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When the Office Is Home

In North Carolina’s largest cities, developers are converting empty downtown offices into much-needed apartments and condos. 


Who we are

The Assembly is a digital magazine about the people, institutions, and ideas that shape North Carolina. Founded in 2021, we feature interesting, deeply reported, nuanced stories about our state. 

We’re telling big stories and giving our journalists space to be ambitious. We want everything published at The Assembly to surprise, inform, and leave you with a better understanding than when you started. 

Politics

Tangled Up In Blue

North Carolina Democrats are tired of losing, and some blame Gov. Roy Cooper’s hand-picked party leader. Will they risk their future on an untested 25-year-old, or hope that staying the course yields better results?    

The Paradox of Power

As the U.S. House struggled to elect a speaker, some former N.C. legislators recalled a dramatic coalition that overthrew an entrenched leader and created a memorable moment of bipartisanship.

Recent Stories

Featured Stories

Schism in the Body

After years of acrimonious debate, the United Methodist Church has started to rupture. One church—with members ranging from ‘flaming progressive to dang near fundamentalist’—tries to reconcile an increasingly unavoidable divide.

Who’s Your People?

North Carolina’s Lumbee have been fighting for federal tribal recognition for over a century. Their story reveals a great deal about race, identity, and who does—and does not—count as “Native.” 

Below the Fold

North Carolina’s third-largest city, Greensboro, once had a thriving newspaper in the News & Record. What’s left after years of media-conglomerate cuts is a shell of the paper’s former self.