Episode Eighteen: Season Recap Part Two

Gina Caison December 2, 2016

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 insight about the incoming Attorney General, and Vice Mayor Seyram Selase tells us why it’s important to return to the South.

Lost and found art from our home, the Historic West End of Atlanta, GA.

We would like to thank our special guests for making this season a success—we could not have done this without you. We would also like to thank our listeners! We appreciate your kind ears and your support! Please follow us on social media, and help us spread the word by sharing your favorite episode from this season on your preferred social media platform.

Please join us for the About South Season One Wrap Party at Argosy in East Atlanta Village at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, December 9! We would love to raise a glass with you and hear your feedback about our first season! You can RSVP on Facebook or EventBrite.

We'll be back July 7th! Until then, listen to our new podcasting friends, Story of My Life.

Episode Seventeen: Season Recap Part One

Gina Caison December 2, 2016

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 Kirstin Squint discuss Native American mascots, and Gina talks with Michael Bibler about gifts. We end this episode with a clip from our conversation about southern nostalgia and authenticity with Scott Romine.

A South Carolina peach. Is that a thing?

Our Episode Six guest, LeAnne Howe, on The Daily Show.

Fleetwood Mac, "Don't Stop"

Keep on listening to Part Two!

Announcment: Party People

Gina Caison November 22, 2016

Join us for a celebration of our first fall season!

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We'll be at Argosy in East Atlanta Village on December 9th. Party starts at 7:30pm. Come raise a glass with Gina, Kelly, many of this season's special guests, and your fellow listeners.

RSVP here.

Map here.

In the meantime, please be sure to share your favorite About South episode on your social media pages. We'll be back on December 2nd when we share all of our favorite moments from this season.

Episode Sixteen: Freedom

Gina Caison November 11, 2016

On Mother’s Day in 1961, the Klan attacked 13 Freedom Riders by firebombing their Greyhound bus outside of Anniston, Alabama. 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 Anniston, the state of Alabama, and the nation.

The current mural beside the old bus station in Anniston, AL.

The current request for National Monument status includes two sites: a former Greyhound bus station built in 1952, and the bus-burning site, which is located four miles outside of the Anniston, on what used to be US Highway 78. The bus station advertised separate facilities—waiting rooms, restrooms, and lunch counters—for black and white customers. It ceased to operate in 1967, when a more modern station was built at another location. Currently, it's home to a vintage sign company, but the city has a sales contract to buy the building back from its current owners.

The bathroom in the current sign shop. Many of the fixtures, facilities, and features are unchanged.

While the bus depot is remarkably unchanged, the second location where the bus was bombed has been reconfigured. Some of the houses remain, but the Forsyth Grocery store where the bus pulled over is no longer there, and that portion of Highway 78 has been closed. Anniston officials are hoping to create a five-acre permanent memorial at the site.

The historical marker at the bus burning site.

Selase describes their project as an important way to preserve the overall story of the Anniston Civil Rights Trails, and to protect a sense of place. On the day before our interview, officials from the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior toured the two sites, listened to the stories of those who remembered the event: Hank Thomas, one of the Freedom Riders on the bus in Anniston; Mr. Emerson, a local resident who was on his porch that day and saw the attack, and Janie Forsyth McKinney, a young child who brought water to the wounded Riders. Stewart emphasizes that as the Freedom Rider generation is passing away, no one is going to have a memory of what happened unless we create a space to educate future generations. He argues that these places are important reminders of the dark path we once took, and provide a cautionary tale because bullies and hate-mongers still exist. Our guests note that Anniston’s nickname is the “Model City,” and after the attack, the community came together to create COUL, the Council on Unified Leadership, a biracial council to address violence and racial issues. They hope that gaining National Monument status will provide a model for how other communities might come together after horrific acts of violence to have real conversations and develop real solutions.

We would like to thank our special guests today, Anniston Mayor, Vaughn Stewart, and Vice Mayor, Seyram Selase. We wish them the best of luck in their endeavor to recognize these important landmarks. We encourage our listeners to visit the current Anniston Civil Rights & Heritage Trail. We'd also like to thank Jaye Price for the music.

Episode Fifteen: Red Buttons, Blue Dots, and Hey Mabels

Gina Caison November 4, 2016

This week, we met with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Joey Kennedy to discuss this upcoming presidential election, southern politics, and the media. Joey was born in Texas, raised in south-central Louisiana, and moved to Alabama in 1977. He began writing for The Birmingham News in 1981, and he’s covered politics in the South across platforms for more than thirty years.

Political concepts of the South often aggregate the region into a solid mass of red states. Joey explains how, during the Nixon administration, politicians modeled after George Wallace used red button issues sway voters. Early on, those issues were centered around race relations, appealing to white voters. Since then, red button issues have included LGBTQ rights, immigration, and Islam. Joey figures the ideological “angry white man” as the southern base many politicians appeal to using fear. He notes that the angry white man isn’t a person; it’s an attitude. Using fear, some politicians, such as Donald Trump, scare voters with descriptions of evil Muslims and Mexican rapists.

Map of red states and blue states in the U.S.Red=The Republican candidate carried the state in all four most recent presidential elections (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012).Pink=The Republican candidate carried the state in three of the four most recent elec… — Map of red states and blue states in the U.S.
Red=The Republican candidate carried the state in all four most recent presidential elections (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012).
Pink=The Republican candidate carried the state in three of the four most recent elections.
Purple=The Republican candidate and the Democratic candidate each carried the state in two of the four most recent elections.
Light blue=The Democratic candidate carried the state in three of the four most recent elections.
Dark blue=The Democratic candidate carried the state in all four most recent elections.
Image via Wikimedia Commons, author Angr.

Despite the neo-confederate logic guiding white voters to act against their own best interests, Joey sees Donald Trump as perhaps the dying gasp of white supremacy in this nation. He believes that the Republican party must either adapt or split apart after this election, asserting that a party can no longer win national elections with an anti-immigration, anti-Muslim agenda.

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 nationally. He believes the media, through focusing on scandals, are culpable for the level of discourse in this election cycle. He partially blames a new click-based business model for sensationalized headlines, noting how few newspapers have examined the more serious accusations against Trump, opting instead for stories which will attract more traffic. He also notes that, on a local level, the press plays a vital role in exposing corruption. When newspapers can no longer assign staff members to cover city councils and other governing bodies, then politicians are more likely to engage in corruption because their constituents are less likely to notice.

We end today’s show with difficult questions about how to reach an audience that feels so disenfranchised, yet so distrustful toward the press, especially when politicians foster distrust. We also question how media corporations might place a greater emphasis on public service and documenting history in an increasingly market-driven industry.

Recent polls indicate that southern states may not be as solidly red as they have been in the past.

Please Vote.

Image by Dwight Burdette, Wikimedia Commons.

We would like to thank Joey and Veronica Kennedy and their wonderful pugs for welcoming us into their home in Birmingham. Joey worked at The Birmingham News for more than 33 years. He is currently a columnist at B-Metro magazine and Alabama Political Reporter. He also teaches English at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing along with his colleagues Ron Casey and Harold Jackson for their series, “What They Won’t Tell You About Your Taxes.” He also publishes Animal Advocates of Alabama, and his creative nonfiction has been published in Redbook magazine and in several literary journals.

Curious about Alabama politics? Watch this:

'It's a Thick Book' is a political documentary about problems with Alabama's 1901 constitution by Lewis Lehe. Funny at times, and very informative. This video is recommended for anyone interested in politics, constitutional reform, tax reform, or Alabama history. Produced with help from Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform Foundation. Lewis J.

Note: Even though this episode airs on November 4, we recorded this conversation in mid-October, during an especially tumultuous election season. Therefore, we will not have covered any news events that might have happened in the intervening period.

We'd like to thank our special musical guest, Stuart McNair. Please visit his website, stuartmcnair.com, to purchase his music.

Please join us on November 6th at The Wren's Nest for their Blues and BBQ Fundraiser. Details can be found here.

Episode Fourteen: The Faulkner Witch Project

Gina Caison October 28, 2016

Ghost stories are frequently attached to a particular 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 talk about Undead Souths.

Eric describes how, southern spookiness is expanding to encompass more than just Southern Gothic tales. The Southern Gothic describes creative works about self-contained, closed spaces: old, dark houses, for instance. Narratives linked what happened in the architectural interior to what happened in the psychic interior of the characters involved. The genre borrows from European and British traditions, and it focuses on the Civil War, plantations, slavery, airing out the white fears and anxieties associated with the South. While Eric emphasizes that there are some great Southern Gothic stories, the genre has its limits. Together with Taylor Hagood and Daniel Cross Turner, Eric developed Undead Souths: The Gothic and Beyond in Southern Literature and Culture, an edited collection devoted to decentering the Southern Gothic, and interrogating the “undead souths,” or aspects of the South that rise up in troubling, creepy, supernatural, disturbing, or scary ways. Eric also explains that moving away from Southern Gothic provides space to expand beyond British and European genealogies to incorporate and examine Caribbean, Indigenous, and African texts as well.

Undead Souths from Louisiana State University Press. — *Undead Souths* from Louisiana State University Press.

True Blood, The Walking Dead, The Vampire Diaries, and American Horror Story: Coven are all filmed and set in the U.S. South, which leads us to question how the South functions as a receptacle for creepiness in contemporary supernatural television shows. While the surge might be partially due to economic reasons, Eric describes some of the questions these shows might raise. Specifically, he asks how the political empire, business ventures, and fundamentalist religious dynasties in True Blood might offer a commentary about the South.

The series follows Sookie Stackhouse, a barmaid living in Louisiana who can read people's minds, and how her life is turned upside down when the Vampire Bill, walks into her place of employment two years after vampires 'came out of the coffin' on national television.

We close our conversation by discussing a couple of Eric’s Halloween favorites. His favorite vampire is the titular Son of Dracula who travels to Georgia in a 1940s film, operating under the alias Count Alucard. Eric cites the blair witch from 1999’s The Blair Witch Project as his favorite southern witch.

Son of Dracula trailer 1943

"In October of 1994, three student film makers disappeared in the woods near Burkittesville, Maryland. One year later, their footage was found." Directed by: Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sánchez.

We would like to thank our special guest this week, Eric Gary Anderson. Eric is an Associate Professor of English at George Mason University where he teaches Native and Southern Studies. In addition to his first book, American Indian Literature and the Southwest, he’s published more than twenty essays and edited volumes and journals. His most recent work includes contributions to Keywords for Southern Studies, Native South, and The Oxford Handbook of the Literature of the U.S. South. Together with Taylor Hagood and Daniel Cross Turner, he also edited Undead Souths: The Gothic and Beyond in Southern Literature and Culture, which we discussed on today’s episode. We would also like to thank William Faulkner’s ghost for his brief guest appearance.

#southerngothic from Instagram

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Episode Thirteen: Real Early South

Gina Caison October 21, 2016

This week we sit down with American Studies scholar Angela Pulley Hudson about her book, Real Native Genius: How an Ex-Slave and a White Mormon Became Famous Indians. Her book investigates the history of Warner McCary and Lucy Stanton. McCary was an ex-slave from Mississippi who refashioned himself Okah Tubbee, claiming to be the lost son of Choctaw chief Mushulatubbee. Stanton was a divorced white Mormon woman from New York who reinvented herself as a Delaware Indian named Laah Ceil. Angela describes how the couple used popular notions of "Indianness" to disguise their backgrounds, protect their marriage, and make a living.

Warner McCary was born into slavery in Mississippi in 1810 or 1811. When his master died in 1813, he freed the rest of Warner’s family. However, Warner remained enslaved to his two freed siblings, but he secretly earned a small income of his own through fishing, flute performances, and ventriloquism. In 1839, Warner was freed by his half-brother and became a militia fifer and flute player. He had already adopted an Indian persona when he met Lucy Stanton in 1845. He was baptized into the Mormon Church, and they were married. After their marriage, Warner adopted the Okah Tubbee alias, and began performing as a Choctaw flutist. Stanton also took an alias, performing as a Mohawk / Delaware Indian, Laah Ceil. When their musical career wanes, the two are able to support themselves through practicing medicine.

While no genealogical evidence exists to suggest that McCary was actually Choctaw, his racial identity is unknowable. Angela suggests that his heritage is irrelevant in many ways because he was never claimed by Choctaw people, and his performances were based on popular culture ideas of Choctaw people. According to Angela, the biography of Tubbee and Ceil is more important because of what it reveals about the region, the nation, and ideas of Indianness. She notes that once the two start performing as Indians together, they never perform farther south than Washington D.C. To Angela, the regional boundedness of their performances demonstrates how beliefs about Indians varied from place to place.

We would like to thank today’s special guest, Angela Pulley Hudson. Angela is an Associate Professor of History at Texas A&M. She earned her Ph.D. in American Studies at Yale in 2007, and she is the recipient of numerous fellowships and grants for her research on American Indian history, the cultural history of the U.S. South, and the intersection of African American and American Indian experiences. We would also like to thank the American Antiquarian Society for allowing us to host this conversation.

Buy Real Native Genius here.

Many thanks to UNC Press for the details for this week's post. Check out their complete catalogue of books, many of them focused on the greater South, here.

Episode Twelve: Drink the Region

Gina Caison October 7, 2016

This week we sit down with American Literature scholar Matt Dischinger to talk about drinking in the South. Matt contends that typical literary discussions about southern drinking tend to focus on major authors and larger-than-life stories, which are fascinating, but they can also leave out important aspects of southern drinking culture.

In many ways, the South is a temperance-inflected culture, but drinking is also hyper visible in the stories of famous authors, in the figure of the moonshiner, and in the proliferation of southern artisanal cocktails. Matt links this dual image to temperance—where legal restrictions became coded in the South as gender and racial restrictions on drinking, creating new centers and peripheries associated with the law, but also associated with broader cultural practices and beliefs. In the case of moonshine, part of its appeal derives from its illegality. Knowing how to procure moonshine demonstrates that the buyer is part of an “in” group. With moonshine, drinking and secrecy are intimately linked together.

From Discovery Channel's Moonshiners. Moonshine is made from a delicate balance of water, corn and sugar.

The rise in craft cocktail culture and local breweries can also be attributed to the easing of temperance laws in many southern counties and states, which opens up opportunities for entrepreneurs. The emphasis on artisanal and southern aspects of local cocktails and beers appeals to those who want to be part of an “in” group too. Bringing up the New Orleans Sazerac, Matt mentions that an important aspect of drinking, no matter the region, is knowing about the local drinking culture. Perhaps local alcohol purveyors hope to create the feeling of an authentic, local, southern drinking experience.

We end today’s show by sampling a few different moonshines, and by sharing our favorite southern drinks. We begin with an authentic home-brewed, locally sourced moonshine acquired from a friend of the show. We then try two flavored faux moonshines sourced from the local Kroger. Matt then describes two of his favorite southern drinks, a Ramos Gin Fizz, and a mint julep. Kelly’s selection, the Aviation, wasn’t invented in the South, but was first served to her at a local Atlanta bar. Gina mentions her Southern Comfort punch, which she only made in Milwaukee. Taken together, our favorite drinks gesture toward an idea of southern culture as a combination of lived experiences and creative imaginings.

Map showing dry (red), wet (blue), and mixed (yellow) counties in the United States. Wikimedia Commons,

We would like to thank today’s special guest, Matt Dischinger. Matt is a Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology He teaches courses in multiethnic literatures, American Literature, critical theory, and writing. His research examines contemporary U.S. literature in the South. Along with Conor Picken, he is currently editing a forthcoming collection entitled Southern Comforts: Drinking and the U.S. South.

#sazerac on Instagram:

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Episode Eleven: The Pleasures of John Marrant (and Baltimore)

Gina Caison September 29, 2016

This week we talk to scholar of early African American literature, Tara Bynum. When Tara tells people that she researches African American pleasure in the eighteenth century, they often respond with puzzled looks, but Tara asserts that interrogating pleasure re-centers the focus on black cultural production and uncovers the ways in which African American people make meaning in their own lives. We discuss eighteenth-century Methodist minister, John Marrant, a free black man who found pleasure through practicing his Christian faith. Marrant’s experiences challenge traditional constructions of southern geographies and literary histories and invite us to rethink the role of Christianity and pleasure in the lives of African Americans in the eighteenth century.

Born in 1755, John Marrant was a well-established itinerant minister. After moving with his mother to Charleston, he converted to Christianity, left his family at age 13, and lived in the wilderness before being captured by Cherokee Indians. According to the ordination narrative he published in 1785, he succeeded in converting several members of the tribe before he returned to Charleston. His narrative, published in 1785, is subsequently published 15 times, making it the most popular early African American narrative and one of the earliest extant narratives by a free black person.

The Fourth Edition of Marrant's Narrative

Academics often (and accurately) view Christianity in the early South as a tool used by the planter class to bolster enslavement. However, John Marrant’s experience as a free black man who derived pleasure from practicing his Methodist faith demonstrates that early African American people understood and practiced Christianity in ways that provided them with comfort and pleasure. Tara explains that refocusing our attention on black pleasure offers a model wherein blackness is no longer analyzed in relation to whiteness; it is instead the center of its own story.

John Marrant’s story also reminds us that the South moves, which is particularly important for Tara, who grew up in Baltimore, a city whose southernness is often contested. We end today’s conversation discussing the ways in which the South travels, particularly as people move and take cultural objects (e.g. quilts) to new places. These objects remind us that there are other ways outside of geography to be connected to the South, even if we are not always aware of those connections.

Baltimore, MD. Photo: Fletcher 6, Wikimedia Commons

We would like to thank today’s special guest, Tara Bynum. She is a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Long-Term Fellow at the American Antiquarian Society and a Visiting Assistant Professor at the College of Charleston in the Departments of English and African American Studies. We would also like to thank the American Antiquarian Society for allowing us to host this conversation.

Episode Ten: No More Book Babies

Gina Caison September 23, 2016

Ali Arant, English Professor at Wagner College on Staten Island, joins us this week for a conversation about old maids from the South and elsewhere. Ali’s research focuses on the trope of the old maid in regional literature, examining work by William Faulkner, Ellen Glasgow, Katherine Anne Porter, Richard Wright, and Toni Morrison among others.

However, she has also found the figure in surprising places. For instance, the term is also used to describe an un-popped kernel of popcorn at the bottom of a bowl and the single, unmatchable card in a game similar to Go Fish. An old maid lurks in the lyrics of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” as the (typically) female speaker’s “maiden aunt” with a “vicious mind.” Our conversation investigates how cultural anxieties are embodied in this tragicomic character.

The original from Neptune's Daughter Neptune's Daughter is a 1949 musical romantic comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer starring Esther Williams, Red Skelton, Ricardo Montalbán, Betty Garrett, Keenan Wynn, Xavier Cugat and Mel Blanc. It was directed by Edward Buzzell, and features the Academy Award winning song Baby, It's Cold Outside by Frank Loesser.

According to Ali, old maids are typically past the typical age of being married, and they seem unlikely to ever be married. They are usually busybodies, overly interested in other people’s sexuality, and they retain the worst aspects of youth and age. They are childish and immature with aging, "gross" bodies. She presents Rosa Coldfield in Absalom, Absalom! whose “female old flesh [was] long embattled in virginity” as an embodiment of the trope.

Old maids represent reproductive potential gone wrong, and they can express and/or mock anxieties about changing cultural landscapes. For example, old maids appearing in early twentieth-century southern literature might reflect an Agrarian anxiety that the South with cease to be what it once was. The figure appears in conjunction with agricultural anxiety about crop exhaustion and concerns about miscegenation. Ali describes how women come to stand in for larger cultural anxieties in the late twentieth century as well, noting that Jeffrey Eugenides cites the decline of the automobile industry as the inspiration for his 1993 novel, The Virgin Suicides.

We would like to thank our special guest this week, Ali Arant, who also provided music for this week’s episode. Ali’s research focuses on regionalism, gender, and critical race studies, and she is completing two book projects, an edited collection on Flannery O’Connor with Jordan Cofer, and a second book on old maids and regionalism. We would also like to congratulate Ali and her husband, Tyler, on their recent marriage. We hope their future includes all the happiness in the world (and ample space for bookshelves).

Buy Ali Arant's album, June/July here.

Episode Nine: More Estrogen in Football

Gina Caison September 15, 2016

This week, we have assembled an all-star team of football fans (all of whom happen to be women). Friends of the show, Kris Townsend, Alex Patafio, and Stephanie Rountree, join host Gina Caison and co-producer Kelly Vines to have a conversation about what it’s like to be a woman who loves football in the South.

Opening weekend at Auburn versus Clemson.

Our conversation covers topics big and small: our childhood connection to the sport, our experiences with other fans, prescribed roles for women on game day, toxic masculinity, mansplaining, and regional performance. While it may seem like just a game, our discussion demonstrates the complex issues associated with our favorite fall pastime.

We begin by talking about our relationship to football growing up and our current allegiances. Kelly—currently a Georgia Tech fan getting her Ph.D. at LSU—grew up listening to UGA games with her grandfather. Stephanie’s father was in sports licensing when she was a child, and they rooted for the Florida Gators at home. She became a competitive cheerleader and learned more about the game, then eventually attended Florida State who she now supports. Kris’s parents met at Florida State and visited the school frequently during Kris’s childhood. Competing in track led her to UGA, though she originally wanted to attend FSU. She now roots primarily for Florida State, but also for UGA and other teams in the SEC. Alex grew up a Penn State fan and developing a love for football in middle and high school, she became a cheerleader. Gina came to love football through her mother, an NC State season ticket holder. She learned about the sport by going to NC State games with her family before becoming a majorette in high school.

While discussing our biographical information, we also talk about some of the issues we’ve had attending games. Kris and Kelly mention some negative experiences with other fans. Gina also brings up her experience after one particularly heartbreaking Auburn game against Alabama, which was mentioned in Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer, and suggests that perhaps we can all get too caught up in our fan allegiances.

After the halftime break, we discuss some issues female football fans face in the South. Gina laments that she cannot watch football in a bar without men looking at her like she’s a dog riding a bicycle. Kris offers her own experience to contrast with Gina’s; as someone who appears more androgynous, she can blend in and enjoy the game without necessarily being subjected to the "male gaze." Alex connects the difficulties of being a woman who is interested in football to the more traditional views of a “woman’s place” in southern culture.

Then we turn our attention to some of the more serious events covered by the media, including the Penn State and Jameis Winston scandals. These news stories prompt us to question whether or not team allegiances enable us to defend inexcusable behavior so that we can continue to participate in an activity we enjoy. In response to Gina’s question if, as women, we could we move the needle from the inside, Alex describes her sister’s UGA tailgates. Exclusively attended by women, they’re a place of empowerment. She asserts that if women felt more empowered instead of anomalous, then maybe we could be more involved with the sport, working for the NCAA and calling games. Gina observes how women in football relates to larger concerns about gender performance, citing Erin Andrews and the burden female sportscasters feel to look a certain way. Despite their talent, female sportscasters are still relegated to the sidelines.

Erin Andrews field reporting at USC vs. Oregon game, 2010. Neon Tommy, Wikimedia Commons.

We then tackled our experiences with "mansplainers," and Gina questions why we still go to games after experiencing firsthand the problematic way in which women are treated. Panelists mention a few reasons: we love our respective teams, we feel that it provides us with an important connection to our history and others at the game with us, and it provides an important escape from the hamster wheel of work involved in everyday life. Stephanie also mentions the vicarious and visceral response fans have to the game. Football especially provides women with an amazing sublimation of anger. However, on the other hand, we all lament male announcers who talk about penetration and our several negative experiences with other fans. It then becomes difficult to separate the game from gender performance and interpolation.

Stephanie mentions how football is tied up in regional identification too. She notes that the SEC is held up as the seat of all brilliance in college football, despite being dethroned many times. She wonders if it isn’t part of the same southern myth assigning glory to the region based on perception rather than hard facts.

We close this week’s show with our predictions about who will win the National Championship and who we hope will not.

The top ten ranked teams as of Friday, September 15, 2016. Will our predictions pan out?

We would like to think our special guests this week, Stephanie Rountree, Kris Townsend, and Alex Patafio. We'd also like to thank Jen Welter for inspiring us all.

Episode Eight: Real Pie

Gina Caison August 26, 2016

This week we traveled to North Carolina to talk with Scott Romine, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, about moon pies, grits, and soft drinks. Returning to one of the central questions guiding this podcast, we also talk with Scott about what we might mean when we talk about the “real South.”

We began this podcast with three questions: What is the South? Is it real? And what’s so special about it? Given that Scott wrote a book titled The Real South: Southern Narrative in the Age of Cultural Reproduction, we thought he might be able to provide us with an answer to our first two questions or at least point us in the right direction. While he describes the South as an intersection between an idea and a social reality, he also says that he tends to approach the South as more of an idea, or an “imagined community.” He describes how people generally have a positive or negative idea about the South, and he asserts that one’s opinion can lead to a confirmation bias where new information is filtered out and the extraordinarily complex region is oversimplified.

Scott describes how current projects related to southern food relate to his work on the South as an idea. He notes that Southern Living started the year after the Civil Rights Act was passed. He accounts for Southern Living as an attempt to find a new, noncontroversial way to consume the South. After all, as he points out, no one is really going to fight a Civil War over barbecue, sweet tea, or grits. However, while publications like Southern Living successfully make the South more palatable, they also presented distorted representations of the material realities of actual people. For instance, romanticized images of the “Great Southern Table” in southern periodicals obscure the stark racial divisions and inequalities characterizing domains of food production and consumption domain. In many southern households, labor is distributed across gender lines as well, where women are primarily responsible for preparing and cleaning up after meals.

We end this week’s episode with a conversation about moon pies, a fairly new (first introduced in 1917) mass-produced, but still somehow quintessentially “southern” dessert. Scott says he started researching moon pies after Bill Ferris made the odd claim that moon pies anchor southerners to their culture and history. According to Scott, Ferris’s connection works because of an ability to invoke a southern imaginary. Ferris’s comment also highlights the fact that “authenticity” and “tradition” are always changing and demonstrates the necessity of meeting “authenticity” claims with skepticism.

Big Bill Lister, who toured with Hank Williams and was billed as "Radio's Tallest Singing Cowboy". Texan Big Bill Lister is best known for his early 1950s stint as Hank Williams' opening act and rhythm guitarist.

We would like to thank our special guest this week, Scott Romine. Scott is a Professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. His second book, The Real South: Southern Narrative in the Age of Cultural Reproduction continues to be a core text in the field of southern studies. He recently co-edited Keywords for Southern Studies with Jennifer Rae Greeson.

Scott's book suggestions:

Jennifer Rae Greeson - Our South: Graphic Fantasy and the Rise of National Literature

Leigh Anne Duck - The Nation’s Region: Southern Modernism, Segregation, and U.S. Nationalism

Jon Smith - Finding Purple America: The South and the Future of American Cultural Studies

Eric Gary Anderson, Taylor Hagood, and Daniel Cross Turner - Undead Souths: The Gothic and Beyond in Southern Literature and Culture

Episode Seven: Literally a Lobster

Gina Caison August 18, 2016

This week, we talk about lyrical literalism in the music of The B-52’s*, “that tacky little dance band from Athens G-A,” with LSU professor and southern studies scholar, Michael Bibler.

The Bs in Barcelona. Wikimedia Commons via LivePict.

The B-52’s formed in Athens, Georgia in late 1977. Initially, they began playing together just for fun. This was before Athens became the music scene it is known as today -- before Pylon and REM -- and before the city had live music venues like the famous 40 Watt Club. After playing several house parties, the band started getting gigs in New York City at which point their success necessitated a move. After releasing “Rock Lobster” they became an international success and began touring in Japan, Europe, and Australia. When Ricky Wilson died of complications related to AIDS in 1985, the band took a hiatus, returning in 1989 to release Cosmic Thing.

Michael listened to The B-52’s as a teenager growing up in Aiken, South Carolina. He returned to their music as an academic, and he is now examining how literalism functions in their songs. For example, the lyrics “There’s a moon in the sky / It’s called the moon,” resist making the moon a symbol for something else. In “Butterbean,” the lyrics similarly emphasize the literal: “Pick ‘em, hull ‘em, put on the steam / That’s how we make butterbeans.”

The B-52's - There's A Moon In The Sky - The B-52's(1979)

Performed live on UK TV 1983.

Visually, the album cover for an early release of “Rock Lobster” reinforces the same kind of literalism, depicting a pink rock and a blue lobster next to one another.

Another song, “The Devil in My Car,” was inspired by taking the metaphorical and making it literal. After hearing a southern preacher deliver a sermon on AM radio about how the devil was everywhere, including "in your car," the band members wondered what it would be like if the devil was literally in the car with them.

One of the most famous examples of literalism occurs in “Love Shack.” This is the lyric that has given everyone so much interpretive trouble over the years: “tin roof, rusted." Several interviewers have asked band members to explain the lyric's meaning, but they can only describe how it ended up in the song. For The B-52’s, it means quite literally, “tin roof, rusted,” but listeners want it to mean more than it does. As Michael explains, this famous example demonstrates how literalism enables an object, moment, or meaning to become bigger than itself without becoming different from itself.

Watch the official music video for The B-52's - "Love Shack"

We consider how this idea of “literalism” helps us to understand aspects of southernness and queerness. The B-52’s are not performing some essentialized “overalls and accents” southernness. They are performing themselves. They were created out of the very elements we see in their appearance and hear in their music. Their thrift store aesthetic literally picks up the remains of capitalism and makes something new out of it.

Michael also relates literalism of the B-52's to the ways in which queerness is addressed via tacitness in the South. The B-52’s are unabashedly queer and unapologetically campy. At the same time, they seemingly created and performed themselves without "coming out" until relatively late in their careers. This juxtaposition leads us to reflect on the contours of queer life and queer acceptance in the small-town South that may deviate from larger national narratives of "out" or "closeted" culture.

We would like to thank our special guest this week, Michael Bibler. Michael is an Associate Professor at Louisiana State University. His book, Cotton’s Queer Relations: Same-Sex Intimacy and the Literature of the Southern Plantation, 1936-1968, examines the connections between same-sex relationships and social egalitarianism in literature of the southern plantation published in the mid-twentieth century. He’s currently working on a project about literalism.

Our thoughts this week are with the people of southern Louisiana who are overcoming the devastating effects of recent floods. Please visit www.lafloodrelief.org to donate to relief efforts. You can also text “LAFLOODS” to 90999 to make a $10 donation to the American Red Cross.

*NOTE: The band changed the spelling of their name in 2008 to remove the apostrophe. They are now known as “The B-52s.”

Purchase the music from this episode:

“Butterbean”

“There’s a Moon in the Sky (Called the Moon)”

“Rock Lobster”

“Love Shack”

“Devil in My Car”

Catch The B-52s in your city:

Episode Six: It's About Story

Gina Caison August 11, 2016

This week we talk with Choctaw author and professor LeAnne Howe and Native American Studies scholar Kirstin Squint about what we might mean when we talk about the “Native South.”

From top right: Shell Shaker, Seeing Red, Pixeled Skins: American Indians and Film, Miko Kings: An Indian Baseball Story, and Choctalking on Other Realities. — From top right: *Shell Shaker*, *Seeing Red, Pixeled Skins: American Indians and Film, Miko Kings: An Indian Baseball Story,* and *Choctalking on Other Realities*.

We were able to have this conversation when we attended the annual Falkner and Yoknapatawpha conference in Oxford, Mississippi this summer. This year’s topic was on Faulkner and the Native South. We were delighted to get the chance to sit down and discuss their work and what is meant by something now called the “Native South.”

The 2016 Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference featured numerous scholars of the Native South and/or Faulkner, including Eric Gary Anderson, Jodi Byrd, Robbie Ethridge, Patricia Galloway,  LeAnne Howe, Katherine Osbourne, Melanie Benson Taylo… — The 2016 Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference featured numerous scholars of the Native South and/or Faulkner, including Eric Gary Anderson, Jodi Byrd, Robbie Ethridge, Patricia Galloway, LeAnne Howe, Katherine Osbourne, Melanie Benson Taylor, and Annette Trefzer.

Howe describes the importance of story to both her creative and critical projects. Guided by the story, she then begins to research for her critical work, and that research is then woven into the creative work as well. Squint describes how works such as LeAnne’s Shell Shaker open the door for students in her literature courses at North Carolina’s High Point University to begin thinking about tribal histories. Howe adds that she envisions Native American literature as a vehicle for change. Important to both Howe's critical and creative work is the idea of tribalography, which is a term she uses to describe the method by which Native stories work to encompass new people, traditions, lifeways, circumstances, challenges, and innovations.

Squint describes how the story of colonialism always asks how Europeans influenced the indigenous people, but Howe’s work prompted her to think about the Indigenous aspects of southern culture instead. For instance, Howe describes how Choctaw people offered refuge and food to Europeans. Now, she says, when she looks around the South, she sees a reflection of Chickasaw, Choctaw, and other southeastern tribes in the “southern lifeway” of hospitality.

Despite the influence of Indigenous cultures on the modern-day South, the term “Native South” is a complex term, encompassing many different ideas, cultures, people, and connections. Squint describes how, even though the term is widely used, the “South” usually refers to the Confederacy, which is a colonial construct and, therefore, might not be the best term to use when thinking about the region's Native histories and literatures. Squint also describes how those Choctaws who carried handfuls of Mississippi dirt with them during their Removal to Indian Territory further challenge our conceptions of regional identity. Howe notes that: “The land still causes us to return.” For instance, she describes how the Chickasaw Nation is buying back its homelands one acre at a time.

Historical marker, downtown Oxford, Mississippi. Chickasaw land.

Our conversation then turns to the importance of tribal citizenship. Squint explains how Kentucky, where she grew up, has no federally recognized tribes, even though the state has a rich Native history. However, despite a lack of tribal affiliation, many people claim a Cherokee relative, which, as Gina explains, can be both offensive and harmful. These false claims to Native ancestry can have material implications when people apply for scholarships or jobs and self-identify as Indigenous without needing to prove their tribal citizenship.

Before closing, Howe and Squint describe what they would like to see in the future of Native American & Southern Studies. Squint says she would like to see Native literature in more southern literature classrooms and, more broadly, more Native literature taught in the South. Howe concludes by describing how contemporary debates about immigration demonstrate a way in which Native literatures, Native stories, and Native histories help all Americans be better prepared in the twenty-first century.

Howe's latest book, which won the 2014 Modern Language Association inaugural prize for studies in Native American Literatures, Cultures, and Languages.

We would like to thank our special guests this week, LeAnne Howe and Kirstin Squint. LeAnne Howe is a Choctaw author and Eidson Distinguished Professor at the University of Georgia. She has won numerous awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas and the 2014 Modern Language Association inaugural prize for studies in Native American Literatures, Cultures, and Languages for her book Choctalking on Other Realities (2013). Kirstin Squint is an Associate Professor of English at High Point University. She is the leading scholar on LeAnne Howe’s work, and currently she is completing a book on this topic.

Additionally, we would like to thank Jay Watson and everyone at the University of Mississippi for a productive Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference on Faulkner and the Native South.

You can purchase LeAnne Howe's work here:

Shell Shaker

Miko Kings: An Indian Baseball Story

Choctalking on Other Realities

Evidence of Red: Poems and Prose

Seeing Red, Hollywood's Pixeled Skins: American Indians and Film

Episode Five: Let Yourself Go

Gina Caison August 5, 2016

This week, we sit down with southern studies scholar Monica Miller to talk about ugly women in southern literature and popular culture.

In the U.S. South, parents frequently tell misbehaving children to stop “being ugly,” but according to Monica, there is a certain power in being ugly, especially for southern women who want to escape traditional expectations.

Photo of Minnie Pearl wondering if her latest male interest loves her or not. Grand Ole Opry, 1949. Wikimedia Commons

Although southern women are often stereotyped as “prettier” than women from other places, Monica offers that southern literature by women writers such as Flannery O’Connor, Alice Walker, Eudora Welty, and Margaret Mitchell often feature ugly women. According to Monica, ugliness enables characters like Katherine Anne Porter’s Cousin Eva — who was “doomed” because of her weak chin — to subvert the expectation that her life would be defined largely by marriage and children. Similarly, Joy / Hulga in Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People” chooses ugliness. She changes her name from Joy to Hulga because its “uglier,” and she adopts “ugly” habits which enable her, in part, to obtain a Ph.D. For many of these southern literary women, ugliness provides another option.

Revisiting the phrase that kicked off our discussion, Monica describes how the conflation of behavior and appearance in the phrase “being ugly” is particularly fascinating given the particular set of strict standards governing femininity and womanhood in the South.

Kim Fields listens to Kenya Moore's lesson on makeup historiography at her "Beatless Brunch." Watch the clip from Season 12 of The Real Housewives of Atlanta "Beauty & the Beat" here. — Kim Fields listens to Kenya Moore's lesson on makeup historiography at her "Beatless Brunch." Watch the clip from Season 12 of *The* *Real Housewives of Atlanta* "Beauty & the Beat" here.

Monica brings up the drag version of Designing Women, in which Julia Sugarbaker is played by Topher Payne, to demonstrate the performative nature of southern womanhood as the male actors reproduce their female counterparts from the show.

Julia Sugarbaker has had enough of GOP presidential candidate Donald J. Trump's misogynistic views on women and now, the iconic steel magnolia has a few words of her own to share with the reality TV star.

Dolly Parton, who is also frequently played by drag performers (some of whom “look more like me than I do,” according to Dolly) also seems to underline southern womanhood as a construction or performance. Long before the Kardashians, Parton embraced the idea of a constructed reality of womanhood.

Finally, after discussing how even make-up terminology seems to emphasize construction (e.g. “foundation” and “primer”) we end this episode by discussing one of Monica’s favorite southern ugly icons: Minnie Pearl.

Minnie Pearl - Looking At Fellers

In short, while Reese Witherspoon may not wear sweatpants in public, there are definitely southern women who do.

In public.

Your About South co-producers included.

So #letyourselfgo and tweet us your photos—you wonderful, empowered, southern women—proudly wearing your sweatpants in public @aboutsouthpod #southernwomenwearsweatpants.

We would like to thank today’s special guest, Monica Miller. She is a Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow and Assistant Director of Writing and Communication at Georgia Tech. We are very excited about her forthcoming monograph, Being Ugly: Southern Women Writers and Social Rebellion, which will be published Spring 2017 by LSU Press’s Southern Literary Studies Series.

Other things we mention in this Episode:

Gretchen E. Henderson, Ugliness: A History

Blaine Roberts, Pageants, Parlors, and Pretty Women: Race and Beauty in the Twentieth-Century South

Episode Four: Feel Lighter

Gina Caison July 22, 2016

This week we visit Pasaquan, home of the late St. EOM.

Eddie Owens Martin was born at the stroke of midnight on July 4, 1908 to sharecroppers in the rural southern town of Glen Alta, Georgia. Perceiving himself as an outsider, Eddie left the South as a teen and spent most of his adulthood working as a street hustler in New York. There, Eddie had his first vision of Pasaquan, and when he moved back to Buena Vista, Georgia in 1957, he changed his name to St. EOM and began what would become his life’s work. The site, seven acres of brightly painted masonry walls, is currently being renovated. We talk with site director, Michael McFalls, about St. EOM and his Pasaquoyan legacy.

The 900-feet of concrete walls built by St. EOM are adorned with his interpretations of symbols from many different cultures and religions. While most visionary artists (e.g. Howard Finster) are inspired by their Christian faith and incorporate Christian imagery into their art, St. EOM’s work is much different. St. EOM built Pasaquan after he was visited by Pasaquoyans from the future in a fever dream. They urged him to create “a utopian society that’s pluralistic and accepting of all,” which, Michael admits, might be “kind of scary,” to potential visitors.

Through our conversation with Michael, we discovered that St. EOM was as much a work of art as Pasaquan. He made his own clothes and frequently adorned a self-fashioned headdress. He made a living in Buena Vista by telling fortunes, and some people believed him to be a witch doctor. Michael suggests that Eddie Martin intentionally cultivated myths about the character of St. EOM to insulate himself in a small community where he never felt like he belonged. Regardless, St. EOM is his own piece of art, as carefully curated as the concrete sculptures and painted walls of Pasaquan.

The pagoda and old well pump at Pasaquan.

We hoped that visiting Pasaquan would provide us with insight into St. EOM’s artistic purpose, but instead we came away from the site unsettled and overwhelmed. Pasaquan is a house, but it is also a work of art with complex images that evoke sensory and visceral responses. Similarly, Eddie Owens Martin was a real human being and a talented artist, but he also cultivated the character of St. EOM whose mythic persona has only grown since Eddie’s death in 1986. While we left Pasaquan with more questions than answers, we feel certain of at least one thing: St. EOM attempted to build a better future with the tools he had, and that’s a noble goal.

Pasaquoyans levitating in their "power suits."

We would like to thank today’s special guest, Michael McFalls. We would also like to thank everyone involved in the preservation of Pasaquan. The site will reopen with a festival on October 22, 2016, and we encourage our listeners to take the trip down to Buena Vista to see St. EOM’s utopia in person.

Learn more about the work of:

This video was filmed on November 10, 2015 with a DJI Phantom 3 quadcopter.

Episode Three: Southern Souls

Gina Caison July 15, 2016

This week, we talk about songs and albums, lyrics and melodies, sounds and sensations with Scott Heath, a professor of African American literature and culture at Georgia State University, and we learn about the southern inflections of soul and neosoul music along with African American music more generally.

D'Angelo performing at Brixton Academy, February 2012. Photo credit: Phil Sheard

Since Andre 3000 proclaimed that “the South got something to say” after Outkast won the Best New Rap Group at the Source Awards in 1995, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in southern hip_hop artists. However, there are several distinctly southern artists who are not necessarily considered in conversations about southern musical traditions.

An excerpt from the VH1 documentary 'ATL: The Untold Story of Atlanta's Rise in the Rap Game' (2014).

We begin by investigating the importance of regional identity to certain genres of music. As Scott explains, attaching a musical aesthetic to a region only happens in a couple of genres: country and hip_hop. While country music is associated with the South, hip_hop was primarily associated with urban centers on the East and West coasts (until Outkast’s prominence beginning in the mid-90s, at least). These regional affiliations often either necessitate that the artist either relocate, adopt the sound of another region, or risk causing a disruption in the genre. Investigating the effect of music genres tied to certain regions prompts us to ask what an artist might gain or lose by associating with a particular region. We also ask what makes an artist “southern,” and what qualities make music sound “southern.”

Taylor Swift performs "Our Song" at the 2007 Country Music Awards.

With these questions in mind, we begin to consider neosoul. Neosoul grows out of soul music, which itself is a hybrid of 60s R&B and gospel music, along with some elements from jazz and blues. Initially, the most popular artists creating soul music—Ray Charles, Nina Simone, James Brown, and Aretha Franklin—were all born in the South. Scott argues that the South remains the intellectual home of soul music into the neosoul era, with D’Angelo (from Richmond, Virginia) and Erykah Badu (from Dallas, Texas). We also discuss connections between Badu’s “Southern Girl” (1999) and Beyoncé’s Lemonade (2016) in their depictions of unapologetic southern black womanhood.

Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group North America Southern Girl · Erykah Badu Southern Girl ℗ 1999 Universal Motown Records

Finally, we investigate what happens when artists outside of the region adopt the aesthetics of southern rappers, as we turn our attention toward Desiigner, a Brooklyn rapper who has gained prominence by emulating Future, an Atlanta-based artist. To help us understand Desiigner’s success, Scott introduces the concept of the “long South,” in which contemporary African American music from across the U.S. is connected by a series of resonances to traditions emanating from the U.S. South.

We would like our special guest, Scott Heath. You can explore his other work on teaching poetry through Kanye West, archiving the black 90s, and viewing recent media related to slavery.

We would also like to thank our musical contributor Brian Horton. Please visit his website and support his music.

Artists featured in this episode:

Outkast, “Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik”

Erykah Badu, “Southern Girl”

James Brown, “Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine”

Maceo Parker, “Up and Down East Street”

Taylor Swift, “Our Song”

Episode Two: Vampires On the Outside, Accountants On the Inside

Gina Caison July 8, 2016

Covington, Georgia is a small town on the outskirts of Atlanta with a big reputation in the film industry. Billing itself as the camera-ready “Hollywood of the South,” Covington has starred in several films and television shows, including the popular CW show The Vampire Diaries.

This week, we tour the town with southern studies scholar Molly McGehee and sit down to talk about southern television.

Paul Wesley (Stefan), Nina Dobrev (Elena) and Ian Somerhalder (Damon) at 2012 Comic-Con International. Photo by Gage Skidmore. From Wikimedia Commons.

We begin our investigation into television tourism with the Vampire Stalkers Tour, a Vampire Diaries-themed tour guided by Angie at Mystic Falls Tours. Stopping for lunch at the Mystic Grill, we see first-hand how The Vampire Diaries has changed the town. At first, the Mystic Grill was only a façade created outside of an accountant’s office for the television show, but the real-world building behind the façade now houses a fully operational restaurant and goes by the name of the fictional Mystic Falls eatery. The story behind the Mystic Grill underlines the slippery relationship between reality and fiction when a television show takes over a small town.

In addition to learning about vampires, we question why one might choose to set a vampire show in the South anyway, specifically exploring the significance of the characters' Civil War experiences. We also consider the economic and material impact of television shows that film in southern locations.

The courthouse in Covington,  a site of much Vampire drama. — The courthouse in Covington, a site of much Vampire drama.

We would like to thank our special guest, Molly McGehee. Additionally, we owe enormous thanks to Angie at and our fellow vampire stalkers at Mystic Falls Tours. We would also like to thank Ben at the fictional Lockwood Mansion, and everyone who works to create The Vampire Diaries in Covington, Georgia.

Live from Instagram, #thevampirediaries:

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Episode One: The Crayfish Blues

Gina Caison July 1, 2016

Welcome to About South. Each week we talk to the folks who create, curate, and critique southern cultures. Ultimately, along with our guests, we consider three questions: What is the South? Is it real? And what’s so special about it?

In this episode we explore the mystery of the blue crayfish .

The Florida blue crayfish in its natural habitat in Petco.

In several pet stores across the globe, customers can find for sale a “electric” blue crayfish. Many websites describe the blue crayfish as endemic to Florida and claim these blue crustaceans are members of the species Procambarus alleni or Procambarus paeninsulanis.

Before buying a crayfish companion, though, we wanted to see if we could find one in the wild in order to understand more about this seemingly special Floridian. We reached out to several scholars and pet purveyors, hoping experts might be able to direct us to a location in Florida where we might catch a glimpse of the blue crayfish in its natural habitat.

However, our search yielded few answers and many more questions. After several false starts and dead ends, we began to wonder if the blue crayfish existed at all. Then, we paid a visit to the local Petco where we were able to see a blue crayfish in-person.

But still, the question lingered: if the blue crayfish exists, why couldn’t we find anyone who knows where it lives in Florida?

Searching for a blue crayfish in the wild brings up questions of authenticity, consumption, spectacle culture, and those things we might think of as exceptionally southern.

We would like to thank our special guest, Lindsey Eckert. Additionally, we would like to thank the Florida Department of Natural Resources, the folks at Silver Springs State Park, Dr. Bill Pine at the University of Florida, Dr. Chris Taylor and Rachel Vinsel of the Prairie Research Institute of the Illinois Natural History Survey, Dr. Leo Nico of the U.S. Geological Survey, Dr. Keith Crandall of the Department of Biological Sciences at George Washington University, Post-Doctoral Associate Jesse Breinholt of the Florida Museum of Natural History, the folks at PetSolutions, and the generous Instagram users who hashtag under “bluecrayfish.”

Last, but certainly not least, we would like to thank Dr. Jim Stoeckel of the School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences and Dr. Brian Helms of the Department of Biological Sciences at Auburn University.

If you would like to learn more about researching, protecting, and appreciating aquatic life, particularly crayfish, please visit Auburn University’s School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences.

Live from Instagram, #bluecrayfish:

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Launching 2016

Gina Caison February 21, 2016

Stay tuned: About South airs beginning July 1, 2016.

In the meantime, listen to our trailer, follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.