diff --git a/CHANGELOG.txt b/CHANGELOG.txt
index 6d730b46f..e976090e5 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.txt
+++ b/CHANGELOG.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
+0.96.5
+
+
+* ensure we statically link against the brew version of ncurses on macOS when
+  building pre-compiled artifacts
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
 0.96.4
 
 * added mouse wheel support to non-Windows platforms.
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 7e0ea4372..a2a91ba51 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.0)
 project(musikcube)
 set (musikcube_VERSION_MAJOR 0)
 set (musikcube_VERSION_MINOR 96)
-set (musikcube_VERSION_PATCH 4)
+set (musikcube_VERSION_PATCH 5)
 set (musikcube_VERSION "${musikcube_VERSION_MAJOR}.${musikcube_VERSION_MINOR}.${musikcube_VERSION_PATCH}")
 
 list(APPEND CMAKE_MODULE_PATH ${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/.cmake)
diff --git a/musikcube.spec b/musikcube.spec
index 36978bf75..07464b209 100644
--- a/musikcube.spec
+++ b/musikcube.spec
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 %define name musikcube
 %define build_timestamp %{lua: print(os.date("%Y%m%d"))}
-%define version 0.96.4
+%define version 0.96.5
 Name: %{name}
 Version: %{version}
 Release: %{dist}
diff --git a/snap/snapcraft.yaml b/snap/snapcraft.yaml
index e3af77d90..75b909629 100644
--- a/snap/snapcraft.yaml
+++ b/snap/snapcraft.yaml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 name: musikcube # you probably want to 'snapcraft register <name>'
-version: 0.96.4
+version: 0.96.5
 summary: a terminal-based music player, metadata indexer, and server
 description: |
   musikcube is a fully functional terminal-based music player, library, and
diff --git a/src/musikcore/version.h b/src/musikcore/version.h
index 09e43d033..e89221b97 100644
--- a/src/musikcore/version.h
+++ b/src/musikcore/version.h
@@ -38,9 +38,9 @@
 
 #define VERSION_MAJOR 0
 #define VERSION_MINOR 96
-#define VERSION_PATCH 4
-#define VERSION_COMMIT_HASH "#3c77c21e"
-#define VERSION "0.96.4"
+#define VERSION_PATCH 5
+#define VERSION_COMMIT_HASH "#47cb367d"
+#define VERSION "0.96.5"
 
 namespace musik {
     namespace cube {
diff --git a/src/musikcube/CMakeLists.txt b/src/musikcube/CMakeLists.txt
index 7a280fd21..d2f2a70c0 100644
--- a/src/musikcube/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/musikcube/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -86,7 +86,24 @@ if (CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME MATCHES "Linux" OR CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME MATCHES "FreeBSD")
     pkg_check_modules(NCURSES REQUIRED ncursesw panelw)
     target_link_libraries(musikcube ${musikcube_LINK_LIBS} ${NCURSES_LIBRARIES} musikcore)
 elseif (CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME MATCHES "Darwin")
-    target_link_libraries(musikcube ${musikcube_LINK_LIBS} ncursesw panelw musikcore)
+    if (${LINK_STATICALLY} MATCHES "true")
+        find_library(
+            NCURSESWLIB
+            NAMES libncursesw.a ncursesw
+            PATHS "/usr/local/opt/ncurses/lib/")
+
+        find_library(
+            PANELWLIB
+            NAMES libpanelw.a panelw
+            PATHS "/usr/local/opt/ncurses/lib/")
+
+        message(STATUS "[musikcube] using libncursesw at " ${NCURSESWLIB})
+        message(STATUS "[musikcube] using libpanelw at " ${PANELWLIB})
+
+        target_link_libraries(musikcube ${musikcube_LINK_LIBS} ${NCURSESWLIB} ${PANELWLIB} musikcore)
+    else()
+        target_link_libraries(musikcube ${musikcube_LINK_LIBS} ncursesw panelw musikcore)
+    endif()
 else()
     target_link_libraries(musikcube ${musikcube_LINK_LIBS} curses panel musikcore)
 endif()
diff --git a/src/musikcube/musikcube.rc b/src/musikcube/musikcube.rc
index 0cb1a330f..f41ae7041 100644
Binary files a/src/musikcube/musikcube.rc and b/src/musikcube/musikcube.rc differ