About South

In honor of Randi Byrd's personal best record and the 50th Annual Coharie Pow Wow, we're rebroadcasting our talk on pumpkins-- giant pumpkins. Although Randi always had a green thumb, she only connected her interest in agricultural practice to her fascination with pumpkins in 2009. Growing a 700+ pound pumpkin is a difficult feat that often requires the support of family and friends. Randi talks about the community she found not only in fellow growers of giant pumpkins but also in the local Indigenous community as well as her online friends that encouraged her pursuit, performed ceremony on the land with her, and physically tilled the soil from which actual magic could grow.

About South is produced by Gina Caison, Kelly Vines, and Adjoa Danso.

Jessica Parker is an assistant producer.

Music is by Brian Horton. You can find his music at www.brianhorton.com.

Learn more at www.aboutsouthpodcast.com.

This week, iconic Atlanta drag performer Brigitte Bidet joins Gina for a conversation about all things drag in the South. Brigitte is a classically trained dancer, a favorite host for southern queer publication WUSSY Mag, and a founding member of Legendary Children ATL. You may even have seen her as Dolly Parton #5 in the Netflix original film Dumplin’, starring Jennifer Anniston.

About South is produced by Gina Caison, Kelly Vines, and Adjoa Danso.

Jessica Parker is an assistant producer.

Music is by Brian Horton. You can find his music at www.brianhorton.com.

Learn more at www.aboutsouthpodcast.com.

In this week’s episode of About South, we present the second half of our two-part conversation with policy advocate and longtime friend Sanford Johnson. We cover a wide variety of Mississippi-related topics, including the Jackson ICE raids, the 2020 election, and the defacing of the Emmett Till historical marker.

About South is produced by Gina Caison, Kelly Vines, and Adjoa Danso.

Jessica Parker is an assistant producer.

Music is by Brian Horton. You can find his music at www.brianhorton.com.

Learn more at www.aboutsouthpodcast.com.

In this week’s episode, we travel to Clarksdale, Mississippi to sit down with education policy advocate Sanford Johnson for a conversation so good, we had to bring it to you in two parts. In part one, we reminisce about student government at Auburn, discuss education reform in the Mississippi Delta, and dive into that viral video that had everybody talking about safe shoe-wear activity.

About South is produced by Gina Caison, Kelly Vines, and Adjoa Danso.

Jessica Parker is an assistant producer.

Music is by Brian Horton. You can find his music at www.brianhorton.com.

Learn more at www.aboutsouthpodcast.com.

This week, Sara Patenaude of the Handmaid Coalition of Georgia joins Gina for a discussion of reproductive rights in the state and beyond and what it means to stage a successful protest in the U.S. South. The Handmaid Coalition of Georgia formed in 2017 during a national 50 maids in 50 states protest. Georgia’s chapter is one of the most active largely because of HB481, six-week abortion ban introduced this past legislative session.

About South is produced by Gina Caison, Kelly Vines, and Adjoa Danso.

Jessica Parker is an assistant producer.

Music is by Brian Horton. You can find his music at www.brianhorton.com.

Learn more at www.aboutsouthpodcast.com.

Photo Credit: Steve Eberhardt

In this week’s episode, we travel to Copenhagen, Denmark to sit down with Martyn Bone, a southern studies scholar and Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen, to discuss globalism and a postsouthern idea on an international scale. We touch on everything from  overseas interest in U.S. Southern literature to the U.S. South’s long history with immigration, as well as our hometown Atlanta’s role in this international conversation.

About South is produced by Gina Caison, Kelly Vines, and Adjoa Danso.

Jessica Parker is an assistant producer.

Music is by Brian Horton. You can find his music at www.brianhorton.com.

Learn more at www.aboutsouthpodcast.com.

This week we’re bringing you a local story about independent community radio station WRFG-89.3FM. Gina sits down with station co-founder Harlon Joye at WRFG’s Little Five Points studio to discuss the history of station as well progressive media in the city, the region, and the nation.

About South is produced by Gina Caison, Kelly Vines, and Adjoa Danso.

Jessica Parker is an assistant producer.

Music is by Brian Horton. You can find his music at www.brianhorton.com.

Learn more at www.aboutsouthpodcast.com.

In this week’s episode, we sit down with Brian Ward, historian and Professor in American Studies at Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, to discuss his 2017 book Martin Luther King: In Newcastle Upon Tyne about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s landmark 1967 visit to Newcastle University. Brian explains what makes this brief yet historic visit to northeastern England so exceptional, and we discuss the context of King’s journey, his motivation for coming to Newcastle, and the impact his presence continues to have on race relations on the Northeast today.

About South is produced by Gina Caison, Kelly Vines, and Adjoa Danso.

Jessica Parker is an Assistant Producer.

Music is by Brian Horton. You can find his music at www.brianhorton.com.

Learn more at www.aboutsouthpodcast.com.

About South kicks off its farewell season with a trip to England where we talk to Dr. Gavan Lennon, a professor at Canterbury Christ Church University, about southern studies in the UK and Ireland. Gavan highlights the sense of solidarity those from Ireland and the UK might feel with the vibrant and productive history of African American resistance and cultural production in the U.S. South. Our guest also describes some of the problems with how white southerners use the term “Scotch-Irish” as well as the similarities between ultra-conservativism in the U.S. and Brexit in the United Kingdom.

About South is produced by Gina Caison, Kelly Vines, and Adjoa Danso.

Jessica Parker is an assistant producer.

Music is by Brian Horton. You can find his music at www.brianhorton.com.

Learn more at www.aboutsouthpodcast.com.

This week we’re wrapping season 3 of About South with a conversation about the legend of Trahlyta, a pice of folklore that says a “Cherokee princess” is buried under a pile of rocks in Dahlonega, GA. Gina and Allison Yost discuss the tale’s origins, why people are so connected to it, and the ways it mirrors many troubling ideas about Native identity in the South.

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.