Send us a text Along North Carolina’s coast, shrimping isn’t just an industry — it’s a living tradition that sustains families, communities, and local economies. This summer, that legacy was tested when a proposed state ban on shrimp trawling — added quietly to an unrelated bill — threatened to halt the practice of dragging nets…

Send us a text In this episode of Shoresides, we sit down with **North Carolina State Representative Zack Hawkins** during the final hours of critical budget negotiations. Hawkins discusses a controversial federal proposal that would have blocked state-level AI regulation for ten years — and explains why such preemption drew fierce bipartisan criticism. He warns…

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…

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

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…

Send us a text In this episode of Shoresides, we hear from Charles Seaton, President of International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) Local 1766 in Wilmington, North Carolina, as he speaks on the fight to protect jobs from automation in the maritime industry. Historian David Cecelski connects the modern labor struggle to the long and often-overlooked legacy…

Hosted by Rend Smith Featuring Johanna F. Still  of The Assembly Music by  PenguinMusic – Better Day from Pixabay. For the coastal Carolina shrimping industry the challenges are mounting.  The economics aren’t adding even when they bring home a good catch.  Johanna F. Still, who covers reflects on a recent story she wrote titled Shrimpin’…