Since BPR launched "The Porch" last summer, the news team has produced episodes centered on racial justice movements, policing, the insurrection on the US Capitol, all of this and more, while also navigating an unprecedented global pandemic. This episode is a little different. We invited listeners to submit funny stories from the past year and compiled them into this episode and online. It's a community gathering we're calling "Viral Humor." We've all felt it. The awkwardness of talking, or shouting, at a cashier through layers of masks and plexiglass. The toddler running around in the background of someone's Zoom call. The stinging sensation of the gobs of hand sanitizer seeping into our chapped hands. This is not to say, of course, that the pandemic is funny. No, Covid-19 hurt, all of us. Many of us lost loved ones, struggled with isolation, lost our jobs, put dreams on hold. And it's not over, we are very much still in this. But if this show aims to do anything, it's say "hey, it's

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The Porch: Viral Humor

One year after the racial justice protests following the police murder of George Floyd, how much closer are we to the goals stated by the marchers in Asheville and Western North Carolina?

The Porch: One Year Later, How Closer Are We To Racial Justice?

In this episode of The Porch, from BPR News, we explore this question: If communities benefit from the work and presence of artists, what is our collective responsibility to publicly pay for the arts? This episode includes: Interviews with Nate McGaha of Arts NC and Sheila Smith, recently retired from Minnesota Citizens for the Arts A look into our local arts councils, focusing on Transylvania County, Haywood County and the council serving Mitchell and Yancey counties. Interviews with educators and students with UNC-Asheville's STEAM studio and the founding director of the Institute for Arts and STEAM Integration. (The BPR News Presents theme song is The Vibes by Audiobinger. Other music featured in this episode includes Three Floors by Blue Dot Sessions)

BPR News Presents: The Porch Episode 008

In this episode of The Porch, a production of the BPR news team, we hear from - BPR's Lilly Knoepp about her reporting on the independent monitor tasked with ensuring HCA holds to the promises it made when it purchased Mission Health Joel Burgess of the Asheville Citizen-Times about Asheville City Council's retreat this month which was at the center of a lawsuit filed by five local media outlets. Burgess also talks about the latest on how the city will set property taxes this year. Dr. Chris Cooper , political scientist at Western Carolina University, talks about the comparatively slow pace the North Carolina General Assembly is taking so far this year (The BPR News Presents theme song is The Vibes by Audiobinger. Other music featured in this episode include Three Floors by Blue Dot Sessions)

BPR News Presents: The Porch Episode 007

In this episode of BPR News Presents: The Porch, we talk with-- Musician, poet and writer Chelsea Labate Mike Martinez of the ska-rock band Natural Born Leaders Autobiographical storyteller and actress Barbie Angell Melissa Hyman of the folk duo The Moon & You Psychologist and researcher Dr. Christa Taylor Psychologist and dance therapist Dr. Ilene Serlin (The BPR News Presents theme song is The Vibes by Audiobinger).

BPR News Presents: The Porch Episode 006

In this episode of BPR News Presents: The Porch, we talk with - Emma Johnson, the climate science fellow for The Pulitzer Center On Crisis Reporting. She's been examining how climate change is hurting Western North Carolina's famed trout fishing, and whether the pandemic has slowed or continued the damage. Dr. Edward Lopez, the director of Western Carolina University's Center for the Study of Free Enterprise , which recently put out a report looking at North Carolina's potential for economic recovery post-pandemic. He's joined by Emma Blair Fedison, a graduate student at George Mason University, who also worked on the study. Cicely Rogers and Toshia Sitton, of the REGAL Learning Pod at Pisgah View Apartments in West Asheville. REGAL -- which stands for Relevant Education Grows All Learners - is a framework that aims to support students of color by offering an inclusive learning space, led by adults in their own community. Six students from Asheville City Schools meet regularly at the

BPR News Presents: The Porch Episode 005

In this episode of BPR News Presents: The Porch - We feature an episode of WUNC's podcast Tested titled 'An American Coup' which looks at the only violent overthrow of a government in U.S. history, which occurred in 1898 in Wilmington, North Carolina Western Carolina University political scientist Dr. Chris Cooper gives us a civics lesson on what it takes to remove and/or discipline sitting members of Congress, plus how an impeachment trial of President Trump can go on even when he is no longer in office Asheville therapist Omileye Achikeobi-Lewis talks about vicarious trauma that a person can feel watching or listening the news about the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol (The BPR News Presents theme song is The Vibes by Audiobinger. Other music featured in this episode includes Feeling by Borrtex)

BPR News Presents: The Porch Episode 004

In this episode, we talk with - - Dr. David Ellis, the chief medical officer for Pardee Hospital in Hendersonville, where the first COVID-19 vaccines were administered in Western North Carolina this week. - Irene Smoker-Jackson, a Cherokee language translator for New Kituwah Academy Elementary in Cherokee. She's one of just a few hundred fluent Cherokee speakers in the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. She lost her mother to COVID-19 this year. - Tamiko Ambrose Murray and Marisol Jiminez, who've formed their own consulting firm built on storytelling and unraveling deep trauma to help businesses of all stripes and sizes address their roles in structural racism. The BPR News Presents theme song is The Vibes by Audiobinger. Other music featured in this show includes Musa, 6th Melody by Livio Amato

BPR News Presents: The Porch Episode 003

In this episode, we talk with - - Dr. Chris Cooper of Western Carolina University, about why partisanship was the biggest winner in this week's elections in North Carolina - Raul Saldana, the founding director of the new PEAK Academy charter school in Asheville - Peter Lewis, reporter for AVL Watchdog, who wrote two extensive stories about the sale of Mission Health to HCA, with more planned in the near future The BPR News Presents theme song is The Vibes by Audiobinger. Other music featured in this show includes Kick, Push by Ryan Little

BPR News Presents: The Porch Episode 002

The sale of Mission Health to HCA made be concluded as a financial transaction, but the details of how it was reached are few and far between. Peter Lewis of AVL Watchdog wrote two stories last month ( here and here ) examining what details about how Mission reached its agreement with HCA, and whether the then non-profit health system sold for far less than it was worth. He spoke with BPR's Matt Bush for the second episode of BPR News Presents: The Porch. You can listen to the interview above.

How The Sale Of Mission Health Went Down

What is the future of live performance in Asheville? BPR's Matt Peiken checks in with local performers working in contemporary and classical music, along with managers of the venues that stage them, about how they're strategizing and meeting challenges about performing in front of in-person audiences in a socially distanced reality. This is a condensed version of a Facebook Live broadcast from October 21st, which can be viewed here . Guests include the musicians Mike Martinez (Natural Born Leaders), Ashley Heath, Andrew Fletcher and The Resonant Rogues, leaders of the Asheville Symphony Orchestra, Brevard Music Center, Pan Harmonia and Asheville Choral Society, and managers of the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts, the Orange Peel/Rabbit Rabbit, the Grey Eagle and Thomas Wolfe Auditorium / Harrah's Cherokee Center. (The BPR News Presents theme song is The Vibes by Audiobinger)

BPR News Presents: Curtain Call

BPR News Presents: 2020 Local Election Special, is a production of the Blue Ridge Public Radio news team. It's three segments include an interview with Buncombe County elections director Corinne Duncan , and portions of two candidate forums done on the BPR Facebook page - for Asheville City Council , and for North Carolina State House District 119 . (The BPR News Presents theme song is The Vibes by Audiobinger. Other music featured includes FAWM9 by Damon Boucher)

BPR News Presents: 2020 Local Election Special

Early voting in North Carolina runs from Thursday October 15th to Saturday October 31st ahead of the November 3rd general election.

2020 WNC Early Voting Guide: Locations, Dates, & Times

On September 4 th and 5 th Blue Ridge Public Radio in partnership with Smoky Mountain News and Mountain Xpress held two forums with the major party candidates for the currently vacant seat in North Carolina's 11th Congressional district. Republican Madison Cawthorn and Democrat Moe Davis faced each other at Western Carolina University's Biltmore Park campus, and then again at the school's main campus in Cullowhee. Cory Vaillancourt of Smoky Mountain News and BPR moderated. Below is a condensed one-hour program the features portions of both forums. You can watch the full forums anytime on the BPR Facebook page . (The BPR News Presents theme song is The Vibes by Audiobinger)

BPR News Presents: #NC11 Congressional Candidate Forum

For the superintendent of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the killing of George Floyd over the summer hit especially hard.

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