Podcasts Archives • NC Newsline

Senator Natalie Murdock

The record federal government shutdown may be over, but the dysfunction to which it gave rise and helped spur continues to plague North Carolina. Here in our state alone, millions of average people who have long relied upon government structures and services to help make basics like health care and access to food more affordable are suddenly confronting dire situations.

Whether it’s Medicaid, Affordable Care Act Marketplace health insurance policies or SNAP food assistance, recent actions of the Trump administration and its congressional allies are causing havoc for people living on the edge. What’s more, as we learned in a recent conversation with North Carolina State Senator Natalie Murdock of Chatham and Durham Counties, Republican leaders in the North Carolina General Assembly, who could be taking action to ease the confusion and suffering, have instead chosen inaction.

Click here to listen to the full interview with state Senator Natalie Murdock.

Andrew Willis Garcés of Siembra NC

One of the top news items at the start of the holiday season here in North Carolina has been the Trump administration’s latest anti-immigrant crackdown. The mass border patrol enforcement action has spurred chaos in several communities with tens of thousands of students skipping school, workers afraid to report to their jobs, and business owners shuttering their doors as masked individuals rounded up people with the use of highly questionable tactics.

Not surprisingly, as in many other parts of the country, thousands of North Carolinians are standing up to witness and document these often troubling actions and this past week Newsline sat down with an advocate whose organization is playing an important role in educating caring and thinking people about how they can support their immigrant neighbors, Siembra NC senior strategist, Andrew Willis Garcés.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Siembra NC’s Andrew Willis Garcés.

NC Newsline reporter Brandon Kingdollar

The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is causing heartache and consternation for thousands upon thousands of North Carolinians. What’s more it’s not just people lacking proper documentation who are being negatively impacted. As NC Newsline journalist Brandon Kingdollar recently reported, in many instances, it’s American citizens and lawful residents who are being wrongfully targeted and harmed, and recently, we caught up with Brandon to learn more. We also got a chance to ask him about another controversial federal law enforcement initiative – this one targeting a product that millions of Americans have grown used to being lawful.

Click here for the full interview with NC Newsline reporter Brandon Kingdollar.

Reporter Greg Childress

Affordable housing remains one of the most vexing problems in North Carolina and around the country. What’s more, as we were reminded in a conversation this past week with NC Newsline poverty and housing reporter Greg Chidress, it’s a challenge that’s only been made worse by real and threatened federal funding cuts and the uncertainty those cuts are driving amongst the heroic service providers here and elsewhere who do their best to help the unhoused and expand the housing stock.

Happily, the story is not exclusively bleak. As Childress reminded us, there is evidence of a growth in new housing construction in some communities. What’s more, as was highlighted in a recent story he authored about a dynamic young activist and nonprofit leader in the city of Kinston, local advocacy and entrepreneurship can still make a real difference in addressing this daunting problem.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Newsline report Greg Childress. 

Gene Nichol (File photo)

One of the most visible and prolific voices for progressive policy change in 21st Century North Carolina is UNC Professor of Law Gene Nichol. Since taking up residence here three decades ago, Prof. Nichol has taught, written and advocated with remarkable energy and clarity for public policies that promote economic, social and political justice. He established a center at UNC that worked to document and combat poverty and inequality, and he’s long served as one of the state’s toughest and most unapologetic public critics of the conservative politicians who’ve dominated state policymaking in the last 15 years.

Now, Nichol is out with a new book in which he documents the relentless right-wing political and policy crusade that’s being waged by the state’s conservative legislature leadership and speaks directly to caring and thinking North Carolinians about how they can fight back. The book, which is published by the folks at Blair Publishing, is entitled “Now what? How North Carolina Can Blaze a Progressive Path Forward” and this past week, we caught up with the author to learn more.

Click here for the full interview with UNC law professor, author and commentator Gene Nichol.  

Meech Carter (Photo: NCLCV)

Few national policy changes of the past year have drawn more attention or caused more controversy that President Trump’s on-again off-again economic tariffs. But when it comes to lasting global impacts, it’s all but certain that tariffs will pale in comparison to another controversial policy shift – the Trump administration decision to abandon our nation’s commitment to combating climate change.

This past week, representatives from around the world convened in Brazil for the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly known as COP30 — a key opportunity to check in on how the world is doing in meeting the climate pledges made by scores of nations under the Paris Agreement. And sadly, as we learned in a recent conversation with North Carolina League of Conservation Voters Clean Energy Campaigns Director Meech Carter, the news – especially here in the U.S. – is not encouraging.

Click here for the full interview with Meech Carter as we discuss climate change, energy policy, and the absence of the U.S. at the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference.

Mary Carroll Dodd is the owner of Red Scout Farm near Black Mountain

One of the most visible and controversial economic policy shifts to be implemented during the first year of the second Trump administration has been the return of big economic tariffs (that is, federal taxes) on foreign imports. The President claims that tariffs will boost domestic businesses, but results thus far – especially given the on-again-off-again way in which they’ve been applied and removed — have been, at the very best, mixed.

One North Carolina businessperson who can testify to the challenging ways in which tariffs have impacted their business is western North Carolina farmer, Mary Carroll Dodd. Dodd is the owner of Red Scout Farm near Black Mountain, where she farms on land her family has owned for 125 years. And as she told Newsline when we caught up with her a few days’ back, tariffs have been anything but a boon to her business.

Click here for the full interview with Mary Carroll Dodd. 

NC Newsline political reporter Galen Bacharier

The federal government shutdown continued to have an array of devastating impacts in recent days and, by any fair estimate, one of the most harmful has been the shutoff in SNAP food assistance. While a pair of federal court rulings appear to have forced the Trump administration to restart benefits for the millions of families who rely upon them, at last report, those benefits will be at just half of previous levels – a change that will guarantee a spike in hunger and suffering.

So how is this playing out in North Carolina? How many people are being adversely impacted and what if anything can be done to lessen the impact? Recently, we sat down with a journalist who’s been watching and reporting on this situation – NC Newsline reporter Galen Bacharier.

Click here to listen to the full interview with NC Newsline reporter Galen Bacharier.

Rebecca Cerese (Courtesy photo)

The government shutdown and its devastating impact on millions of federal workers and average citizens is not the only dysfunction emanating from Washington these days. Thanks to the refusal of Congress and the Trump administration to extend health insurance tax credits enacted during the Biden years, millions of Americans are facing astronomical price spikes for Affordable Care Act health insurance policies for the New Year.

So, how bad is the situation and what can average North Carolinians do – both to urge Congress to act and to learn about how to fashion solutions to cope with the price hikes? Recently, Newsline sat down with one of our state’s most knowledgeable health care policy experts – Rebecca Cerese of the North Carolina Justice Center – to hear some answers to these and other closely related questions.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Rebecca Cerese of the North Carolina Justice Center.

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Melissa McDonald

Amid the federal government shutdown and the pause in SNAP benefits, a growing number of groups and individuals are coming together and collaborating to promote the success and well-being of students and their families.

One such group in our state is the North Carolina Community Schools Coalition – a nonprofit that’s working hard to promote a model across the state in which traditional public schools become the hubs of their communities – not just for K-12 education, but for an array of core public services and structures – something that’s especially important at a time like the present when core government services have been going away.

And recently, NC Newsline caught up with the Coalition’s Director of Services, Melissa McDonald, to learn more.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Melissa McDonald of the North Carolina Community Schools Coalition.