Charlotte Talks on WFAE

Not everything can be cured with a pill. At least, that’s what we've been finding out in recent years. A new movement has started: the whole health movement. This wave of education and awareness brings with it the encouragement of individuals taking more control of their own health. And how do they do this? Through a plethora of activities and choices like eating less meat, practicing yoga, drinking tea and integrating more preventative measures into their daily routines. Some call this alternative or integrative medicine, but what is integrative medicine? Where did it begin? A conversation about health and integrative medicine, when Charlotte Talks.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that politics in Washington has gotten pretty brutal along party lines, and getting anything done is nearly impossible. But there's a ray of hope among a group of freshman congressmen from both sides of the aisle who want to find solutions to the nation's problems, and are willing to look to their political opponents for collaboration. We'll talk with District 9 Representative Robert Pittenger – a Republican, and Florida Representative Patrick Murphy - a Democrat, about the United Solutions Caucus, a group that they co-founded and now co-chair, which focuses on building relationships and looking for bipartisan solutions to problems facing lawmakers, when Charlotte Talks.

Last week, WFAE reporter Michael Tomsic presented a series on drug shortages in North Carolina. Drug shortages at hospitals and pharmacies are on the rise, even described as "the new normal" by one hospital pharmacist. We'll talk with Michael Tomsic about his report and talk with a panel of experts about why the drug shortages are occurring, the dangers of chronic drug shortages, and how some companies are actually profiting off the problem, when Charlotte Talks.

Parenthood is confusing as it is but many men are surprised at what a difficult transition it can be from the sports watching, beer drinking, freewheeling days of bachelorhood to 3 a.m. feedings, diaper changing and how in the world to handle a baby with colic. While many little girls play with dolls and young women dream of raising a family, men often don't think about kids until they have them. Barry Ozer and Richard Jones found themselves as a couple of dudes with kids but no instruction manual. So, through trial and error, love and laughs, they wrote one called A Dude's Guide to Babies. They chronicle the travails of fatherhood and they've already started work on books about kids of all ages. We'll meet them when Charlotte Talks.

Grab your little drink umbrella and join us for a liquid version of the Charlotte Talks monthly food show. This time we belly up to the bar and explore the popular rise of interest in cocktail making, or 'mixology.' Mixology has become a serious exercise with classes offered by well known culinary schools. We'll look at the science of mixing a drink and at the explosion of cocktail choices. We'll also look at a growing debate between traditional bartending and what makes a bartender a 'mixologist.' It's 5 o'clock somewhere, when Charlotte Talks.

UNC Charlotte professor John Connaughton says that the North Carolina economy will grow modestly in 2013 after losing some traction in 2012. In his quarterly forecast for the state, Connaughton outlines how growth in the first half of the year will be slow as a result of several factors. Things like continued uncertainty in Europe, tax increases and spending cuts, and rising gasoline prices will affect how quickly our state’s economy gets off the ground. But North Carolina will prosper. He also says that although we avoided going over the fiscal cliff, we did not dodge tax increases or spending cuts. Economics can be a tricky thing to grasp, but Connaughton will help us understand it all, when Charlotte Talks.

Part One: Old Salem. Just as our country was being forged in the halls of the Continental Congress and birthed in the Revolutionary war, a group of hardy Moravian immigrants was building a settlement in the Piedmont of North Carolina. The town of Salem sprang up and still remains just outside of Winston-Salem. Today it is a living museum, a window into some of the earliest founders of our state. We’ll visit with the President of Old Salem Inc., a company devoted to the settlement and to educating North Carolinians and other visitors on life in colonial North Carolina. Follow us back in time when Charlotte Talks.

We'll be joined by public radio host Krista Tippett of the Sunday morning show On Being. Tippett's interviews on On Being cover life's big questions - on spirituality, faith, religion, science and more. The show has a wide range of listeners (believers, atheists and everyone in between), and covers topics all across the board with poets, scientists, authors, theologians and others. We'll talk about what she saw as a "black hole where intelligent coverage of religion should be" and how she's sought to fill that hole, when Charlotte Talks.

The Republican-run General Assembly has been busy in North Carolina. Less than half-way through the six month session and we've no shortage of controversial topics to tackle. Voter ID laws and tax reform are biggies. Then there's the frost relationship between Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx and his predecessor who's now in the Governor's Mansion. Charlotte finds itself scraping for state support to renovate Bank of America Stadium and prevent a takeover of the city-owned airport. We take it all in with a panel of political experts, when Charlotte Talks.