs deep. Read more about this issue: Subsistence Fish Consumption on the Lower Cape Fear River (PDF) Support the show http://www.shoresides.org
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Send us a text A New Series About Rising Temperatures in Coastal North Carolina hosted By Natalia Sanchez Loayza According to a public records request submitted by Shoresides, at least three New Hanover High School student-athletes have experienced heat-related illnesses since 2022—none of which received the media attention that often follows when such events turn…
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Send us a text On this episode of Shoreside, host Nicholas Merino speaks with Catherine Moore, director of the Health Professions Data System at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, about striking projections: by 2033, North Carolina may face shortages of 12,500 registered…
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Send us a text This episode, Shoresides delves into the strange, ethically murky world of octopus aquaculture with scientist Dr. Jennifer Mather—to ask: Should North Carolina go ahead with banning Octopus farming? Does it need to? Links: My Octopus Teacher https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12888462/?ref_=ttawd_ov_i Octopus farming in NC? A bill was filed banning it https://www.axios.com/local/charlotte/2025/03/12/octopus-farming-house-bill-293-carolina-general-assembly-law-ban-aquaculture ‘Horrific Terror and…
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Send us a text In this episode, Shoresides talks with Jessica Thai, who grew up with immigration, tradition, and economic shifts shaping daily life and collective identity in a place that rarely makes the headlines—but offers powerful lessons about family, perseverance, and belonging. Support the show http://www.shoresides.org
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Send us a text Cultural anthropologist Barbara Garrity-Blake takes us into the world of North Carolina’s menhaden fishery — a once-thriving industry built by coastal communities, African American crews, and the haunting work songs they sang. In this episode, we explore how this small but vital fish fed both the economy and the environment, and…
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