The Bitter Southerner Podcast

In a special bonus episode of The Bitter Southerner Podcast, Bridget Lancaster of America's Test Kitchen introduces a story from her podcast called Proof. In it, reporter Maya Kroth looks at how a Spanish pig is changing Southern farmlands. She meets Georgia farmer Will Harris, who is upping the South’s pork game by introducing Iberian pigs to the United States. These pigs are the source of jamón ibérico, a precious cured ham produced in Spain.

For our grand finale this season, we’re going to attempt to answer a question that ... to every truehearted Southerner … is among the most difficult questions ever: Can the South be redeemed? Congressman John Lewis and Andrew Aydin talk about their mission to tell the Civil Rights Movement through comics....we hear about a Freedom Rider’s lifelong fight against injustice....Pulitzer Prize winning columnist John Archibald on overcoming the “great silence” that exists in many of our lives....and Peggy Wallace Kennedy reflects on the legacy of her father, former Alabama Gov. George Wallace.

The Tennessee Valley Authority’s dams brought electricity to the rural South, and in our region’s lore, it looms huge: the classic story of people vs. progress. As these dams were completed, entire communities were washed away. In this episode of The Bitter Southerner Podcast, we explore the progress, heartbreak and art inspired by the TVA.

In his book “Hillbilly Elegy,” author J.D. Vance argues that the people of Appalachia cause the region’s problems — and not the industries that have spent centuries extracting its rich resources. On this episode, three mountain women help us set the record straight about Appalachia.

How could a 2,000-store restaurant chain become, to Southerners, something more than just another place to eat?