Every week, we round up news and talk to interesting people doing important things across the Southern U.S.
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Headlights Ep. 26: Tennessee’s Gun Deaths
A new report shines light on gun deaths in Tennessee. It shows that the state has high levels of both gun homicides and suicides — and they have risen as conservative legislators have rolled back gun safety laws. We dig into the data with its lead researcher, Beth Joslin Roth, and state Senator Heidi Campbell.
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Headlights Ep. 25: The Heart of Texas
The redistricting fight in Texas set the stage for a national scramble to redraw congressional lines ahead of next year’s midterm elections. Among those at the center of the battle was Texas state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, a leading progressive voice in the state Legislature and one of the Democrats who fled the state in an…
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Headlights Ep. 24: ‘America’s Undoing’ and the Right-Wing Message Machine
In the South, the prospects for progressive causes and candidates can be daunting. But Corbin Trent thinks the answer is not to back down or dilute their messages — it’s to take strong, bold positions on behalf of the region’s working people.
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Headlights Ep. 23: Alexis Okeowo on Alabama
Writer Alexis Okeowo grew up in Montgomery, Alabama, and then moved away from the state for college. She is a contributing writer for The New Yorker, and has reported from Africa and Mexico. She has returned to her home state as the focus of her new book, Blessings and Disasters: A Story of Alabama. In…
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Headlights Ep. 22: Rising Appalachia
Leah Song of Rising Appalachia joins us this week to talk about music, activism and bringing people together in difficult times. Leah and her sister, Chloe Smith, founded the band nearly 20 years ago and have combined an embrace of many strands of Southern music — from Appalachian string-band to Gospel and soul — with…
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Headlights Ep. 21: Guns and Sanctuary in the South
The conversation this week is with Katie Blankenship of Sanctuary of the South — a grassroots organization working across multiple states to provide legal representation for immigrants and havens for marginalized communities. She talks about the challenge of representing clients in the nightmarish ICE detention system — and about reclaiming the word “sanctuary” from right-wing…
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Headlights Ep. 20: Fossil Fuels and an AI Surge
Up until January of this year, several Southern states were among the leaders in clean energy production, with big investments in solar and wind power in Texas, Florida and elsewhere. Then came the Trump administration, with its hostility to renewable sources and championing of fossil fuels. This week, we talk to Steve Smith of the…
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Headlights Ep. 19: Labor Day in the South
It’s Labor Day, even in the South — the region of the country that has long been most hostile to workers’ rights. From slavery through Jim Crow, from “Right to Work” laws aimed at weakening unions to low or nonexistent minimum wages, right-wing leaders in the South have long conspired to disempower labor. But in…
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Headlights Ep. 18: What Happened to Florida?
Florida was once the swing state that presidential elections hinged on. But over the last few decades, it has turned redder and redder. This week we’re joined by writer, educator and Progressive South board member Alfred Soto to talk about what has happened to his home state — and what (if anything) he sees that…
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Headlights Ep. 17: The Undead Confederacy
The Confederacy ended in 1865, but it never really died. The iconography of the slavers’ secessionist rebellion has returned again and again through the succeeding 160 years, particularly in times of backlash against progress toward racial equality. This week we look at recent moves by the Trump administration, along with a Texas school board, to…
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Headlights Ep. 16: Miami’s Myths
Miami is a Southern city by geography, but by history, demographics and culture it’s really not like anywhere else in the South — or, arguably, the world. In this week’s conversation, Cuban-American writer and environmental activist Andrew Otazo helps us understand the politics and personality of the South Florida tourist mecca. He’s the author of…
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Headlights Ep. 15: Texas and the Gerrymandered South
The conversation this week is with Corey J. Miles, an assistant professor at Tulane University in New Orleans who was the editor of a special issue of the journal Southern Cultures devoted entirely to Southern hip-hop. He talks about the region’s initial struggle for visibility in a genre dominated by the East and West coasts,…