Away Message

In this episode, Western Carolina University political science professor Chris Cooper joins Jeremy Markovich to talk about the things that drive the political scene in our state, why candidates do the things they do, and how the Roy Cooper of the past made things tougher for the Roy Cooper of the present. Read more at ncrabbithole.com. Check out Chris's new book, "Anatomy of a Purple State" Read Jeremy's Politico story referenced in this episode: "I Ran the Worst 5K of My Life So I Could Explain Gerrymandering To You."

Once you've seen one broken-down junker with a white rag in the window, you start seeing them everywhere. Is this just a North Carolina thing? What's it supposed to mean? Why do so many people do it? And, if so many people are doing the same thing, then where did the idea come from? Reporter Jeremy Markovich investigates to get to the bottom of an old piece of highway folklore. Read more and see pictures at https://www.ncrabbithole.com/p/history-of-white-cloth-in-car-door-window Subscribe to the North Carolina Rabbit Hole newsletter at ncrabbithole.com/subscribe

MrBeast (aka Jimmy Donaldson) has more than 300 million total subscribers on YouTube and some of his videos have more viewers than the Super Bowl. He's opened restaurants. He's launched his own food company called Feastables. The MrBeast logo is now on the jerseys of the Charlotte Hornets. Also, MrBeast is 25-years-old. This multi-million dollar YouTube media empire? It's based in Greenville, North Carolina of all places. So how did that happen? In this episode, journalist Jeremy Markovich talks to Washington Post tech reporter Drew Harwell about what happens when a big time influencer sets up shop in a small town. To get more stories like this, subscribe to the North Carolina Rabbit Hole, the reader-supported newsletter that powers this podcast. Get a free-if-you-want-it-to-be subscription at ncrabbithole.com.

A sixth-grade student from the Raleigh area drew a boy riding a unicorn. It's now the official "I Voted Early" sticker for the Wake County Board of Elections. In this episode, artist Shannon Fisher explains some of the details and the background behind a sticker that's turning heads at polling places around Raleigh and beyond. See the sticker and read more about it: https://www.ncrabbithole.com/p/wake-county-nc-i-voted-early-sticker-unicorn Subscribe to the North Carolina Rabbit Hole newsletter here: https://www.ncrabbithole.com/subscribe Thanks to Shannon Fisher, Ashley Millhiser, Gerry Cohen, and the Wake County Board of Elections. Early voting is now underway in North Carolina for the 2024 primary. Find your polling place and sample ballot here: https://www.ncsbe.gov/  

In this episode, host Jeremy Markovich and ESPN senior writer Ryan McGee talk about beer, old school racing, a man named Dick Trickle, and a quiet trick to to help you navigate a boisterous social situation. Read Jeremy's 2013 SB Nation story about Dick Trickle: "Elegy of a Race Car Driver" Subscribe to the North Carolina Rabbit Hole newsletter at ncrabbithole.com. Special thanks to Kenny Wallace.

In this special holiday episode, host Jeremy Markovich meets the man from Gastonia who became the world's largest manufacturer of Christmas ornaments and used his power to make North Carolina more tolerant of all religions. This episode was originally released in 2018 and was adapted from: "The Unlikely Ornament King of Gastonia" which appeared in Our State magazine's December 2016 issue. Additional music: Blue Dot Sessions

North Wilkesboro Speedway is hosting the NASCAR All-Star Race, a quarter century after its last major event. Why did it sit empty for so long? And how did it finally reopen? In this episode, host Jeremy Markovich takes a look back as a historic place now looks toward a new future. More Reading: "Ghosts of North Wilkesboro" (2015) - SB Nation "The Inside Story of How a Dead NASCAR Track Finally Reopened After 26 Years" (2022) - North Carolina Rabbit Hole "A Night When Anything Was Possible" (2022) - North Carolina Rabbit Hole Music via Blue Dot Sessions under a Creative Commons license.

Shortly after I moved to Charlotte in 2005, I became a Carolina Panthers fan because it was much better than being a fan of the Cleveland Browns. A few years later, I became the producer of the Panthers postgame show on a local television station. A few years after that, the production moved from the station to the stadium. It was there that I first heard a piece of information that I hadn't actually considered before: The screaming panther sound—the noise that you'd hear during home games whenever the Panthers did something good like get a first down or make a third down stop—was not actually the sound that a real panther makes. You can read more here: https://www.ncrabbithole.com/p/panthers-arent-real Closing song: "Riverboat Ron" by Crab Claw

After 2 1/2 years, host Jeremy Markovich is breaking his silence to explain, well, where he's been all this time, why you haven't heard any new episodes since then, and what happens now. Read more here about the immediate plans for Away Message and its new home at the North Carolina Rabbit Hole.

In the season finale, our hikers reach the Outer Banks of North Carolina and end of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. Now, more than a year later, we see where they've ended up and how the trip has affected their lives.

As our Mountains-to-Sea Trail thru-hikers approach the end, one final challenge remains: A kayak trip down two of North Carolina's most well-known waterways. All will have to grapple with problems that could potentially stop them from reaching their final destination.

In this bonus episode, host Jeremy Markovich talks with long-time hiking guide Jennifer Pharr Davis about how anyone can prepare for and pull off a trip on a trail, from day-trippers to thru-hikers on North Carolina's Mountains-to-Sea Trail. Read Davis's story about hiking the Appalachian Trail from the October 2015 issue of Our State magazine. Read more about her 2017 hike of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. Learn more about Davis and her company, Blue Ridge Hiking Company. Contact Jeremy via email, Twitter, or Facebook, and take a survey about the show.

In this episode, we travel to Roseboro, a small eastern North Carolina town that sits on the route of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail but doesn't actually have any good places to hike. Yet. We also meet the trail angels that hikers depend on to get to the end, and talk to a woman who's attempting to finish the MST in just 30 days. Find out more about Tara Dower's attempt to beat the fastest known time on the MST here.

As Erin Brennan and Aaron and Lexi Harris pass the halfway point on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, the path undergoes a dramatic shift from footpath to roadside. In this episode, we take a closer look at the parts of the MST that only attract the most intrepid hikers, and discover what it takes to bike and hike your way through a world built for cars.

When it comes to trail towns along the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, Elkin stands out. So how did a quiet place in the North Carolina foothills go trail crazy? We find out, thanks to the men who are building footpaths as fast as they can.

In 1955, a dentist and five of his friends played a round of golf. They were black. The course was white-only. What happened next changed the course of one man's life, and in turn, helped integrate an entire town. This originally premiered in July 2018 under the title "The Round of Golf That Changed a City." To read a written version of this story, visit ourstate.com/simkins. There you can find the complete 2000 interview with George Simkins, along with a transcript.

What's it like to be with the one you love 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? In this episode, host Jeremy Markovich meets Aaron and Lexi Harris, a pair of newlyweds who experienced the highs and lows of hiking the Mountains-to-Sea Trail across western North Carolina.

On the first day of her trip across North Carolina on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, veteran Erin Brennan is making sense of new gear, new routines, and a new beginning with the help of Warrior Expeditions, a group that treats hiking like therapy.

The new season of our award-winning podcast begins with some fairly basic questions. What is the Mountains-to-Sea Trail? How was it created? Who were the first people to hike the whole thing? And who would hike all 1,175 miles of it today? In this premiere episode, host Jeremy Markovich talks to the man who (accidentally) created it, as well as a llama wrangler who ended up doing something no one else had done before. We also meet several hikers, who are about to set out on their own journeys across the entire state of North Carolina: by foot, by bike, and by kayak.

In the latest season of Our State's podcast, we take a trip down North Carolina's Mountains-to-Sea Trail. All 1,175 miles of it.

A replay of Season 1, Episode 3, entitled "As High As You Can Get." It's the story of a man who climbs to the top of 2,000-foot-tall television broadcast towers to change the light bulbs, and how he remains calm in an environment that most of us would consider to be frightening.

Jeff Postell was a 21-year-old police officer when he made an arrest in the middle of the night in a small North Carolina town. That arrest ended a five year manhunt for the Olympic Park Bomber, Eric Rudolph, and changed Postell's life in an instant. In this season finale, we track him down to find out what happened to the soft-spoken North Carolinian who brought in a notorious fugitive. Jeremy Markovich: producer, mixer, host James Mieczkowski: producer Elizabeth Hudson: editor-in-chief Music in this episode: “Bright Direction (You're A Dark Star Now)" by Hiss Golden Messenger Special Thanks to Matthew Yates, Katie Killen, Bill Evans and the Boston College Police Department, and Charles Winokoor of the Taunton Daily Gazette. Some archival audio courtesy of WLOS-TV. Sign up for our newsletter at ourstate.com/podcast.

What do outsiders see when they look at North Carolina? In this bonus episode, host Jeremy Markovich turns to The Andy Griffith Show for answers, and talks to a woman who worked on the series, then moved to the real-life town that the fictional Mayberry was based on.

Davis Island wasn’t always an island. In the early 1900s, a hurricane cut a path through a peninsula that stuck out into Core Sound, separating a stately home from the mainland. Years later, a man achieved his childhood dream of living in that home. What he found was peace and beauty, and a love story that came to him, in an isolated place, with an unexpected knock on his door. We traveled to the North Carolina coast to tell the story of a remote island, a chance meeting, and a man who’s trying to save a special place from an uncertain future. Watch a 7-minute documentary on Davis Island from Our State Short Films. Sign up for our upcoming Away Message newsletter. James Mieczkowski: reporter, producer Jeremy Markovich: producer, mixer, host Elizabeth Hudson: editor-in-chief Music in this episode: "Breathe Till I'm Full" by The Collection Special thanks to the Humber family.

A New Yorker named Stephen Barcelo moved to a small town in northeastern North Carolina. Then he started seeing ghosts. Then bigfoot showed up. In this episode, we visit Littleton, go on a search for a hard-to-find creature, and find out what it really means to believe. Sign up for our newsletter at ourstate.com/podcast.

Curtis Johnson fell in love with music while growing up in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. But when he gave up his job as a disc jockey to support his family, he held on to his dream. Now, he puts on small house-style concerts in an out-of-the-way place, and the shows keep everyone coming back for more. James Mieczkowski: reporter, producer Jeremy Markovich: producer, mixer, host Elizabeth Hudson: editor-in-chief Music in this episode: "Midnight Special," by Mark Stuart and Stacey Earle, performed in 2012 at the Cook Shack in Union Grove "Southbound Passenger Train," by Doc Watson, performed in the 1970s in Rochester, New York "Pick Me Up" and "As Good As It Gets," by Grace Pettis, performed in 2019 at Powder Horn Mountain Special Thanks to Daniel Johnson and Curtis Johnson, the Renaissance Man.

Christina Koch was once a kid growing up in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Now, she's living on the International Space Station. In this episode, we go back to school to find out how she turned her dream of becoming an astronaut into reality. Some audio provided by: Houston, We Have A Podcast. Music in this episode: Closing Song: Dream Big, by Beau James (Greensboro) Special Thanks: NASA-TV

From Season 1: A trip to a cemetery that's only reachable by boat reveals a story about progress, a national park, promises made, and promises broken. Along the way, we meet the woman who kept hope alive, and kept a sacred spot from being forgotten.

A woman from Mooresville, North Carolina became Mecklenburg County’s first black nurse. Then she became a prolific and well-respected artist. Along the way, she got President Franklin D. Roosevelt to sit for her, and the relief sculpture she created looks very similar to the likeness that’s on the dime. Is it hers? Or is it a coincidence? Host Jeremy Markovich goes in search of the truth, and learns about the facts that matter, and the facts that don’t.

On May 7, 2016, a man fell hundreds of feet down a mountainside, and ended up in a treacherous spot in North Carolina’s most rugged place. This is the story of a rescue that took hours and a recovery that took months, one that shows how unforgiving the wilderness can be, even for experienced hikers. Music in this episode: Closing Song: Baby’s Got The Blues, by H.C. McEntire, courtesy of Merge Records (Durham, North Carolina) Special Thanks: Burke County Emergency Communications Center Watch Shug’s video.

In 2001, some state lawmakers were engaged in a less-than-sweet debate: Which berry should be named the official berry of North Carolina? We tracked down the teacher and fourth-graders who started it all with a class project and got a lot more than they bargained for. Plus, meet the former state senator who voted against EVERY new state symbol. His reasoning says a lot about the things we pick to represent us. Hosted and mixed by: Jeremy Markovich Produced by: James Mieczkowski and Jeremy Markovich Editor-in-chief: Elizabeth Hudson Music by: Blue Dot Sessions Closing Song: Carolina's The Place I Gotta Be, by Charlie Albertson Special Thanks: Gerry Cohen, Lauren Horsch

In the new season of Our State magazine's podcast, host Jeremy Markovich travels across North Carolina in search of the strange, the weird, the unknown, and the forgotten. Highlights include a strange political fight, the effort to find a mythical creature, the story of the woman whose artwork may be in your pocket right now, a rescue in this state's most rugged place, and the backstory you never knew about the man who ended the biggest manhunt in North Carolina history. New episodes of Away Message begin April 15, 2019.

In this special holiday episode, host Jeremy Markovich meets the man from Gastonia who became the world's largest manufacturer of Christmas ornaments and used his power to make North Carolina more tolerant of all religions. This story was adapted from: "The Unlikely Ornament King of Gastonia" which appeared in Our State's December 2016 issue. Like this show? Tell us how to improve it by taking this survey. Music in this episode: "Dad, Get Up" by Peter Lamb and the Wolves (Raleigh) Additional Music: Blue Dot Sessions, U.S. Marine Band Special Thanks: The Rauch Family, Jack Betts, Don Walser, Kimberly Simpson, Alexis Castanos, and Todd Dulaney.

One month after Hurricane Florence made landfall in North Carolina, we bring you three stories of strength, resilience, and perseverance in the face of the storm.  If you'd like to help victims of the hurricane, we suggest: American Red Cross: 1-800-RED CROSS or text the word “FLORENCE” to 90999 to make a $10 donation; redcross.org  North Carolina Community Foundation Disaster Relief Fund United Way Hurricane Florence Recovery Fund North Carolina Nurses Association: An emergency fundraising effort for nurses affected by Florence American Humane Association: An emergency donation helps animal rescue groups save animals left behind or in shelters Emergency Disaster Services of The Salvation Army The Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina: To donate food, visit one of the distribution centers in Durham, Raleigh, New Bern, Greenville, the Sandhills/Southern Pines, or Wilmington, or donate online Second Harvest and Disaster Response For the Down East/Carteret County region, please consider donating to the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum’s hurricane relief fund Hurricane Florence Relief Bucket Drive: Alpha Graphics of Raleigh will deliver buckets of cleaning supplies to the New Bern area; purchase through their Amazon wish list Read a letter from our editor in chief, Elizabeth Hudson. For continuing coverage of Hurricane Florence and its effects on North Carolina, we recommend the excellent work of our friends at the Raleigh News & Observer.

In the finale of Season 2, host Jeremy Markovich takes a trip to a remote place he's been trying to visit for years: Frying Pan Tower, a decommissioned Coast Guard light station that sits far out in the Atlantic Ocean.  

North Carolina's priceless copy of the Bill of Rights is kept out of sight in a secure underground vault, and for good reason: It was once stolen, hidden away for more than 100 years, then recovered in a spectacular FBI raid. In this extended episode, host Jeremy Markovich gets the inside story of how it all went down, directly from the people who were there. View an online scan of North Carolina's copy of the Bill of Rights here. Also in the vault: the Carolina Charter of 1663. Music in this episode: "Not Those Kind of People" by Bombadil Additional music: Blue Dot Sessions Special Thanks: North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, Joe Torsella and the Pennsylvania Treasurer's Office 2005 press conference audio provided by WRAL-TV Additional Reading: Lost Rights: The Misadventures of a Stolen American Relic, by David Howard Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures, by Robert K. Wittman and John Shiffman

In 1955, a dentist and five of his friends played a round of golf. They were black. The course was white-only. What happened next changed the course of one man's life, and in turn, helped integrate an entire town. "His Eye Is On The Sparrow" by Peter Lamb and the Wolves (feat. Maceo Parker) Additional music: Blue Dot Sessions Supreme Court audio via oyez.org. George Simkins interview courtesy of the Community Voices project, housed at the Greensboro Public Library. Special Thanks: Nebraska Douglas, Ralph Miller, Shirley Frye, Gerald Attaway, Bill Hill, plus Bob Brooks and the rest of the staff at Gillespie Golf Course. The Greensboro Six were: Phillip Cooke, Samuel Murray, Elijah Herring, Joseph Sturdivent, George Simkins Jr., and Leon Wolfe.  

In 1961, a U.S. Air Force bomber crashed near Goldsboro, North Carolina, and the two thermonuclear bombs on board fell to the ground. Host Jeremy Markovich talks with the man who was sent to make sure those bombs didn't explode, and finds out why the Air Force left a crucial part of the weapon behind, somewhere below the surface. Read more in Joel Dobson's book, "The Goldsboro Broken Arrow."

In this bonus episode, host Jeremy Markovich visits a majestic bridge that, for years, was never connected to any road, and finds out why its construction almost led to riots. Read more about the bridge in this paper from Dr. Barak Richman.

What would happen if you stood in one state, then shot and killed someone in another? That scenario actually took place along the Tennessee-North Carolina border more than 100 years ago, and the murderer got away with it. But what's the real story? Host Jeremy Markovich spent months criss-crossing North Carolina to find answers that even the killer's family didn't know. Read more stories from North Carolina's borders in Our State magazine's May 2018 issue.

In this supersized episode, host Jeremy Markovich goes looking for Charlotte's original gold mines, and then gets inside a vault that's full of billions of dollars to understand how North Carolina's biggest city ended up being the place where the state stores its money. Read more about Hugh McColl in this Our State magazine profile. For pictures inside the vault and other goodies from this episode, visit the Away Message Facebook page. Music in this episode: "Gold Standard" by Supastition (Charlotte) "Got To Go" by Boulevards (Raleigh)  

On Fontana Lake, in far western North Carolina, sit hundreds of floating cabins, meant for fishing and weekend getaways. But when the homes were threatened with removal, the owners banded together and took their fight to Washington, DC, where they found themselves in the middle of a debate over what private citizens can do on public property.

Dr. Martin Luther King once gave a speech in Rocky Mount, North Carolina that energized the city and changed the lives of the people in attendance. Now, after more than 50 years, a forgotten recording of that speech has resurfaced, and the discovery is providing new insight into how one of the most important men in American history came up with his most iconic phrase. In this episode, we listen to the speech with some of the people who were there on that day it was first delivered in 1962, and find out how such an important artifact was lost… and found. Listen to more excerpts of the speech and read a transcript at kingsfirstdream.com/transcript/

In the next season of Away Message, we're heading out on a scavenger hunt of sorts. We're looking for hard to find places, lost artifacts, secrets, missing people, and forgotten stories. New episodes begin April 3, 2018. Find all of Season 1's episodes and information about Season 2 at away.ourstate.com.  

In this bonus episode, host Jeremy Markovich finally hears back from a guy who never returned his call, and gets the greatest excuse he’s ever heard. Plus, we find out what the future holds for this podcast.

In the final episode of the season, host Jeremy Markovich tries to figure out whether his own home is a remote place by walking 14 miles from his house to his office. Along the way, he discovers the people and places that are overlooked from his car.

In this episode, host Jeremy Markovich visits the small brass disc at the western edge of the state that's become a strange tourist attraction, and finds out how remote terrain caused all sorts of problems for the people who drew North Carolina's borders.

Host Jeremy Markovich travels to Knotts Island, North Carolina -- a unique place with colorful characters -- where nobody can seem to agree about whether it's a remote place, or not.

In this bonus episode, we talk about what we're left with after a brief, maybe once-in-a-lifetime event in North Carolina: A total solar eclipse. Plus, we gathered up the best reactions to the event.

A trip to a cemetery that's only reachable by boat reveals a story about progress, a national park, promises made, and promises broken. Along the way, we meet the woman who kept hope alive, and kept a sacred spot from being forgotten.

A trip into the Great Dismal Swamp reveals a lot of biting bugs, black water you can drink, and secrets about the runaway slaves who once called this remote place home.