The Rant

Friends of The Rant | Chad Blackwelder talks food

The Rant was joined this week by Chad Blackwelder, longtime chef and current food service marketing specialist for the N.C. Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Blackwelder talks about the industry, how restaurants have adapted to COVID-19 regulations and why Thousand Island dressing is frowned upon. We also play a little game of “guess that tune” in the beginning.

Friends of The Rant | Cardinal & Pine’s Billy Ball on the state of journalism

Cardinal & Pine managing editor Billy Ball (formerly a writer for The Sanford Herald), talks to The Rant about starting a news site from scratch, the state of journalism today and how his site has covered COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter protests in North Carolina. Hosted by Gordon Anderson, Billy Liggett and Jonathan Owens.

Friends of The Rant | Our old newspapering days and ukulele covers

The Friends of The Rant podcast had a little bit of everything this week. Hosts Gordon Anderson, Billy Liggett and Jonathan Owens relive their newspaper days, discuss local news regarding COVID-19 and controversial commissioners and share a ukulele cover of an Oort Patrol tune performed by a 10-year-old girl. Fun times were had by all. Thanks for listening.

Friends of The Rant | Margaret Murchison on losing her sister to COVID-19

Margaret Murchison, longtime news director at WWGP in Sanford, joined The Friends of The Rant podcast this week to talk about losing her sister, Renda McRae, to COVID-19 last week. She also gives her thoughts on the nationwide protests of the death of George Floyd and her own experiences facing segregation in Sanford during the 1960s.

Friends of The Rant | Jimmy Randolph talks big job announcements

Sanford Area Growth Alliance Existing Industry Development Manager Jimmy Randolph joins the Friends of The Rant podcast to talk about the recent announcement of clothing manufacturer Through6 coming to Sanford and other recent big job announcements made in the past six months.
Hosts Gordon Anderson, Billy Liggett and Jonathan Owens also talk ukuleles and post-WWII Germany.

Friends of The Rant | Restaurant reopening talk

The Rant discusses today’s second phase of “reopening North Carolina” and talk about restaurants, as well as other tangents in what is a mostly rambling, incoherent beautiful mess of a podcast. Enjoy.

Friends of The Rant | Stephanie Hoover on opioid abuse in Lee County

Stephanie Hoover, First Health of the Carolinas peer support specialist for Lee, Hoke and Montgomery counties, joins the podcast this week to talk about the rising cases of opioid overdose in Lee County and how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected addiction and addiction treatment in this area. Hoover — also a health coach, former Army spouse, mother and grandmother — lost her 22-year-old son to an opioid overdose in 2017, and since that day, she’s fought to change the outcome for other families.

Friends of The Rant | Newspaper columns and conspiracy theories

Friends of The Rant hosts Gordon Anderson, Billy Liggett and Jonathan Owens talk about current COVID-19 conspiracies, the columns they wrote for the most recent edition of The Rant Monthly and Billy’s childhood friend who smoked in the fourth grade.