Jimmy clicked the volume down a few levels. I could sense him spot-glancing me in his rearview mirror before he finally said, “So, it’s kinda been a tough afternoon.”
I was overnighting in L.A. for work on a Thursday and using Uber to get place to place.
Chef Hugh Acheson is a two-time James Beard Award winner and one of the most celebrated and influential chefs in the country. I interviewed him about his Canadian roots and philosophy on American food.
The only vampire I ever met was in Natchez, Mississippi. Natchez is one of the oldest towns on the Mississippi River—settlers were there in the 1600s. And when you look at it on a map, it’s as if the river actually bends toward the town, as if Natchez has this mysterious magnetic pull. It’s a town full of transients—Mark Twain slept there. It’s a town full of characters. I was there to find those people: to write a story about the most interesting locals.
Preeminent Southern folklorist Bill Ferris has spent the last 40 years documenting the South in print, photography and film by interviewing some of the region's most influential people.
In our food-obsessed culture, we likely never think about what's on the menu at an eating disorder clinic. A couple of chefs bring their inventive cuisine and gregarious personalities to a treatment center in rural Alabama.
Bostic, North Carolina, is a sleepy little town in Rutherford County nestled in the shadow of the mountains. There’s a town hall, a post office, some churches and stores. There’s also the Bostic Lincoln Center. Lincoln. As in Abraham Lincoln. The center’s whole purpose is to tell the controversial and disputed story that our 16th president was born in North Carolina.
James “Ooker” Eskridge is a waterman who has lived on Tangier Island, Virginia, his whole life. In my interview with him, Ooker talks about being the Chesapeake Bay island’s mayor (population 450), the dwindling interest in working in the seafood industry, and the island’s distinct Cornwall, England-tinged accent.
White lighting. Hooch. The original mountain dew. It’s hard to talk about moonshine without evoking winks and smiles. It carries a mystique. If you own some, you whisper about it. If you don’t, you can bet someone you know does. It’s probably stored in the back of their freezer. Moonshine also carries a certain romance. Because the truth is, there’s a story sealed in every Mason jar of the stuff. Those stories are still celebrated in Wilkes County, NC, where old time bootleggers and retired revenuers met to swap tales. They told about fast car chases, witty judges, and big still busts. There was a lot of laughter. And rumor has it there was even some sipping.
In this interview with CBS correspondent Mo Rocca, we talked about his cynicism surrounding political party conventions. He also described the quintessential public radio groupie.
