The State of Things

Revelations of sexual misconduct at the federal level have opened up inquiries into the culture in state houses around the country. At the North Carolina General Assembly, WUNC Capitol Bureau Chief Jeff Tiberii uncovered two incidents of reported misconduct: one from 2007 involving former Representative David Almond (R-Stanly), who allegedly exposed himself to a legislative assistant and then masturbated on an office chair. The other is from 2003 in which former Representative Daniel McComas (R

A few years ago, Cindy Waszak Geary and LaHoma Smith Romocki were sitting together in their writing group when they realized that not only did they both grow up in Durham, but they went to the same high school during a period of racial integration in the early 1970s. So Geary, a white woman, and Romocki, a black woman, decided to compare their experiences in Durham’s public school system. Their conversations led to a new memoir, “Going to School in Black and White: A Dual Memoir of Desegregation

Brendan Francis Newnam and Rico Gagliano are experts at hosting dinner parties, or at least virtual ones. As the hosts of the podcast and radio show “Dinner Party Download,” they guided audiences through 400 conversations about culture, history, arts and food – all packaged in segments that represented different phases of a dinner party, like “small talk,” “cocktails,” and “guest of honor.”

Some children who rack up debt paying for lunch in their school cafeterias face a sudden swap when their hot meals are substituted for a cold sandwich or just a serving of fruit and vegetables and a cup of water.

Society is split apart into nodes, tucked into different corners of the world and connected by a common road. It is a land where chaos rules, but with the help of the ‘Champions,’ civilization is taking hold once again.

The #MeToo movement has broken a decades-long culture of silence around sexual assault and harassment and taken down a number of powerful men, including Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, TV host Matt Lauer, politician Al Franken, and 30 some others compiled in a list from The New York Times . But according to writer Rob Okun , the thing that ties together all of these individual incidents is a culture of power and privilege held in place by particular ideas about masculinity.

Two major data breaches in North Carolina have come to light in the past week.

From a young age, humans receive messages from school, religion, and society about developing a strong moral compass and learning how to do “the right thing.” But according to expansive psychological research, there is a gap between how good we are and how good we think we are.

The music for the live program in Greensboro was written and performed by Anne-Claire Niver . The Durham-based singer-songwriter was joined by Dan Faust on percussion and Charles Cleaver on the keyboard. She currently has a Kickstarter to help fund her upcoming album. Listen to her perform the song "Mosquitoes" below:

For L.A. McCrae, beer is a ministry. She owns Black Star Line Brewing Company – the first black-owned brewery in Western North Carolina.