Best Black In Appalachia Podcasts (2025)

1
SPIN-OFF SERIES IS LIVE - "Appalachia: A Fallout 76 Story Episodes 1 & 2" 2:37:20

5d ago2:37:20

2:37:20

This is Kenneth Vigue and I am recording this just one day after a visit to Zenimax’s Austin, Texas office, the very place that Fallout 76 was born. I also finally met my dear friend and yours Wes Johnson and y’all...there were tears to be had. The office was amazing, as were the developers I met and after signing an NDA I strolled on through, look…

1
Ahmad Greene-Hayes, "Underworld Work: Black Atlantic Religion Making in Jim Crow New Orleans" (U of Chicago Press, 2025) 1:05:38

5d ago1:05:38

1:05:38

A rethinking of African American religious history that focuses on the development and evolution of Africana spiritual traditions in Jim Crow New Orleans. When Zora Neale Hurston traveled to New Orleans, she encountered a religious underworld, a beautiful anarchy of spiritual life. In Underworld Work, Ahmad Greene-Hayes follows Hurston on a journey…

1
TRAILER: In 4 Days - Our Spinoff Podcast Launches "Appalachia: A Fallout 76 Story" 2:30

9d ago2:30

2:30

This is the second and final teaser trailer before the launch of season one of Appalachia: A Fallout 76 Story on July 18th! A76 (for short) is an audio drama podcast set in the same universe as the acclaimed CHAD: A Fallout 76 Story. This story follows friends Xander Nash and Rabbit (along with an assortment of friends and not-so-friends) from Vaul…

1
Jeremy Black, "The Civil War" (Saint Augustine's Press, 2025) 30:13

9d ago30:13

30:13

The American Civil War may have been more consequential to American history (and its global supremacy) than its Revolutionary War and participation in all other world wars. The influence of this war is not just reduced to the victory of the north and its economic infrastructure, but the fact of Union success ushered in the notion of 'what it means …

1
Kirstie Macleod, "The Red Dress: Conversations in Stitch" (Quickthorn, 2025) 32:31

14d ago32:31

32:31

The Red Dress: Conversations in Stitch (Quickthorn, 2025), shares the deeper story of The Red Dress, its embroiderers and Kirstie Macleod's own story whilst opening up the wider issues the garment prompts for its audiences through thematic essays by individuals involved in the greater project on subjects such as empowerment, finding voice, feminism…

1
Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth, "Finding the Singing Spruce: Musical Instrument Makers and Appalachia's Mountain Forests" (West Virginia UP, 2023) 1:12:24

14d ago1:12:24

1:12:24

2023 Weatherford Award Finalist, Nonfiction How can the craft of musical instrument making help reconnect people to place and reenchant work in Appalachia? How does the sonic search for musical tone change relationships with trees and forests? Following three craftspeople in the mountain forests of Appalachia through their processes of making instr…

1
Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth, "Finding the Singing Spruce: Musical Instrument Makers and Appalachia's Mountain Forests" (West Virginia UP, 2023) 1:12:24

14d ago1:12:24

1:12:24

2023 Weatherford Award Finalist, Nonfiction How can the craft of musical instrument making help reconnect people to place and reenchant work in Appalachia? How does the sonic search for musical tone change relationships with trees and forests? Following three craftspeople in the mountain forests of Appalachia through their processes of making instr…

1
Julia Brock, "Closed Seasons: The Transformation of Hunting in the Modern South" (UNC Press, 2025) 55:23

17d ago55:23

55:23

In a unique and personal exploration of the game and fish laws in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi from the Progressive Era to the 1930s, Julia Brock offers an innovative history of hunting in the New South. The implementation of conservation laws made significant strides in protecting endangered wildlife species, but it also disrupted traditional…

1
John Bardes, "The Carceral City: Slavery and the Making of Mass Incarceration in New Orleans, 1803-1930" (UNC Press, 2024) 48:57

18d ago48:57

48:57

The Carceral City: Slavery and the Making of Mass Incarceration in New Orleans, 1803-1930 (UNC Press, 2024) reveals that Americans often assume that slave societies had little use for prisons and police because slaveholders only ever inflicted violence directly or through overseers. Mustering tens of thousands of previously overlooked arrest and pr…

1
Bryan D. Jones, The Southern Fault Line: How Race, Class, and Region Shaped One Family's History" (Oxford UP, 2025) 58:29

26d ago58:29

58:29

The Southern Fault Line: How Race, Class, and Region Shaped One Family's History (Oxford University Press, 2025) explores the under-appreciated division in the South between the oligarchic rule of plantation owners and industrialists on the one hand, and the more democratic mindset of the mountain-dwelling small farmers on the other. These two mind…

1
Kathryn L. Beasley, "The Proof Is in the Dough: Rural Southern Women, Extension, and Making Money" (University of Georgia Press, 2025) 1:15:22

1M ago1:15:22

1:15:22

The Proof Is in the Dough: Rural Southern Women, Extension, and Making Money (University of Georgia Press, 2025) examines how rural white and African American women in Alabama and Florida used the Cooperative Extension Service's home demonstration programming between 1914 and 1929 as a means to earn extra income. Kathryn L. Beasley explores an area…

1
Introducing The Critical Edition of the Works of C. G. Jung 15:33

1M ago15:33

15:33

"Princeton University Press is thrilled to share news of a major new initiative: the publication of The Critical Edition of the Works of C. G. Jung. As the longtime publisher of the Collected Works of C. G. Jung in North America, PUP is honored to be global publisher of the Critical Edition, having recently secured world language rights and the sup…

1
Is this podcast dead? Well... 17:36

2M ago17:36

17:36

Enough of you have asked, so it's time we had a sit down chat and catch up. Grab an iced Cold Nuka Cola...I have some things to share. Get tickets to GCX and the Fallout Xperience at Universal Studios Orlando, Florida: https://gcxevent.com Get tickets to the Fallout Fan Celebration in Goodsprings, Nevada: https://falloutfancelebration.com Hosted on…

1
Victoria Bynum, "Deep Roots, Broken Branches: A History and Memoir" (UP of Mississippi, 2025) 57:56

2M ago57:56

57:56

Historian Victoria Bynum turns now to her own history in this multigenerational American saga spanning from 1840 to 1979. Through meticulous historical research, personal letters, diaries, and the unpublished memoir of Mary Daniel Huckenpoehler, the author’s maternal grandmother, Bynum examines five generations within the broader context of the nat…

1
Frank X Walker, "Load in Nine Times: Poems" (Liveright, 2024) 1:24:30

2M ago1:24:30

1:24:30

For decades Frank X Walker has reclaimed essential American lives through his pathbreaking historical poetry. In this stirring new collection, he reimagines the experiences of Black Civil War soldiers—including his own ancestors—who enlisted in the Union army in exchange for emancipation. Moving chronologically from antebellum Kentucky through Reco…

1
Korshi Dosoo and Markéta Preininger, "Papyri Copticae Magicae: Coptic Magical Texts, Volume 1: Formularies" (de Gruyter, 2023) 1:28:50

2M ago1:28:50

1:28:50

Papyri Copticae Magicae: Coptic Magical Texts, Volume 1: Formularies (de Gruyter, 2023) offers an accessible repository of edited Coptic magical texts. The book is a careful and thorough edition and philological study of thirty-seven distinct Coptic manuscripts, covering a wide range of magical applications—from love spells, to curses, to exorcisms…

1
Carrie Helms Tippen, "Unpalatable: Stories of Pain and Pleasure in Southern Cookbooks" (UP of Mississippi, 2025) 1:17:09

2M ago1:17:09

1:17:09

The cookbook genre is highly conventional with an orientation toward celebration and success. From glossy photographs to heartwarming stories and adjective-rich ingredient lists, the cookbook tradition primes readers for pleasure. Yet the overarching narrative of the region is often one of pain, loss, privation, exploitation, poverty, and suffering…

1
Dagrún Ósk Jónsdóttir, "Ghosts, Trolls, and the Hidden People: An Anthology of Icelandic Folk Legends" (Reaktion, 2025) 49:44

2M ago49:44

49:44

Dagrún Ósk Jónsdóttir joins Jana Byars to talk about her new book, Ghosts, Trolls, and Hidden People: An Anthology of Icelandic Folk Legends (Reaktion, 2025). This unique and enchanting book opens the door to a captivating world of Icelandic folk legends. The six chapters of this anthology are each based on a different setting: farm, wilderness, da…

1
Jennifer Lynn Gross, "Sisterhood of the Lost Cause: Confederate Widows in the New South" (LSU Press, 2025) 59:34

2M ago59:34

59:34

Historians have thoroughly documented the vast devastation of the Civil War. In the attention they have paid to aspects of that destruction, however, one of the most obvious ramifications appears routinely overlooked—Confederate widowhood. Dr. Jennifer Lynn Gross’s Sisterhood of the Lost Cause: Confederate Widows in the New South (LSU Press, 2025) …

1
Bonus: Our Ancestors Were Messy - Oscar Micheaux and the Family Feud That Launched Black Hollywood 1:09:17

2M ago1:09:17

1:09:17

Let us introduce you to Our Ancestors Were Messy, a podcast covering the gossip, scandals, and pop culture that made headlines in the Black newspapers of segregated communities during the pre-Civil Rights era. On each episode, host Nichole Hill and her guests follow the story of an ancestor who went searching for opportunity, adventure, liberation,…

1
James B. Haile III, "The Dark Delight of Being Strange: Black Stories of Freedom" (Columbia UP, 2024) 1:18:30

2M ago1:18:30

1:18:30

An ambitious genre-crossing exploration of Black speculative imagination, The Dark Delight of Being Strange: Black Stories of Freedom (Columbia University Press 2024) combines fiction, historical accounts, and philosophical prose to unveil the extraordinary and the surreal in everyday Black life. In a series of stories and essays, James B. Haile, I…

1
No Common Ground: Confederate Monuments and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice 55:43

3M ago55:43

55:43

When it comes to Confederate monuments, there is no common ground. Polarizing debates over their meaning have intensified into legislative maneuvering to preserve the statues, legal battles to remove them, and rowdy crowds taking matters into their own hands. These conflicts have raged for well over a century—but they've never been as intense as th…

1
Frederick Knight, "Black Elders: The Meaning of Age in American Slavery and Freedom" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2024) 1:14:03

3M ago1:14:03

1:14:03

Would there have been a Frederick Douglass if it were not for Betsy Bailey, the grandmother who raised him? Would Harriet Jacobs have written her renowned autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, if her grandmother, a free black woman named Molly Horniblow, had not enabled Jacobs’ escape from slavery? In Black Elders: The Meaning of Ag…

1
Christian Sheppard, "The Ancient Wisdom of Baseball: Lessons for Life from Homer's Odyssey to the World Series" (Greenleaf, 2025) 1:01:28

3M ago1:01:28

1:01:28

Who are you, how are you supposed to live, and what about happiness? Answers to age-old questions are offered in classic myths about heroes, gods, and monsters, and at the ballgame. In The Ancient Wisdom of Baseball (Greenleaf, 2025), author Christian Sheppard interweaves Homer’s epics with glorious stories from the green fields of America’s pastim…

1
Nicholas Jubber, "Monsterland: A Journey Around the World’s Dark Imagination" (Scribe, 2025) 40:58

3M ago40:58

40:58

Monsters, in all their terrifying glory, have preoccupied humans since we began telling stories. But where did these stories come from? In Monsterland: A Journey Around the World’s Dark Imagination (Scribe, 2025), award-winning author Nicholas Jubber goes on a journey to discover more about the monsters we’ve invented, lurking in the dark and the w…

1
Lesley J. Gordon, "Dread Danger: Cowardice and Combat in the American Civil War" (Cambridge UP, 2024) 41:47

4M ago41:47

41:47

Those who fought in the Civil War were expected to overcome their fear of injury or death as they charged into a hail of bullets. Soldiers could expect erupting artillery shells or Minié balls to maim or tear their bodies apart. The 11th New York Fire Zouaves and the 2nd Texas Infantry were no different. They charged into battle with high, perhaps…

1
Megan Hunt, "Southern by the Grace of God: Religion, Race, and Civil Rights in Hollywood's American South" (U Georgia Press, 2024) 49:29

4M ago49:29

49:29

On this episode of the New Books Network, Dr. Megan Hunt joins us to talk about her recent book, Southern By the Grace of God, which was published in 2024 by the University of Georgia Press. Lke the media coverage of the civil rights era itself, Hollywood dramas have reinforced regional stereotypes of race, class, and gender to cleanse and redeem t…

1
Liz William, "Rough Music: Folk Customs, Transgression and Alternative Britain" (Reaktion, 2025) 40:28

4M ago40:28

40:28

Rough Music: Folk Customs, Transgression and Alternative Britain (Reaktion, 2025) by Liz Williams explores transgression and shame in British folklore and customs from ancient Britain to the present day. From Bonfire Night to Wassail, Morris dancing, Mari Lwyd and Twelfth Night, along with events like street football and the Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Ro…

1
Juniper Ray Christian - Dickens: Crown of Blooms 22:05

4M ago22:05

22:05

In this episode, Ray lets Tiffany take over the microphone as host and Interviewer of their daughter, author and award-winning storyteller Juniper Ray Christian - Dickens. They talk about their journey as a writer, their new book, their Webby Award, and their perspective on personal identity. Crown of Blooms by R C Dickens, Paperback | Barnes & Nob…

1
Michael Vorenberg, "Lincoln's Peace: The Struggle to End the American Civil War" (Knopf, 2025) 1:12:13

4M ago1:12:13

1:12:13

One historian’s journey to find the end of the Civil War—and, along the way, to expand our understanding of the nature of war itself and how societies struggle to draw the line between war and peace. We set out on the James River, March 25, 1865, aboard the paddle steamboat River Queen. President Lincoln is on his way to General Grant’s headquarter…

1
Lydia Pelot-Hobbs, "Prison Capital: Mass Incarceration and Struggles for Abolition Democracy in Louisiana" (UNC Press, 2023) 1:05:57

4M ago1:05:57

1:05:57

Every year between 1998 to 2020 except one, Louisiana had the highest per capita rate of incarceration in the nation and thus the world. Prison Capital: Mass Incarceration and Struggles for Abolition Democracy in Louisiana (University of North Carolina Press, 2023) is the first detailed account of Louisiana's unprecedented turn to mass incarceratio…

1
Jennifer L. Freeman Marshall, "Ain't I an Anthropologist: Zora Neale Hurston Beyond the Literary Icon" (U Illinois Press, 2023) 1:15:43

4M ago1:15:43

1:15:43

Iconic as a novelist and popular cultural figure, Zora Neale Hurston remains underappreciated as an anthropologist. Is it inevitable that Hurston's literary authority should eclipse her anthropological authority? If not, what socio-cultural and institutional values and processes shape the different ways we read her work? Jennifer L. Freeman Marshal…

1
Daemons, Tantra, and Cultural Exchange with David Gordon White 1:02:16

4M ago1:02:16

1:02:16

In this episode, Dr. Pierce Salguero sits down with David Gordon White, a distinguished indologist and scholar of Tantra. Our conversation focuses on David’s most recent project tracing the transregional histories of spirits, gods, demons, and their associated rituals across Eurasia. Along the way, we dive into an intellectual conversation about do…

1
"Steadfast Democrats" Five Years Later: A Conversation with Chryl N. Laird 1:04:26

5M ago1:04:26

1:04:26

Today I’m speaking with Chryl Laird, Associate Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland College Park. We are discussing her co-authored book with Ismail White, Steadfast Democrats: How Social Forces Shape Black Political Behavior. Published in 2020, this book remains highly relevant for understanding American political beh…

1
Andrew C. Isenberg, "The Age of the Borderlands: Indians, Slaves, and the Limits of Manifest Destiny, 1790-1850" (UNC Press, 2025) 1:07:40

5M ago1:07:40

1:07:40

Most US history textbooks contain a familiar map: shaded colors stretch across North America, clearly and neatly demarcating the extent of US expansion from 1776 thru the late nineteenth century. In The Age of the Borderlands: Indians, Slaves, and the Limites of Manifest Destiny (UNC Press, 2025), University of Kansas distinguished historian Andrew…

1
Black in Appalachia: Tennessee Humanities in Action 19:29

5M ago19:29

19:29

Reshared episode from Host and Historian Brigette Jones discussing Belonging in Tennessee with Black in Appalachia director William Isom. This interview was recorded as part of Humanities Tennessee's United We Stand Project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.By Black in Appalachia

1
Jeffrey Thomas Perry, "Law in American Meetinghouses: Church Discipline and Civil Authority in Kentucky, 1780–1845" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2022) 45:24

5M ago45:24

45:24

Most Americans today would not think of their local church as a site for arbitration and would probably be hesitant to bring their property disputes, moral failings, or personal squabbles to their kin and neighbors for judgment. But from the Revolutionary Era through the mid-nineteenth century, many Protestants imbued local churches with immense au…

1
Episode 26: Unveiling the Purpose Trek – A New Counter Culture Course 38:03

5M ago38:03

38:03

In this episode of The Catalyst Collective, join Joshua Daniel and Dr. Barbara Thompson as they introduce an exciting new Counter Culture Solutions course: The Purpose Trek. Designed to challenge, inspire, and reconnect participants with their true purpose, this immersive experience takes individuals into the mountains, away from distractions, and …

1
Benjamin Heber Johnson, "Texas: An American History" (Yale UP, 2025) 1:10:21

5M ago1:10:21

1:10:21

There's more to Texas than hats, oil, and BBQ, writes Benjamin Johnson in his sweeping new synthesis, Texas: An American History (Yale UP: 2025) - though, those all matter too. The state's reach has traveled globally, Johnson argues, influencing everything from how people around the world eat, to how they pray, to the music they listen to. In his n…

1
Audun Kjus et al., "Adventures in the Play-Ritual Continuum" (Utah State UP, 2024) 51:07

5M ago51:07

51:07

Audun Kjus joins Jana Byars to talk about Adventures in the Play-Ritual Continuum (Utah State Press, 2025), eds. Audun Kjus, Jakob Löfgren, Cliona O’Carroll, Simon Poole & Ida Tolgensbakk. Utah State Press, 2025). The junctions between play and ritual are many and complex. Play is for fun and joy, but it also demands a total commitment and serious …

1
Bonus - Best of RISK! 15 1:31:46

5M ago1:31:46

1:31:46

Let us introduce you again to another show we think you'll enjoy. RISK! is a live show and weekly podcast where people tell true stories they never thought they’d dare to share in public, created and hosted by Kevin Allison (MTV, Comedy Central, HBO, Netflix). In this best-of episode, you'll hear stories, including one from Ray, that examine ideas …

1
The Soundworld of Harriet Tubman 45:15

5M ago45:15

45:15

Just in time for Black History Month, we share an episode we’ve been excitedly working on for a number of months now. Ethnomusicologist Maya Cunningham brings us “The Sound World of Harriet Tubman.” Maya Cunningham is an activist and jazz singer currently completing a Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in Afro-American studies with …

1
Black in Appalachia: Power, Light & Outmigration 56:46

5M ago56:46

56:46

Power, Light & Outmigration This episode is a special live recorded production hosted at the National Archives Museum in Washington DC with Ron Carson and Dr. Karida Brown. Participants discussed Black life in Appalachian coal camps, mass outmigration & the return one generation later. Event was held in conjunction with the exhibition, 'Power & Lig…

1
The Vice President's Black Wife: The Untold Life of Julia Chinn 1:12:17

5M ago1:12:17

1:12:17

Our book is: The Vice President's Black Wife: The Untold Life of Julia Chinn (University of North Carolina Press, 2023) by award-winning historian Dr. Amrita Chakrabarti Myers. Dr. Myers has recovered the riveting, troubling, and complicated story of Julia Ann Chinn (ca. 1796–1833), the enslaved wife of Richard Mentor Johnson. Johnson was the owner…

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