This week, we went down the road to the Center for Puppetry Arts, the only center of its kind in the country. When we think of puppets, Jim Henson, Father of the Muppets and Mississippian, usually comes to mind. The Center is home to the largest collection of Jim Henson puppets and props, but it’s also much more than that. Gina spoke with Museum Director Jill Nash Malool and Producer Kristin Haverty about the importance of the center’s location in Georgia, what it means to support the arts in lo...
Aug 17, 2018•38 min
In this episode, we talk about the myth of southern hospitality with Tony Szczesiul, Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Tony traces the long history of the myth and explores how it is embedded with the region’s other non-hospitable traits including enslavement and segregation. Tony describes how enslaved people performed the labor that made southern hospitality possible and how the term emerged as a shorthand justification for southern plantation life in the 1820s. T...
Aug 10, 2018•40 min
Every off-week this season, we'll be rebroadcasting some of our favorite stories from previous seasons. This week we're bringing you "Freedom" -- an episode that remains incredibly special to all of us on the About South team. On Mother’s Day in 1961, the Klan attacked 13 Freedom Riders by firebombing their Greyhound bus outside of Anniston. We close our first season by talking with Anniston Mayor, Vaughn Stewart, and Vice Mayor, Seyram Selase, about the Anniston Freedom Rider’s Memorial current...
Aug 03, 2018•38 min
This week we're proud to feature Lindsey Alexander's podcast, Story of My Life where she asks people over 70 how they came to be who they are and where they are. In honor of tomato season, we're bringing you Story of My Life's interview with Bell Best. From Story of My Life: "Bill Best is known as the Tomato Man in parts of Eastern Kentucky. But he'll tell you he's more of an heirloom bean man. A prolific seed saver, Bill has more than 700 varieties of bean seeds; he's even brought a bean back f...
Jul 20, 2018•58 min
We're back this week with five more facts from your About South team. Gina, Kelly, Adjoa, and Lindsey cover everything from the great dogs of About South to the current activities of our resident crayfish, Dr. Grover. We also walk through some of our favorite moments and episodes from seasons one and two, and then we consider changing our name. About South is produced by Gina Caison, Kelly Vines, and Adjoa Danso. Lindsey Baker is our Marketing Director. Music is by Brian Horton. You can find his...
Jul 13, 2018•35 min
This week your About South team is answering your questions! Gina, Kelly, Adjoa, and Lindsey sit down and go through listener questions from the last year. And Kelly meets a Pelican. And we then ask for your money. About South is produced by Gina Caison, Kelly Vines, and Adjoa Danso. Lindsey Baker is our Marketing Director. Music is by Brian Horton. You can find his music at www.brianhorton.com. Learn more at www.aboutsouthpodcast.com.
Jul 06, 2018•39 min
Our episode this week takes us to the south on the small screen. Kelly sits down with our very own Gina Caison and About South friends Lisa Hinrichsen and Stephanie Rountree to discuss their new book, Small-Screen Souths: Region, Identity, and the Cultural Politics of Television. Attempting to define the “real” south only gets more complicated when the region is broadcasted, framed, and produced for an audience-- depending on how the audience accepts or rejects the images on screen. About South ...
Nov 10, 2017•39 min
This week we talk to geologist Josh Poole about Providence Canyon, also known as the “Little Grand Canyon,” in southwest Georgia. The canyon, however, is not an ancient geological formation. Providence Canyon emerged as a gully resulting from the destructive agricultural practices between Creek Removal in the early 1800s and the U.S. Civil War. We talk to Josh about the history of the canyon, the emergence of the anthropocene, and how geologists think about regional distinctions. About South is ...
Nov 03, 2017•39 min
This week we had the pleasure of talking to Karen Cox, a professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and author of Goat Castle: A True Story of Murder, Race, and the Gothic South. Cox talks about her book and her process for writing about a woman whose story was nearly hidden. In the Jim Crow south of the early 1930’s Natchez, Mississippi, Emily Burns was wrongly imprisoned for a murder she didn’t commit while the likely murderers became celebrated southern eccentrics w...
Oct 27, 2017•37 min
Located in Atlanta’s Historic West End, The Wren’s Nest is the historic home of Joel Chandler Harris, well-known for compiling and adapting the African American Brer Rabbit folktales. In the century since Harris’s death, the home has been converted into a museum and now serves as an anchor of the Atlanta arts community, especially in its neighborhood. This week, we met with Akbar Imhotep, the museum’s resident storyteller, and Kalin Thomas, its program director, to discuss the complicated histor...
Oct 13, 2017•39 min
This week, we traveled to Baton Rouge and sat down with Dr. Carolyn Ware, a folklorist and an associate professor in the Department of English at Louisiana State University, to talk about the tradition of Cajun Mardi. Carolyn has spent years talking to Cajun Mardi Gras communities about their traditions, and, no, it’s not just a knockoff of the New Orleans Mardi Gras. Carolyn educates us on what Cajun Mardi Gras is, who participates, and why it’s still important. About South is produced by Gina ...
Oct 06, 2017•40 min
In this week's episode, join in as Gina and returning About South guest Lindsey Eckert travel to the Minnesota State Fair to eat cheese curds, watch a rabbit show, and talk about regionalism. More specifically, the pair discusses how we construct regions to exist as idyllic places, separate from the problems apparent in the rest of the nation and dependent upon certain cultural calling cards-- like food-- for their survival. About South is produced by Gina Caison, Kelly Vines, and Adjoa Danso. L...
Sep 29, 2017•35 min
Before Maurice Hobson became a Professor of African American Studies at Georgia State University, he was a Division I football player at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has since worked with student athletes at institutions across the South. We talked with Maurice about how he became interested in football, his experiences as a player and the race and class politics of southeastern football. As a former player and a fan, Maurice offers a unique perspective on the current problems fac...
Sep 22, 2017•40 min
In an issue of Swamp Thing, Superman contracts a virus that will cause him to become violent. Instead of wreaking havoc in Metropolis, he heads south to Louisiana: a place where there are no superheroes. While Superman and his ilk may not make their homes in the south, the region has been richly explored in the comics medium: from early narrative comics such as Li’l Abner, Pogo, and Kudzu, to more recent serials and graphic novels such as The Walking Dead, Preacher, Bayou, and Swallow Me Whole. ...
Sep 01, 2017•38 min
This week, we chatted with scholar Jennie Lightweis-Goff about New Orleans, southern exceptionalism, urban plantations, and the lasting effects of Hurricane Katrina. We met with Jennie at her home in New Orleans to discuss why it’s important to imagine cities in the South, how urban areas of the South are as valid in their southern identity as rural areas, and what it means that New Orleans decided to take down its Confederate statues. About South is produced by Gina Caison, Kelly Vines, and Adj...
Aug 25, 2017•36 min
In this week’s episode, the About South team drove six hours to Ridgeland, Mississippi to attend _Murder is Golden_, a _Golden Girls_ tribute and parody dinner theater put on by Mississippi Murder Mysteries and the Fringe Dinner Theatre. Gina, Adjoa, Kelly, and About South friend Shannon Finck talk about the power of community and community theater in a time where interaction is undervalued and, as we’ve seen recently, increasingly violent. By bringing people together over a show set in Florida,...
Aug 18, 2017•40 min
When Jon Smith, a professor of southern studies at Simon Fraser University and one of the toughest critics in the field, told us that he would be visiting Atlanta in April, we invited him on the show to critique our first season. We discussed many of the things folks might identify as southern, including blue crayfish, cornbread, and Cahaba lilies. Our conversation highlights why talking about the south is important, and why it is sometimes necessary to dispense with manners in order to do it we...
Aug 11, 2017•40 min
This week, we travelled to Gadsby’s Tavern Museum in Alexandria, Virginia to talk with Lauren Frances Adams and Stewart Watson about their art installation, _Centennial of the Everyday_, which is currently on display in the museum. While Gadsby’s Tavern is well-known for its connection to the “founding fathers,” Lauren and Stewart’s installation highlights the contributions of women, enslaved peoples, and other unnamed citizens to the important events that occurred in this space. Their artwork c...
Jul 28, 2017•40 min
With around 40 million downloads, Brian Reed’s hit podcast S-Town prevails in the American conscious and understanding of the south. In this episode, we sit down with David Davis, a professor of English and Southern Studies at Mercer University, to discuss the telling of a southern reality in S-Town. We look at how Reed’s telling takes a real story of human complexity and frames it as fiction, buying into southern gothic tropes and obscuring the lives of his subjects with a thin layer of regiona...
Jul 21, 2017•38 min
This week we talked with Monique Verdin -- an environmental activist, documentary filmmaker, and citizen of the United Houma Nation --about how the oil and gas industries have affected her tribal community in southeastern Louisiana. Monique tells this story in her documentary film, _My Louisiana Love_, which was directed by Sharon Linezo Hong. By following Monique’s family during the time between Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill, the film reveals contemporary dilemmas faced by the Houma Na...
Jul 14, 2017•39 min
To kick off Season Two, Gina and Kelly travel to the end of the world: Venice, Louisiana, which claims to be the southernmost point in Louisiana accessible by car. Traversing through landscapes reminiscent of _True Detective_, they find oil refineries, fishing communities, and estuary wildlife — alligators, egrets, herons, spoonbills, ibises, and several other species of birds. They leave with questions about how our dependence on oil has transformed coastal wetlands into sacrificial spaces, as ...
Jul 07, 2017•42 min
We're back with Season Two! Tune in on July 7th. About South is produced by Gina Caison, Kelly Vines, and Adjoa Danso. Lindsey Baker is our Marketing Director. Music is by Brian Horton. You can find his music at www.brianhorton.com. Learn more at www.aboutsouthpodcast.com.
Jun 22, 2017•5 min
Gina and Kelly discuss their favorite moments from the second half of season one. In this episode, we discuss Gina’s storied history as a majorette. We also catch up with Ali Arant. In an outtake, Tara Bynam and Gina discuss the inherent pleasure of righteous anger. We also discuss a possible spinoff: “About War Eagle,” and we investigate the motivations of humans and monsters in bonus clips from “Real Early South” and “The Faulkner Witch Project.” Rounding out the episode, Joey Kennedy provides...
Dec 02, 2016•1 hr 10 min
Gina and Kelly discuss their favorite moments from the first half of season one. We discuss the crayfish names suggested by listeners and Lindsey Eckert’s loveable personality. We talk about butt transcendence from “Vampires on the Outside, Accountants on the Inside” and booty-shaking rhythm from “Southern Souls.” We share a surprising snake premonition from our trip to Pasaquan, and Monica Miller answers questions about southern belles and Georgia peaches. In bonus clips, LeAnne Howe and Kirsti...
Dec 02, 2016•1 hr 4 min
A special announcement and invitation from Gina and Kelly. Learn more at www.aboutsouthpodcast.com. | Co-Producers: Gina Caison & Kelly Vines | | Music: Brian Horton | | www.brianhorton.com |
Nov 22, 2016•3 min
On Mother’s Day in 1961, the Klan attacked 13 Freedom Riders by firebombing their Greyhound bus outside of Anniston. We close our first season by talking with Anniston Mayor, Vaughn Stewart, and Vice Mayor, Seyram Selase, about the Anniston Freedom Rider’s Memorial currently up for National Monument status. Stewart and Selase retell the story of the Freedom Riders and the bus burning and describe why recognizing this important landmark is significant for their town, the state of Alabama, and the...
Nov 11, 2016•38 min
This week, we met with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Joey Kennedy to discuss this upcoming presidential election, southern politics, and the media. He explains how the “solid South” was created and why it’s important to view the South as more than a block of red states. As a journalist with more than thirty years of experience, Joey emphasizes how changing business models have affected the way that news is reported and the consequences of those changes on politics both regionally and nationa...
Nov 04, 2016•41 min
Ghost stories are frequently attached to place—a house, a bedroom, a hallway, or a highway. The stories themselves even take on regional inflections, changing as they are told in different environments. To celebrate Halloween, we sat down with Eric Gary Anderson, Associate Professor at George Mason University to explore Undead Souths. We discuss how southern spookiness is expanding to encompass more than just Southern Gothic tales. We also question the function of the South as a site for creepin...
Oct 28, 2016•40 min
In the mid-1840s, Warner McCary, an ex-slave from Mississippi, took on a Native American identity, calling himself Okah Tubbee. He soon married Lucy Stanton, a divorced white Mormon woman from New York, who reinvented herself as a Delaware Indian named Laah Ceil. The two then embarked on an astounding adventure spanning all of North America, giving musical performances, working as Indian doctors, and participating in the early Mormon Church. This week, we talk with American Studies scholar, Ange...
Oct 21, 2016•39 min
Southern drinking mythology includes many larger-than-life stories about famous authors such as William Faulkner and Barry Hannah. However, according to American Literature scholar Matt Dischinger, this mythology leaves out important aspects of southern drinking culture. Today we sit down with Matt to talk about the impact of temperance as well as the current craft cocktail and local brewery boom in the South. We discuss “southern” spirits as well as regionally inflected drinking experiences. Ou...
Oct 07, 2016•39 min
