The Overlook with Matt Peiken

2023 is the North Carolina Year of the Trail. It’s also the 100th anniversary of the Carolina Mountain Club. So the timing is right for this gathering of leaders of three local trail advocacy organiz…

Asheville’s public school teachers and staff are in an existential battle for greater pay. That fight is also happening with pre-K childcare and education, where wages are often comparable to the fas…

North Carolina hasn’t legalized the growth or sale of marijuana yet, but the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, on the Qualla Boundary, are a sovereign nation. Two years ago, the Tribal Council approv…

On the U.S. Independence Day, we fittingly turn to baseball and our first conversation with Asheville Tourists manager Nate Shaver. We talk about his path from having aspirations on the field to his …

Local teachers and staff had asked Buncombe County commissioners for a 7 percent pay raise. Commissioners recently approved a budget that gives them a 2 percent bump. My guests today are Lissa Peders…

Michael Hayes was serving his fifth term in prison when an epiphany struck. He had never acknowledged the trauma he grew up with, let alone worked through it. The process of doing so changed his life…

Scores of Asheville minors get into legal trouble every year, and Buncombe Alternatives is working to keep them out of the judicial system and put them back on a positive track. Karen Peerson, the ex…

Investigative journalist Karen Zatkulak produced a recent three-part series on North Carolina's evolving gun laws for WLOS-TV. We talk about the magnitude of the North Carolina legislature doing away…

Asheville's rising rate of violent crime inspired US Congressman Chuck Edwards, a Republican representing Western North Carolina, to convene what he billed an 'Anti-Crime Summit.' The forum happened …

Lorrie Pande has spent her career in the scenes and behind the scenes of the performing arts, mostly in the theater. And for reasons that, even now, aren’t entirely clear, Pande felt compelled to cre…

Affordable housing is an increasingly rare commodity in Asheville, but city staff working in housing are turning to one weapon in the fight to develop affordable homes—land the city owns. Sasha Vrtun…

About 23,000 people take classes every year through A-B Tech. As tuition and student debts everywhere rise hand in hand, students across the demographic spectrum are turning to technical and communit…

Hundreds of teachers, school staff and board members, parents and even students rallied at Buncombe County Commission hearings as recently as last week. They’re calling on county officials to meet li…

Nathan Ballingrud, a 1989 graduate of Asheville High School, is a venerated dark fantasy novelist with two collections of short stories and a novel adapted into a movie. His new novel, “The Strange,”…

The Asheville Watchdog has published a series of stories dissecting various issues plaguing downtown. One of the best in the series is from journalist Tom Fiedler, our guest today. His story probes w…

In the second of our two-part conversation, Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer addresses her take and the city’s approaches to a number of big challenges. We also talk about Asheville’s formal commitme…

By North Carolina constitutional law, mayors count as just another vote on the city council and have no singular authority to enact initiatives or manage the city. But residents and city staff expect…

Melvin AC Howell traces his obsession with hip-hop street dance as early as 9 years old. His parents couldn’t relate to it, nor could anyone in his hometown of Morganton, NC. But when he found himsel…

The I-26 Connector carries the long promise of a clean, multimodal, locally dedicated artery. Today's guest is Jason Sandford of the AsheVegas Hot Sheet. He’s well-versed on the detours and delays, p…

The Asheville Airport is at high altitude these days. The airport served more than 1.8 million passengers in 2022—a record-breaking year by 29 percent—and is about to begin construction to expand its…