Understand SC

Chris Smith started working at J&J Cafeteria in Conway at a young age, washing dishes. He eventually started working at the restaurant full-time.   It was a good job, until Bobby Edwards took over as manager.   That’s when the abuse began. Edwards stopped paying Chris and forced him to work 100 hours or more per week. He physically harmed Chris, verbally abused him and isolated him from others.  T...

This month, Spoleto Festival USA , a major performing arts event that’s held annually here in Charleston, announced its 2022 programming lineup . That’s always exciting, but it especially is this year, after two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. For the first time since 2019, the festival will host international performers.  And, after being postponed twice, Spoleto audiences are going to see the wo...

A seat is opening up on the United States Supreme Court.  President Joe Biden has said that, for the first time, a Black woman will serve on the country’s highest court.  The question, of course, is who it will be.  South Carolina judge Michelle Childs is one potential pick. Childs has the support of Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina — the House majority whip, an ally of Biden and the person who...

In Charleston and in communities across the country where Confederate and related monuments have been removed, there’s still a big question left to be answered: What should be done with them now? For the last several years, Los Angeles-based curator Hamza Walker has been working on an exhibit that will gather some of those monuments in the same place, displayed and in dialogue with works of contem...

Oysters are pretty incredible.   They can be incredibly delicious, and they’re one of the things people come to Charleston to eat, but they also have some natural superpowers  — superpowers that are particularly relevant for a place like Charleston that’s constantly contending with sea level rise and flooding. Today, we’re going to be talking about oysters’ superpowers, with help from the co-found...

In a city like Charleston, where dining is a key element of its identity, how restaurants are doing is important.  We know that 2020 was a devastating year for local restaurants. 2021 — year two of the COVID-19 pandemic — brought its own challenges, even when diners returned. Restaurant owners have had to contend with staff shortages, supply chain difficulties, construction delays and price increa...

This past Tuesday, Jan. 11, legislators returned to the Statehouse in Columbia. So, what's on the agenda for 2022?  This week, we're breaking down what lawmakers need to do this session, from drawing new lines for voting districts to discussing the legalization of medical marijuana and deciding what to do with the state's $6 billion in additional revenue.  Money is a big theme for the year, with t...

It’s been one year since supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The events of that day led to an impeachment, sparked debate about what it meant for the future of democracy in the United States and launched investigations by the FBI and Congress.   This week, we’re taking a closer look at South Carolina’s role in the lead-up to Jan. 6, on the day and...

This year on Understand SC, we've covered a little bit of everything: flooding in Charleston, the coronavirus pandemic, South Carolina politics and even the design of the state’s flag. Emily Williams and Gavin McIntyre revisit moments from some of the year's conversations.  All past episodes of Understand SC, a weekly news podcast by The Post and Courier, can be found at  understand-sc.simplecast....

There are about 105,000 other South Carolinians who fall into a health insurance coverage gap created by factors that were set into motion about a decade ago.  In 2012, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act for the first time.  But, there was a caveat. The court said it was up to states to decide if they would expand Medicaid, the state and federal program that...

The largest university in the state of South Carolina is searching for its next leader. Back in May, the University of South Carolina opened a search after its last president, Bob Caslen, stepped down amid controversy. (To get caught up, listen to this Understand SC episode from June.) About a week ago, it looked like the university’s presidential search process could have been coming to a close....

There’s a new variant dominating pandemic-related headlines right now. You've probably heard of it — and you probably have some questions. We’re getting into some of those today.  The omicron variant was discovered in South Africa and reported to the World Health Organization Nov. 24. Two days later, the WHO deemed it a variant of concern.  The U.S. recorded its first case of the variant Wednesday...

After repeatedly finding themselves being the only Black people on their visits to Charleston's breweries, brewer April Dove and David White Jr. of "The Dropping Pin" teamed up to create a beer that they hoped could brew some change for the region's craft beer community.   Dove and White's goal, long-term, is to see more diversity in Charleston’s taprooms.   Their beer, called Tha CommUNITY has be...

In South Carolina, there's a small town unofficially known as the hometown of living war heroes.  The town is Batesburg-Leesville, and the war heroes are Sgt. Maj. Thomas Patrick Payne and Cpl. Kyle Carpenter, both recipients of the nation's highest military award for valor, the Medal of Honor.  The likelihood of two living Medal of Honor recipients having called the rural South Carolina town home...

This week, we’re revisiting a topic that we discussed about a year ago on this podcast: the plan to potentially build a sea wall around Charleston’s peninsula.  The idea is to protect the flood-prone area from storm surge if the city were to be directly hit by a hurricane. It would also be the city’s most substantial defense yet against sea rise. This project would be a massive undertaking — finan...

Nearly five months later, no one has been arrested for the fatal shootings of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, a mother and son and members of a prominent and powerful South Carolina legal family. But, in that time, attorney Alex Murdaugh, Maggie’s husband and Paul’s father, has had a dramatic fall from grace, one that’s still unfolding and raising new questions. In early September, Alex Murdaugh admitte...

Across South Carolina, 10 local newspapers stopped printing last year — a record loss, at least in recent memory.  What does a community lose when it loses its newspaper? This week, reporters Jennifer Berry Hawes and Stephen Hobbs explain what they found in trying to answer that question. They took a close look at two communities — one that still has a locally-owned paper in print and one that rec...

The start to this school year in South Carolina was a pretty chaotic one.  The delta variant of COVID-19 was quickly spreading, infecting students, teachers and staff and sending people into quarantine. Meanwhile, schools couldn't enforce mask mandates.  The result: Seven weeks into the year, at least 15 districts, 233 schools, and 156,169 students had reverted back to virtual learning. This week...

This week is the 81st annual National Newspaper Week .  As our way of celebrating, we’re bringing you a conversation about our newspaper.  Recently, The Post and Courier named a new executive editor. Autumn Phillips, who became the paper’s managing editor in early 2018, stepped into the role in late August .  This week, we spoke with Phillips about some of the big things happening for the paper, l...

The number of new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations is beginning to decline across the country, signaling the beginning of the end of this latest surge, but, in South Carolina, like many states in the Southeast, coronavirus activity is still high.  Health experts have been saying it for months: The state needs a higher percentage of its residents to be vaccinated. But overcoming vaccine hesitanc...

Some 3,000 miles north of Charleston, melting ice in Greenland is having a profound effect on Charleston's coastline.  This week, we go behind the scenes of a special report that showed us how Greenland and Charleston are connected. We’ll hear from reporter Tony Bartelme and photographer Lauren Petracca about their trip to Greenland. You’ll learn what they saw out on Greenland's ice sheet, what th...

It’s been over a year and a half since the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in South Carolina.   And, as much as people would like it to be, this pandemic is far from over.   Earlier this year, there was hope that this fall we would be edging closer to normalcy — that we would have overcome vaccine hesitancy enough that spread would have slowed.   But, that didn’t happen, and slow uptake of t...

Natalie and Ron Daise are storytellers. Or, as they'd describe it, Natalie is a storyteller and Ron is a kind of keeper of stories, collecting and documenting.  Together, they have been gathering, interpreting and sharing stories in South Carolina for decades. The couple is best known for "Gullah Gullah Island," a children's television series that aired on Nickelodeon from 1994 to 1998. Their stor...

The fight over requiring face masks in South Carolina schools reached the state's highest court this week.  On Tuesday, the S.C. Supreme Court heard two cases related to masking rules that challenged a state budget provision that prohibits schools from using state-appropriated funds to require masks.  Public health officials have strongly encouraged the use of masks, citing rapidly-rising COVID ca...

Olympic shot putter and Charleston native Raven Saunders captured the world’s attention from the medal podium this year in Tokyo. The Burke High School graduate had just won the silver medal in her second Olympics at age 25.  From the podium, Saunders made a gesture of support that resonated for people in her hometown of Charleston and around the globe.  This week, we’re taking a look at Raven’s a...