Take On The South

In this episode, host Emily Allen interviews Chloe H. Smith, a PhD candidate in Music History at Yale University. Smith's work examines American folk and popular music traditions to explore social and cultural histories of the region she calls home—the U.S. South. Her dissertation argues that minstrel tunes and Confederate anthems function as vessels of sonic Civil War memory—from late 19th-century popular stages to contemporary Neo-Confederate protests.

Mark sits down with acclaimed author Katherine Scott Crawford to talk about her Greenville upbringing, the writing process behind her new book The Miniaturist's Assistant (releasing May 15), and her thoughts on AI stealing authors' work to train AI models.Check out Katherine's Website!: https://www.katherinescottcrawford.com/Follow us on Take on the South socials!https://linktr.ee/sostatusc#podcast #southcarolina #university #history #gamecocks #tarif #author #book #inflation #AI #chatgpt

Mark sits down with F. Evan Nooe, Assistant Professor of History and historian for the Native American Studies Center at the University of South Carolina Lancaster, to talk about his Floridian upbringing, his book Aggression and Sufferings: Settler Violence, Native Resistance, and the Coalescence of the Old South, and the false narratives white southerners weaponized to incite voilence against Southern Native Americans.Follow us on Take on the South socials!https://linktr.ee/sostatusc

Mark sits down with Michael Stipe, the lead singer of R.E.M. and 2025 McNair Honoree, to talk about his early career days and how growing up in the South influenced his journey as a musician.Follow us on Take on the South socials!https://linktr.ee/sostatusc#rem #r.e.m #music #podcast #gamecocknation #southernculture #spotify #spotifyplaylist #rock #countrymusic #lgbtTranscript

In this episode, Dr. Emily Allen sits down with fellow host Professor Mark Smith to discuss the history of firing squad executions in relation to South Carolina's first execution by firing squad in over 15 years, scheduled to take place on March 8. Mark provides his insight on how this practice dates back to the Civil War, when it was considered a controversial practice even then.Follow us on Take on the South socials!https://linktr.ee/sostatusc#usc #southcarolina #gamecocks #firingsquad #podcast #historyTranscript

Host Dr. Emily Allen interviews Dr. Sarah Waheed, Assistant Professor of History at USC. Her scholarly expertise is on the history of South Asian Islam and the shaping of Muslim communities across the India-Pakistan divide, and her academic work focuses on gender and memory as well as transregional global histories. Dr. Sarah Waheed is also one of the lead directors of The Muslim South, a USC Humanities Collaborative sponsored Research and Creative Group. The Muslim South is an initiative that highlights the deep roots of Islam in the US South while also documenting the pasts and presents of growing Muslim immigrant communities in the region, by recording oral histories as well as organizing events in South Carolina and beyond.Follow us on Take on the South socials!https://linktr.ee/sostatuscTranscript

On this caffeinated episode, Mark sits down with USC Public History Master's student Anna Thompson to talk coffee. You heard that right... They discuss the origins of coffee, the British's historical disdain for it, and how the Union used coffee to turn the tides of the civil war. This is a good one that you don't want to miss.Follow us on Take on the South socials!https://linktr.ee/sostatuscFollow Anna on Instagram!@aghomeslice#podcast #southernculture #university #uofsc #history #gamecocknation #coffee #starbucks #baristaTranscript

In this episode, Mark sits down with Dr. Evan Faulkenbury, the newly appointed official USC historian. They explore the competitive nature of a historian's career, Dr. Faulkenbury's North Carolina roots, his culture shock up North, and his future book-writing endeavors.Follow us on Take on the South socials!https://linktr.ee/sostatusc#podcast #southernculture #university #uofsc #history #gamecocknation

In this episode, Matt sits down with Dylan Kobus, the 2024 recipient of the David G. Ellison Graduate Student Fellowship, to discuss his southern upbringing and research on southern magic conjuring. Together, they explore how these practices bridged diverse groups, blending medicinal knowledge with cultural traditions in the post-bellum era. Follow us on Take on the South socials!https://linktr.ee/sostatusc#podcast #southernculture #university #uofsc #voodoo #slavery #magic #conjuring

In this episode, Matt chats with Sophie deMaine, a rising sophomore at the University of South Carolina and the second recipient of the 2024 Neuffer Family Scholarship in Southern Studies. Sophie reflects on growing up in Greenville, a town now being transformed by DINKWADs—dual-income, no kids, with a dog households. She discusses how the town's vibe has changed and the challenges of dealing with Northern classmates' negative stereotypes of the South. Follow us on Take on the South socials! https://linktr.ee/sostatusc

In this episode, Matt chats with Addy Lee, a senior at the University of South Carolina and one of the two recipients of the 2024 Neuffer Family Scholarship in Southern Studies. Addy discusses growing up in Columbia, South Carolina, and the contrasts between her Southern roots and Northern family background. She also shares her journey in Southern Studies and her plans after graduating in May. Follow us on Take on the South socials! https://linktr.ee/sostatusc

Host Dr. Emily Allen interviews Dr. Deidra Suwanee Dees. Of Mvskoke and Scottish descent, Dr. Deidra Suwanee Dees descends from Hotvlkvlke (Wind Clan) following Mvskoke stompdance traditions. Dr. Deidra Suwanee Dees won a 2023 Native Voices Award. She is the author of Vision Lines: Native American Decolonizing Literature. A Cornell and Harvard graduate, she works at the Poarch Band of Creek Indians and teaches Native American Studies at the University of South Alabama. Her second book of literature, Indian Ice, is scheduled to launch in Fall 2024. Follow us on Take on the South socials! https://linktr.ee/sostatusc

Host Dr. Emily Allen interviews Danielle Davis, a doctoral candidate in Musicology at Florida State University, an inaugural Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellow, and Pre-Doctoral Fellow at Emory University's James Weldon Johnson Institute. In this episode Davis discusses her dissertation project, The Tidewater Trio Project: Virginian Hip-hop in Hampton Roads.  The project ventures boldly into the realm of record production, offering fresh interpretations on cultural productions of Shay Haley, Chad Hugo, and Pharrell Williams inviting audiences to reimagine how history resonates through sound. Follow us on Take on the South socials! https://linktr.ee/sostatusc

In this episode, Matt interviews award-winning author Jill McCorkle about her Southern upbringing and how it shaped her writing. They discuss her transformative years at UNC and the pivotal career switch that led her to become a celebrated author. Jill also shares the most tragic character she's ever written in this down-to-earth episode. Follow us on Take on the South socials! https://linktr.ee/sostatusc

Dr. Emily Allen interviews Dr. Geraldo Cadava, Professor of History and Latina and Latino Studies at Northwestern University. They discuss Dr. Cadava's forthcoming trade book on Latino history. They also discuss the history of Latino voting trends and U.S. immigration policies.  Follow us on Take on the South socials!https://linktr.ee/sostatusc

Professor Mark Smith sits down with former South Carolina Governor and Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme, David Beasley. They discuss Beasley's South Carolina roots, his journey to becoming governor, and the impactful experiences that shaped his leadership both locally and on the global stage. Follow us on Take on the South socials!https://linktr.ee/sostatusc

Special host Professor Kent Germany interviews Dr. Caroline Grego, author of Hurricane Jim Crow. They explore how the catastrophic hurricane that struck South Carolina during the Jim Crow era became more than just a natural disaster. Tune in to uncover the untold story of how the storm and its aftermath were used to reinforce racial oppression in the South.

College football season is upon us.  Join us as we hear informed predictions from our special guest, Connor Smith, about how the Carolina Gamecocks will do this 2024 season! Follow us on Take on the South socials! https://linktr.ee/sostatusc Follow Gamecock Football socials to stay informed on upcoming games! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gamecockfb/?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Gamecocksonline/ X: https://x.com/gamecockfb

Today, Take on the South introduces a brand-new journal dedicated to all things South Carolina, Carolina Currents: Studies in South Carolina Culture.  Mark Smith talks with the journal's editor, Professor Christopher D. Johnson of Francis Marion University, about Carolina Currents—its content, mission, and the topics it covers.  Listeners are invited to email Professor Johnson directly if they have questions about the journal: CJohnson@fmarion.edu

In the last episode of season three, Mark Smith is joined by one of the most talented historians of the American South and author of the one of the most important books ever written on the region: Peter H. Wood. Professor Wood is author of Black Majority: Race, Rice, and Rebellion in South Carolina, 1670-1740. A landmark work published fifty years ago, Black Majority has stood the test of time. Find out why on today's episode.

Today on the program we delve into the fascinating world of historic preservation to discover what preservation is, how it works, and what gets to be preserved (and what doesn't). Robin Waites, executive director of Historic Columbia, joins Mark Smith to talk about historic preservation and to reflect on her two-plus decades of leadership in the field.

Emily Allen interviews Dr. Simon Buck, a writer, historian, and musician. His first monograph, on old age and music in the US South, is under contract with the University of Illinois Press. He is employed at the University of Edinburgh (UK) on research projects concerning the intersection of British slavery, healthcare, and university education in Edinburgh. The interview focuses on Buck's article “‘Up on Cripple Creek': Limb Loss, Difference, and Disability Spectacle in Southern Roots Music.”  

The story of the South is also the story of Civil Rights.  On this episode of Take on the South, we explore how the Civil Rights Movement has shaped the South and how the story continues to unfold.  Mark Smith is joined by Professor Bobby Donaldson, a professor in the History department and Director of the Center for Civil Rights History and Research, at the University of South Carolina, who shares some remarkable stories about Civil Rights in the American South.

This special episode of Take on the South is a compilation of short segments from the students in the Spring 2024 course Popular Musics of the US South. Each student discusses the history of a particular pop music artist or genre with roots in the South. The students featured in this episode are Brooks Bishop, Josh Browning, Will Byars, Justin Gilbert, Jorden Jeffers, Annie Matson, Chris Nash, Cameran Peake, Logan Rodgers, and Wilson Stokes. 

Emily Allen interviews Dr. Sophia Enríquez, who is the Andrew W. Mellon assistant Professor Music, Latino/a Studies, and Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University. They discuss her work with Latino communities in Appalachia, the US South, and Mexico. 

Dr. Mark Smith of the Institute for Southern Studies is joined by the 2024 McNair Conversation in Southern Studies Honoree, Chief Justice Jean Toal. This discussion explores the Chief Justice's upbringing in South Carolina, her experience in southern politics, and her signal achievements in the legal field. 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.

What are the origins of higher education? Who were the key figures in its invention and subsequent entrenchment?  What role did the South play in its emergence?  And where is higher education today? To help answer these questions, Mark Smith is joined by Dr. Michael T. Benson, president and professor of history at Coastal Carolina University who discusses his recently published book, Daniel Coit Gilman and the Birth of the American Research University.

Twenty years ago, Harvard University's Henry Louis Gates, Jr. found, verified, and published what proved to be the first novel written by an African American woman in America: The Bondswoman's Narrative by Hannah Crafts. However, little to nothing was known about Crafts' own life--until now. Mark Smith is joined by Furman University's Gregg Hecimovich, author of The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts: The True Story of The Bondwoman's Narrative, to discuss her remarkable life, the story of his work to piece together Crafts' biography, and the complexity of social interactions in the Old South.

In this episode Ebony Toussaint interviews John Jennings, a Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California at Riverside. He is also the director of Abrams ComicArts imprint Megascope, which publishes graphic novels focused on hip hop, Afrofuturism, and horror. In this interview we explore Southern folklore, his Mississippi roots, and the phrase Jennings co-created, the Ethnogothic.

In another of our miniseries of rehearsals and evaluations of AI-produced scripts of conversations with famous dead Southerners, Mark Smith is joined by Professor Stephanie Y. Mitchem to talk about Civil Rights icon Rosa Parks. They discuss the famous incident on the Birmingham bus--which AI gets mostly right--the complexities of Parks's identity and activism, and all of the details and nuances that ChatGPT misses.

Mark Smith is joined by Ed Madden, former poet laureate of Columbia, SC, to talk about the role of poetry in recording the history and exploring the places of Southern cities.

Mark Smith asked ChatGPT to produce a scripted interview with the writer William Faulkner. Matt Simmons joins him to discuss that script, the work and background of the South's most famous writer, and the limits and promises of AI.

In this episode Emily Allen interviews Burgin Mathews, who is a writer, a radio host, and the founding director of the nonprofit Southern Music Research Center. He also published the book Magic City: How the Birmingham Jazz Tradition Shaped the Sound of America in 2023 with the University of North Carolina Press. 

Two Englishmen, our own Mark Smith and Dr. Clive Webb, Professor of Modern American History at the University of Sussex, sit down to discuss their very British perspectives on writing the history of the American South. What are the differences in American and British approaches to the topic? What challenges face the British academy and how Britons study the South? The two also discuss Dr. Webb's work, including Fight Against Fear: Southern Jews and Black Civil Rights and Rabble Rousers: The American Far Right in the Civil Rights Era.

Emily Allen chats with Marvin McNeill about African American military bands, college marching bands, and brass bands in the South and beyond. McNeill, a Ph.D. candidate in Ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University, is Assistant Professor of Music and African American Studies at the Oxford College of Emory University.  In this conversation, he centers on the brass band Funky Dawgz, the TBC Brass Band, and the Morgan State University marching band.

Mark Smith is joined by Sarah Gardner of Mercer University to talk about the role the English playwright William Shakespeare played in the military, political, and interpersonal life of the American Civil War.

As conference champtionship season warms up, our new host Emily Allen speaks with musicologist Carrie Allen Tipton about her book From Dixie to Rocky Top: Music and Meaning in Southeastern Conference Football. They discuss the role fight songs and football have had in shaping Southern identity, school spirit, and the various political meanings of Southern higher ed.

Mark Smith sits down with Mercer University professor David A. Davis, author of the new book Driven to the Field: Sharecropping and Southern Literature, to discuss the development of sharecropping, a labor that shaped so much of the rural South, both black and white, for the 100 years after the Civil War, and its representation in Southern literature.

The speaker for the Institute for Southern Studies' 2023 Neuffer Lecturer in Southern Literature is Ron Rash, a bestselling author of some eight novels, seven books of short stories, and three books of poetry. Before the lecture, he joined Matt Simmons in the podcast studio to discuss his life and work.

Mark Smith is joined by Neil Kinghan, author of A Brief Moment in the Sun: Francis Cardozo and Reconstruction in South Carolina to discuss the life and legacy of one of the more fascinating forgotten figures in American history, the Reconstruction-era South Carolina politician and reformer Francis Cardozo.

In another of our series of AI-generated conversations with famous dead Southerners, Mark Smith is joined by USC history professor Kent Germany to discuss the odd understanding ChatGPT has of our 36th president, Lyndon Baines Johnson

Mark Smith is joined by Rachel Gordin Barnett and Lyssa Kligman Harvey, authors of the new book Kugels and Collards: Stories of Food, Family, and Tradition in Jewish South Carolina to discuss the role of food in situating Jews into the rich story of the South across the generations.

September 22-24th was Family Weekend at the University of South Carolina, and we in Southern Studies held an open house for students, parents, and family members to come in and tell their Southern stories. This episode features highlights from that open house, with reactions to the South from two Iranians, a New Englander parsing what "just Southern enough" means, and a native Carolinian sharing how she fell in love with home after having trouble finding something to eat in Germany.

In honor of Halloween and in an effort to explore the implications of AI, Take on the South is having a special series of "Southern Seances" in October. Each Monday, we will have ChatGPT write a script for an interview between our host, Mark Smith, and a famous dead Southerner. Mark and a guest will dissect what AI got right about the figure, where it made mistakes, and what the experience can tell us about the utility and limitations of AI. First up: Elvis! Mark is joined by Grant Wong, PhD student in the University of South Carolina's History department. Special music is "Let the Mystery Unfold" by Geoff Harvey.

Mark Smith is joined by Matt Simmons and G.C. Ramey, president of the Gamecock Bourbon Society, for a conversation on bourbon: the regulations that govern it, the history behind it, the stories it tells, how it is produced, the relationship between marketing and storytelling, and the glories of Old Granddad 114.

Mark Smith interviews Wendy Homeyer, a native of Greenville, SC, alumna of the University of South Carolina, and former George W. Bush administration staffer about her experience of the fateful day of September 11, 2001 from within the White House.

Mark Smith sits down with James Williams, CEO of Columbia, SC-based Food People Restaurant Group, to discuss the challenges and opportunities of doing business in the South. Along the way, they discuss why struggles with access to capital continue to lead so many Southern entrepreneurs leaving the region and why so many eventually return home. Finally, how does Southern hospitality shape how business is done in the South, and what does the future for entrepreneurship in the region look like?

In the last of our summer repeats, we get y'all ready for football season! 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.

How do roads help to shape and define the South? In this episode, we talk particularly about "Malfunction Junction," South Carolina's most notorious highway interchange, the stretch of highway where I-20 and I-26 come together west of Columbia. What's the history of Malfunction Junction and what does that history tell us about the development of South Carolina over the last several generations? More importantly, what is its future as it transforms into "Carolina Crossroads" over the rest of this decade? Mark Smith is joined by Brian Klauk, project manager of the Carolina Crossroad projects, and Pete Poore, the communications director of the South Carolina Department of Transportation, to discuss. https://www.scdotcarolinacrossroads.com/

To say "Southern Rock" is a "Southern" musical genre is a truism--but what, exactly, is it? How does the groovy, swaggering Southern Rock of the 1970s connect to the emergence of jangly College Rock in the 1980s and 90s? How does this music tell the story of Southern identity, and how has that music evolved over the last 50 years as Southern identity itself has evolved? And finally, how has the rise of Spotify and other streaming platforms changed the possibilities for creating and engaging the "Southern" in rock music? Joining Matt Simmons in this lively discussion are Todd Hagstette of the University of South Carolina-Aiken, Jeff Rogers of Gordon State College, and music journalist and critic Robert Dean Lurie, author of the acclaimed Begin the Begin: R.E.M.'s Early Years.

An Englishman, a New Englander, and a Southerner walk into a podcast studio and have...a simply incredible conversation about the South, what ideas we bring to the region, and what we have to unlearn about it to make sense of it and ourselves within it.  Matt Simmons is joined by Mark Smith and Andrew Berns, professor of history at the University of South Carolina, for an electric conversation. We could have gone on for three times as long!