Oct 14, 2026 · 17 min · 12 segments
On today's episode, Ben Kinney speaks with Jennifer Tolle-Whiteside, president and CEO of the North Carolina Community Foundation, as she approaches her final year in the role. Jennifer reflects on a…
Ben KinneyHost
You know, as a statewide business magazine, we make it part of our mission, quite frankly, to talk a little bit about places in the state that a lot of folks might not know about.
You know, we have, of course, obviously, if you're talking about business in the state, we're talking about our metro areas and the whole Crescent, you know, Raleigh, the Triad, and Charlotte as well, including, you know, Wilmington a little bit.
But more importantly, there's other places in the state, some of our rural communities, that they're doing some really interesting things.
But we have noticed in terms of like the needs of those areas, they've changed a little bit over the years.
I think that all communities in North Carolina continue to change and Our rural communities in some of the areas where both the population or demographics may be changing in those communities, what we're also seeing is an even stronger focus on building an economy, building community, really leveraging some of the strengths that our rural communities have.
I mean, we are so lucky to live in a state and to have communities that have such environmental beauty and places to visit and to see.
And rural North Carolina, I think, is starting to really think about how to leverage those strengths in that way.
Like, you know, some of these places, we're noticing, so this corresponds very well with some stuff that we're doing.
We do something in the magazine called Trailblazers, which are, it's kind of a 40 under 40.
But it's folks in our rural communities, young folks that are doing real positive things in the communities there, and they're choosing to stay.
And so there's young economic developers, young people who run Chamber of Commerce and business people, entrepreneurs, and they're choosing to stay in their communities.
One, it's a lot easier to do that than it used to be because of obviously technology, right? But it's also really refreshing to see folks really enjoying that lifestyle, you know, and that's a blessing, so to speak.
If you've commuted up in the Northeast in 45 minutes to an hour to an hour and a half to go to the city, what's the problem with living in a beautiful place on a big tract of land and doing it and going into someplace like that? So it's just neat how the dichotomies change so much.
You know, as a statewide business magazine, we make it part of our mission, quite frankly, to talk a little bit about places in the state that a lot of folks might not know about.
You know, we have, of course, obviously, if you're talking about business in the state, we're talking about our metro areas and the whole Crescent, you know, Raleigh, the Triad, and Charlotte as well, including, you know, Wilmington a little bit.
But more importantly, there's other places in the state, some of our rural communities, that they're doing some really interesting things.
But we have noticed in terms of like the needs of those areas, they've changed a little bit over the years.
I think that all communities in North Carolina continue to change and Our rural communities in some of the areas where both the population or demographics may be changing in those communities, what we're also seeing is an even stronger focus on building an economy, building community, really leveraging some of the strengths that our rural communities have.
I mean, we are so lucky to live in a state and to have communities that have such environmental beauty and places to visit and to see.
And rural North Carolina, I think, is starting to really think about how to leverage those strengths in that way.
Like, you know, some of these places, we're noticing, so this corresponds very well with some stuff that we're doing.
We do something in the magazine called Trailblazers, which are, it's kind of a 40 under 40.
But it's folks in our rural communities, young folks that are doing real positive things in the communities there, and they're choosing to stay.
And so there's young economic developers, young people who run Chamber of Commerce and business people, entrepreneurs, and they're choosing to stay in their communities.
One, it's a lot easier to do that than it used to be because of obviously technology, right? But it's also really refreshing to see folks really enjoying that lifestyle, you know, and that's a blessing, so to speak.
If you've commuted up in the Northeast in 45 minutes to an hour to an hour and a half to go to the city, what's the problem with living in a beautiful place on a big tract of land and doing it and going into someplace like that? So it's just neat how the dichotomies change so much.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
