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. 14: Florida’s War on Immigrants
Florida has an estimated 5 million immigrants — more than 20 percent of its total population. It is also ground zero of the Trump administration’s mass deportation program. With the eager assistance of Gov. Ron DeSantis and state legislators, it has seen some of the country’s most aggressive enforcement round-ups and most enthusiastic cooperation from…
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Headlights Ep. 13: Fighting Book Bans in Alabama
Angie Hayden became an accidental activist when she stood up against censorship in her local library in Prattville, Alabama. Now she’s a founder of a statewide coalition called Read Freely Alabama, which is fighting efforts to ban books and restrict libraries across the state. We talked to her from the frontlines of a contentious fight…
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Headlights Ep. 12: Meeting the Cast Iron Resistance
What does U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett do in the bathroom? The privy proclivities of our East Tennessee congressman are among the issues on the minds of Jesse and the gang from “Cast Iron Resistance” in a special podcast crossover. Jesse joined the guys on their own show a few weeks ago, and here we present…
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Headlights Ep. 11: ICE in the Louisiana Heat
Last week, a group of workers from the Service Employees International Union from across the U.S. took a caravan of buses to demonstrate outside two of the state’s ICE detention centers. The union’s membership includes more than 400,000 immigrants, and they wanted to show solidarity with people who have been swept up in the Trump…
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Headlights Ep. 10: LGBTQ Rights in the South
As we close out Pride month, we thought it was a good time to check in with two leading voices for LGBTQ rights in the South: Chris Sanders of the Tennessee Equality Project and Jeff Graham of Georgia Equality. We spoke just a few days after the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case of…
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Headlights Ep. 9: Untold Stories
The conversation this week is with Brandon Jones, political director for the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund, which is seeking out and supporting progressive candidates in local races across the Deep South. Jesse talks with Jones about his background — which includes a stint in the Mississippi Legislature — and why grassroots races are…
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Headlights Ep. 8: Watering the Roots
The conversation this week is with Brandon Jones, political director for the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund, which is seeking out and supporting progressive candidates in local races across the Deep South. Jesse talks with Jones about his background — which includes a stint in the Mississippi Legislature — and why grassroots races are…
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Headlights Ep. 7: Songs From Queer Country
Fittingly for Pride month, our interview this week is with indie country standout Adeem the Artist, a non-binary singer-songwriter who is part of a wave of “Queer Country” artists making space for diverse voices in the traditionally conservative genre. We talk about their North Carolina childhood and their growing awareness of their own gender identity…
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Headlights Ep. 6: Weed Whackers in the South
While much of the U.S. has given a green light to cannabis, the South remains mostly hostile to legalization. This week we look at recent moves in three states to restrict hemp-based THC products — and why Virginia still doesn’t have a commercial weed market, even though marijuana is legal. In our conversation, we talk…
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Headlights Ep. 5: A ‘Pragmatic Progressive’ in North Carolina
When Reconstruction ended in the South in 1876, white political leaders moved swiftly to establish what they called a “redemption” — the re-establishment of white supremacist rule. Now, 60 years after the Civil Rights Act, white conservative political leaders are again moving to roll back advances toward racial and sexual equality. Are we in a…
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Headlights Ep. 4: A Second Southern ‘Redemption’?
When Reconstruction ended in the South in 1876, white political leaders moved swiftly to establish what they called a “redemption” — the re-establishment of white supremacist rule. Now, 60 years after the Civil Rights Act, white conservative political leaders are again moving to roll back advances toward racial and sexual equality. Are we in a…
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Headlights Ep. 3: A Union Veteran
Immigration sweeps are picking up steam in states across the South, often with the help of state and local agencies. In this week’s roundup, we look at an unprecedented enforcement action in Florida called Operation Tidal Wave, which led to the arrest of more than 1,000 immigrants, along with operations in Tennessee and along the…