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IEI ‘First in Future’ Podcast: Grant Godwin on Rural NC

First in Future: Where Emerging Ideas Take Flight is a weekly program from the Institute for Emerging Issues (IEI) at NC State University that connects you with people thinking big thoughts about the future of North Carolina. Each week, we talk with business leaders, elected officials, researchers and people working bottom up and top down to make North Carolina great. We hope you’ll use their thinking to jumpstart your thinking about our state—where it is and where we might go together.

Grant Godwin (l) with Leslie Boney.

This week, IEI Director Leslie Boney speaks with Grant Godwin, board chair of the Rural Economic Development Center, on rural North Carolina’s complex modern story. A native North Carolinian, Godwin grew up on a farm in  Sampson County, and is well-versed to talk about why some rural North Carolina counties have kept up with the modern economy, while others have lagged behind. A man of many stories, he can also tell you how to safely approach a turkey.

Watch First in Future each Tuesday on UNC-TV’s North Carolina Channel at 8:30 p.m., or listen to the podcast on iTunes or at emergingissues.org. Visit UNC-TV for specific show air dates, and find your local TV listing here: .

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Know a North Carolinian who’d be a great guest for our podcast? We want to connect with the people you know – the forward-thinkers, the problem-solvers, the futurists, the leaders, the movers and shakers and changemakers. Scour your LinkedIn and cross-check your Rolodex; if you know someone working to make North Carolina a better place to work, live and play, we want to talk with them! Submit your guest ideas here!

Listen to the podcast: