News

Earlier this week, the BET Awards recognized some of the best in black entertainment. At the awards, Chicago-based artist and activist Chance the Rapper delivered a stirring speech after receiving the BET Humanitarian Award. Chance the Rapper was praised for recently donating $1 million to Chicago Public Schools. 

Songs We Love is a series and a podcast that looks at the stories behind some of the songs we're playing on our new music discovery stream, WUNC Music.

This time Eric Hodge sits down with John Paul White to talk about his song "What's So" from the album Beulah.

North Carolina has been battling a growing opioid addiction epidemic. New Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from North Carolina hospitals show the rise in intravenous drug use is also causing a sharp increase in the rate of heart infections. 

When German measles, or rubella, broke out in the U.S. in the 1960s, women were terrified about the disabling effects the disease could have on their unborn babies. Clinicians eventually developed a vaccine but would not administer it to pregnant women, believing it was too risky – a decision that led to thousands of abortions and a huge amount of stress and fear. 

A range of national and international events in the past decade have thrust conversations about race into the forefront of public consciousness. And with these conversations come questions about terminology like ‘whiteness’ and ‘blackness’. What is ‘whiteness,’ where did the idea of a ‘white race’ come from, and how has that idea changed over time? These are questions explored in “Seeing White,” a miniseries that is part of the podcast “Scene On Radio,” produced at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.  

When Mary D. Williams was a kid growing up in Garner, North Carolina, she often visited her grandparents in Johnston County. She remembers passing a sign that said, “You are in the heart of Klan country” along the way. The sign was a visible example of the racism her grandparents endured in rural North Carolina.

Senate Republicans released their plan to roll back the Affordable Care Act this week. The measure was drafted in secret and comes after the U.S. House of Representatives passed its own version of a health bill last month. The bill is expected to come to the Senate floor next week.

In 1981, Margaret Maron published a mystery novel about NYPD homicide detective Sigrid Harald and her investigation of a poisoning. More than 35 years and 31 titles later, Maron felt she had one more story to tell before retiring from novel writing.

Kym Register and Will Hackney are Loamlands, a folk-rock band whose often dark lyrics focus on local stories like urban development in Durham and overlooked queer history. The title track off their newest album, “Sweet High Rise,” is a direct reflection on watching the One City Center on Main Street in Durham climbs upward, forever changing the city skyline. Register’s thoughtful lyrics are supported and sometimes played off against contrasting layers of Hackney’s arrangements.

This week on the WUNCPolitics Podcast, a conversation about the state budget, journalism and accusations of being a jihadist. Following spending proposals from the Governor, House, and Senate over the past few months, lawmakers passed a budget compromise this week. The $23 billion fiscal blueprint includes a $530 million tax cut, an average 3.3-percent raise for teachers, and a 1-percent pension bump for state retirees. Naturally Republicans are hailing the plan, while most Democrats contend the budget document doesn’t do enough for middle-class families and education.

North Carolina's school prinicpals have the nation's lowest average salary. The pending state budget would raise salaries and base them partially on student performance.

We often think of the battlefield as a place of chaos, where the explosive sounds of gunfire ring out over commands. But the technology of warfare is changing and so is the sound.

When it comes to bohemian art scenes and creative subcultures, the South has often been overshadowed – or sometimes even dismissed – in favor of metropolitan areas like New York or San Francisco. But a new book seeks to highlight the creative thinkers and diverse art scenes that influenced culture in the South, as well as those that permeated into the art, literary, and food scenes in northern states.

There are some changes coming to the North Carolina Public Radio - WUNC Saturday program lineup in July. NPR is ending its production of The Best of Car Talk; now it's time to say goodbye to the edited reruns of Click and Clack.

The last broadcast of The Best of Car Talk on WUNC will be June 24. The following Saturday, July 1, On The Media, hosted by Brooke Gladstone and Bob Garfield, will join the WUNC Saturday line up. 

Over the years, country music has seen iconic women like Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn become legends in the Country Music Hall of Fame. Nevertheless, country music remains a boy’s club for many artists. In her new novel “The Whole Way Home” (William Morrow/2017), writer Sarah Creech tells the story of one woman’s road to country music stardom.

Superheroes have captured the American imagination since the 1930s. Characters including Superman, Batman and Spiderman represented men of strength and moral fiber who inspired as they fought the forces of evil. It was an easy jump to the silver screen, where today, multiple superhero films are released every year, blowing up box office records as often as they do the bad guys.

Yesterday evening, the North Carolina Senate and House leaders reached an agreement over how to spend and raise state funds. The compromise deal lays out a 3.3 percent increase in teacher pay for the coming year, and raises pay for most other state employees by $1,000. 

 In May 1862, Robert Smalls became a Union hero overnight when he stole a Confederate steamer from the Charleston harbor. Smalls had been enslaved his whole life and decided to free himself and his family by stealing the Planter and piloting it to the Union fleet outside Charleston, South Carolina. 

Soul food has been a culinary tradition for centuries. While it remains an important source of community for many African-Americans, the way certain soul foods are prepared can increase chances of cancer and other health issues. In his documentary “Soul Food Junkies” (2012), filmmaker Byron Hurt examines his family’s history with soul food and the impact of the cuisine’s traditions.