The September 2025 Issue

Dive into the arts, history, and science during a weekend exploring the Queen City’s “Museum Row.”

On our coast, painted buntings flash their colors, sing for love, and remind us to stay hopeful.

For more than half a century, student bus drivers helped North Carolina achieve one of the most efficient pupil transportation systems in the nation.

After leaving his coastal hometown for the big city, one author finds his calling writing about the people and places that shaped him.

Arriving by water offers fresh perspectives on familiar places along the North Carolina coast.

In Chatham County, Carolina Tiger Rescue promises safety for its creatures and education for its community.

Where to eat, shop, and play in this Chatham County town.

A group of volunteers repairs and cleans the gravestones of the Gate City’s oldest public cemetery to honor those who came before them and beautify what they see as hallowed ground.

In North Carolina, nature’s building blocks — earth, wind, fire, and water — are on powerful display.

You won’t find it listed in a recipe or on the shelves of the grocery store, but for one chef, nothing completes a comforting meal like a whisper of smoke.

This is no ordinary pot of beans. It’s a crowd-pleasing side dish that’s hearty enough to serve solo, making it a versatile favorite on the cookout, potluck, tailgate, and family reunion circuits.

Decades in kitchens and restaurants have refined one chef’s palate. But when the end of the week comes around, nothing beats pizza at home.

When company’s on the way, fire up the oven and gather the fixings for a pizza party. Chef Lynn Wells makes homemade dough and sauce to create a foundation for her favorite toppings.

Top your homemade pizza with fresh garden goodness. Here, we use squash, peppers, and onions, but feel free to experiment with your own favorite toppings.

Who says pizza’s just for dinner? Give your pie a dessert makeover with a sugar-cookie base and fresh fruit topping.

Born in the U.S. and raised in Guatemala, a food historian and cookbook author found her calling in North Carolina, where Southern and Latino dishes happily share a table.

From ocean breezes to mountain winds, whistles to fiddles, a music rooted in place and memory travels across North Carolina.

Come and listen to a story ’bout a man named Earl — who changed the sound of bluegrass forever, one three-finger roll at a time.

In North Carolina, you don’t just taste barbecue — you hear it, chopped by hand with a rhythm all its own.

Nighttime fishing excursions attune the ears to the unseen creatures that make up nature’s chorus, each singing its own song in the dark.

In the hush of the Piedmont woods, a red-tailed hawk screes out — and one listener follows the call of birds, memory, and family through time.

Led by a professor who sees himself as an “accidental linguist,” a nonprofit program at NC State celebrates dialect diversity and shows that the way we speak is something to be embraced.

Amid dazzling lights and a rollicking soundtrack, county fairs keep us close to our rural roots.

These county and regional fairs have delighted for generations. Discover the events that root them in local tradition.

For nearly 70 years, a racetrack in Cleveland County has rumbled with the thunder of drag racing — and one man’s love of speed, family, and red clay.

In a century-old sanctuary in Lenoir County, an organist fills the air with music that sounds from pulpit to pew — reverent, radiant, and rooted in tradition.

The song of our state has no final note. One writer knows that some of the sounds that make up its symphony live forever, belonging always and only to North Carolina.