Story Made Podcast

A prelude to Season 2, where words from Oseola McCarty and an unforgettable scene from the movie " Pig" bring me back to ground. Our first conversation of the season drops next Monday! You won't want to miss what our first guest has to share.  NYT article on Oseola McCarty Mississippi Civil Rights Museum Watch Pig on Hulu    

Our conversation this week is with the illustrious storyteller, award-winning writer, and Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia, B. Brian Foster. "How can you love something and not like it at the same time?" This question was the center of Brian's monumental book, "I Don't Like the Blues". The better part of five years he spent living in Clarksdale, Mississippi listening...

Our conversation this week is with Curtis Rayborn, a living history lesson on Tuskegee, Alabama. He's a former student and employee at the Tuskegee Institute, retired Alabama Army National Guard member, volunteer at the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site, and marvelous storyteller. "I was dying of curiosity." This is what Curtis remarked about his encounters with one woman who he eventually le...

Our conversation this week is with author, herbalist, and supreme champion of reading and literacy, Renea Winchester. "When you see people, what are you going to do with it?" Renea asks this powerful question, and her own answer is to write stories of the unseen. Her debut novel, "Outbound Train", crystallized when she saw a young girl looking at her through the window of a trailer in her hometown...

Our conversation this week is with John Evans, founder and owner of Lemuria Books in Jackson, Mississippi.  "It's all about the book, baby." For John, life really is that simple. He built Lemuria as a place to share books, not sell them. Only minutes from his childhood baseball fields, he created a space for people to discover, connect, dream, and remember. He brought the world of words to his hom...

Our conversation this week is with Lacy Arnett Mayberry - a writer, teacher, literacy advocate and kindred Catherian spirit. We met after I bought a t-shirt from her Etsy shop and decided to DM her about an interview, so you know it's on brand. This episode is universally cool, but especially for super fans of Willa & literature. We nerd out on all things Cather, which reveals important perspectiv...

Our conversation this week is with Travis Rountree. He's an Assistant Professor of English at Western Carolina University, scholar of rhetoric and public memory, and a natural connector of people and ideas.  Travis teaches us about the power of retelling stories. How and what we remember can obscure a narrative, sometimes causing immense lasting harm. When a story is told so many times and has so...

Our conversation this week is with Kelle Barfield, owner of Lorelei Books and champion of Vicksburg, Mississippi.  Kelle shows us that we are what we do. Everything she does is out of love for her hometown and its people, and they love her right back. She saved Lorelei Books. She sits on the County Board of Supervisors. She works with the public education system and is using her PhD program knowel...

Our conversation this week is with Lauren Rhoades. One of the first friends of the project, Lauren is a literature and arts lover, life-giving gardener, marvelous writer, and a proud resident of Jackson, Mississippi. I met her when she served as the Director of the Eudora Welty House & Garden, though she is now at the Mississippi Arts Commmission. This conversation happened during one of Lauren's...

Our conversation this week is with Rachel Hudson, Assistant Curator at Rowan Oak, historic home of William Faulkner.  Rachel found her way to Oxford, Mississippi for college, where her literary knowledge and some fantastic serendipity got her a role at Rowan Oak. You'll hear her talk about Faulkner's life and lore, her own experiences at Rowan Oak, and how we can still examine the old literary can...

Our conversation this week is with Mae Claxton. A professor of English at Western Carolina University. A Eudora Welty scholar. A dedicated teacher. She wants to resurrect and uplift the stories that haven't been respected or told. Her life mirrors her curiosities, moving from her homeland in southern Georgia to her home now in the Southern Appalachians. Her desire to learn from and about women wri...

Our conversation this week is with Tracy Fitzmaurice. Tracy is the country librarian in Sylva, North Carolina -- a dedicated steward of one of the world's most vital and radical institutions. You can't be bored with her. In this episode, we discuss the antedote to fear, stories from her childhood in Norwich, England, the important work she does at the library, and lots about death. We also learn t...

Our conversation this week is with Eliza Edens, a Berkshires-bred, Brooklyn-based singer and songwriter. Eliza's music captures the intangible beauty of our world. It beckons you to pay attention, be astonished, and go deep beneath the surface to find the infinity within us. The power of her songs is derived not from the quantity of words used, but from the fact that she believes every word she si...

Our conversation this week is with Ashlee Wasmund. Ashlee is an Assistant Professor and Program Director of Musical Theater and Dance at Western Carolina University. She's also the Founding Artistic Lead at Calliope Stage, a non-profit theater organization in Sylva, NC.  Ashlee is a finder, looking everywhere for stories that need to be told. The glint of wild in anyone's eyes is something she aim...

Our conversation this week is with Rachel York-Bridgers. Rachel is a member of the English faculty at Western Carolina University, and is also an environmentalist, poet, filmmaker, and true citizen scholar. She wants us to love the world because we will only save the things we love. Art, stories, and reflecting on the beauty we see reminds us of all that is worth saving. And the most vital tool to...

Our first conversation is with Cecilia Cornejo Sotelo. She is a filmmaker and instructor of Cinema & Media Studies at Carleton College in Northfield, MN. Guided by the concept of la milpa , Cecilia's vision for filmmaking is sharing.  Her stories are about belonging and displacement, including Making Noise - The Story of a Skatepark and Ways of Being Home - Between Northfield and Maltrata . No mat...

The best things in life are born from great questions. Our project is no different. This episode tells our story and how one big, never-ending question 10 years ago changed everything. True to form, Eudora Welty helps me reveal the common threads through years of serendipitous events - each one an act of listening. Story Made is about the confluence of what I remember joining together, and living...

Introducing the Story Made Podcast, where we explore how stories make a difference in our lives.  Essay and intervew episodes are coming soon! In the meantime, check out our website and social media pages to see where we're going and who we're talking to.