There aren’t any brick and mortar homeless shelters between Waynesville and Murphy – a gap of around 80 miles . Instead the counties in between operate other types of programs. BPR’s takes us to a new such program in Jackson County: Leah Szittai has been experiencing homelessness since this summer. Now 31 years old, she was living in a tent in a friend’s backyard with her boyfriend. “It was rough. Really rough,” says Szittai, who is from Michigan but has been living in Jackson County for over 15

North Carolina will be more than just a top battleground state for next year’s presidential election. Because almost every state and federal office is on the ballot, North Carolina will be a battleground for much, much more. One race in particular will get a lot of attention not just within the state but also the whole country – North Carolina’s U.S. Senate election.

Tackling Critical Gaps In Our Schools – Asheville has recorded the worst academic achievement gap for African American students in North Carolina. Our guest is Copland Rudolph, the Executive Director of the Asheville City Schools Foundation. She forcefully argues for us to recognize that there is a “Community-Schools” gap which contributes to this ongoing crisis in education.

Thanksgiving has many traditions. One of them is football, with three NFL games on the holiday and a long list of heated college rivalry games this weekend. Western Carolina isn’t playing, as the Catamounts finished out their season last weekend. They did it in a big way though, traveling to the University of Alabama to play the Crimson Tide. While the game may have been a loss on the field, it was a big win for the Catamounts in terms of exposure, experience, and more.

What do turkeys and hurricanes have in common? Thanksgiving - the holiday weekend marks the end of the 2019 hurricane season. This year powerful slow moving storms like Dorian invigorated the conversation about the impact of climate change on hurricanes. BPR’s Helen Chickering talked with a climate scientist based here in Asheville who has been tackling that question.

Erlanger Western Carolina Hospital in Murphy will clos e its labor and delivery unit next month . BPR spoke with hospital CEO Mark Kimball about how th e decision was reached: Erlanger, a nonprofit-Chattanooga based health system purchased Murphy Medical Center in 2018. When the hospital was purchased it was in trouble says CEO Mark Kimball . He adds decisions like c los ing the labor and delivery will hopefully keep the hospital profitable. “We looked at a number of factors in our service area,

You might see some familiar faces at the M acy’s Thanksgiving Day parade . For the second time , Western Carolina University’s “Pride of The Mountains ” band will march in New York City. It’s Friday afternoon and the band is running through its final rehearsal. The students line up on the brown intramural practice fields. The group is just trying to beat the rain clouds forming overhead. David Starnes, is the director of athletic band . He says it’s incredible that the band was invited back

A drug approved earlier this year by the FDA could help individuals who’ve had limited success with antidepressants.

Membership With A Cause At the YMCA - In Asheville, the YMCA is focused on social justice as much as health and wellness. We speak with Paul Vest, President and CEO of the YMCA of Western North Carolina about his emphasis on civic engagement.