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PODCAST · society

CoastLine

by Rachel Lewis Hilburn

CoastLine is a variety interview, arts, and occasional news show, hosted by Rachel Lewis Hilburn.Each week on CoastLine, we meet extraordinary humans -- scholars, writers, dancers, artists, comedians, scientists -- and we take a deep dive into their extraordinary ideas and lives.Subscribe to the CoastLine podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play. To find the podcast, search WHQR CoastLine. Contact us at [email protected] airs on WHQR 91.3 FM each Wednesday at noon and each Sunday at 4 PM.

Publisher-supplied feed metadata · PodParley refreshed Apr 14, 2026 · Source feed

Episodes

  1. CoastLine: David Gessner and daughter Hadley on what climate science reveals about the earth in 2063 and why it's personal (rebroadcast from January 16, 2024)

    A Traveler’s Guide to the End of the World: Tales of Fire, Wind, and Water, is the newest book from nature writer and New York Times bestselling author David Gessner. His daughter, Hadley, is an undergraduate at New York University. They join us to explore what climate science tells us about the...

  2. CoastLine: Orrin Pilkey on surviving climate change catastrophes

    Climate change is coming for life on earth – in the form of floods, more severe and destructive storms, drought, ocean acidification, marine and terrestrial heat waves, water supply problems, air pollution. The list goes on, but humans can adapt, mitigate, and maybe even survive.That's the focus…

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  3. CoastLine: Remembering Lenny Simpson (1948-2024) and his "pay it forward" credo

    When Lenny Simpson was just 5 years old, tennis great Althea Gibson handed him a tennis racket and called him "champ". That moment changed his life. He went on at age 15 to play his mentor Arthur Ashe in the U.S. Open. Lenny Simpson returned to Wilmington in 2013 and launched One Love Tennis in...

  4. CoastLine: Artist Thomas Sayre, musician Tift Merritt explore sacred space in Four Walls at the CAM

    Singer / songwriter Tift Merritt and visual artist Thomas Sayre explore the unorthodox making of an upcoming show at the Cameron Art Museum called Four Walls.In this episode, Sayre raises questions about the sacred structures that undergird society, Tift Merritt interrogates the form of concert,...

  5. CoastLine: How Peace Corps service influenced four volunteers who worked in Ukraine, Namibia, Armenia, and Tonga

    Since 1961, the Peace Corps, envisioned and created by President John F. Kennedy, has sent volunteers around the globe to help developing countries. The obvious aim is to meet the goals identified by the host country – not the Americans. But just as important are the relationships that develop…

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  6. CoastLine: Palestinian-American on his culture and why he started rescuing animals in the West Bank (Rebroadcast from December 19, 2023)

    "Mahatma Gandi said the way you measure a society is how they treat the weakest in the society."Maad Abu-Ghazalah says this is why he started rescuing abused and abandoned dogs and donkeys in the West Bank. As a Palestinian-American with family still there, he explores his culture and his hopes…

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  7. CoastLine: Appearing on The Voice transformed the way musician Carlos Rising saw his "weaknesses" (Rebroadcast from December 19, 2023)

    He won a spot on Blake Shelton's last team in 2023, after caving to family pressure to audition for the NBC show. And that's when the way Carlos Rising thought about his musical talent began to shift.

  8. CoastLine: Breaking the News is a study on inclusivity for both film team and the news team at The 19th*

    Breaking The News was supposed to be a documentary about a new nonpartisan, nonprofit newsroom called The 19th*, started by two women who wanted to cover news at the intersection of gender, politics, and policy. But when The 19th* launched in early 2020, so did an international pandemic. The way...

  9. CoastLine: Disappearing grasslands major threat to biodiversity in coastal plain of SE NC

    UNCW restoration ecologist Amy Long is rehabilitating local tidal marshes, grasslands, and savannahs. Strategic restoration can bring back biodiversity that was nearly lost, as evidenced by the New Hanover County Landfill property. Two dramatic examples: diverse butterfly populations and regular...

  10. CoastLine: UNCW Study raises questions about mental health and disconnect from nature

    Research clearly shows that spending time in nature is critical for mental, physical, even cognitive health. Can our mental health crises make a stronger case for conservation?

  11. CoastLine: David Gessner and daughter Hadley on what climate science reveals about the earth in 2063 and why it's personal

    A Traveler’s Guide to the End of the World: Tales of Fire, Wind, and Water, is the newest book from nature writer and New York Times bestselling author David Gessner. His daughter, Hadley, is an undergraduate at New York University. They join us to explore what climate science tells us about the...

  12. CoastLine: Invasive plants are changing NC wetlands; soundscapes are helping scientists figure out how

    Evolutionary Ecologist Stacy Endriss of UNCW’s Environmental Sciences Department is exploring how invasive plants are affecting North Carolina wetlands. She’s also looking at creative approaches – including biocontrol – for dealing with the impacts.

  13. CoastLine: Racial healing activists of all races need to interrogate themselves first, says Dr. Catherine Meeks (rebroadcast from August 30, 2023)

    “A fundamental question that each of us must answer is: Who are the victims of racism? Upon careful investigation, it seems quite clear that the answer is ‘everyone’.” Dr. Catherine Meeks, Exec. Director, Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing

  14. In the Wild Coastal Plain with surprisingly wild suburban ponds, amid pervasive pollution (rebroadcast from Oct. 17, 2023)

    Andy Wood: Bullfrog tadpoles have an alkaloid in their skin. It’s a chemical compound that tastes a little bit like rotten lemon and Ajax. It’s a horrible taste, so very few things eat them.RLH: Have you tried this? It’s a very, um, specific description.AW: I would never admit that.In the wild...

  15. CoastLine: Palestinian-American on his culture and why he started rescuing animals in the West Bank

    "Mahatma Gandi said the way you measure a society is how they treat the weakest in the society."Maad Abu-Ghazalah says this is why he started rescuing abused and abandoned dogs and donkeys in the West Bank. As a Palestinian-American with family still there, he explores his culture and his hopes…

    more
  16. CoastLine: Needs of vulnerable people, animals, and plants escalated in 2023, say advocates

    The most vulnerable populations around the region struggled during 2023 – including humans, animals, and even native plants. What does the state of these groups say about us?

  17. CoastLine: Justin Catanoso on Enviva crisis, wood pellet industry, why environmental reporting doesn't always have two equal sides

    Enviva company officials assured critics that wood pellets are mostly made of waste: treetops, limbs, even sawdust. Not true, according to reporting from environmental journalist and WFU Professor Justin Catanoso, who also says the science shows wood pellet burning contributes more to the climate...

  18. CoastLine: Darien Brooks says treatment changed profound autism to high-functioning (Rebroadcast from July 25, 2023)

    Alice Brooks says when she learned that her son, Darien, had profound autism spectrum disorder, she cried on the front porch all night. Today, she says Darien and his diagnosis are the greatest blessings of her life.

  19. CoastLine: Female military veterans on standing up for their own rights while serving

    Cooking food, working as nurses, working in maintenance and repair units, dressing as men: for millennia, women have worked near and actually on the battlefield. But they still make up less than a quarter of the active U.S. military force, and they still face career barriers.Despite fear of...

  20. CoastLine: Black Barbie, the film, celebrates Black women, reveals deep cultural influence (Rebroadcast from August 22, 2023)

    Black Barbie, the documentary film by Lagueria Davis, explores the way the doll shapes culture, and ultimately the way people think about themselves. It’s a close look at representation, starting with the filmmaker's aunt, Beulah Mae Mitchell, who was on the original Barbie manufacturing line…

    more
  21. CoastLine: Military veterans on life in the service and why it's strange to talk about it

    "Everybody that goes to combat, it touches them in a certain way. It's hard to talk about some of those things."Marine Corps veteran Steven Shortt says so many like him want to connect with civilians, especially given the growing divide between the military and civilian communities. But when one…

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  22. CoastLine: Fear-based political agenda led to 1898 Wilmington massacre, says LeRae Umfleet

    What makes history come alive? When you can see repercussions, for good or for ill, in the present day. It’s why North Carolina state historian LeRae Umfleet, the author of the state’s official report on Wilmington’s 1898 massacre and coup d'état, keeps talking about it.

  23. CoastLine: Who are the OGs of standup comedy? It's complicated.

    The history of standup comedy is so difficult to separate according to culture, that it becomes surprisingly transcendent of race, ethnicity, and cultural background. But does that equate to being a model of diversity, equity, and inclusion? That’s a work in progress and one of the questions we...

  24. In the Wild Coastal Plain with surprisingly wild suburban ponds, amid pervasive pollution

    Andy Wood: Bullfrog tadpoles have an alkaloid in their skin. It’s a chemical compound that tastes a little bit like rotten lemon and Ajax. It’s a horrible taste, so very few things eat them.RLH: Have you tried this? It’s a very, um, specific description.AW: I would never admit that.In the wild...

  25. CoastLine: Blues musician Robert Lighthouse says tour of war-torn Ukraine fundamentally changed him (Rebroadcast from May 2, 2023)

    Blues musician Robert Lighthouse may have grown up in Sweden, but as soon as he turned 18 he came to the United States to live with a native American family on a Hopi reservation and learn about his beloved Mississippi Delta Blues. He had no idea that decades later, he'd travel to a war zone to...

  26. CoastLine: Michelin star chef Iliana Regan on gender, fear, and foraging (Rebroadcast from April 11, 2023)

    Iliana Regan is owner and chef of The Milkweed Inn – a rustic, woodsy, and hard-to-reach getaway in the Hiawatha National Forest on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She’s also a Michelin starred chef and the author of two books. On this episode, how she thinks about gender – especially her own, how…

    more
  27. CoastLine: Comedians Cliff Cash and Nancy Witter on touring and finding the funny

    Both Cliff Cash and Nancy Witter are professional comedians, have played to sold-out houses across these United States, and call the Cape Fear region home. On this episode they explore the craft of comedy and how it's evolved for them.

  28. In the Wild Coastal Plain with carnivorous plants

    In each episode of In The Wild Coastal Plain, we meet a plant or an animal endemic to the southeastern North Carolina biodiversity hotspot – so we can better understand our coastal plain ecosystem and who lives here with us.Today, we’re exploring Holly Shelter, a nature preserve and game land in...

  29. CoastLine: Soil scientist Britt Moore: Environmental Justice should guide culturally-responsive science

    Environmental justice can be complicated. The way studies are set up, the way the researchers communicate with the subjects of the study, and what the scientists do with the results – all those protocols are part of what Dr. Britt Moore calls “culturally-responsive science”.

  30. CoastLine: Soil scientist Britt Moore: Environmental Justice should guide culturally-responsive science

    Environmental justice can be complicated. The way studies are set up, the way the researchers communicate with the subjects of the study, and what the scientists do with the results – all those protocols are part of what Dr. Britt Moore calls “culturally-responsive science”.

  31. CoastLine: Racial healing activists of all races need to interrogate themselves first, says Dr. Catherine Meeks

    “A fundamental question that each of us must answer is: Who are the victims of racism? Upon careful investigation, it seems quite clear that the answer is ‘everyone’.” Dr. Catherine Meeks, Exec. Director, Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing

  32. CoastLine: Black Barbie, the film, celebrates Black women, reveals deep cultural influence

    Black Barbie, the documentary film by Lagueria Davis, explores the way the doll shapes culture, and ultimately the way people think about themselves. It’s a close look at representation, starting with the filmmaker's aunt, Beulah Mae Mitchell, who was on the original Barbie manufacturing line…

    more
  33. CoastLine: How retired Marine Grady Kurpasi landed in a Ukraine war zone and the long journey home

    Kevin Maurer, an award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author has written extensively about and inside war zones. When he heard of the mysterious disappearance of retired Marine and Wilmington resident Grady Kurpasi during a Russian ambush in Ukraine, he started investigating....

  34. CoastLine: Sara Johnson Allen on writing her first novel and how place shapes us

    Down Here We Come Up, which took more than fifteen years to write, started as an exploration of the jarring class differences between the northern and southern United States. But the novel Sara Johnson Allen actually completed, set just outside of Wilmington, NC, raises even deeper questions…

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  35. In the Wild Coastal Plain of SE NC with the red-cockaded woodpecker and longleaf pine

    As natural areas disappear, we’re taking a closer look at what we’re losing, species by species, in a new series called In The Wild Coastal Plain. In this second episode, we explore the intertwined fates of the red-cockaded woodpecker and longleaf pine.

  36. CoastLine: In The Wild Coastal Plain with Andy Wood, the red-cockaded woodpecker, and longleaf pine

    As natural areas disappear, we’re taking a closer look at what we’re losing, species by species, in a new CoastLine series called In The Wild Coastal Plain. On this edition of CoastLine, we explore why the intertwined fates of the red-cockaded woodpecker and longleaf pine are important harbingers...

  37. CoastLine: Darien Brooks says treatment changed profound autism to high-functioning

    Alice Brooks says when she learned that her son, Darien, had profound autism spectrum disorder, she cried on the front porch all night. Today, she says Darien and his diagnosis are the greatest blessings of her life.

  38. CoastLine: Wildlife rehabilitators on caring for animals and how to avoid doing harm

    Summer is a busy time in southeastern North Carolina for wildlife rehabilitators. It is against the law to take a wild animal into captivity unless you have a license from the state. But well-meaning people do this, often without understanding how they're probably doing more harm than good.

  39. In the Wild Coastal Plain of SE NC with the American Beaver

    Andy Wood: "Beavers are an ally for maintaining water quality, air quality, biodiversity, and flood protection. One beaver pond can retain millions of gallons of stormwater, slowly releasing it into the stream so that downstream homes aren't suddenly flooded with a rush of water."There's so much…

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  40. CoastLine: In the Wild Coastal Plain SE NC with the American Beaver

    As natural areas disappear in southeastern North Carolina, we’re taking a closer look at what we’re losing, species by species, in a new series called In The Wild Coastal Plain. Andy Wood is our guide, and in this edition of CoastLine, we explore how it came to be and why the American Beaver is a...

  41. CoastLine: Filmmaker Montana Cypress on growing up in the Florida Everglades and Miccosukee alligator "wrestling"

    When most Americans see a large alligator, they see a menace. When filmmaker Montana Cypress sees one, he respects the potential danger. But he grew up seeing his fellow Miccosukee Tribe members work with alligators in front of audiences in the Florida Everglades. Tourists call it wrestling, but...

  42. CoastLine: Birding ethics and helping backyard birds thrive

    When birds started dying from known and mysterious diseases, biologists told us backyard bird feeders pose risks to birds that include disease, collision, and predation. Jill Peleuses of Wild Bird & Garden and Cape Fear Bird Observatory explains how to mitigate those risks and actually help our...

  43. CoastLine: Jamir Jumoke on surviving recidivism

    What does it mean to get sucked into the school-to-prison pipeline? Jamir Jumoke describes traumatic early years and what it took to break the cycle.

  44. CoastLine: NPR Founding Mother Susan Stamberg on the changing rules of journalism, understanding modern art, and Mama Stamberg's cranberry relish

    NPR Special Correspondent Susan Stamberg visited Wilmington, NC in late May 2023. Two interviews, one in front of several hundred people, one in WHQR's CoastLine studio, reveal the origins of the NPR sound, a fiercely rigorous journalist, and a voraciously curious woman who injects humor into...

  45. CoastLine: Photojournalist Alexander Rivera, Jr., descendant of 1898 victim, influenced U.S. civil rights

    One photojournalist from North Carolina influenced the civil rights struggle in the United States, enjoyed a friendship with President Richard Nixon, was a member of the first African American press delegation on an official U.S. diplomatic trip overseas, and descended from one of the victims of...

  46. CoastLine: Dana Sachs on joining the volunteer effort to help migrants suffering in Greek refugee camps

    So many who brave dangerous treks across unfriendly terrain and tumultuous oceans to escape war, violence, and poverty find themselves stuck in camps that do not satisfy the most basic human needs: sanitation, enough food, dry clothes. Author Dana Sachs explains how a grassroots volunteer effort...

  47. CoastLine: Blues musician Robert Lighthouse says tour of war-torn Ukraine fundamentally changed him

    Blues musician Robert Lighthouse may have grown up in Sweden, but as soon as he turned 18 he came to the United States to live with a native American family on a Hopi reservation and learn about his beloved Mississippi Delta Blues. He had no idea that decades later, he'd travel to a war zone to...

  48. CoastLine: Roger Shew on the Seven Natural Wonders of SE NC

    He calls them the Seven Natural Wonders of southeastern North Carolina. Can you guess what they are? We live in a biodiversity hotspot – for now, anyway — and environmental scientist Roger Shew is hoping that the more people learn about these natural wonders, the more they’ll care about saving them.

  49. CoastLine: Michelin star chef Iliana Regan on gender, fear, and foraging

    Iliana Regan is owner and chef of The Milkweed Inn – a rustic, woodsy, and hard-to-reach getaway in the Hiawatha National Forest on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She’s also a Michelin starred chef and the author of two books. On this episode, how she thinks about gender – especially her own, how…

    more

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ABOUT THIS SHOW

CoastLine is a variety interview, arts, and occasional news show, hosted by Rachel Lewis Hilburn.Each week on CoastLine, we meet extraordinary humans -- scholars, writers, dancers, artists, comedians, scientists -- and we take a deep dive into their extraordinary ideas and lives.Subscribe to the CoastLine podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play. To find the podcast, search WHQR CoastLine. Contact us at [email protected] airs on WHQR 91.3 FM each Wednesday at noon and each Sunday at 4 PM.

HOSTED BY

Rachel Lewis Hilburn

Produced by WHQR

CATEGORIES

Frequently Asked Questions

How many episodes does CoastLine have?

CoastLine currently has 50 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.

What is CoastLine about?

CoastLine is a variety interview, arts, and occasional news show, hosted by Rachel Lewis Hilburn.Each week on CoastLine, we meet extraordinary humans -- scholars, writers, dancers, artists, comedians, scientists -- and we take a deep dive into their extraordinary ideas and lives.Subscribe to the...

How often does CoastLine release new episodes?

CoastLine has 50 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.

Where can I listen to CoastLine?

You can listen to CoastLine on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.

Who hosts CoastLine?

CoastLine is created and hosted by Rachel Lewis Hilburn.
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