The Charlotte Podcast

This week we kicked off our 6th season with the first of our “quick hit” episodes. We were joined by Ely Portillo of UNC Charlotte’s Urban Institute to discuss his new podcast and explain to us what the Charlotte Future 2040 plan is as if we were babies. We also chatted about 2021 Charlotte Resolutions and the Charlotte City  Council Retreat, and debuted the Charlotte Fact of the Week.

We hopped on Zoom to share some updates about the podcast and what we plan on doing in 2021.

PS We will never log off…

This week we were joined by Jesse Soloff of the Taylor Soloff Memorial Endowment. Jesse quizzed the fellas with a few trivia questions like those in this year’s Answers for Cancer (at home) trivia event. Both of the guys did great answering questions and neither quietly carries a feeling of superiority based on their performance.

Donate and sign up for this year’s trivia contest here: https://www.taylorsoloffmemorialendowment.com/events

This week we were joined by Marissa West and Heidi Hillman, Owners of West Kept Secret and learned about their journey as female entrepreneurs in Charlotte. They also provided the boys with customized training plans they will be far too lazy to do, and stuck around for some rapid fire questions that they steed were over far too soon.

We were also #blessed with the return of Supportive Words from Supportive Guy.

We were joined by the Bad Boy of Breaking News and friendly neighbor, Joe Bruno, to learn more about how long this election cycle has been and if he thinks the Hawthorne Bridge will ever open. John also shared a recap of the great Elizabeth Pumpkin Wall.

This week we spoke with Devlin McNeil, President and Executive Director of Arts+, which has been on our dream guest list for years. Devlin did not disappoint, talking about their programming, life after Spirit Square, and what’s changed about their approach post covid. She also nailed the “Woooooo!” at the end.

This week we were joined by Alex Smereczniak, co-founder and CEO of Charlotte startup 2U Laundry. We talk about being an entrepreneur in Charlotte, Breaking Bad, catfishing, and clean clothes.

Charlotte Media Royalty Colleen Odegaard joined the podcast to share about her career on Charlotte TV, her new life coaching project and podcast. We also chatted about the new ATC10K, Charlotte Podcast Festival and the Big Pumpkin Wall that John cares too much about.

This week we spoke with Shawn McAllister, Charlotte developer and leader of Fulcrum, a new project in South End. We brought some intense rapid fire questions for Shawn and let’s just say he delivered the goods. We also  dabbled in some history to learn about local journalist Trezzvant Anderson (via a great Charlotte Magazine story).

This week we talked with Amy Aussieker, Executive Director of Envision Charlotte about its role as a champion of sustainability for Charlotte, how to make a public/private partnership successful, and of course, TikTok dances.