First in Future: Where Emerging Ideas Take Flight is a podcast of the Institute for Emerging Issues 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, 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. At the end of each episode, our guests will identify the biggest issues they think our state is facing; they recommend books; they’ll identify up-and-coming leaders; and they’ll answer at least one completely off-the-wall question as they tackle the IEI Five!
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!
Summary: A recent study says that 62% of businesses are having trouble filling skilled trades positions, and 74% expect to have trouble in the future....
Summary: In the spirit of Thanksgiving, for this week’s First in Future we are talking about turkeys. North Carolina is #2 in the nation for...
Summary: NC State strives to think about how students, faculty, and staff can do more to work with the communities that surround us. Early on, NC...
Summary: Being a mayor is hard. How do you deal with a bypass that diverts traffic around your city? Will improvements to a struggling part...
Summary: One hundred years ago, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, President Woodrow Wilson announced the first observance of...
Summary: If you’re any kind of business or policy enthusiast and live in the Carolinas, chances are you’ve watched the Carolina Business Review. It’s been...
Summary: In 2017 and 2018, the Institute for Emerging Issues spent a lot of time focusing on the economics of early childhood development in North...
Summary: In today’s job market, there’s a gap between the number of available jobs and the number of employees with skills for those jobs. It’s...
Summary: The best estimate of the My Future NC Commission for the number of people in North Carolina who started college but then dropped out...
Summary: The next Emerging Issues Forum, ReCONNECT to Economic Opportunity, is coming up on October 15 in Charlotte. It’s going to be a day focused...
Summary: At IEI, we’re getting ready for our next Emerging Issues Forum, ReCONNECT to Economic Opportunity, coming up on October 15 in Charlotte. It’s going...
Summary: The people that keep our society running—electricians, laborers, technicians, and more—are getting older and nearing retirement. It’s a global issue, as dozens of countries...
Summary: Across North Carolina, our 58 community colleges are designed to be within a few minutes’ drive of every person in the state. They have...
Summary: If you were making a shortlist of family names associated with Charlotte, “Belk” would have to be near the top. Beginning in 1888, the...
Summary: As you look around Charlotte, one of the things you’ll notice is how diverse it is. Mecklenburg County is diverse racially, with 51% of...
Summary: A 2015 report on economic mobility in the U.S. caught Charlotte’s attention. The report looked at the likelihood that someone whose parents’ income ranked...
Summary: Charlotte is a bigger city than Atlanta or Raleigh. It’s the 16th largest metro area in the country. It is the fastest growing city...
Summary: The best estimate of the My Future NC Commission for the number of people in North Carolina who started college but then dropped out...
Summary: The Institute for Emerging Issues recently provided a series of workshops at the state’s biggest gathering of underappreciated elected officials—the annual meeting of the...
Summary: We are living in strange economic times. Right now we have a greater number of jobs in the US – 7 million – than...
Summary: Many people in NC think we’ve forgotten how to talk to each other. That’s why the Institute for Emerging Issues is taking part in...
Summary: In the old days, getting a master’s degree or a PhD meant you’d likely go into academia. The focus was to get students ready...
Summary: Dr. Pat Mitchell has spent her career thinking about how to make NC a better state. She has been an economic developer, a county...
Summary: How can you get a degree without going into debt, get paid while you learn, and end up with a high-skilled job? In North...
Summary: In today’s job market, there’s a gap between the number of available jobs and the number of employees with skills for those jobs. It’s...
Summary: Which is better – a fence at the top of a cliff or an ambulance in the valley below? Our world today seems to...
Summary: To celebrate the Fourth of July, First in Future brings you a special conversation with an American history scholar. Dr. Craig Friend is an...
Summary: Think about these five guiding leadership principles: family first, health impact, people and culture, learning, and joy in work, that is what this week’s First...
Summary: One of the most exciting public policy projects going on in North Carolina is the report of the My Future NC Commission. It is...
Summary: In 2016, the Institute for Emerging Issues looked at the future economy and tried to figure out the kinds and numbers of jobs that...
Summary: State of NC community college presidents met recently to work through some of the details of what community colleges could do to help address...
Summary: Research shows that more than half of us don’t seek out people whose views are different from ours and we are nearly four times...
Summary: Last year we talked with Pearce Godwin, a North Carolina native who had an experience on a bus ride in Uganda that changed his...
Summary: The growing economy is causing business challenges across the state as communities scramble to attract talented people from other places to work there, and...
Summary: The years since 2000 have been particularly challenging for Christian churches in the US, the Presbyterian church has lost more than 1 million members,...
Summary: There was a recent description of a modern librarian as “equal parts caregiver, local hero and geek squad member.” So the way we learn...
Summary: Last week we heard from Yvette Holmes, the Vice President for Resource Development and Partnerships at DHIC, which has built about 2,300 affordable housing...
Summary: Rural areas can not get enough quality housing built. Urban areas have trouble finding land affordable enough in neighborhoods safe enough. An easy solution...
Summary: Twenty years ago, three Latino couples, made up of an engineer, a scientist, an IT professional and three teachers, took a look at what...
Summary: In 1985, the state of North Carolina jumped way ahead of most of the rest of the country. They asked a fledgling organization called...
Summary: A new word to learn is agglomeration; the trend toward increasing concentration of people and jobs in more centralized regions. North Carolina is seeing this...
Summary: This week’s First in Future guest, John Chaffee has a lifetime of stories about recruiting outside companies to relocate in eastern North Carolina. That’s...
Summary: In 1982, a revolution began very very quietly, when somebody figured out how to connect a drink machine to the then-fledgling Internet. The drink...
Summary: In 1980, Juvencio Rocha Peralta became frustrated by the job opportunities in Veracruz Mexico, a town of about 500 people, so he took a...
Summary: As part of our ReCONNECT NC series, the Institute for Emerging Issues is identifying groups of communities where something remarkable is happening. The challenge for all...
Summary: Today’s First in Future podcast guests Sophie Paulos, Graham County, economic development director and Noah Wilson, Project Manager, Growing Outdoors, Mountain BizWorks are all about...
Summary: Research shows that whenever a new economic development project is announced as bringing in jobs to a country, less than half of those jobs go...
Summary: None of us exists as islands and as individuals we depend on friends and family, but also on a range of people we don’t know....
Summary: “When an urban area wins, it ends up being a victory for the entire state, when a rural area struggles, it is a concern for...
Summary: The ReCONNECT to Community Impact Report provides a synopsis of the ReCONNECT to Community Forum and provides key statements, findings, readings and further steps for...
Summary: Agriculture is an $84B industry in North Carolina that supports more than 600,000 jobs. North Carolina has set a goal of growing that industry by...
Summary: Think about these five guiding leadership principles: family first, health impact, people and culture, learning, and joy in work, that is what this week’s First...
Summary: If you were looking to identify a poster child for citizenship, you could do a lot worse than Kel Landis, co-founder and partner at Plexus...
Summary: Growing up in the streets of Detroit, you could become a victim or become a victor. Reginald Bean chose to become a victor. He...
Summary: In the late 1990’s, North Carolina leaders did something remarkable. As part of the national settlement agreement with tobacco companies, North Carolina was projected...
Summary: How do you keep people’s attention in a discarded world? There is the “addiction” model of telling people what they want to know, watch...
Summary: The Institute for Emerging Issues, as part of our ReCONNECT NC series, is trying to figure out how communities can get more people at...
Summary: The idea that the rural and urban parts of our state seemed to be getting further and further apart, and this is on the...
Summary: What makes a small town thrive? Downtowns where people come together to see each other and do things. Their story and what makes their...
Summary: What better way to start our next hundred episodes of First in Future, than talking with someone who is looking at our state’s future...
Summary: For our 100th First in Future episode we chose a guest who represents IEI’s history, Anita Brown-Graham, director of the Institute for 10 years....
Summary: As Halloween fast approaches, did you know SCARY stories abound about Raleigh’s Capitol Building? BAHAHA! Tis TRUE! You see . . . the decades...
Summary: As we get closer to our November 27 Forum called ReCONNECT to Community, we wanted to give you a preview of how citizens are...
Summary: In 2015, the Institute for Emerging Issues found that young people aged 18-29 are less likely to volunteer, give money, participate in groups or...
Summary: Universities often serve three main roles in society: teaching, researching and engagement (a fancy word for service.) A huge part of community engagement is...
Summary: Hurricane Florence really couldn’t have come at a worse time or in a worse way for farmers in southeastern North Carolina. Many farmers were...
Summary: Hurricane Florence has been felt with 1100 roads closed, grocery stores running out of food and farmers loosing their crops and many local food...
Summary: This week, our guest isn’t just a community builder, he’s also a community listener. We talk with Andy Fox, a landscape architect from NC...
Summary: What does one do after leaving the job of top salesperson for an entire state? For Sharon Decker, that doesn’t mean retirement. After serving as Secretary of Commerce...
Summary: Here is a fact, North Carolina citizens are getting older. Currently, there are about 1.6 million citizens who are over 65. Over the next 20...
Summary: Martin Luther King Jr. once said: “Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t...
Summary: This week thousands of freshmen enter college in hopes that in four years they emerge with more knowledge and maturity and a deep substantive understanding...
Summary: The words “public policy” conjure up images in the mind of legislative or municipal hearings or cubes of bureaucrats, but this week’s guest want to...
Summary: In honor of our upcoming forum on civic engagement, ReCONNECT to Community, being held Sept. 17 in beautiful, scenic Asheville, we’re doing something special. This...
Summary: In honor of our upcoming forum on civic engagement, ReCONNECT to Community, being held Sept. 17 in beautiful, scenic Asheville, we’re doing something special. This...
Summary: In honor of our upcoming forum on civic engagement, ReCONNECT to Community, being held Sept. 17 in beautiful, scenic Asheville, we’re doing something special. This...
Summary: In honor of our upcoming forum on civic engagement, ReCONNECT to Community, being held Sept. 17 in beautiful, scenic Asheville, we’re doing something special. This...
Summary: In honor of our upcoming forum on civic engagement, ReCONNECT to Community, being held Sept. 17 in beautiful, scenic Asheville, we’re doing something special. This...
Summary: The Asheville of today is a many-splendored thing. It’s appeared on numerous “Best of” lists and received countless titles – like “One of the Best...
Summary: Just listen to someone else. Hear what they are saying. Recognize that other people see things from a different angle, and it changes the way...
Summary: Just think about the impact on southeastern North Carolina of a place like UNC Pembroke—an institution originally built to train Native Americans teachers and nurses,...
Summary: In the 90s, it was recommended that every resident state should have access to affordable high-speed internet. General thinking was that with broadband speeds...
Summary: This week’s First in Future guest was a New York born, Georgia raised and Duke educated law clerk, and former school superintendent who’s now the...
Summary: This week’s First in Future guest, Andrea Harris, is the Senior Fellow at NC Institute of Minority Economic Development. The past 50 years she’s been...
Summary: In honor of Independence Day, July 4th, First in Future’s guest is the secretary of North Carolina Department of Military & Veterans Affairs, Larry Hall....
Summary: A scene is repeated in cities across the state, this company leaves, that plant closes or fails, and it rocks the town to it’s core....
Summary: What do you think about public schools? Do teachers get paid enough? Are there too many administrators? Do we test students too much? Not enough?...
Summary: Here is a fact, North Carolina citizens are getting older. Currently, there are about 1.6 million citizens who are over 65. Over the next 20...
Summary: In order to lead people, a leader must know what they think and why and then “bake” that into the culture of their organization—at...
Summary: Imaging how strange it must be to walk down the halls of your high school, the best in the state at something, and nobody...
Summary: Seventy out of eighty rural North Carolina counties are described as “medical deserts”, meaning they have no primary care doctors. Finding solutions to rural...
Summary: How many of you are doing what you thought you would be when you graduated? That is a question that our guest asks when...
Summary: This week, we talk to Jessica Hong, a junior at Apex Friendship High School and president of her school’s DECA club, an organization that...
Summary: If you make judgements about someone based on what they are wearing or how their hair looks or how they talk, you have an...
Summary: Sometimes we try to avoid looking forward, almost like if we ignore the pending changes, they won’t happen. The state’s population is growing and...
Summary: A recent survey showed that only a third of millennials consider public service an appropriate career track. A group of young NC legislators want...
Summary: “Tell the truth, do the right thing, and let the chips fall where they may.” Those are the words that motivate North Carolina State...
Summary: In this week’s First in Future, Institute for Emerging Issues Director Leslie Boney talks to Amy Strecker, the stakeholder philanthropy manager for Duke Energy,...
Summary: North Carolinians are good people, strong people, people who want to do the right thing, even if it involves debate. Tom Campbell, the host of...
Summary: It’s the middle of March, which means it is time to talk about . . . mechanical and aerospace engineering, and March Madness. The “Sweet...
Summary: First in Future begins it’s second season today. Want to know how rural North Carolina’s doing these days? Well, here’s a statistic to think...
Summary: Next month the Institute for Emerging Issues will be launching KidsReadyNC, a four-county Tier 1 and Tier 2 focus on early childhood education.This initiative is an...
Summary: This week we wanted to revisit our conversation with Read Charlotte Executive Director Munro Richardson and his approach to tackling the goal of doubling...
Summary: A few months ago, we heard from Abdul Rasheed, CEO of theWilliam C. Friday Fellowship for Human Relations, on how to make a difference in...
Summary: Frank Emory, of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, sat down with us in the summer of 2017 for us to discover many insights, such...
Summary: If you’re looking for someone to give you a thorough political summary on the political history of North Carolina and where the Old North State...
Summary: Well before his passing, James. B. Duke already had a vision for his philanthropic legacy, and he created the Duke Endowment with specific issues...
Summary: Did North Carolina’s investments in pre-kindergarten programs like SmartStart make a difference for our state’s children? How long did the effects last? Did they...
Summary: Over the 31 years of the Emerging Issue Forum, we have had CEOs, governors, and presidents as speakers. The first time ever, we have booked...
Summary: If you are talking to the smartest people in the state, you have to talk to David Reese. He’s figured out how to deliver a...
Summary: As we move into the new year, we sat down with former Governor Jim Hunt to try to exact some of what he has...
Summary: Through out his long service to the state, even former North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt’s opponents admit that he was a man perfectly suited...
Summary: The use of the evergreen trees to symbolize the arrival of winter goes back well beyond 2000 years. But over time they came to...
Summary: What should we be learning – or having our kids learn – to get them ready for the future? Should we be preparing students with...
Summary: In the late 1990’s, North Carolina leaders did something remarkable. As part of the national settlement agreement with tobacco companies, North Carolina was projected...
Summary: What sector of North Carolina’s economy is comprised of 380,000 people, pays $16 billion in wages each year, and generates another $200 million in...
Summary: This week’s podcast promotes domestic harmony. You’ll be able to use what you hear around the table to change the subject if one of...
Summary: Brian Etheridge, the president of Leadership North Carolina, each year finds a new crop of 50-some individuals from business, nonprofits, education and government and...
Summary: Next week marks the start of Global Entrepreneurship Week – seven days celebrated around the world, with events designed to recognize and encourage more...
Summary: A couple of weeks ago I went to the Southeast Raleigh Innovation Challenge, a pitch competition designed to get more people thinking about a...
Summary: If you were looking to identify a poster child for citizenship, you could do a lot worse than Kel Landis, co-founder and partner at...
Summary: When solving big problems, local folks are the canaries in the coalmine – they are likely to notice a problem before anyone else, and more...
Summary: In the late 1990’s, I worked on a project called the North Carolina Rural Prosperity Task Force. The idea was to develop a series...
Summary: From the beginning, it was a romantic idea. In 1954, a building contractor named Romeo got together with North Carolina’s state treasurer and a...
Summary: The old joke about economic developers is that they like to be buffalo hunters; they are always looking for a giant beast of a...
Summary: If you are a nonprofit wondering how to raise money more effectively, this episode is for you. If you are a business trying to...
Summary: The hardest job I’ve had in my life was my first job out of college. I worked regular 80-90 hour weeks – 106 was...
Summary: A couple of years ago, the Institute for Emerging Issues took on a challenging topic: what will all of us be doing for work...
Summary: Today’s show starts in an unusual place. With a question: why do bad things happen to good people? The writers of the Bible were...
Summary: It is the middle of August, and ridiculously hot these days. It’s the time of year Reverend Richard Joyner hated, growing up in Pitt...
Summary: Tomorrow, about 34,000 students, 2,300 faculty and 6,700 staff will run into each other at North Carolina State University, the start of another year...
Summary: Why is it that anybody gives something to someone else? Today’s guest, Jennifer Tolle Whiteside, has asked herself that question more than maybe anyone...
Summary: Three years ago, the state of North Carolina launched a new approach to economic development. Essentially, we bet that we would have a better...
Summary: Across the state, North Carolina’s community colleges pop up like beautifully spaced dots on a map, and if you put all 58 of them—plus...
Summary: Why is it that some communities take off, and others, even if they appear to have the same kinds of assets, don’t. Today’s guest...
Summary: This week, our guest isn’t just a community builder, he’s also a community listener. We talk with Andy Fox, a landscape architect from NC...
Summary: For most of us listening, becoming a citizen was an involuntary act—we were born here, so we were citizens. But, for about 750,000 people...
Summary: If you had to pick out the most outspoken critic of higher education in North Carolina, it wouldn’t take you long to find the...
Summary: A few years ago, some people in Charlotte got ticked off by a number – 39. Just 39 percent of third graders in Charlotte...
Summary: At the Emerging Issues Forum on Innovation a couple of years ago, one of the clear findings was that outside of the Triangle and...
Summary: On the one hand, who could have predicted it? Laura Gerald grew up in Robeson County, went to Harvard and Johns Hopkins for her...
