As voters across the country go to the polls today, host Frank Stasio examines the long, tangled history between religion and politics in American life. Joining him is Jon Elliston, an investigative reporter with the Carolina Public Press who has recently written about newly released documents describing the relationship between the Rev. Billy Graham and President Richard Nixon. Also joining the conversation is Rev. Nancy E. Petty, pastor of Pullen Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC, and Laurie Maffly-Kipp, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and chair of the school’s Department of Religious Studies.
Amber Nimocks came to The State of Things in January 2009. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a survivor of 15 years in the newspaper business. As a reporter and editor, her posts have included such exotic locales as her hometown of Fayetteville, Robeson County, Wilmington, Raleigh and Fort Worth, Texas.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.