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On Monday, Governor Roy Cooper signed a nearly $28 billion state budget into law. On this episode of The Politics Podcast, WUNC reporter Liz Schlemmer offers some analysis on the K-12 public education portion of the budget.

More than 150 years after the emancipation of slavery in America, a team of dedicated scuba divers is busy excavating and restoring wreckage from slave ships that sank across the Middle Passage.

Beyond the hype about Pablo Escobar’s cocaine hippos, the real story of what’s happening in Colombia’s Rio Magdalena is surprising and complex. Some look on these hungry herbivores with affection and admiration, others fear their aggressive attitude and huge ecological footprint. Follow these unlikely invaders from Africa to Colombia with a possible layover in…Louisiana?

Anita is well aware that bringing a new baby into the world is a lotttttt of work (even though she's never done it herself). But when she heard about friends and family members choosing surrogacy to build their families, she realized how little she knows about that process — and how many misconceptions exist. She talks to a three-time surrogate about why she chose this path. A father who has had a child via surrogacy details how his family navigated the process from a financial, legal and emotional perspective; and a sociologist zooms out to give the big picture of the surrogacy industry.

Anita does not work with her boo, but after sharing home office space for two pandemic years, she's started to wonder how couples who *do* work together make it work. She talks with two sets of couples in very different professional industries about their strategies for tackling finances, alone time and intimacy.

If you had to guess the top five largest invasive species in the world, where would you start? And why, exactly, are we moving these behemoths around the globe?

Horses like Man Man love to nibble on grass, but so much of it grows on the farm that a little extra help is needed to keep it low. Mowing is a big job, but Caitlin makes sure that the reward includes some shade from the sun and a good story when the hard work is done. Good thing our friend Halleigh is nearby with a book called “Flying Free.”

Our hair helps us stay warm in the winter, but when it gets hot, hair can be a lot! Caitlin shows us what she does to maintain Man Man’s mane in a way that will keep him cool in the sun and in the shade. Then our friends Isaiah and Taj stop back by to share a book called “A Beard Like My Dad.”

Man Man is not the kind of horse that is afraid of storms. In fact, he happily helps Caitlin with clean-up duty after a big one blows through the farm. Plus, our friend Ariel comes by to read the book “Rock On With Your Afro Puffs!”

This week in state politics, legislators debate a spending plan that sets aside billions, provides raises, and seeks to weather an inflation storm. Meanwhile at the U.S. Supreme Court, four justices agreed to hear a challenge related to the independence – and unchecked power – of state legislatures. In our Friday review, Donna King of the conservative Carolina Journal and Rob Schofield from the progressive NC Policy Watch review.