Frank Stasio

Of the 600 million people who know how to play chess worldwide, Phiona Mutesi is one of the best. The 14-year-old Ugandan phenom recently competed in the Chess Olympiad, an international tournament that pits players against each other in strategic competition. A short time ago, Mutesi had never even heard of the game. Her life was consumed with finding food for her family and avoiding trouble in the crime-ridden slum she calls home. But chess is opening new doors for Mutesi, whose story is being documented by Chapel Hill sports writer Tim Crothers.

Growing up in China, Ping Fu watched soldiers murder two of her teachers, lost her parents to re-education camps and suffered rape for trying to rescue her sister from drowning. She survived her childhood only to be imprisoned during college for her research into China's history of infanticide. She was deported and made her way to the United States where she became the creator and CEO of Geomagic, a 3-D software company based in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park. Fu's technology is used by NASA, NASCAR and many others.

The word “cult” comes from a Latin root word that translates into “ritual.” But in the modern era, the word has acquired derogatory connotations – used to describe spiritual, political or social groups that challenge conventional beliefs. In North Carolina, seven people have been charged in the death of a woman with connections to a Durham congregation that has been characterized as a cult. Could use of that word in the news coverage of the case influence its outcome?

North Carolina’s General Assembly recently passed the budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1st. The $19.7 billion budget was vetoed by Democratic Governor Bev Perdue. But a handful of Democrats sided with Republicans, giving them enough votes to override that veto.

Not many baseball players can also say they’ve written a New York Times bestseller. Pitcher Dirk Hayhurst can. When first he picked up a pen to write a memoir about life in the bullpen, he never expected that he would become a critically acclaimed author. Readers ate up Hayhurst’s honesty about success, failure and the often strange culture of sports as documented in “The Bullpen Gospels: Major League Dreams of a Minor League Veteran” (Citadel Press/2010).

Many people think the American Civil War had to happen. It reunited a torn country and put an end to slavery. But was it a "good" war, and is there even such a thing? Host Frank Stasio talks about the morality of the Civil War with David Goldfield, the Robert Lee Bailey Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and author of “America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation” (Bloomsbury Press/2011); and Fitzhugh Brundage, the William Umstead Distinguished Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

When Kim Anderson’s house caught on fire last year, he had no idea how his life was about to change. He suffered third degree burns over at least 50 percent of his body. The Jaycee Burn Center at the North Carolina Memorial Hospital saved Anderson’s life.

Gareth Higgins began to consider the meaning of spirituality while growing up amidst violence in Northern Ireland. Now, Higgins believes faith is intimately connected with the mission of social justice and with artistic creativity. He’s found a way to combine the three with the Wild Goose Festival, an event that includes music, dance and discussion about social issues.

During the Civil War, the Union Army had an increasing supply of something the Confederacy lacked: food. Canning operations in the North kept the Union’s bellies full while Southern soldiers faced starvation. In his new book, “Starving the South: How the North Won the Civil War” (St. Martin’s Press/2011), author and culinary historian Andrew F. Smith explores the role of food in the outcome of the war. Smith joins host Frank Stasio to talk about his research and the connection between the Civil War and the industrialization of America’s food supply.

The 2012 election season is gearing up to be extremely contentious. North Carolina is once again a battleground state and the gloves are already off in the fight for Tar Heel votes. Republican legislators are using a special political strategy that would allow the legislature to submit their redistricting plan to the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. instead of the Justice Department. Their tactic would also let the legislature take the State’s Attorney General, Democrat Roy Cooper, off the case.