The Bitter Southerner Podcast

In Season 2, The Bitter Southerner travels across the South to get at what’s underneath the culture of our region. Host Chuck Reece and various Bitter Southerner contributors bring together stories about why the blues will never die, how okra unites every Southerner, and how to come to terms with the South’s past. Season 2 starts November 15, with new episodes every two weeks until March.

Squidbillies is one of the longest running shows on Atlanta-based Adult Swim. The animated series follows a family of “anthropomorphic mud squids” in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Georgia. Ahead of the season 12 premiere, Chuck Reece moderated a panel with Squidbillies’ co-creators and one of its stars.

The South lives and dies by its stories — and the writers who tell them. We end Season 1 with a festival of readings and observations on Southern writing.

In our final episode of Season 1, we hear North Carolina-based author Daniel Wallace reading a part of his essay, "Killings." It appears in The Bitter Southerner magazine and in The Bitter Southerner Reader Volume 2. Here is Daniel reading the entire essay in which he remembers the time he killed a chicken.

How Southerners come together to heal the deepest wounds — the physical and psychological injuries — suffered by American veterans and refugees.

"Southern culture" is impossible to define because it's always evolving, thanks to immigration. As new people arrive, new ideas go into the gumbo that is our culture. We take a trip to the "Ellis Island of the South," serve up some Brazilian barbecue, and jam out to a Southern mariachi band.

Booze matters in every culture, but in the culture of the South, it matters in some peculiar ways. We have a drink and dive into the twisted roots of the South’s liquor culture.

In this bonus episode of The Bitter Southerner Podcast, host Chuck Reece takes a tour of The Bitter Southerner magazine's annual list of the Best Southern Albums of the Year. NOTE: This episode contains explicit language

When we gather around the table and ask for blessings for the food and the hands that prepared it, we rarely think about how many hands — from how many cultures and races — labored to bring that food to our table. It's a provocative discussion we have with several chefs and food historians.

The North Carolina folklorist Bill Ferris has documented the sounds of the South over the last 50 years. He has said nothing crosses racial lines as easily as music, and that's what this episode is about. We begin with a story about Booker T. & the MG’s. Next, a conversation with The Bitter Southerner's hip-hop columnist, Joycelyn Wilson, about how trap music has become the “folk music” of young, African American Southerners. And finally, a long chat with the Bill Ferris himself. NOTE: This episode contains explicit language.