We're back with another conversation!

Just in time for the Kentucky Derby, Mark Smith is joined by Dr. Gabi Kuenzli of the USC history department for a discussion of the role of horse racing in the South. What's the historical background of the sport in the region? How does horse racing point to the ways in which the South has long been a global phenomenon, particularly in its connections with Latin America?

Video version of this conversation:

https://youtu.be/CFMYmk1u_Gk

Our eclectic, alphabetic tour of the South continues with a look at the South's iconic spirit: bourbon. Matt Simmons discusses the origins and name of the drink, the relationships between the South and the West, bourbon as place-in-a-glass, the differences between Tennessee and Kentucky whiskeys, how Jack Daniel got his start, a whiskey-related museum curated by teetotalers, Walker Percy's mint julep recipe, and more.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Kentucky Encyclopedia, edited by John E. Kleber, et al., University Press of Kentucky, 1992.

The Lost Story of Nearest Green, the Slave Who Taught Jack Daniel How to Make Whiskey

Granville Whiskey Decanter Museum

Walker Percy's essay "Bourbon" is most easily found in the posthumous essay collection Signposts in a Strange Land

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email: [email protected]

Thanks to:

Episode Image: "A Glass of Bourbon Whiskey" by ctj71081, CC BY-SA 2.0

Music by Alex_Kizenkov

In the first of a new series we're trying out, Matt Simmons introduces "The Southern Almanac." We begin with azaleas, and take a tour around the South, checking in with how this beloved bush connects mountains and the coast, golf and gardening, New England Southophiles and Lowcountry abolitionists, and round it off with a poem by Sidney Lanier.

Mentioned in the episode:

Clemson Extension Service

Elizabeth Lawrence's A Southern Garden

Magnolia Plantation

The Grimké Sisters

Constance Fenimore Woolson's Rodman the Keeper

The New Georgia Encyclopedia on the Masters Tournament

Sidney Lanier's "The Bee"

Get in touch with us:

IG, Twitter, and Facebook--@uofscsouth

Email: [email protected]

Dr. Mark Smith of the Institute for Southern Studies is joined by the  2023 McNair Conversation in Southern Studies Honoree, Lou Kennedy. Ms.  Kennedy is an alumna of the University of South Carolina and the CEO of  Nephron Pharmaceuticals. This discussion touches on economic  development, the doors a Southern accent opens, and the challenges faced  by women in business.  

The McNair Conversation is an annual event in which thinkers, leaders,  and just plain interested people from the South are interviewed about  their lives and how they understand the region. It is funded in part by a  generous grant from the estate of the late Robert McNair, governor of  South Carolina from 1965-1971.

Mark Smith is joined by Dr. Amy Snipes of Penn State to discuss the state of Latino farm labor in the South. What policies--both formal and informal--created the current reality of the South's agricultural sector being dominated by Latino labor? How does this echo previous eras of agricultural labor in the South? What current challenges are faced by Latino farm laborers? How do Southern cultural norms create a space in which Latinos feel comfortable doing seasonal farm labor in the South?

Professor Kent Germany of USC's History department steps in as a guest host to interview David Masciotra, author of I Am Somebody: Why Jesse Jackson Matters, about the life of the civil rights leader and Democratic party stalwart, and how Jackson's Southerness informed his work.

Mark Smith is joined by UPenn history professor Mia Bay, author of the  recent book Traveling Black, to discuss the history of travel  segregation. The conversation discusses familiar challenges in the Jim  Crow South, but also points to the development of travel segregation in  the Northern United States.

Check out our YouTube channel for video recordings of interviews! New videos are posted on the Monday after the audio podcast.

In January 1958, the Ku Klux Klan decided to hold a rally outside of the small town of Maxton, North Carolina. The goal was to intimidate local Native American groups and inscribe their place within the Jim Crow hierarchy--but when large numbers of armed Indians showed up, the plan backfired spectacularly.

Matt Simmons is joined by Judge James Lockemy, the recently-retired chief judge of the South Carolina Court of Appeals, to discuss the background, events, and aftermath of what is now remembered as the Battle of Hayes Pond, as well as the place of Native Americans, and particularly the Lumbee Indians of North Carolina, in the story of the South.

We're in the midst of bowl season, and we figure some of y'all are itching for even more football content--we're here for you! On today's episode, Mark Smith is joined by Andy Doyle, Associate Professor of history at Winthrop University to discuss the origins of college football in the South. How did this thoroughly industrialized, northeastern game associated with New England gentry and the Ivy League--which was originally rejected by Southerners as a "Yankee game"--come to dominate the region? It's a fascinating story full of colorful characters that you'll want to share with all of your football-loving friends and family.

This will be our last episode of 2022. We'll see y'all in the new year!