Today, Explained – "The United States is Southern now"

Release Date: September 7, 2025
Host: Jonathan Hill (Vox)
Guests: Doug Belkin (Wall Street Journal), Elizabeth Bronwyn Boyd (author), Amanda Mull (Bloomberg)

Overview

This episode of Today, Explained delves into the growing influence of the American South on the national landscape. Host Jonathan Hill explores why increasing numbers of college students from the North are headed to Southern universities, how trends like #RushTok are shaping college culture, and why American pop culture itself has become deeply Southern. The discussion traces the evolving allure, social rituals, and complicated history of the South while interrogating how the rest of the country is consuming—sometimes superficially—its culture.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The New Southern Migration: Northern Students Head South

• 86% Increase in Northern Students at Southern Schools: Doug Belkin highlights how, over the past decade, elite Southern universities have seen an 86% jump in students from the North. Post-pandemic, the trend has accelerated further.
  • “The numbers of kids from the north heading south has increased, I think 88% over about a decade.”
    — Doug Belkin (02:36)
• Driving Factors:
  • Pandemic Response: Southern universities remained more open, hosting events like football games that were canceled elsewhere.
    • “The football games were going on. People up north were watching that happen on television, and they were jealous.”
      — Doug Belkin (03:51)
  • Affordability: Southern public universities are often $10,000–$15,000 cheaper, even for out-of-state students, compared to Northeastern flagships.
    • “The Southern publics are just good deals... She got into South Carolina, and it was less than half of that. And that kind of made the decision for her.”
      — Doug Belkin (04:34)
  • Campus Culture: Sports, robust Greek life, and a relaxed social environment draw students.
    • “Football Saturdays—all the kids... were all talking about how football is a religion in the South.”
      — Doug Belkin (06:16)

2. Culture Shock and Southern Hospitality

• Student Experiences: Most Northern transplants find the slower pace and hospitality a pleasant change.
  • “There's a level of hospitality... a sort of level of politeness that they seem to appreciate.”
    — Doug Belkin (05:11)

3. The Power of Campus Ritual: Greek Life and #RushTok

• RushTok Explained: The viral phenomenon of TikTok “Rush” videos, showcasing sorority recruitment at Southern schools, has glamorized and, to some, mythologized a particular vision of Southern womanhood.
  • “If you've been anywhere near an algorithm at the beginning of the school year... there's a good chance you've encountered RushTalk.”
    — Jonathan Hill (09:01)
  • Elizabeth Bronwyn Boyd: “Southern schools have become sort of like the Olympics of sorority rush. They're the apex.” (10:24)
• History and Exclusivity: Greek life traditions are rooted in exclusion, aspiring to ideals once associated with plantation privilege and status.
  • “This whole system is about exclusion, about rising in your own status. But to do that, it's necessary to exclude other people.”
    — Elizabeth Bronwyn Boyd (11:42)
• Class & Femininity: The careful curation of image and conformity, with Rush functioning as a performative competition and “free market of femininity.”
  • “There's real emphasis in southern history with the notion of purity... I don't want to see anything that I shouldn't be seeing during Rush, noted one Alabama active, because what we are looking for is a lady.”
    — Elizabeth Bronwyn Boyd (12:33)

4. The South’s Economic and Cultural Ascendance

• Structural Shifts Since the 1960s: Amanda Mull discusses how changes like civil rights reforms, air conditioning, interstate highways, and tax incentives drew both people and businesses to the South.
  • “The population of the south has been growing for decades and is still growing.”
    — Amanda Mull (20:50)
• Movie and Car Industries: Georgia becomes a film production powerhouse by offering tax incentives, while foreign auto companies are lured by anti-union stances and lower labor costs.
  • “Netflix has a huge complex in Atlanta. A lot of Marvel movies... have been filmed in Georgia.”
    — Amanda Mull (22:29)

5. Cultural Influence: From Outkast to Beyonce

• Southern Music’s Dominance: The 1995 Source Awards incident—Andre 3000’s famous “The South got something to say”—is cited as a turning point for the South's pop culture ascendancy.
  • “The south got something to say. That's all I got to say.”
    — Andre 3000, quoted by Amanda Mull (23:43)
• Cross-Genre Influence: The South’s impact is seen in the popularity and controversies of country music (Morgan Wallen, Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter), and the blending of Black and white Southern musical traditions.
  • “There’s no real such thing as white Southern music... it’s very hard to look at the south and go, okay, this is white Southern culture and this is black Southern culture because there are just so many cultural overlaps.”
    — Amanda Mull (26:41)

6. The Double-Edged Sword of Southern Popularity

• Mixed Feelings Among Southerners: While there’s pride in the newfound attention, some Southerners feel uneasy about superficial “cosplay” of Southern culture by outsiders who ignore deep histories of race and exclusion.
  • “It’s really uncanny to see people sort of embrace the aesthetics of the south without, like, really contending with what the south is and what it has been and what it means at all.”
    — Amanda Mull (27:03)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Doug Belkin on Football Culture:
  “Football is a religion in the South. The Saturdays, you know, everything sort of stops like the Sabbath... That generates a sense of community that's powerful and positive.” (06:16)

• Elizabeth Bronwyn Boyd on Rush Rituals:
  “Actives... look for a certain look—put together, cute but conservative, at ease, attractive but not flashy, not too much makeup, not attempting to look older, not sexy. Definitely not sexy. I don't want to see anything that I shouldn't be seeing during Rush.” (12:33)

• Amanda Mull on Southern Pop Culture:
  “I think that the process of the south becoming more salient... is a process of decades... The level of saturation we’re at right now is unique.” (19:25)

• Andre 3000’s Iconic Line (as recounted by Amanda Mull):
  “The south got something to say. That's all I got to say.” (23:43)

• Amanda Mull on Cultural Complications:
  “It’s good for all Southerners if people are more interested in the South... But it's also just strange... to see people cosplay as stereotypical Southerners... when a lot of them have not really thought about it.” (27:03)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:03 – Introduction to Southern colleges’ appeal
• 02:36 – Doug Belkin: Data on Northern students heading South
• 03:51 – The pandemic and surge in Southern enrollment
• 04:34 – Cost and affordability driving decisions
• 05:11 – Student culture shock and hospitality
• 06:16 – Campus culture: Football, Greek life, and community
• 09:01 – #RushTok and the online glamorization of Rush
• 10:24 – Elizabeth Bronwyn Boyd on sorority history and exclusivity
• 12:33 – The performance and class dynamics of Rush
• 19:25 – Amanda Mull: The long road to Southern cultural dominance
• 22:29 – Georgia’s ascent as a movie production hub
• 23:43 – Outkast’s moment at the Source Awards and Southern music’s rise
• 26:41 – Intersectionality in Southern culture and music
• 27:03 – Southerner’s mixed reactions to national embrace

Episode Tone

The episode blends investigative reporting with cultural analysis and a conversational, candid tone. The voices of insiders and critics are present, ensuring the discussion acknowledges both the appeal and the fraught history embedded in the South’s national emergence.

Summary by Podcast Summarizer. For more detailed context, listen to the full episode on your platform of choice.