Logo for BATCH, A Bitter Southerner Podcast

BATCH, A Bitter Southerner Podcast

The Bitter Southerner

The Bitter Southerner wants to read you a story! (Make that batches of stories.) Yes, we’re launching a brand new podcast called BATCH, and in our first BATCH series we're sharing some of our most popular food stories. We Southerners love our food and we take our regional recipes seriously. In the coming episodes, we’re going talk about red beans, peaches, memories of the pound cake we had growing up and stories of people doing good and changing lives through food. We will laugh. We might cry. We’ll definitely have a good time. Join us here - for BATCH.

2023 Bitter Southerner

The Bitter Southerner wants to read you a story! (Make that batches of stories.) Yes, we’re launching a brand new podcast called BATCH, and in our first BATCH series we're sharing some of our most popular food stories. We Southerners love our food and we take our regional recipes seriously. In the coming episodes, we’re going talk about red beans, peaches, memories of the pound cake we had growing up and stories of people doing good and changing lives through food. We will laugh. We might cry. We’ll definitely have a good time. Join us here - for BATCH.

2023 Bitter Southerner
11hr 16min
Thumbnail for "Ep 004 - Shane Mitchell : The Queen of Delicacies".
Shane Mitchell reads her piece "The Queen of Delicacies" about an iconic southern fruit: the peach!
July 23, 202258min 21sec140.06 MB
Thumbnail for "Ep 016 - Taylor Brown : Ode to Blackwater Rivers".
Sturgeon that weigh half a ton. The legendary Altamaha-ha river monster. Hogzilla. Mystery awaits as Taylor Brown takes us upriver to the Blackwater.
March 26, 202438min 22sec92.02 MB
Thumbnail for "Ep 015 - Mickie Meinhardt : My Old Friend Natty Light".
To shore-living Marylanders (who do indeed qualify as Southerners), the humble, blue-collar, all-American staple is more than just cheap beer
August 14, 202337min 58sec91.13 MB
Thumbnail for "Ep 014 - Jennifer Justus : Country Cooking: Minnie's Corn Pudding and Tammy's Better Than Sex Cake".
These days, downtown Nashville is littered with bars named after stars, and most of those names belong to men. Jason Aldean’s Kitchen. Even (bless his heart) Kid Rock’s Big Ass Honky Tonk Rock ’n’ Roll Steakhouse. But it’s the women of country music who ought to be on those neon signs. Jennifer Justus explores the history.
August 8, 202331min 4sec74.58 MB
Thumbnail for "Ep 013 - Farhan Mustafa : Immigrant Spaghetti".
In Episode 13, our host Kyle Tibbs Jones chats with talented and hilarious writer Farhan Mustafa, author of The Bitter Southerner story, "Immigrant Spaghetti." For Farhan, spaghetti swaddled in a meaty tomato sauce electrified with spices like coriander, cumin, and turmeric was a regular recipe both at the family table and at mosque potlucks. Recently Mustafa, the child of North Indian immigrants, realized how special spaghetti has been to him and to so many others looking for a taste of home here in the South. In this episode he talks about reporting this story, Italian nights growing up in North Carolina, jacked up jars of Ragu, and his very southern take on a Charles Dickens classic. There's also a recipe in the show notes. Episode 13 is fun. Enjoy!
August 1, 202346min 9sec110.78 MB
Thumbnail for "Ep 012 - Alana Dao : Southern Hustle: Houston Hip-Hop & Chinese Chicken ".
Timmy Chan’s fried chicken is legendary in the Houston hip-hop world. Alana Dao delves into the restaurant chain that her grandparents started in the 1950s + the emergence of chop suey and chopped and screwed
July 25, 202337min 57sec91.1 MB
Thumbnail for "Ep 011 - Caroline Hatchett : The Elusive Roots of Rosin Potatoes".
The rosin potato - a baked potato cooked in a vat of boiling pine rosin - is a culinary oddity with mysterious roots. Caroline Hatchett joins us to talk about her unexpectedly long quest to find the truth
July 17, 202349min 20sec118.42 MB
Thumbnail for "Third Batch Trailer".
BATCH is back! We're bringing you conversations and excerpts from our new book Food Stories: writing that stirs the pot - we can't wait to share it with you! You're gonna love it
July 17, 20232min 1sec4.87 MB
Thumbnail for "Ep 010 - Lolis Eric Elie : The Whys".
August 29th, 2022, marked the 17th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s devastating landfall on the gulf shore. Why did the people of New Orleans come back and rebuild their city? In 2015, we asked Lolis Eric Elie to help us find the answer. Today, he reads his piece The Whys.
October 21, 202233min 6sec79.47 MB
Thumbnail for "Ep 009 - Jessica Bradley Wells : Where the Tupelo Grows".
Did you know that tupelo honey actually comes from the Panhandle of Florida? That's right, it's not from Elvis' hometown!
October 14, 202233min 56sec81.44 MB
Thumbnail for "Ep 008 - Boyce Upholt : Down To The Tide Line".
Who loves the beach? Time to head for our ever changing Southern coastline.
October 7, 202229min 39sec71.19 MB
Thumbnail for "Ep 007 - Jim Barger : The Untold Story of Hibiscus Grandiflorus".
In this episode we follow writer Jim Barger deep into the forest of a barrier island in search of prehistoric flowers once thought lost.
September 30, 202250min 44sec121.77 MB
Thumbnail for "Ep 006 - Janisse Ray : Okefenokee, Heavy & Precious".
Acclaimed author, Janisse Ray, on one of the great wonders of this world - The Okefenokee Swamp. In this story we travel deep into the swamp, we meet the people working to fight off a mining company whose plan will have devastating effects. Janisse is a devoted environmentalist and a mesmerizing storyteller. This episode is so good.
September 23, 202259min 48sec143.55 MB
Thumbnail for "BATCH No. 2 is here!".
In our new BATCH of episodes - "Earth Stories" - we've recorded some of our favorite contributors reading their stories about special and fragile places across the South. Listen to these wonderful writers read their powerful words and then talk with our host, Kyle Tibbs Jones.
September 23, 20222min 57sec7.12 MB
Thumbnail for "Ep 005 - Sheri Castle: The Seven Essential Southern Dishes".
Sheri Castle talks us through her world famous, highly controversial, list of the Seven Essential Southern Dishes
July 30, 20221hr 1min146.93 MB
Thumbnail for "Ep 003 - Beans and Rice & Lemon Meringue Pie".
In the third episode of BATCH, we're actually sharing two stories: a tale of love and a tale of… well, also love, but with some hate mixed in too. Nikesha Elise Williams reads “Beans and Rice: More than a Poor Man’s Meal” and Kathleen Purvis reads “Lemon Meringue Pie: A Lesson In Love, Hate and Bravery”
July 16, 202236min 48sec88.33 MB
Thumbnail for "Ep 002 - Kate Medley : Meat and Three & 10 Dollars Worth of Regular".
Some people marvel at gas station food. Trust us, it's a beautiful thing.
July 9, 202223min 1sec55.26 MB
Thumbnail for "Ep 001 - Jennifer Kornegay : The Difference Between Happiness And Joy".
A restaurant in Brewton, Alabama does its part to fight hunger by giving up on the idea of being a business at all. Meet Lisa McMillan, a woman serving up love in the form of fried chicken, mac and cheese and cornbread. Her story is a good one.
July 2, 202240min 37sec97.52 MB
Thumbnail for "An Intro to Season 1/ Episode 1 of BATCH: A Bitter Southerner Podcast ".
Coming soon - a new Bitter Southerner Podcast!
June 30, 20222min 33sec6.14 MB

Ep 004 - Shane Mitchell : The Queen of Delicacies

Thumbnail for "Ep 004 - Shane Mitchell : The Queen of Delicacies".
July 23, 202258min 21sec

This weekend, the Bitter Southerner is back with a real peach of an episode.

If you are listening for the first time, at BATCH, we have our favorites read some favorites. What we mean by that is that we dig around in our archives and record readings of the stories y'all love. In our first batch of episodes, we're sharing some of our most popular food stories.

In episode 4 of BATCH, James Beard Award winning author Shane Mitchell reads her piece on peaches; their beauty, what makes a good one, the people who grow them, the pageants(!) and the story of how they got here.

Welcome back to BATCH, y’all.

Original Stories

The Queen of Delicacies

Credits

Hosted by Kyle Tibbs Jones

Produced by Ryan Engelberger

Engineered by Thomas Sully Allen, Kayla Dover and Evan Kleinecke

Featuring original music by Curt Castle

Recorded at Tweed Recording and Chase Park Transduction in Athens, GA and 5th Street Studios in Austin, TX

Thumbnail for "Ep 004 - Shane Mitchell : The Queen of Delicacies".
Ep 004 - Shane Mitchell : The Queen of Delicacies
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