After growing up on the Chesapeake, I can count the North Carolina spots that get it right on one hand. A six-month-old shop in Lincoln County named Poppy’s just earned a spot.

After the closure of Charlotte’s longest-running magazine, its publisher turned loss into reinvention — and made a case for print in 2026. Long live Andy’s Print Shop.

William McNeely survived a lung transplant and prostate cancer. Now his organization, Do Greater, is building “Sparkhouses” to give Charlotte’s young people the connections that changed his life.