Michael Falero

A pastor in St. Albans has been helping residents of a local homeless encampment called Tent City get back on their feet. But not everyone in the town approves of the work he’s doing.

Charlotte City Council members will decide Monday night whether to change rules for how developers can place trees in the city’s most urban areas. City planners say the proposed change is small, but some citizens are concerned that it doesn’t do enough to meet Charlotte’s tree canopy goals.

More than 300 migrating chimney swift birds hit the windows of the NASCAR Hall of Fame around 11 p.m. Tuesday night. Many of them have died, and it's unclear what caused them to strike the building.

In our 50th episode anniversary, we cover what seems to be the dumbest internet story of 2019: the AlienStock event at Area 51. We take a look at what happened and why it happened. We also have Final Fantasy remakes, a discussion of The Sandlot (Michael has many thoughts), and Good Internet, Best Internet with anime betrayals and Robert Baratheon.

The EPA wants to relax rules that govern how companies like Duke Energy can dispose of coal ash, but the proposal has some environmental groups in North Carolina concerned about how the changes might affect community health and citizens' ability to take legal action in the future.

State officials are proposing electric vehicle tax credits and an expanded network of charging stations on state roads as part of their efforts to reduce carbon emissions — but they’re still not sure how much it will cost or how to fund their plans. The proposals are part of the North Carolina Climate Change Interagency Council, which met last Friday.

Another gaming recap, this time from the pretty big Nintendo Direct from earlier this month, with plenty of announcements for the Switch. We’re being good r/patientgamers with some older titles, and we discuss the animated classic The Iron Giant. GIBI features weird Russian music videos, contentious Venn Diagrams, and more.

Kristen Hampton has made the jump from local television news to global internet content creator. Her Facebook lives are routinely viewed hundreds of thousands of times (some in the millions) and her positive message reaches people from all walks of life. Sarah Blake Morgan talks with Kristen about her journey from local news to the internet, and what her future holds, and why she felt she couldn't let people know who she married.

Disney’s got a slew of announcements about Disney+ and new Marvel and Star Wars content, but Randolf has doubts. Gaming Corner features Michael playing an insurance adjuster mystery game, we discuss Good Will Hunting, and GIBI has PewDiePie and a truly horrific video on Twitter.

As the new year begins for Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, there are thousands of students who have nowhere to go when the last bell rings. In this must-listen episode, Meredith Dolhare from RunningWorks joins Sarah Blake Morgan in-studio - along with four special guests - to talk about being in school and being homeless.

CMPD Animal Care and Control's shelter if full of dogs and cats who need homes. Melissa Knicely joins Sarah Blake Morgan in-studio to talk about how you can give a dog or cat a new forever home, or make their time at Animal Care and Control better.

Facebook is pursuing new technology that can read human thoughts with moderate accuracy. Michael’s got the doomsday implications of this while Randolf is excited by the possibilities. We’ve got plenty of gaming news including androids, alien squids, and Ninja’s move to Mixer. We discuss in YGST what we watched – Mean Girls – and then talk about the Best Internet we found this week.

Award-winning journalist Sarah Blake Morgan is joined each week by Charlotte's newsmakers, the people shaping and impacting life in the Queen City. If it affects you, we're talking about it on The Charlotte Newsmakers Podcast.

A new article makes Michael and Randolf argue whether it even matters anymore if the Internet still consists of majority human activity. Plus, Michael’s fighting space pirates, Randolf is slogging through MMO missions, and we discuss Joaquin Phoenix’s odd indie movie role in You’ve Gotta See This.

[Recorded interview with Renee Bach] /// When she was 19, Renee Bach founded a charity that went on to care for over 900 severely malnourished babies and children. Now she is being sued by two of the mothers whose children died.

[Recorded Tripp Mickle interview starting at 12:39] /// What's better: promoting e-cigarettes to help smokers quit, or restricting vaping so teens don't pick up a new nicotine addiction? Jennifer Maloney explains the challenges vaping company Juul poses to public health officials. Plus, Tripp Mickle on a mystery in the Apple App Store.

Microsoft shutting down its e-book service gets us into a discussion of when you own your content and what DRM is. Roblox is worth billions of dollars now, Justin Roiland’s got a new game, NYC experienced a blackout, and Randolf’s found a weird, wonderful subreddit featuring carbs and plants.

With a certain type of CBD product under assault from North Carolina lawmakers, those in the business are circling the wagons again. Sarah Blake Morgan talks with Mike Sims from Charlotte CBD about his business, the myths behind CBD, and what's next for recreational marijuana products.

A 9-minute feature about the red fox population in Woods Hole, MA on Cape Cod. Completed at the Transom Story Workshop for publication on Transom.org and WCAI.