On the Porch: Steve Rao: Changing Political Landscape

This Week: Lisa Sorg is the North Carolina reporter for Inside Climate News. A journalist for 30 years, Sorg covers energy, climate environment and agriculture, as well as the social justice impacts of pollution and corporate malfeasance. She has won dozens of awards for her news, public service and investigative reporting. In 2022, she received the Stokes Award from the National Press Foundation for her two-part story about the environmental damage from a former missile plant on a Black and Latinx neighborhood in Burlington. Sorg was previously an environmental investigative reporter at NC Newsline, a nonprofit media outlet based in Raleigh. She has also worked at alt-weeklies, dailies and magazines. Originally from rural Indiana, she lives in Durham, N.C.

This Week: Jason Damico is a 2x Carolina Music Award winner, 18-time GRAMMY®-considered artist, SAG-AFTRA actor, producer, and content creator based in North Carolina. Known for blending blues-rock roots with thoughtful songwriting, his work spans music, film, podcasting, and digital media. He is the founder of New Blue Entertainment, an independent recording studio and production house, as well as creator and host of The Jason Damico Show, where he has interviewed hundreds of guests from the worlds of entertainment, business, sports, politics, and faith. Damico's music has been featured in the feature film Laws of Man, and his growing online audience continues to expand through a combination of original music, storytelling, and comedy content.

This Week: Lou Jewell has enjoyed 32 years in the land brokerage business and is licensed in North Carolina and Virginia. He's an accredited land consultant with Land Pro Real Estate, Inc., has been an instructor for "Land 101" with RLI since 2003, and teaches 4 Land Educational Courses through Land Masters. Jewell is the author of "An Insider's Guide to Land Investment" and has eight other books about land in the works. He's recorded almost 300 one-hour podcasts called Let's Talk Land which his available on Spotify & Podbean. Jewell was awarded the 2010 NC RLI Land Realtor of the Year award and the 2018 RLI Carolinas Chapter Realtor of the Year award. He is a former 2nd Lieutenant in the NC Army National Guard.

This Week: Lacey Beaty is an American politician, combat veteran, and the current mayor of Beaverton, Oregon. She took office in 2021 as the first female and youngest mayor in Beaverton history, after serving six years as city councilor. Before entering politics, Beaty served five years of active duty in the 1st Infantry Division of the United States Army as a radiology specialist and combat medic during the Iraq War. She has also worked in public health, overseeing school-based health centers. Beaty has identified the homelessness crisis and the welfare of veterans as priority issues for her administration.  John Ewing Jr. is an American politician, minister, and former police officer who has served as the 52nd Mayor of Omaha Nebraska, since 2025. Prior to his election as mayor, Ewing served for twenty-five years in the Omaha Police Department until his retirement as a deputy police chief. As a proud native of North Omaha, Mayor Ewing knows firsthand the life-changing impact of affordable housing. When he was 15 his parents bought the family's first home that shaped his perspective forever. He is the proud husband to Dr. Viv Ewing, a devoted father, and a grandfather. Ewing is the first African American to be elected mayor of Omaha.

This Week: After three decades of work in global public health, Cindy Waszak Geary (Hillside Class of ’73) turned to creative non-fiction writing, weaving together personal experience with social and cultural histories. Her first book, Going to School in Black and White, co-authored with LaHoma Smith Romocki, describes how they as two teenage girls—one black, one white—each were altered by a court-ordered desegregation plan for Durham, NC in 1970. She recently published a second book, also a memoir, Ancestral Landscapes. A graduate of UNC-CH, she has continued to live in Chapel Hill most of her adult life, and now also spends part of her time in the mountains of western NC, where she has deep ancestral roots. She is the mother of Emily and Max and the grandmother of Daisy. LaHoma Romocki has held senior leadership global health positions with extensive field experience in sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Romocki has an undergraduate degree from Duke University, both masters and PHD from UNC-CH. She is a Professor and former Chair of the Department of Public Health Education at NCCU. Romocki is working to build the capacity of the next generation of the public health workforce and health care administrators. She has led study abroad programs and advises students interested in pursuing careers in the health. She is a resident of Granville County and is active in many organizations throughout the community.

This Week: Brad Bannon is a national political strategist and the host of the progressive podcast "Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon" that features the very best in aggressive progressive, must-see online TV. Guests on the show are prominent people and players from the worlds of politics and policy. Bannon is also the author of "The Bannon Ballot Blast "on his Substack page . As the CEO of Bannon Communications, he has advised Democrats, labor unions and progressive issue groups on polling and message development for decades. His clients have included the National Education Association, the AFL-CIO, Public Citizen, the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

This Week: Anthony Flaccavento is a farmer and rural development consultant from Abingdon, Virginia in the heart of the Appalachian region. The Democratic Candidate for Congress in Virginia’s 9th in 2018, Anthony co-founded the Rural-Urban Bridge Initiative (RUBI) in 2021. RUBI works to help progressives, liberals and Democrats understand the underlying causes of the rural-urban divide and take concrete steps to win back rural and working-class people. Anthony is the author of "Building a Healthy Economy from the Bottom Up: Harnessing Real World Experience for Transformative Change" (UK Press, 2016) along with scores of articles and op-eds. He has a BS in Agriculture and a Masters in Rural Development.

This Week: Heather St. Clair is a passionate advocate for early childhood care and education, dedicated to helping children, families, and communities thrive. She believes every child is a garden, worthy of admiration and cultivation with faith and love. For the past three years, as Executive Director of the Chatham County Partnership for Children, Heather has championed a neighbor-centered approach to supporting families with children from birth to age five. Her leadership focuses on reimagining early learning programs, strengthening teams, and improving access to services across mental health, public health, and education. Heather enjoys reading, baking, spending time with family, and loving on her fur-baby.

This Week: A Triangle native, Kristine Sloan brings a deep commitment to justice, interdependence, and authenticity into all of her work. She’s an entrepreneur, executive leader, facilitator and strategist. As the Executive Director of Leadership Triangle, Kristine works to connect local leaders to their values, purpose and vision, in service of greater regional collaboration and impact. Prior to Leadership Triangle, Kristine was the CEO of StartingBloc, supporting 3200+ social entrepreneurs and activists as they made significant social change. Earlier in her career, Kristine led a multimillion dollar grant project in Burundi for All Across Africa, designed cross-cultural programming for NC State University, worked on water advocacy rights with indigenous populations in South India and co-founded a social enterprise in West Africa.

This Week: Kindra and Vinny Mammone of CLAWS, Inc. have dedicated their lives to wildlife. With more than 30 years of rehabilitation experience, Kindra has worked with native and exotic species, taught wildlife rehabilitation, contributed to USDA guidance, and is licensed in North Carolina to rehabilitate small mammals, all native birds, and white-tailed deer fawns. Since 1991, Vinny has worked alongside Kindra in wildlife rehabilitation, helping care for countless animals while designing and building the enclosures and habitats that make CLAWS, Inc.'s lifesaving work possible. Together, they are committed to giving wildlife a second chance and inspiring others to care about the natural world.