shoresides

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 up close—and what’s being done about it? In this episode, Shoresides speaks with Dr. Mayra Galeano, the chief medical officer at a clinic close to the…

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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.  Guests:  Taí Coates-Wedde, Director of Communications at Down Home North Carolina Jon Council, western North Carolina regional campaigner at Down Home North Carolina Voices:  Tatiana Jones,…

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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 American Community Survey,” transportation expert Andrés Otero wrote in an article for WHQR last year. “People without access to a car often include college students, older…

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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 rural communities. In this series, storytelling isn’t just about the news — it’s a way to listen, learn, and understand how meaning is made. We speak…

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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 has one of the highest annual pedestrian crash rates in NC. From 2011–2020,” says the 2023 Walk Wilmington Pedestrian Plan. The majority of crashes involving pedestrians…

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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 attorney and a convincing impersonator — and why immigration law, with its limited pathways and high stakes, is a particularly easy place to run the con….

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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.  Right before Thanksgiving, federal judges ruled against local advocacy groups and voters who have challenged the map on the basis of racial gerrymandering. This decision, along…

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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 squeeze out one more Republican seat in Congress. The new map will also make it more difficult for northeastern Black voters to elect their preferred candidate….

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Inside the history of redistricting in North Carolina’s Black Belt

North Carolina’s Black Belt is a cluster of northeastern counties known for its rich soil and history. And now, it’s the site of one of the most enduring issues in the state: redistricting. But this isn’t the first time that the region has been redistricted to disenfranchise Black voters. In this episode, we go back…

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How Growth Is Stripping Wilmington of Its Trees and What Comes Next

Wilmington’s trees are disappearing faster than they can be replaced. In this episode Shoresides talks with Executive Director Isabel Shepherd of the Alliance for Cape Fear Trees about what’s driving the loss and how their new Code & Canopy report lays out a path forward. Helpful Links Alliance for Cape Fear Trees — Code &…

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