The rural South’s invisible public health crisis

In the Black Belt and along the Gulf Coast, there's a rise of poverty-related tropical diseases related to poor sewage infrastructure and climate change.

Poisoned water, a black lung epidemic, & flash flooding

When I arrived back in Louisville after six days in Eastern Kentucky, I forgot I was allowed to drink water from the faucet. So thirsty, I…

Southern soil, artificial oyster reefs, & new national monuments

There is a wall in the Legacy Museum in Montgomery lined with dozens of jars of soil gathered from the sites of lynchings around the country. Each is…

Holly Beach, light pollution, & America’s dumping ground

I sat on the shore of Holly Beach, Louisiana, watching the tide creep up the sand. The distant offshore oil rigs, which shined brighter than the…

Rate hikes, border zones, & Walter Anderson’s landscapes

When the board of directors for Tennessee Valley Authority—the country’s largest public power utility that serves 9 million people in seven Southern states—unanimously approved a new “grid…

Livestock waste lagoons, black cowboys, & skeptical miners

The room was packed on Tuesday for a Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality hearing in Pike County, Mississippi. For the second time in two months, residents…

your southern stories

“I miss the Elkhorn Creek which runs in the heart of horse country, through Midway and near Frankfort, Kentucky. In the 1800’s, distilleries and grain mills were built along its bed, many of whose limestone bones still stand (and some, like Weisenberger Mill, which is still in business). Each summer my family will load up canoes and meander the creek’s path, which moves so slowly there’s often no need to paddle. Sycamore trees on each side lean over the creek, creating a cocoon in the space between the water and their branches. And for a time there’s a secluded corner of the world that exists only for you — like the feeling of standing behind a waterfall. Perhaps someone from the West may find warm bodies of water confusing — rivers and creeks are to be glacial-fed, wild, and clear. But growing up in the South, I prefer my summer bodies of water to match the air — warm and still. You can sit on a noodle in the lake all day long and never feel cold, only refreshed.”
—Becca Barhorst, Portland, Oregon