Thursday night, WUNC hosted its inaugural “Pints and Politics,” at the Carolina Inn. The event was hosted by WUNC’s two statehouse reporters, Jeff Tiberii and Rusty Jacobs. The event featured a cash bar and a live recording of the WUNC politics podcast. It was originally scheduled to take place at Top of the Hill, a brewery in Chapel Hill. However, due to high demand, the event was moved to Carolina Inn. The event had around 300 people in attendance.

Left to right: Patrick Woodie of the NC Rural Center, Jeff Tiberii from WUNC

WUNC made two live recordings at the event. The first recording was an interview between Jeff Tiberii and Patrick Woodie of the NC Rural Center. Their conversation focused on North Carolina’s rural flight, the insurance coverage gap in rural communities, and the role community colleges can play in improving lives for people in rural areas. Woodie emphasized the importance of getting rural citizens to participate in postsecondary education opportunities like certifications and vocational trainings that the evolving workforce will need in North Carolina.

Following the interview with Woodie, JLF’s Becki Gray and the N.C. Policy Watch’s Rob Schofield joined Jeff Tiberii to record their weekly segment for the WUNC Politics podcast, Week In State Politics.

Together, the three discussed the ongoing Lindberg trial, prominent North Carolinians’ endorsements of Democratic presidential candidates, and the various state office races in the upcoming election.

Left to right: Rob Schofield, Becki Gray, Jeff Tiberii

In reference to the Lindberg trial, Rob Schofield floated the idea of a constitutional amendment to make the insurance commissioner an appointed position, rather than an elected position.

Becki Gray agreed, stating:

Not only would I support that, but I would like the superintendent to also be selected rather than elected, but voters don’t want to give up their power to vote on stuff like that.

On the matter of presidential endorsements, Gray said:

I see these endorsements [of Micheal Bloomberg] as almost “anti-Bernie” or “anti-Biden.” Not pro-Bloomberg. Because there is so much in the balance, people are looking to figure out who they want their strings attached to in the next election.

Episodes of the WUNC Politics podcast air on Fridays on North Carolina Public Radio. The recording of the podcast should be available on the WUNC website after it airs here. Follow Becki Gray on Twitter: @beckigray.