How do we build strong public health systems? In rural Hertford County, North Carolina, the answer begins with people. These stories emerged from community story circles, where neighbors gathered...

What does health look like in a rural community? In Columbus County, North Carolina, it looks like a long drive to specialized medical care. It looks like a neighbor...

Agriculture contributes billions of dollars to North Carolina’s economy and helps put food on tables across the country. Yet many of the workers who plant, harvest and process that...

Across this series, we’ve explored the stories told about rural communities. This episode examines how rural health is framed — and what those narratives reveal about who belongs, who...

Public health depends on science. But science alone doesn’t build trust. In rural eastern North Carolina, trust is shaped by lived experience — by whether systems have shown up,...

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...

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,...

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....

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....