Due South

Burmese pythons have decimated the populations of small mammals in the Florida Everglades since they established a breeding population in the 1990s. Nearly 1,000 have been removed through the annual Florida python challenge since it began in 2013. 

Tropical storm Debby dropped more than a foot of rain in some parts of North Carolina. The water levels in lakes and rivers rose significantly and risks of flooding followed across swaths of our state. 

Before removing thousands of dams, NC first has to remove the nation’s largest amphibian, the Eastern Hellbender salamander.

Guests

McKayla Spencer, Nonnative Fish and Wildlife Program Coordinator at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission 

Lisa Sorg, North Carolina reporter, Inside Climate News 

Zachary Turner, environment reporter at WFAE

Classes at North Carolina Central University start on Monday, but NCCU senior Devin Freeman won't be there. Instead, he'll be on the floor at the Democratic National Convention. Devin talks with co-host Leoneda Inge about how he became one of North Carolina’s delegates for the DNC and what it means to him to be headed to Chicago.

Then, Caitlin E. Jewitt, author of The Primary Rules: Parties, Voters, and Presidential Nominations and political science professor at Virginia Tech, joins co-host Jeff Tiberii to go over the rules and procedures of the Democratic National Convention in this unprecedented election cycle.

And, News & Observer political reporter Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi tells Due South what she and co-author Claudia Rivera Cotto of Enlace Latino NC found as they researched their article "NC’s Latino voters are up for grabs for either party, advocates say. Here’s why."

On the North Carolina News Roundup… 

Debby leaves her mark on the state. We recap the impact and survey the damage caused by the storm with a meteorologist and reporter out on the coast. 

Democrats react to Tim Walz as Kamala Harris' running mate. Republican Mark Robinson tries to pivot on the issue of abortion. 

And we’ll check-in on how some local Olympians fared in Paris. 

Join Due South co-host Jeff Tiberii and a panel of reporters for context and analysis of the week's news.

Guests 

Aimee Wilmoth, meteorologist, WRAL

Benjamin Schachtman, news director, WHQR in Wilmington

Dawn Vaughan, Capitol Bureau Chief, The News & Observer

Zachery Eanes, reporter, Axios Raleigh

Danielle Battaglia, Capitol Hill correspondent, The News & Observer/The Charlotte Observer/McClatchy

The South Sudan men’s national basketball team has a story to tell – with a few North Carolina connections. The team participated in the Paris 2024 Olympics – falling to the U.S., Serbia, and logging its first-ever win at the games, against Puerto Rico. Former NBA and Duke star Luol Deng has been a driving force behind the team since the beginning. Due South co-host Jeff Tiberii talks with a local filmmaker who has followed the trials and triumphs of South Sudan's basketball team.

Then, two members of the Paperhand Puppet Project talk about their upcoming annual summer pageant, "Earth and Sky: A Great Gathering for All Beings," which starts this weekend. This year's show features cicadas, frogs, mushrooms, plants, and a 40-foot illuminated giant lichen puppet.

And, just how big of an environmental impact does toilet paper have? And, what are the alternatives to conventional TP? Due South talks with an North Carolina State University professor to explain.

Legal maneuvers hold up lawsuits by victims of asbestos exposure, via bankruptcy court in Charlotte.

How ‘The Greensboro Six’ broke golf’s color barrier.

And, before there was a U.S. Coast Guard, there were US Life-Saving Service stations dotting the Outer Banks and the Atlantic coast.

Guests
Ames Alexander, investigative reporter, The Charlotte Observer

Josh Sullivan, social media producer, North Carolina Public Radio WUNC

James Charlet, known as "Keeper James,” has spent much of his career at the Chicamacomico Life-Saving Service station in Rodanthe. He is founder of The Outer Banks Coast Guard History Preservation Group

Due South co-host Jeff Tiberii chats with WUNC's Eli Chen about South Asian voters in NC and their perspectives on the Harris for President campaign. And Rep. Mickey Michaux talks about his storied career as the longest-serving member of the NC General Assembly and his hopes for the outcome of the 2024 election. 

The book Red Dead's History: A Video Game, an Obsession, and America's Violent Past is out this week. It's about “the most-played digital renditions of American history since The Oregon Trail.” We talk with the author of that book who teaches an American history course based on the video game Red Dead Redemption. 

And, translating a Mediterranean diet for the Southeastern U.S. population, using southern food staples. Recipes, big ideas, and more from a Doctor of Public Health who focuses on nutrition.

Guests

Tore C. Olsson, associate professor, director of Graduate Studies for American History at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville

Dr. Alice Ammerman, Distinguished Prof. Department of Nutrition, Gillings School of Global Public Health, Director of Center for Health Promotion and Disease prevention

It has been a week in North Carolina news. Gov. Roy Cooper dropped out of the race to be Kamala Harris’ running mate. Families on a waiting list for private school vouchers push for more funding. And state House republicans vote to override three of the governor’s vetoes.

WUNC Capitol Bureau Chief Colin Campbell guests hosts this week's roundup.

Guests

Bryan Anderson, freelance reporter, Anderson Alerts newsletter

Dave Mildenberg, editor, Business NC magazine

Liz Schlemmer, education reporter, WUNC

Ben Wasserstein, Pennsylvania Capitol Bureau Chief, WITF

Earlier this year, a group of Black women traveled to Edenton, North Carolina for a cultural experience they wouldn’t forget called “A Sojourn for Harriet Jacobs.” It was a trip to honor the life of Jacobs, a Black woman who lived from 1813 to 1897 and wrote the book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl about her early life.

Co-host Leoneda Inge traveled along on the sojourn, which was organized to amplify the voice of Jacobs and share her legacy with artists, scholars, writers, cultural workers. Leoneda is joined in the studio by Johnica Rivers, Curator-At-Large with The Harriet Jacobs Project, and Michelle Lanier, Director of the North Carolina Division of State Historic Sites and Properties and Director of The Harriet Jacobs Project.

Then, a North Carolina-based family is trying to earn a spot in Guinness World Records for having the most living generations in a single family. Natonya Walker and Terri Boyd from the Aycock/Crawford family join Leoneda Inge to talk about the moment they realized they have seven living generations in their extended family, from a 103-year-old elder to a toddler, and about what it’s meant to reconnect branches of the family after so many years of separation.

And, North Carolina highway historical markers can be seen all across the state — and these markers can make a big difference when it comes to which NC places, historical moments, and people are memorialized and commemorated. Leoneda Inge talks to Ansley Herring Wegner of the NC Office of Archives and History about how markers are approved and what it takes to get a marker erected and noticed by the public.

Co-host Leoneda Inge chats with State Sen. Natalie Murdock, Dr. Jarvis Hall, associate professor of political science at North Carolina Central University and Dr. Aimy Steele, CEO of The New North Carolina Project about growing support among North Carolina's democratic voters for Vice President Kamala Harris' 2024 presidential bid. In a post-Olympic win re-broadcast, co-host Leoneda Inge talks to U.S. Army Captain and Women's Rugby Sevens player Sammy Sullivan about competing at this year's Summer Games.

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