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Who Killed Rachel Crook? Episode 4: Bold as Lions

It was Day Three of the highly charged Rachel Crook murder trial. The well-liked 71-year-old had mysteriously disappeared from Crook’s Corner, her Chapel Hill fish store,

Who Killed Rachel Crook? Episode 1: Citizen Crook

In mid-century Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Rachel Crook was a familiar figure around town. The 71-year-old ran a fish store called Crook's Corner. That same site, under

Who Killed Rachel Crook? Episode 2: Getting Punked

In mid-century Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a beloved 71-year-old woman was found murdered, and initial reports were that she'd been raped. Rachel Crook was a familiar fi

Who Killed Rachel Crook? Episode 3: Thanks for the Memories

In 1952, bulldozer operator Hobart Lee faced a jury of his peers at the highly charged murder trial of Chapel Hillian Rachel Crook. The previous August, the beloved 71-ye

Episode 26: Driving Deer with Novelist Craig Nova

Keeping deer out of a garden is a challenge. But at Montrose, the famous and expansive gardens in Hillsborough, North Carolina, it required an installation of tall fencin

Episode 25: Eating Grape Pie with Humorist Celia Rivenbark

Writer Celia Rivenbark reaches back to her high school days to explore the humor and challenges of waiting tables at her small town’s only sit-down restaurant. It served

Episode 24: Hal Crowther on Politics and Arboreal Dependency

Journalist Hal Crowther is a connoisseur of green places. He has a particular reverence for trees, sparing neither effort nor expense to keep the beautiful maples and hic

Episode 23: Practicing Radical Hospitality with Diya Abdo

Diya Abdo has settled into life in Greensboro, North Carolina. It’s thousands of miles from Jordan, where she, the daughter of Palestinian refugees, was raised. A profess

Episode 22: Anticipating Spring with Poet Michael McFee

Poet Michael McFee talks about his anticipation of winter ending and spring beginning when he strolls through Coker Arboretum on the UNC–Chapel Hill campus. The harbinger

Episode 21: Paul Cuadros on the Cocineros of Chapel Hill’s Franklin Street

Journalist Paul Cuadros has written a lot about the Latino communities of North Carolina. He moved here more than 25 years ago to write about life in Siler City, a small

Episode 20: Allan Gurganus and the Haunting of Hillsborough

It’s that time of year when we remember Hillsborough’s favorite self-taught mortician, RWB Latta (aka writer Allan Gurganus). Now retired, he offered trick-or-treaters a

Episode 19: Hanging Out in Hillsborough with Bob Burtman

In a world of "boomburbs" and generic downtowns, Hillsborough, North Carolina, stands out. Cohesive, walkable, its streets lined with 250 years of architectural styles, t

Episode 18: The Bus Ride Home With Beverly A. Scarlett

Retired judge Beverly A. Scarlett recounts her life in the small Southern town of Hillsborough, North Carolina—from Jim Crow, through the tumultuous years of school deseg

Episode 17: Unveiling Secrets with Writer Daniel Wallace

Growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, young Daniel Wallace was drawn to William Nealy’s world. William was brilliant, talented, a maverick, an adrenaline junkie. He was the

Episode 16: Gardening With Poet Lenard Moore

The vegetables on the Moore family’s supper table, along with the potatoes and the fish, more often than not had been harvested and/or caught, cleaned, and cooked by the

Episode 15: Shelling Peas With Novelist Jill McCorkle

When author Jill McCorkle reaches back to her earliest memories, she is a toddler sitting in her grandmother’s kitchen sink taking a playful bath. She remembers the smell

Episode 14: Celebrating Mater Day With Bridgette Lacy

Bridgette Lacy knows her tomatoes. She was indoctrinated at an early age, when her grandfather would shower her family with plump tomatoes he grew in his garden. Come Jul

Episode 13: Unravelling Mysteries With Michael Malone

When writer Michael Malone moved back to his native North Carolina, he discovered that fiction came pouring out of him, as did other creative pursuits—plays, songs, imagi

Episode 12: Making a Wonderful Mess With Food Writer Nancie McDermott

The Lloyd family reunion was, and still is, a summertime ritual for chef and cookbook author Nancie McDermott. Generations have gathered for over a century in rural Orang

Episode 11: Picking Honeysuckle With Chef Bill Smith

Chef Bill Smith worked in the kitchen at Chapel Hill’s famous Crook’s Corner for 25 years. He talks about foraging for honeysuckle and blackberries on the local bike path