Most people know Dale Folwell as a no-nonsense, stern politician who’s North Carolina's elected Treasurer.  However, as you will hear in this week's episode, Treasurer Folwell's life story is a series of incredible highs and lows. Folwell opens up with an incredibly candid conversation about his life and career.  

This emotional conversation will bring you stories you probably have never heard about his upbringing, the tragic story of losing his 7-year-old son, his incredible dirt motorbike career, and narrowly surviving COVID-19 just weeks after the state shut down in March 2020.

Many of you probably know the politics of Attorney General Josh Stein from his time in this office and the state legislature. 

There’s more to him than that. Did you know he played minor league soccer and taught in Zimbabwe?  Or that his dad helped create the first integrated law firm in North Carolina?

We’ll talk with him about his background and of course, ask him if he’s running for governor in 2024.  We’ll also talk in-depth about the political climate in North Carolina and redistricting. Finally, we’ll get his take on the Super Bowl halftime performance that seemed to split along generational lines.

Is our education system outdated by more than a century?  Are we doing enough to prepare our kids for future jobs and providing enough skilled workers for all the companies that want to come to North Carolina?  What about all the high-stakes testing? 

We tackle those questions this week with Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt and N.C. Chamber CEO Gary Salamido. They are working together to shake up education with some big ideas and admittedly some ideas that will raise the blood pressure of those who are nervous about changing institutions like public education.  It’s a fascinating discussion about the future of education.

State Auditor Beth Wood’s job is to make sure the state spends billions and billions of dollars properly.  She came in skeptical and after 13 years, she says she still feels that way every single day.   

The little girl who worked on her family's tobacco farm grew up to be an accountant and is known for her no-nonsense style when it comes to keeping tabs on state spending.  We also talk to her about well-known fashion and why she was recently inducted into a hall of fame.

Sixty-two years ago this week, four Black men stood up by sitting down at the Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro. The photograph and image became a focal point of the sit-in movement.

However, many more people sat in protest including Clarence Henderson who joined in on day two. Despite the fear of danger, Henderson actually thought his decision to take part in the Civil Rights Movement was simple compared to the rough neighborhood where he grew up. So, 62 years later, for the first time, we will tell the story from the standpoint of his roots and how it prepared him for that day on Feb. 2, 1960.

You will learn how those roots have impacted his politics. Henderson admits his politics surprised many people, especially after the 2020 election when he supported Donald Trump.

In Fort Smith, Arkansas in the mid-1990s, Tim Boyum and Kevin Thompson spent countless hours putting together the high school newspaper. After graduation, they went their separate ways. Boyum became a TV journalist and Thompson became a preacher and author.
Now, 27 years later, they are reuniting so listeners can hear embarrassing stories about high school. Importantly, they have a candid and thoughtful conversation on the challenges of a healthy debate about religion in politics. You might be surprised their different professions really do mirror each other.
Later, Benny Mac will share his own stories of what he was like in high school.

You can find out more about Kevin Thompson here: https://www.kevinathompson.com/

Minorities overwhelmingly register as Democrat, unaffiliated is typically second and Republican is far behind in third. The man in charge of recruiting Republican candidates for the North Carolina House of Representatives GOP, however, wants to change that narrative. 

We noticed in December, Stephen Wiley, the House GOP caucus director, was posting pictures of Republican minorities signing up for the 2022 election. So, we asked him to come on the show to talk about it and bring one of the candidates along.

Jarrod Lowery, who joins Wiley on this episode, is a Lumbee Native American and plans to run for the state House this year.

Later this month, a North Carolina politician will head to Los Angeles hoping to come home a Grammy winner! 

Pierce Freelon was recently a Durham City councilman and a former candidate for mayor and state senate.  But, this month he’ll campaign for a Grammy that could change his life forever. 

We head to Durham to hang out in his studio, we’ll wander the streets of downtown Durham and talk about his political career. Plus we'll find out why he’s not the only one in his family hoping for a Grammy this year!

Last month, we had the rare chance to sit down with Gov. Roy Cooper. It’s one of the few times in 18 months he has sat down for an in-person interview. We had 20 minutes at the executive mansion.

Parts of that interview have aired on our other platforms, but nowhere has it all been heard until this podcast. We will talk in-depth about COVID-19, Medicaid expansion and redistricting. That last topic you will hear him use a word you rarely hear in politics: regret.

But on this podcast, we will also get a little insight on his personal life too talking about his own family during COVID-19, why there are now at least four pets living in the executive mansion and his love for the Carolina Hurricanes NHL hockey team. 

As the year ends, Tim and Ben are inviting a couple of friends of the program to look back at all the big stories of 2021.  

This insightful, yet hilarious discussion will review COVID-19 still dominating headlines, DHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen leaving, redistricting debates, the 2022 U.S. Senate race and the first state budget signed in more than three years.  

Communication experts and political analysts Brian Lewis and Billy Warden join us to break it all down.