Headlights: Voices from The Progressive South
The American South is much more than Spanish moss and plantation politics. In every city, town and rural county across the region, there are people working for a better future, continuing a centuries-long fight for real freedom, equality and opportunity. In every episode of Headlights, we bring you news, interviews and stories of people working for justice and progressive values all across the South. From community organizers to elected officials to artists and writers, business leaders and scientists, we amplify the voices of those making a difference in our Southern states.
Episodes
SYNOPSIS:
With the teaching of American history — particularly its racial history — under assault from the Trump administration and conservative state governments across the South, the Modjeska Simkins School in South Carolina is a community-based model for carrying that work forward outside the bounds of state-controlled curriculums. This week, we talk to history professor Dr. Robert Greene, the school's lead instr...
SYNOPSIS:
Something remarkable has happened over the past 18 months across the U.S. and especially across the South: a mounting backlash against the explosion of data centers, surveillance cameras, and so-called artificial intelligence. This week, we talk to Tim Cywinski of the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club, who has been leading the fight against data centers in the state that has become their epicenter.
Also:
The...
SYNOPSIS:
Classes are back in session at colleges and universities across the South, and in many conservative-dominated states students and faculty are returning to increasingly tense cultural war zones. This week, we talk to Teresa Klein, president of the Texas chapter of the American Association of University Professors. The group has filed lawsuits against two Texas public university systems over restrictions on...
SYNOPSIS:
We return from our summer hiatus with a look at some fascinating local and state races in recent weeks in Florida and Tennessee. Democrats in both states flipped multiple seats at local levels across both states this month, and took control of some major school boards. It's been a bad set of results for one group in particular — the Florida-based right-wing activist organization Moms for Liberty. We also t...
Our podcast, Headlights: Voices From the Progressive South has been on a summer hiatus while we've been working on other projects. We will be returning next week, with a look at interesting electoral indicators across the South from the past few months. In the meantime, we are preparing to launch our new newsletter. It will include links and more information about the issues discussed in the podcast, as well as other news and event...
SYNOPSIS:
This week, we're featuring an archive interview from 2025 with Steve Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. The nonprofit organization advocates for reduced carbon emissions and increased renewable energy across the Southeast. We talked about the Trump administration's embrace of fossil fuels and the growing energy demand from data centers.
SHOW NOTES:
Southern Alliance for Clean Ener...
SYNOPSIS:
In this archive interview, we talk with Dom Kelly, president and CEO of a nonprofit called New Disabled South, which works for equality and access for people with disabilities. Dom is a fascinating guy with a background in advocacy, music, and politics, and he has a lot of smart things to say about the barriers that remain throughout society — and especially throughout the South.
SHOW NOTES:
New Disabled Sou...
SYNOPSIS:
In this archive interview, we talk to Cuban-American writer Andrew Otazo about the historical, cultural and political mythologies and realities of his native Miami. Find out why he calls it a city built by and for grifters.
SHOW NOTES:
The Miami Creation Myth Andrew Otazo
Synopsis:
In this archive interview, we talk to Tessa Petit of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, which fights on behalf of the estimated 5 million foreign-born residents of the Sunshine State.
SHOW NOTES:
Florida Immigrant Coalition
SYNOPSIS:
In this archive interview, we talk to North Carolina writer Gwen Frisbie-Fulton about the stories she finds in small towns and rural areas — and what her vision is of "a better South."
SHOW NOTES:
Working Class Storytelling
SYNOPSIS:
In this interview from the archives, we talk to Princeton historian Kevin Kruse about the arc of Southern conservative politics since the end of the Civil Rights Movement — and how they're aiming to roll back the gains of the 1960s, and even the 1860s.
SHOW NOTES:
Campaign Trails Kevin Kruse
SYNOPSIS:
All states have queer people, but not all states have a statewide news outlet dedicated to telling their stories. That makes QueerKentucky stand out. The nonprofit LGBTQ newsroom covers state politics and issues, as well as culture and health. This week's conversation is with Executive Director Missy Spears, who talks about trying to reach and reflect queer communities from Louisville to Paducah. Also: Auburn ditches ...
SYNOPSIS:
It's another fraught Pride Month in the South, where LGBTQ rights remain under attack from conservative lawmakers. This week we talk to Dolores Wilk of Central Arkansas Pride about their advocacy for the state's queer population, and the importance of visibility — including a Pride celebration right in front of the state Capitol Building.
Also: The Supreme Court lets Alabama go back to marginalizing Black vo...
SYNOPSIS:
LaTricea Adams learned about environmental racism first-hand, growing up in Memphis and seeing the differences between Black and white neighborhoods. She now leads Young, Gifted and Green, a nonprofit that trains young people in organizing and environmental justice. In this week's interview, she talks about how the water crisis in Flint, Mich., turned her into an activist — and how resistance to data cente...
SYNOPSIS:
Texas conservatives like to cultivate an image of the state as a frontier of rugged individualism and unbridled capitalism. But it is also the land of the Cowboy Strike and the Texas People's Party, a contested terrain with an often overlooked history of radical politics. That's what writer and Austin native David Griscom brings to light in his new book, The Myth of Red Texas. This week, we talk to him about some of t...
SYNOPSIS:
When the all-white Republican supermajority in the Tennessee Legislature carved up Memphis into three congressional districts during the first week of May, they insisted that race had nothing to do with it. But when it comes to Memphis, race always matters. This week, we listen to the voices raised in protest during Tennessee's rapid-fire special session, and put them in the context of the long and often ugly history ...
SYNOPSIS:
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision last week in the Callais case is likely to lead to a major loss of Black representation across the South. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry immediately suspended the state's pending congressional primaries to redraw its maps. Other Republican officials in states including Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia are calling for reducing or eliminating their Black-majority districts. This wee...
SYNOPSIS:
Another year, another cluster of hateful anti-transgender bills proposed in our state legislatures. This week, we round up some of the worst laws passed this spring in Southern states to further bully and harass trans people. In states like Tennessee and Georgia, this year's bills are no longer only aiming at issues like sports and bathroom access, but are aiming directly at the presence — or even the mention &m...
SYNOPSIS:
Nonviolent resistance was the core strategy of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and '60s, and its chief architect alongside Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was another pastor, Rev. James Lawson Jr. Like King, he studied the success of Gandhi's anti-colonial resistance in India, and he answered King's call to teach its precepts to thousands of young African-Americans in the South. Lawson died in 2024, but a new memoi...
SYNOPSIS:
The Democratic Party has an identity problem with voters nationwide, and especially in the South. But a rising wave of young party activists is seeking to bring new energy and ideas into some of the most conservative areas of the country — like Knox County, Tennessee, which has been sending Republicans to Congress since the Civil War. This week, Jesse talks to Solomon Trapp and Julia Kaye, two organizers of a ne...
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