Good Folk Podcast

Hi Folks, Long time no see. It’s been a busy few months wrapping up my first year of my PhD, traveling across the South, and kicking off an undergraduate research program I’m mentoring this summer. There’s been a lot to say and not quite the words yet to say it. I’ve been mostly offline, both here and social media, focusing on live events, in-person community building, and lots of in-depth researc...

Happy Friday Folks, Do you ever cross paths with people and it feels that there is a level of synergy there that feels rare and important? I had this feeling when, a few months back, a message dropped into my Substack inbox. This message came from a writer named Jessie, and it affirmed why I love doing the work we do at Good Folk—even though, yes, I’m aware I’ve been absent for a bit. Blame the Ph...

Hello folks, It feels like it has been a while since I have spoken to you all here, and I apologize for that. With a combination of work travel, various due dates, and the general state of the world, we’ve fallen behind. But I’m excited to be back here with you, and to bring you a conversation that touches on some particularly relevant themes: how to find hope at the end of the world, how to build...

Happy Monday Folks, I’ve written and rewritten this intro a number of times and I find I’m still not quite sure what to say. We recorded this episode just about two weeks before Hurricane Helene struck Western North Carolina—a region my family has called home for many generations—and left disastrous floodwaters in its wake. At the time I’m recording this—almost two weeks after the storm—many folks...

Hello Folks, and happy Friday, I write to you from the edges of Hurricane Helene, which is currently moving over Western North Carolina and the Appalachian Mountains that have been home to my family for generations. I spent my teenage years on the South Carolina coast, and I am thinking today of all the communities that never planned for the type of flooding those of us on the coast know well. I a...

Hello Folks and welcome to Season 3 (!) of the Good Folk Podcast, After our summer hiatus, it’s great to be back in this space, with a lineup of conversations for our fall season. Today, we kick off with writer Matthew Ferrence for a chat on Appalachia, rurality, authenticity, the role of the arts in shaping rural identity, and, of course, the Democratic party’s recent interest in embracing rural...

Hello folks, Though I am currently off the grid until June 30th , I am thrilled to drop in with a special podcast episode with South Carolina author Mindy Friddle , whose newest book, Her Best Self , released just last week. One thing I have learned in studying the South is that it’s always changing, always becoming. It travels across time, evoking both past and future all at once. I’ve spent a lo...

Folks, today I am thrilled to introduce you to of MycoLore in a very fun Good Folk x Folkwise crossover. Daisy is a folklorist, cryptozoologist (and legend scholar), eco-philosopher, mycologist, and collective-joy-enthusiast. They're the current director of WiseFolk Productions, producers of the YouTube and Twitch streaming channel Folkwise , which explores the study of tradition non-traditionally...

Happy Wednesday Folks, I’m thrilled to be back with the podcast for the new year and to introduce you today to Adam Perez , someone we have long been hoping to get on this podcast. I first met Adam when we were both teaching in rural North Carolina schools and we bonded over our similar frustrations with media portrayals of Appalachian culture, our complicated relationships to home, and our belief...

Angela Eastman is a very cool person. I truly don’t know how to say it any other way. She lives a life that many of us dream of, or at least I do: one connected to nature, to craft, to teaching, and creative practice. As soon as I encountered Angela’s work, I knew I was going to be a fan. And I was right. This is a conversation about many of my favorite topics: the distinction of art versus craft,...

It’s a rare and beautiful experience to come across someone you immediately connect with only to realize you have been peripherally weaving circles around one another for years. It’s how I felt immediately upon entering this conversation with Annelle Staal , a North Carolina-based songwriter and entertainer. Annelle’s sound is distinct with catchy, melt-in-your mouth melodies and timeless lyrical...

Just over two years ago, I returned to my hometown of Charleston, South Carolina for the summer to report on rising sea levels and the creative response by artists, who were—then and now—focused on generating public understanding even in the midst of collapse. I went into the work feeling hopeless and left feeling inspired to believe in the power of community, art, resistance, and resilience in ac...

Hello Folks, I’m writing to you from the state of North Carolina, and specifically, from the campus of the University of North Carolina, where I am a graduate student in Folklore. At UNC, I investigate the role that folklore can play in a world—and region—that teeters on constant collapse. How can storytelling methodologies and communal practice bring us together against all the odds? How can we f...

Happy Wednesday Folks, I’m thrilled today to welcome you to “season three” of the Good Folk Podcast, kicking off with a conversation about home, mythology, breakdown, safety, change, and choice. Anyone who knows the South today knows that it is a changing place. The North Carolina I remember from my childhood is not the North Carolina I call home today. Much of this is a good thing; some of it is...

Happy Wednesday Folks, I write this to you from the screen porch at my new house, where I now spend my entire workday since moving here. It’s summer fully now in North Carolina, and for all the words I have, I still can’t seem to find the right ones for how the light hits in the early morning, how the sky goes dark and orange when the storms roll in. This is what I stay here for. It’s the place th...

Folks, today, I am thrilled to introduce you to writer and poet KB Brookins for a conversation about climate, grief, Texas, the South, the radical power of reimagining, and the role that we can play as artists in envisioning that future. KB Brookins is a Black, queer, and trans writer, cultural worker, and artist from Texas. Their work is featured in Poets.org, HuffPost, Poetry Magazine, Teen Vogu...

Hello Folks, Spencer here— I’m so thrilled to introduce you to today’s podcast guest, musician John Harrison , also known as Jphono1, and I want to first thank Victoria for filling in on the intro for this episode. In the end-of-semester whirlwind, I’ve managed to lose my voice, which feels very on brand for me these days. For now, I’ll be here, typing to you from behind the screen… From his early...

I can say with confidence that today’s guests are some of the most fun and joyous I have had the privilege to cross paths with. Described by the Boston Globe as “spellbinding acoustic musicians with a rare master of American roots styles” and by Billboard Magazine as “as close to flawless folk/bluegrass as it gets,” they truly need no introduction. Two-time Grammy® Award Winners, Cathy Fink & Marc...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit goodfolk.substack.com A few weeks ago, we had the pleasure of teaming up with Live From the Nest North Carolina for A Night of Folk & Friends, a special live podcast taping and acoustic concert with Alexander Robichaud, Scivic Rivers, and Dissimilar South. I’m thrilled today to release the first episode of the acoustic series, featuring...

Happy Wednesday Folks, The poet Mary Oliver once wrote that attention is the beginning of devotion. I think about those words almost every single day. It was the drive to learn how to pay attention that brought me back here. I wanted to remember how it felt to find beauty in an empty field, in the glint of light on leaves. I wanted to, as so much of the mythology of rural places entails, learn how...

There are many exciting things to discuss about today’s episode, but first I must give a major shout-out and say happy twenty fifth birthday to our incredible podcast producer, Victoria Landers . Vic has been a part of this project since the very beginning, when I walked into the art classroom we co-taught in and asked them to help me design a logo for a newsletter I was launching. We’ve come a lo...

Happy Wednesday Folks, In listening back to today’s conversation, I found myself struck with two thoughts: number one, I love this band; and number two, the feeling that we often find home in the places we least expect. When I moved back to North Carolina nearly three years ago, I never truly planned to stay. I had a vague idea of what this place was, and I saw it as a temporary landing, a steppin...

Today is a very special day as not only do we have a new podcast for you, it is also the 30th birthday of our guest, Jesse Barber . Happy birthday to Jesse, who is inquisitive, thoughtful, and talented, and has so much wisdom to share here. Jesse is a documentary photographer based in the Appalachian region of North Carolina. His work focuses on the culture of rural communities and the influence o...

I’m so excited to have the honor to introduce you today to Ida Floreak, painter living in New Orleans, LA. Her work deals with ecological anxieties paired with reverence for the natural world. She explores what it means to be human in a time of ecological disaster, where to find hope and our place in the recovery, as well as the universal human trait of worship. Drawing from a classical tradition...

Happy Wednesday Folks, Today I’m thrilled to welcome you back to “Season Two” of the Good Folk podcast and to introduce you to The Official Bard of Baldwin County — aka Jackson Chambers— an up-and-coming queer folk musician based in Auburn, Alabama by way of the Mobile-Tensaw delta. Before I tell you more about the Bard, a disclaimer: in the pre-recording rush for this episode, I somehow managed t...