The Unmaking of America and the Future of North Carolina

Gene Nichol points out that North Carolina state politics have been used as a testing ground for national strategies and we suffer the consequences while Abraham Reisman gives us the rise of this national strategy through the history of professional wrestling. This one is no-holds barred!

About the authors

ABRAHAM JOSEPHINE RIESMAN is a freelance journalist and the author of Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America and True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee. She was previously on staff at New York Magazine and has written for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, The New Republic, and other outlets. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island, with her spouse and their three cats. READ MORE ABOUT ABRAHAM

GENE NICHOL is the Boyd Tinsley distinguished professor at the University of North Carolina. He was president of the College of William & Mary (2005-2008), law dean at the University of Colorado (1988-1995) and dean at UNC from 1999-2005. In addition to Lessons from North Carolina: Race, Religion, Tribe and the Future of America, he has published two other books about the political landscape of North Carolin, as well as articles in the Harvard, Yale, Chicago, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Duke, California, and Virginia law reviews and been a columnist for the Raleigh News & Observer for almost twenty years. In 2008 Nichol was inducted into the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, North Carolina’s highest civilian honor. In 2014, he received UNC’s Thomas Jefferson Award – the university’s highest faculty honor and the McCall Teaching Award from the UNC Law School. Nichol’s poverty book won UNC’s Wettach Award for research excellence.

About the Host
Josh Neas is an educator, radio DJ, music writer, pro-wrestling fan, and a native North Carolinian.