The grocery store banana as we know it is a monoculture, which means that from Tokyo to Tulsa nearly everyone eats the same variety. That lack of diversity makes the plant incredibly vulnerable, and it’s facing an existential threat in the form of a devastating fungus. The cure may be growing in an office park in North Carolina.

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A little more than 75 years ago, Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball's major leagues with the Brooklyn Dodgers. But integration in the South was slow going and took a slightly different path. This week, we look at what it took to integrate Southern baseball and how one group in rural North Carolina is ensuring that the next generation of young Black ballplayers get a chance at bat.

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Special thanks to the Durham Bulls for letting us record gameday audio at Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

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A decade ago, thousands of tons of toxic coal ash poured into the Dan River. The spill—the third largest of its kind in US history—was a devastating environmental disaster. But today, the event is perhaps best known for its legacy of legislation, as environmental activists and communities across North Carolina turned a local disaster into a national rallying cry for change.

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North Carolina and South Carolina are home to the most restrictive public sector collective bargaining laws in the country. In fact, they’re the only two states that ban all government employees from unionizing. And that doesn’t show signs of changing anytime soon. But a group of educators in Durham, North Carolina isn’t letting that stop them from fighting for a seat at the table. 

This week on the Broadside, we ask what it means to call yourself a union in a state where striking and collective bargaining are both illegal—and what that says about the history of labor organizing in the South.

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• Liz Schlemmer, Education Reporter at WUNC-North Carolina Public Radio

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Women have been playing basketball since the game was invented, but the most fervent fandom has always been reserved for the men's game — until now. We explore why it took so long for us to pay attention to women's basketball, and what that means for the future of the sport.

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Special thanks to WUNC’s Mitch Northam, whose expertise was invaluable in the reporting of this story. Thanks also to Annabelle Myers and Matti Smith at NC State, and Dana Gelin at UNC-Chapel Hill.

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Each year, as March fades into April, violent storms unleash dozens of tornadoes across a huge swath of the country. The Midwest is where most of these events occur, but scientists have begun to observe a major shift in traditional tornado patterns and the South is directly in the path. 

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• You can find a transcript of the episode here.

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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?

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

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• You can find a transcript of the episode here.

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As the president of the local chapter of the NAACP, Robert F. Williams led the small town of Monroe, North Carolina in protesting racism and segregation during the 1950s. But he was also head of a local NRA chapter that urged African Americans to defend themselves by meeting violence with violence. His story is one of the most fascinating and unusual in American history, and, in Monroe and elsewhere, it’s challenging how we talk about the Civil Rights Movement today.

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Special thanks to the Henry Hampton Collections at Washington University Libraries, the Southern Oral History Program at UNC-Chapel Hill, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, and WBTV in Charlotte. 

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• You can find a transcript of the episode here.

Donate: 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 1988, the NBA finally came to North Carolina — and the newly minted Charlotte Hornets made an unconventional choice to hire a fashion designer to create their jerseys. They lost 60 games that year, but they looked incredible while doing it. The iconic fit, inspired in part by Michael Jordan, would launch a global fashion trend that endures today.

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Electric vehicles and renewable energy sources are in their boom era — and that means the need for electricity is higher than ever before. The construction of an expanded energy grid to meet that demand is going to require a lot of raw minerals, metals… and a surprising commodity: lumber. This week, we take a trip to the forests of the Southern Pine Belt where demand for big trees far outstrips the supply and find out what's being done to prevent a pole-ocalypse.

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Donate: 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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