For five years, The Bitter Southerner has covered the culture of the South — outside the lines of Southern stereotypes.

Now, The Bitter Southerner Podcast brings you these stories for your ears and not just your eyes: stories about people and organizations that who don’t fit the stereotypes, who are pushing the South into a forward-looking and better direction.

The Bitter Southerner Podcast is a co-production of The Bitter Southerner and Georgia Public Broadcasting. Each episode, hosted by our editor-in-chief, Chuck Reece, explores Southern culture and the South’s contributions to American life, painting a very different — and truer — picture of our region.

Bonus Episode: Welcome to Squid Country

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. Read More

Episode 6: We Are Storytellers

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.
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Episode 5: Healing the War Wounds

How Southerners come together to heal the deepest wounds — the physical and psychological injuries suffered by American veterans and refugees who come to our region traumatized by war in their home countries.
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Episode 4: Across the Borderline

"Southern culture" is impossible to define specifically, because it's always evolving, thanks to immigration. As new people arrive, new ideas go into the gumbo that is our culture. We visit Clarkston, Georgia, the first American home for more than 60,000 refugees across 30 years, learn about Brazilian barbecue, and go see our favorite Southern mariachi band.
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Episode 3: Whiskey River, Take My Mind

Booze matters in every culture. But in the culture of the South, it matters in some peculiar ways you might not know about. We have a drink and dive into the twisted roots of the South’s liquor culture with Tiffanie Barriere, Kathleen Purvis, and some drinking music.
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Bonus Episode: The Best Southern Albums of 2018

Bitter Southerner editor Chuck Reece takes a tour of our magazine's annual list of the Best Southern Albums of the Year. Read More

Episode Two: The Hands That Prepared It

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, so we invited some smart folks. Three chefs — Tunde Wey, Mashama Bailey, and Karla Hall — and two food writers — Michael Twitty and John T. Edge — join us. Read More

Episode One: An Uncloudy Day

The North Carolina folklorist William Ferris, who has documented the sounds of the South over the last 50 years, once told us that 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 our hip-hop columnist, Dr. Joycelyn Wilson, about how trap music has become the “folk music” of young, African American Southerners. And finally, a long chat with the good doctor Dr. Ferris himself.
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Season One: Trailer

Host Chuck Reece brings us stories about Great Southern musicians, chefs, artists, bartenders, and writers. In each episode, we explore how and why the South's greatest contributions to American culture take shape.