Hurricane season brings its share of anxiety, so I’d like to offer a bit of distraction from our current weather uncertainties. At the risk of adding to your stress, let’s turn back the calendar to early September of 1811, when a tornado measurin...
For the first 180 years of Charleston’s existence—from the arrival of the first settlers, through the entire colonial era and the American Revolution, through the War of 1812 and the Nullification Crisis, right up to the middle of the nineteenth c...
Let’s roll back the hands of time to talk about a nineteenth-century transportation phenomenon that few people remember, but one that revolutionized the concept of mobility in the Charleston area and continues to impact our community in the twenty...
Anyone who lives west of the Ashley River, or has spent time traveling through that area is familiar with the name of Bee’s Ferry, and the related Bees Ferry Road. If you’re a curious sort of person, perhaps you’ve wondered how this historic name ...
Let’s travel back in Lowcountry music history to talk about South Carolina’s first state anthem, or at least the state’s first unofficial anthem. I’m talking about a piece of music called “the South Carolina Hymn,” which was written in t...
Today we’re going to travel back in Lowcountry natural history to continue and conclude our discussion of vultures in urban Charleston. In the previous episode, I talked about the presence of these scavenging birds in the early days of Charleston...
Today we travel back in Lowcountry natural history to explore a very specific aspect of Charleston’s famous public market, which is the oldest institution of its kind in the United States. Two hundred and ten years ago this August, Charleston’s ...
Today we’re going to travel back in Lowcountry history to talk about Bastille Day, which is celebrated on the 14th of July by Francophiles around the world. I wrote an essay about this topic a couple of years ago, before I launched this podcas...
Longitude Lane is a short, narrow alley in urban Charleston that has captured the imagination of countless tourists and residents alike. Measuring approximately 540 feet long and just over ten feet wide, Longitude Lane is parallel to and approxim...
Today we’re going to travel back to the year 1765 and listen to the words of Lord Adam Gordon, who visited Charleston and the Lowcountry of South Carolina as part of an extended tour of the American colonies.