Listen Score
LS 29
Global Rank
TOP 10%

ABOUT THIS PODCAST 🔗

Update frequency:
every 6 days
Average audio length:
14 minutes
English
United States
146 episodes
since Aug. 18, 2019
episodic

LATEST EPISODE 🔗

Vacation

Johnston County has been selling to people who are just passing through for nearly a century. This episode looks at how Exit 95 turned transit traffic into an economy—and what gets lost when a place becomes a stop instead of a destination.

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PREVIOUS EPISODES

Johnston County is named for one man and defined by another. This episode unpacks two Johnstons, one Civil War surrender, and the difference between loyalty and pretending.
History books and courthouse lawns tell a simple story of the Civil War: blue versus gray, with honor tied strictly to the battlefield. But in Johnston County, the reality was far more complicated. North Carolina led the Confederacy in desertions, driven by a quiet resistance of men who decided &qu…
Along Highway 210 in Johnston County, a forgotten cemetery tells a story of slavery, family, and memory. This episode follows Adam Sanders, who bought the land where his ancestors were buried and made sure the circle stayed unbroken.

The River

It’s two million years old, six miles wide at its mouth, and still manages to surprise us. This is the story of the Neuse River, Johnston County’s original highway—and its most persistent problem
Before the bankruptcy banners and empty storefronts, Heilig-Meyers was the furniture store that helped define small-town North Carolina. This is the story of how it started, how it grew, and why its collapse mattered far beyond the showroom

Night Moves

For over sixty years, Main Street in Benson was the center of the universe for Johnston County youth on a Friday night. From horse-drawn buggies in the 1930s to polished Mazda RX-7s in the 1990s, cruising wasn't just driving in circles—it was the most analog matchmaking system in the county, a ritu…

The Gambler

Every farmer is a gambler, but for sixty years, Johnston County's tobacco growers held a guaranteed winning hand. The federal quota system provided a vital safety net until 2004, when the government offered a buyout that forced every farming family into a midnight, kitchen-table decision. This epis…
There is a bronze soldier standing on the courthouse lawn in Smithfield. He has been there since 1926. He stands at parade rest — chin up, eyes forward — with the posture of a man who doesn't yet know what's waiting for him. On the stone beneath his feet: forty-seven names. Buck Hill. Pearlie H. Ha…
There is a ledger in the North Carolina State Archives. Bound in leather. Column after column of names. It is titled Johnston County Permanent Registration of Voters, 1902 to 1908. Every name in it is white. That was the point. Smith Brooks had sat on the Smithfield Board of Commissioners. Mack Sow…
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