Staff Selects: WUNC's favorite stories of 2023

As 2023 comes to end, we asked WUNC’s producers and reporters to reflect on their favorite stories of the year. Journalists at North Carolina Public Radio responded quickly and accurately to breaking news, while also taking time and effort to craft longform features and podcast episodes filled with detail and context that highlighted communities, issues and trends across the state.

Here are our staff favorites of the year:

• Jay Price: 'Alive Day' sparks memories of a wartime brush with death and an extraordinary post-war life

• Anita Rao: Mixed: Owning Your Multiracial Story | Mixed (Parent Edition): The Rao Family Talks Racial Identity

• Brianna Atkinson: ‘Bridge the gap': How North Carolina HBCUs use video games to increase diversity in esports

• Charlie Shelton-Ormond: My next-door neighbor is a weapon of mass destruction

• Colin Campbell: Among the last of its kind in North Carolina, a 66-year-old department store will close

• Cole del Charco: How the U.S. became 'Gun Country'

• Jason deBruyn: Restricting trans health care could increase suicide rates | Transgender advocate: Athlete ban is 'cruel' and 'abusive'

• Kaia Findlay: Seen: Living With The Schizophrenias

• Bradley George: Raleigh's First Citizens is the new owner of failed Silicon Valley Bank

• Kamaya Truitt: A Voice at the Table: A WUNC Youth Reporting Radio Special

• Mitchell Northam: Speedway saved: NASCAR returns to its roots at North Wilkesboro

• Anisa Khalifa: At last, Asian American Studies has arrived in the South

• Sophie Mallinson: A cacophony of howls could be heard this Halloween. The source? Coyotes.

• Paige Miranda: Poop scoop: NC State and Zoo researchers find new clues for rhino conservation | Dominated: Getting Kinky With BDSM

• Liz Schlemmer: Motherhood inspired her to finish her degree, after disability disrupted her plans

• Sharryse Piggott: State honors 108-year-old Montford Point Marine veteran from Fayetteville

• Celeste Gracia: After more than 20 years of work, a North Carolina wetland is brought back to life

• Josh Sullivan: Snowboarding isn't new to North Carolina, but younger riders are putting it on the map