Podcast
Walter Edgar's Journal
Hosted by South Carolina Public Radio · EN
From books to barbecue, and current events to Colonial history, historian and author Walter Edgar delves into the arts, culture, and history of South Carolina and the American South. Produced by South Carolina Public Radio.
17episodes
Episodes
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Murder in the Lowcountry? Call the Mudflats Murder Club
2w ago00:32:56Tap to summarizeBrian Thiem( Courtesty of the author)This our guest will be novelist Brian Thiem, from Hilton Head Island, and we'll be talking about his series of novels about the Mudflats Murder Club.Brian draws from his experience as a former detective and cold case investigator, to craft suspenseful stories set on the fictional Spartina Island in the South Carolina Lowcountry. His latest book in the series is A Killer in the Cordgrass (2026, Severn River Publishing/Simon and Schuster).
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South Carolina from A-Z in Depth - The Scrabble episode!
May 1500:30:43Tap to summarizeWalter Edgar and Alfred Turner( SCETV)This week our we are bringing you another episode in our occasional series which explores “South Carolina from A to Z” in depth. South Carolina from A to Z is our sister podcast that brings you “bite-sized,”one-minute topics from the South Carolina Encyclopedia.Listeners Virgil and Mary Ann Hobbs suggested that our next episode of A-Z in depth focus on topics that begin with the letters that give Scrabble players their highest scores - what a great idea! So, today's topics begin with Q, X, or Z.
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Revelations: The Art of Leo Twiggs
May 100:43:54Tap to summarize<i>We Have Known Rivers: Masks, Tree, &amp; Moon</i>, 1992 by Leo Twiggs (American, b. 1934). Batik and paint on cotton mounted on board, 40 x 34 inches.(Private Collection. Image © Leo Twiggs.)This week we will be talking with Sara from the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, art historian Frank Martin, and with artist Leo Twiggs about his exhibition at the Gibbes called Revelations: The Art of Leo Twiggs. At 92 years of age, Leo Twiggs has a perspective on life in South Carolina that covers fundamental changes in our state and our nation. His art is both intensely personal and a commentary of the struggles that both Black and White South Carolinians share.The show ends May 3rd at the Gibbes and opens at the Florence Museum June 1 for an extended run.
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Liberty is sweet: The hidden history of the American Revolution
Apr 1700:46:59Tap to summarizeDetail from a historical marker at Kings Mountain National Military Park.(Bob Thompson / Courtesy of the author)This week we are digging into our broadcast archives to bring you an encore of an episode that is perfect in this 250th-annivesary year of the start of the American Revolution.Walter’s guest is Dr. Woody Holton of the University of South Carolina, and they will be talking about Horton’s book, Liberty is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution. (2021, Simon & Schuster).Liberty is Sweet has been described as a “deeply researched and bracing retelling” of the Revolution, which shows how the Founders were influenced by overlooked Americans—women, Native Americans, African Americans, and religious dissenters.
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Mary Whyte: An artist's life
Apr 300:29:51Tap to summarize<i>Oyster Bank</i>(Mary Whyte / Courtesty of the Artist)This week we will be talking with South Carolina watercolor artist Mary Whyte.A traditionalist preferring a representational style, and the author of seven published books, Mary has earned awards for her large-scale watercolors. Today we’ll look back on Mary’s career and talk with her about her new book, An Artist's Life: Unlocking Creative Expression.
Transcribe →Exploring "South Carolina from A to Z" - In depth, redux
Mar 2000:27:16Tap to summarizeWalter Edgar and Alfred Turner( SCETV)We had so much fun last time out, exploring topics featured in “South Carolina from A to Z,” that we decided to do it again!South Carolina from A to Z is our sister podcast – also broadcast each weekday on South Carolina Public Radio – that brings you “bite-sized," one-minute topics from the South Carolina Encyclopedia.This episode we have selected five new topics to explore
Transcribe →“South Carolina from A to Z” in depth
Mar 600:35:58Tap to summarizeWalter Edgar and Alfred Turner( SCETV)This week our we are bringing you another episode in our occasional series which explores “South Carolina from A to Z” in depth.South Carolina from A to Z is our sister podcast – also broadcast each weekday on South Carolina Public Radio – that brings you “bite-sized," one-minute topics from the South Carolina Encyclopedia.This episode we have selected five of those topics to explore.
Transcribe →The Father of American Opera: Carlisle Floyd at 100
Feb 2000:43:52Tap to summarizeThis week we’ll be talking about the life and career of the man that many call the Father of American opera: Carlisle Floyd. Our guests are Floyd's neice, Jane Matheny, and his biographer,Thomas Holliday. A native of Latta, South Carolina, Carlisle Floyd became a professor of composition at Florida State University in 1947. His magnum opus, Susannah, was first performed in 1955 and became the most performed American opera, second to Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.Floyd was both composer and librettist of his operas, which typically portrayed themes common to rural America, especially the post-Civil War South. 2026 in the centennial of Carlisle Floyd’s birth and today we’ll talk with our guests about his long life and his career.
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Victoria Benton Frank: Making a new path while walking with grief
Feb 600:26:22Tap to summarizeVictoria Benton Frank(Molly Lawson)This week we’ll be talking with Charleston author Victoria Benton Frank about her new novel, The Violet Hour. Victoria was born in New York City, raised in Montclair, New Jersey, but considers herself to have dual residency in the Lowcountry. She is a graduate of the College of Charleston and the French Culinary Institute. Her mother was the late Dorothea Benton Frank, a best-selling novelist and native of Sullivan’s Island.With the release of The Violet Hour (2026, Simon & Schuster), her second novel, she continues to hone her craft, this time with a story of grief and healing.
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Gullah culture in America
Jan 1600:28:45Tap to summarizeWalter Edgar(SCETV)The book, Gullah Culture in America (Blair Publishing), chronicles the history and culture of the Gullah people, African Americans who live in the Lowcountry region of the American South. Written by Wilbur Cross in 2008, it chronicles the arrival of enslaved West Africans to the sea islands of South Carolina and Georgia; the melding of their African cultures, which created distinct creole language, cuisine, traditions, and arts; and the establishment of the Penn School, dedicated to education and support of the Gullah freedmen following the Civil War.Dr. Eric Crawford, editor, of the book’s second edition (2022), is a Gullah Geechee scholar and Associate Professor of Musicology at Claflin University in Orangeburg. He joins us to talk about Gullah culture and about updating the late Dr. Cross’ book.This is an encore presentation from September 29, 2023.
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