Progress, Heartbreak & Art: The TVA

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?

Being part of a Southern community means baking the exactly right cake when we gather. NYT bestselling cookbook author Anne Byrn joins us to talk about the history of famous Southern cakes, two sisters running a Georgia bakery share how they're cooking with a purpose, and we dig into the pages of the "White Trash Cooking" cookbook.

Host Chuck Reece welcomes NPR Music's Ann Powers to help us run down the 10 best Southern albums of 2019.

Okra is not native to North America. It arrived here at the same time enslaved Africans did. No one — no botanist, no historian — can confirm exactly how it got here. But it has connected Southerners across the lines of race, faith, and gender for centuries. In this episode of The Bitter Southerner Podcast, James Beard Award winning journalist Shane Mitchell travels to New Orleans to show how okra unites in the gumbo pot and in our lives.

The spirit of High John the Conqueror keeps the wellsprings of American music, Southern blues and gospel, alive. GUESTS: Musicians Jontavious Willis (Georgia), Bobby Rush (Louisiana), Jake Fussell (North Carolina), the Glorifying Vines Sisters (North Carolina), and the late singer Precious Bryant (Georgia)....and Tim and Denise Duffy of the Music Maker Relief Foundation.

Do you think a Southern accent means its speaker is dumb? In Episode 1 of our second season, we got news for you. GUESTS: Comedians Trae Crowder, Drew Morgan, and Corey Ryan Forrester...Bitter Southerner contributors Dartinia Hull and Lolis Eric Elie...Rapper Killer Mike...Bitter Southerner readers Kristy Wittman Howell and Jessica Whatley