No matter how attuned you believe you are to the upcoming election, there’s a strong chance you have no idea who’s running for the North Carolina Court of Appeals. Today’s episode should help solve that problem.

Martin Moore moved to Asheville in 2015 when he took his first job as an attorney, working as a public defender in Buncombe County. He has since opened a private practice in Asheville while serving on the Buncombe County Commission. Moore sees these as steppingstones in a life calling that brings him, now, to campaigning for a judicial seat on the state Court of Appeals.

Martin Moore tells us about his upbringing and what drew him to public service. He also tells us about why the appellate court is so critical to everyday life in North Carolina, how his time as a public defender and county commissioner have prepared him for this campaign and the values he hopes to bring to the body of 15 judges.

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The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues.

Podcast Asheville © 2023

Caleb Rudow is attempting to do something no Democrat has done in more than a decade—represent North Carolina’s 11th District in the US House of Representatives. A gerrymandered map has seemingly kept this district comfortably in Republican hands, but Rudow sees a lot in his favor as he campaigns against the incumbent, Chuck Edwards.

Rudow currently represents North Buncombe County in the State House. Here, we talk about his campaign, the challenge of hurdling the gerrymandered math of this district and the contrasts he sees with Edwards in their public accessibility, their views of the roles of government and how he would define what it means to represent the district in Congress.

The Edwards campaign hasn't responded to repeated requests for him to appear as a guest on this show.

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The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues.

Podcast Asheville © 2023

In the second half of this two-part conversation, founders of the coalition Reclaim Healthcare WNC talk about their pressure campaign with HCA Healthcare to dramatically and demonstrably improve conditions for patients and staff at Mission Hospital. 

My guests are State Senator Julie Mayfield, retired physician Bruce Kelly and Missy Harris, who recently left Mission Hospital after five years there as a chaplain. 

They talk about the potential for competition with Mission in the regional healthcare marketplace. We get into any role Dogwood Health Trust could play, along with the efficacy of independent monitoring. We also talk with Mayfield about her conversations with some Mission board members responsible for approving the sale to HCA. Lastly, my guests talk about what they believe needs to happen to make things right with Mission Hospital, including potentiall selling the hospital back into nonprofit hands.

Help "The Overlook with Matt Peiken" podcast reach its very reachable goal: Just $1,000 in monthly contributions by Election Day. Membership at our Patreon campaign starts at just $5/month. 

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The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues.

Podcast Asheville © 2023

So much has been written and said in the five years since the corporation HCA Healthcare purchased Asheville’s nonprofit Mission Hospital. Doctors, nurses and other staff have fled amid what many see as the company’s push for profits over people. North Carolina’s attorney general has filed lawsuits. Nobody involved in the original deal has spoken candidly about how this sale even made it across the finish line.

Today is the first in a two-part conversation with leaders of a new coalition called Reclaim Healthcare WNC. They are State Senator Julie Mayfield, retired physician Bruce Kelly and Missy Harris, who recently left Mission after five years there as a chaplain.

We delve into the significant changes at Mission after its acquisition by HCA, the changes this coalition wants to see and why, after all that has been said and done to chasten HCA to this point, the people behind Reclaim Healthcare WNC believe they can hold HCA to account and inspire substantive change.

Help "The Overlook with Matt Peiken" podcast reach its very reachable goal: Just $1,000 in monthly contributions by Election Day. Membership at our Patreon campaign starts at just $5/month. 

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The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues.

Podcast Asheville © 2023

Esther Manheimer is serving her third term as Asheville’s mayor. The challenges this city faces today—and the strategies deployed to tackle them—have evolved a lot during her time in office.

Today, we check in with Mayor Manheimer around a variety of issues—homelessness, affordable housing, enforcing the city’s policy on short-term rentals and property tax increases, along with boosting the salaries for police officers and firefighters. We also get her assessment of how this council has performed its duties, her thoughts on President Biden passing the baton to Kamala Harris and what she sees for her own political future.

Help "The Overlook with Matt Peiken" podcast reach its very reachable goal: Just $1,000 in monthly contributions by Election Day. Membership at our Patreon campaign starts at just $5/month. 

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The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues.

Podcast Asheville © 2023

Jewish Voice for Peace is a nonprofit with chapters in Asheville and around the U.S. and beyond. Except for the name of the organization, you won’t find much about Judaism on their website or in their talking points.** They're focused on peace in the Middle East and, to JVP, that means the liberation of Palestinians.

My guests are Anne Craig, Rebecca Croog and Said Abdallah from the Asheville chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace. You’ll learn about their varied backgrounds and what led them to this cause.

We dig into JVP’s mission and how my guests reacted to Hamas’ attack on Israel last Oct. 7, along with how they frame their Judaism through a lens of Palestinian advocacy. We also get into why they believe local activism is important on an issue taking place on the other side of the world and what their hopes are around what is seemingly an intractable stalemate.

** NOTE: After publication, I was made aware of two pages on the JVP website that initially eluded me, focused more specifically on Judaism. Here are links:
Rabbinical Council • Havurah Network

Help "The Overlook with Matt Peiken" podcast reach its very reachable goal: Just $1,000 in monthly contributions by Election Day. Membership at our Patreon campaign starts at just $5/month. 

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The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues.

Podcast Asheville © 2023

Jefferson Ellison is the first to say he grew up with privilege. His father was Asheville’s vice mayor and ran his own law firm for 40 years, and his mother holds two master’s degrees. 

Still at 31, Jefferson isn’t taking shortcuts with his own career or place in the city. He sits on the boards of the Asheville Downtown Association and the Downtown Commission, and he’s a voice of influence on The Block Collaborative, which is working with city leaders on the revisioning of Pack Square.

Today, I talk with Jefferson about his upbringing, his perspective on supporting his community, the complexities of gentrification and his thoughts on reparations. Underscoring it all is how he leverages his self-described privilege to help elevate Black Asheville.

Help "The Overlook with Matt Peiken" podcast reach its very reachable goal: Just $1,000 in monthly contributions by Election Day. Membership at our Patreon campaign starts at just $5/month. 

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The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues.

Podcast Asheville © 2023

Like most leaders in the arts, Heather Maloy spends far more time raising money, hunting for rehearsal spaces and recruiting dancers than she does immersed in the work she’s so committed to—cultivating the ideas and creating the dances that are the signature of her Asheville-based company, Terpsicorps Theatre of Dance.
 
For 21 summers, Terpsicorps has fielded troupes of young professionals from all over the U.S. and beyond, who put their feet to the fire of Maloy’s imagination. I met with Maloy just before her company started rehearsals for their new production, inspired by Edvard Munch’s singular painting, “The Scream.” Performances are July 25 through 27 at Diana Wortham Theatre.

We’ll talk with the company’s founding director about keeping her dream live and evolving her company through two decades of challenges, how she parses through scores of auditioners to select her company and how she defines growth when her company is only on stage for two weekends each year.

Help "The Overlook with Matt Peiken" podcast reach its very reachable goal: Just $1,000 in monthly contributions by Election Day. Membership at our Patreon campaign starts at just $5/month. 

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The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues.

Podcast Asheville © 2023

Carolina Quiroga moved to Asheville only about a year ago, but she’s already a distinctive storyteller here, blending folk tales and her own experiences from her native Colombia with newer stories born from observations of her newly adopted home.

On July 11, she begins a residency of three weekly performances at Story Parlor in West Asheville. Today, we talk about straddling the line between her father’s expectations and her own desires, her self-appointed mission to educate certain people in the Southeast about Latin Americans and the kinds of stories she’s motivated to write and tell today.

Help "The Overlook with Matt Peiken" podcast reach its very reachable goal: Just $1,000 in monthly contributions by Election Day. Membership at our Patreon campaign starts at just $5/month. 

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The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues.

Podcast Asheville © 2023

Michael Cayse has only been Asheville’s Fire Chief since the start of the year, but he came here with more than three decades of experience in Cincinnati and, as part of that, working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Asheville firefighters received a pay raise in the new fiscal year budget of nearly 9 percent, but that still puts them behind where they’d like to be. My guest today, Chief Cayse, tells us about the other ways Asheville works to be a department that attracts and keeps talent. We also talk about how today’s fire departments little resemble those of yesteryear, the demands and skills of the job that go well beyond traditional firefighting and Cayse’s thoughts about what his department needs to become a state-of-the-art unit.

Help "The Overlook with Matt Peiken" podcast reach its very reachable goal: Just $1,000 in monthly contributions by Election Day. Membership at our Patreon campaign starts at just $5/month. 

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The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues.

Podcast Asheville © 2023