The North Carolina Rabbit Hole is a weekly newsletter that goes deep on a story, idea, topic, or event of staggering importance or complete insignificance. Sometimes it’s an article. Sometimes it’s a video. Or a podcast. Or a quick post. All of it is created by Jeremy Markovich, an Emmy award-winning and nationally honored journalist who’s been living and working in North Carolina for more than two decades. This newsletter has been around since 2020, and the podcast has been around a little longer.

Yes! I’ve tried putting stuff behind paywalls in the past, or creating members-only stories, but I’d much rather just put everything out into the world where everyone can read, watch, or listen to it. However! The Rabbit Hole runs on the support of paid subscribers, who make it possible for this whole endeavor to keep going.

I mean, nothing happens to you if you don’t support the Rabbit Hole. You’ll be fine. But if you’d like to support my fact-based reporting on North Carolina, you can become a monthly or yearly paid supporter. You can also chip in more if you’d like, and that’s greatly appreciated. The money funds the time I spend putting all of these things together (this is not my full-time job!), and pays for the subscriptions, equipment, and occasional road trips that I use to put all of this stuff together.

I don’t have an exact process, but everything I do basically works like this. I, or someone else, comes up with an idea that’s at least tangentially about North Carolina. Then I do way too much reporting. I amass a pile of facts, sometimes from archives, sometimes from interviews, scholarly papers, or first-hand reporting. I learn and understand things through writing, so I take time to work things out on the page. Then I decide if this thing I’ve created should be a newsletter, a video, a podcast, or occasionally all three. Then I hit send, and move on to the next thing.

I don’t use AI to actually write things, or during the reporting process (I used an old AI photo generator on Substack a few times for the novelty, but it sucked, so I stopped). I also don’t use it to generate headlines or thumbnails or whatever. I do use it to clean up terrible-sounding recordings, or to generate a rough transcript, but I double-check audio and quotes to make sure there are no hallucinations. My general stance is that we’re awash in slop, and that AI sucks away critical skills, and today’s shortcuts will chip away at things like critical thinking and workmanship in the name of speed. I want this to be a very human process from beginning to end so. In short, if I see AI walking down the sidewalk toward me, I’ll cross the street.

As for fact checking, I do my very best to rely on my old-school journalism skills to make sure what I’m presenting is factual. Occasionally I miss things or make mistakes. But I strive for total accuracy and fairness, even if the topics are a bit ridiculous. If I don’t know something, I try to state it out loud.

Hit me up on the ol’ socials, email me, slide into my DMs, leave me a voicemail, or wave at me wildly from a safe distance.

I do. Also a statement: I have been really bad about getting these out. If you pay for a subscription, I’ll mail you one! While supplies last! But yes, please yell at me until I feel enough shame to get a roll of stamps and put them in the mail.

Also a statement. My response: Ah dammit. I do my best! But I’m only one man, and I’m not using AI out here. But yes, you should tell me, in case you want to claim this week’s typo bounty. The prize? The satisfaction of having pointed out a grammar mistake or misspelling on the internet. Cheers.

All but six: Person, Hoke, Pamlico, Hertford, Northhampton, and Allegheny. My bad! I’ll get there soon, I swear!