Headlights: Voices from The Progressive South

SYNOPSIS: In this interview from the archives, we talk to Princeton historian Kevin Kruse about the arc of Southern conservative politics since the end of the Civil Rights Movement — and how they're aiming to roll back the gains of the 1960s, and even the 1860s. SHOW NOTES: Campaign Trails  Kevin Kruse 

SYNOPSIS: All states have queer people, but not all states have a statewide news outlet dedicated to telling their stories. That makes QueerKentucky stand out. The nonprofit LGBTQ newsroom covers state politics and issues, as well as culture and health. This week's conversation is with Executive Director Missy Spears, who talks about trying to reach and reflect queer communities from Louisville to...

SYNOPSIS: It's another fraught Pride Month in the South, where LGBTQ rights remain under attack from conservative lawmakers. This week we talk to Dolores Wilk of Central Arkansas Pride about their advocacy for the state's queer population, and the importance of visibility — including a Pride celebration right in front of the state Capitol Building. Also: The Supreme Court lets Alabama go back to m...

SYNOPSIS:  LaTricea Adams learned about environmental racism first-hand, growing up in Memphis and seeing the differences between Black and white neighborhoods. She now leads Young, Gifted and Green, a nonprofit that trains young people in organizing and environmental justice. In this week's interview, she talks about how the water crisis in Flint, Mich., turned her into an activist — and how resi...

SYNOPSIS: Texas conservatives like to cultivate an image of the state as a frontier of rugged individualism and unbridled capitalism. But it is also the land of the Cowboy Strike and the Texas People's Party, a contested terrain with an often overlooked history of radical politics. That's what writer and Austin native David Griscom brings to light in his new book, The Myth of Red Texas. This week,...

SYNOPSIS: When the all-white Republican supermajority in the Tennessee Legislature carved up Memphis into three congressional districts during the first week of May, they insisted that race had nothing to do with it. But when it comes to Memphis, race always matters. This week, we listen to the voices raised in protest during Tennessee's rapid-fire special session, and put them in the context of t...

 SYNOPSIS: The U.S. Supreme Court's decision last week in the Callais case is likely to lead to a major loss of Black representation across the South. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry immediately suspended the state's pending congressional primaries to redraw its maps. Other Republican officials in states including Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia are calling for reducing or eliminating their Black-ma...

SYNOPSIS: Another year, another cluster of hateful anti-transgender bills proposed in our state legislatures. This week, we round up some of the worst laws passed this spring in Southern states to further bully and harass trans people. In states like Tennessee and Georgia, this year's bills are no longer only aiming at issues like sports and bathroom access, but are aiming directly at the presence...

SYNOPSIS: Nonviolent resistance was the core strategy of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and '60s, and its chief architect alongside Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was another pastor, Rev. James Lawson Jr. Like King, he studied the success of Gandhi's anti-colonial resistance in India, and he answered King's call to teach its precepts to thousands of young African-Americans in the South. Lawso...

SYNOPSIS: The Democratic Party has an identity problem with voters nationwide, and especially in the South. But a rising wave of young party activists is seeking to bring new energy and ideas into some of the most conservative areas of the country — like Knox County, Tennessee, which has been sending Republicans to Congress since the Civil War. This week, Jesse talks to Solomon Trapp and Julia Kay...

Hey there. This is Jesse, I just wanted to check in and let you know there's not a new episode of Headlights this week, because I'm recovering from what I think is technically called some seasonal crud. But a lot has happened this past week, so I have a good selection of links and stories in the show notes to call to your attention, including: — A library director in Rutherford County, Tennessee,...

SYNOPSIS: El Paso is a city at multiple borders — not only between countries, but cultures, languages, and histories. This week we talk to journalist Jazmine Ulloa, an El Paso native whose new book about her hometown dives into more a century of its history. Following the stories of five families, she traces the ways El Paso and the United States have been shaped by successive waves of migration a...

SYNOPSIS: Everyone knows the air around Louisiana's Cancer Alley is bad. But how bad? And what's actually in it? That's what two scientists at Johns Hopkins University set out to understand. Their work so far has shown the air in the communities around massive petrochemical plants has as much as 10 times higher levels of toxins than was previously known. This week, we talk to Peter DeCarlo and Kee...

SYNOPSIS: As minority whip for the Georgia state Senate Democrats, Senator Kim Jackson helped lead the fight in this session for a package of bills aimed at reining in aggressive immigration enforcement in the state. Republicans have blocked them, but this week Jesse talks to Jackson about the proposals and the public outcry that led to them. She also talked about her perspective and role as an Ep...

SYNOPSIS: A raft of primaries and one special election in the South last week brought some fresh faces into the spotlight and offered tantalizing clues about this fall's midterms. This week we take a look at the high-profile Democratic and Republican contests for U.S. Senate in Texas, as well as a slate of anti-establishment votes in both parties in North Carolina. Plus, an Arkansas state House di...

SYNOPSIS: As the Trump administration's aggressive mass deportation campaign has ramped up, so have the profits of private prison companies. This week, we take a look at CoreCivic, the Tennessee-based company that is one of the two largest operators of private prisons in the United States. It has been in the immigrant detention business for more than 40 years, and last year was one of its best eve...

SYNOPSIS: On back to back days earlier this month, the Tennessee Valley Authority reversed course on plans to close two massive coal-fired power plants, and the Trump administration abandoned federal regulation of greenhouse gases. The double whammy clearly illustrated the impact of the administration's aggressive insistence on fossil fuels, regardless of the local and global cost. To get a handle...

SYNOPSIS: When it comes to environmental protections, the Trump administration has been on a deregulatory spree. On the front lines of fights to protect air, water and ecosystems across the South is the Southern Environmental Law Center — a nonprofit with a team of more than 100 lawyers, who are keeping busy in courts and on Capitol Hill. This week we talk to Geoff Gisler, Program Director for the...

SYNOPSIS: Why does Alabama have the highest residential electricity rates in the country? This week, we dig into the profitable, polluting business of Alabama Power, the state's largest electrical provider. Dennis Pillion, a reporter for Inside Climate News, joins to talk about what he has found digging into the private company. Much of its decision-making is shielded from public view by Alabama l...

SYNOPSIS: While outrage continues to mount about violent immigration enforcement in Minneapolis, ICE and the Border Patrol are active at smaller scale in cities across the South. A hearing last week in New Orleans brought together political leaders and immigrant advocates to detail the terror that Operation Catahoula Crunch has instilled in local communities, where many people are afraid to go to...

SYNOPSIS: "Affordability" — the struggle many Americans face to pay for housing and food and transportation — has become a political buzzword. But what what drives it, and what can government action do about it? A recent report by the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy gathers specific data to look at the challenges in the Bluegrass State, and makes specific policy recommendations. We talk to Jas...

SYNOPSIS: Martin King Luther Jr. Day arrives this year in the midst of an ongoing assault on his legacy and the accomplishments of the Civil Rights Movement at both the national and — in the South — state levels. So this week we spend a little time listening to MLK the man, the leader, the strategist, the philosopher and preacher, who articulated a clear vision for moral and political progress in...

SYNOPSIS: Democracy is hard. As John Adams said, "It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself." It's even harder when governments are corrupted by money and partisan chicanery. Which is why the nonprofit group Democracy North Carolina has been fighting for truly representative government in the state for more than 30 years. Jesse talks with Marques Thompson, the group's Organizing Director, about...

SYNOPSIS: The political map of the South is full of interesting questions in 2026, some of which will be answered at the ballot box. In this preview of the new year, Jesse looks at some of the highest-profile races and the contenders facing off in them: Contests for governor and senator in Texas, a fascinating rematch in Alabama, a test of Georgia's purple-state status, and a high-stakes Democrati...

SYNOPSIS: 2025 has been a tumultuous and difficult year across the United States, and certainly here in the South. In a year-end episode, Jesse looks back at some of the major issues we've covered on Headlights, from immigration enforcement to redistricting battles to labor rights and electoral contests — with help from a selection of voices we've heard here. Join us for a quick look back, and a l...