Tucked away in rural Chatham County, North Carolina there’s a giant concrete cube with a satellite dish on top of it. Built decades ago, the strange, windowless building is only the tip of an iceberg; below it is a massive bunker designed to withstand a nuclear holocaust. That secure site has become part of local lore and spawned countless conspiracy theories. It may have even inspired the Netflix show Stranger Things. But what’s really going on down there?

Featuring: 

• Jay Price, Military and Veterans Affairs reporter at WUNC and The American Homefront Project
• Drew Lasater, Chatham County resident
• Bobby White, former civilian AT&T employee at the Project Office site in Chatham County

Links: 

• You can find a transcript of the episode here.

The Broadside is made possible by contributions from listeners like you. Support WUNC-North Carolina Public Radio and this podcast by making a donation.

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In the late 1800s, dozens of utopian communities with radical beliefs and unusual forms of self-government sprung up throughout the United States. And perhaps the most remarkable one of them all, a group of free Black people who were led by a king and a queen, was nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Featuring: 

• Dolen Perkins-Valdez, author of Happy Land
• Fitz Brundage, historian and author of A Socialist Utopia in the New South

Links: 

• You can find a transcript of the episode here.

The Broadside is made possible by contributions from listeners like you. Support WUNC-North Carolina Public Radio and this podcast by making a donation.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Last year, over half of all new homes in the US were built in the South. And if you drive through the suburban sprawl of growing Southern cities like Raleigh, North Carolina, you can see them. Sometimes it's the same home. Over and over and over again. In many locales, mass production and cookie-cutter design have made it feel like you could be anywhere. So, how can we reclaim our sense of place, and what exactly is a Southern home?

Featuring: 

• Jeremy Markovich, writer of the North Carolina Rabbit Hole
• Frank Harmon, architect

Links: 

• Look at photos of Frank Harmon's gorgeous home in Raleigh, NC
• Check out Jeremy's article Why Don't Southern Homes Have Basements?
• You can find a transcript of the episode here.

The Broadside is made possible by contributions from listeners like you. Support WUNC-North Carolina Public Radio and this podcast by making a donation.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The South is the birthplace of all the big cola brands. Since the first Coca-Cola was poured in Atlanta in 1886, it's become an American icon. For many of us, these drinks are part of key childhood memories. But whether we're loyal to Coke, Pepsi, or something else, we don't drink as much soda as we used to. So why do we care so much about these brands and does soda even matter in this new beverage age?

Featuring: 

• Ralph Ashworth, owner of Ashworth Drugs in Cary, NC
• Sabrina Bengel, managing partner of The Birthplace of Pepsi-Cola in New Bern, NC
• Jerry Avery, Pepsi fan, collector and hobby historian
• Dr. Psyche Williams-Forson, professor and department chair in American Studies at the University of Maryland
• Rina Raphael, journalist and author of The Gospel of Wellness

Special thanks to Jordan Blackwell at the University of Maryland College Park for technical assistance.

Links: 

• You can find a transcript of the episode here.

The Broadside is made possible by contributions from listeners like you. Support WUNC-North Carolina Public Radio and this podcast by making a donation.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

There are dozens of major Civil War reenactments across the United States each year. They're incredible spectacles filled with cannons, muskets and marching orders. But the most interesting part of it all might just be the people who put on the show. We visited the 160th Anniversary of the Battle of Bentonville in rural eastern North Carolina to find out who these soldiers are and why reenactment culture continues to captivate and mystify Americans.

Featuring:

• Charlie Shelton-Ormond, producer at The Broadside

Links:

• You can find a transcript of the episode here.

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For years, the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles has been plagued by long wait times and poor service. It’s a major problem in one of America’s fastest-growing states. And in the age of DOGE and government efficiency, it's generating talk of some dramatic solutions.

Featuring: 

Links: 

• You can find a transcript of the episode here.

The Broadside is made possible by contributions from listeners like you. Support WUNC-North Carolina Public Radio and this podcast by making a donation.

Sign up for WUNC's new Politics Newsletter here.

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The waters surrounding North Carolina’s Outer Banks are so treacherous that they’re known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic. They’ve claimed everything from Blackbeard’s pirate ship to German U-boats. And that dark legacy continues today. Oregon Inlet, a narrow gap near Roanoke Island, is one of the deadliest waterways in the United States. But it’s also an economic lifeline for a small industrial fishing community who must traverse it.

Featuring: 

Links: 

The Broadside is made possible by contributions from listeners like you. Support WUNC-North Carolina Public Radio and this podcast by making a donation.

Sign up for WUNC's new Politics Newsletter here.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

If you want to understand America, going to a college football game is a great place to start. In a lot of ways, the culture and history of the sport is a mirror held up to the country itself. But some folks -- especially Asian Americans -- haven’t seen themselves in that reflection until recently. Or so we thought. Because an incredible discovery in North Carolina is rewriting history and changing what we thought was possible in sports.

Featuring:

Links:

The Broadside is made possible by contributions from listeners like you. Support WUNC-North Carolina Public Radio and this podcast by making a donation.

Sign up for WUNC's new Politics Newsletter here.

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Nearly every public school district in North Carolina has fewer students than before the pandemic: part of a larger trend happening across the country. Facing empty classrooms and dwindling dollars, many public school leaders are trying to figure out where all the kids went and what declining public school enrollment could mean for the communities they serve.

Featuring: 

Links: 

The Broadside is made possible by contributions from listeners like you. Support WUNC-North Carolina Public Radio and this podcast by making a donation.

Sign up for WUNC's new Politics Newsletter here.

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For decades, public health advocates have touted the dental health benefits of fluoride. But skepticism, conspiracy theories, and outright fear of fluoridated water have been around for just about as long. And they’re only gaining steam. In the midst of this heated debate, new scientific studies in North Carolina are combating health misinformation and trying to separate fact from fiction in the hope that they just might cool the conversation.

Featuring: 

Links: 

The Broadside is made possible by contributions from listeners like you. Support WUNC-North Carolina Public Radio and this podcast by making a donation.

Sign up for WUNC's new Politics Newsletter here.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.