Walter Edgar's Journal
Episodes released the first and third Fridays of each month.
Someone once said, “All roads lead to Rome.” Maybe...
But longtime historian, author, and radio host Walter Edgar believes it’s a safer bet that all roads pass through South Carolina. And lot of them start here.
On Walter Edgar’s Journal, he delves into the arts, culture, and history of South Carolina and the American South, to find out, among other things... the mysteries of okra, how many "Reconstructions" there have been since the Civil War, and why the road through the Supreme Court to civil rights has been so rocky.
Join Walter Edgar with co-host Alfred Turner and their guests the first and third Thursday of each month for the revamped Walter Edgar’s Journal podcast. Listen to the episodes on this page, subscribe through the links below, listen in the SCETV App, or ask your smart speaker to "play Walter Edgar's Journal."
Many of the books discussed on this program are available in the "Walter Edgar's Journal Book Nook" section at All Good Books in Columbia, SC.
Click here to contact the show.
Click here to listen to South Carolina from A to Z.
Click here to play the Dr. Walter Edgar's South Carolina Quiz!
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Latest Episodes
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This week we’ll be talking with Nic Butler, the historian at the Charleston County Public Library, who is researching the life of George Anson. Anson, was an officer in the British Navy who, by the time of his death in 1762, had risen to its highest rank, First Lord of the Admiralty. He had also spent 9 years in South Carolina during its time of transition from a colony governed by the Lords Proprietors to a colony of the British Crown. -
This week we're speaking with Dr. Henry N. Tisdale, former president of Claflin University in Orangeburg, SC. This Kingstree native has had a long and distinguished academic career, earning his undergraduate degree at Claflin in 1965 and, eventually, becoming the first African American to earn a doctorate in mathematics from Dartmouth. -
This week we are going to be exploring South Carolina from A to Z. That’s the title of our sister podcast from which we will select topics that deserve a longer look that just 60 seconds.This time out we'll discuss the ambitious man whose name adorns a Christmas decoration; the aristocratic Royal Governor who just didn't "get" South Carolina; the once powerful leadership body in the colony that lost it's standing almost overnight; and the young, talented South Carolina legislature who had a real impact on our young republic as well as our state. -
This week, we revisit our conversation with Ben Beard, author of The South Never Plays Itself: A Film Buff’s Journey Through the South on Screen. -
After two decades of research and investigation, the South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust, in collaboration with the South Carolina American Revolution Sestercentennial Commission (SC250), has unveiled the first volume of the Francis Marion Papers, a project that holds the potential to reshape our understanding of one of the American Revolution’s most heroic figures.For this episode we sat down with Molly Fortune, CEO of SC250); co-editor Ben Rubin, and co-editor Rick Wise, Director of the SC Battlefield Preservation Trust, to talk about the work behind the publication of the papers and about Marion and his compatriots in the Revoultionary War. -
In his book Mother Emanuel: Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church (2025, Crown) Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Kevin Sack explores the inspiring history that brought the church to that moment, and the depth of the desecration committed in its fellowship hall.In this expanded episode of Walter Edgar's Journal, Sack joins us to explore the story of Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston. -
This week we will be talking Scott Romine, author of The Zombie Memes of Dixie (2024, UGA Press). The book traces the origin and development of several propositions, tropes, types, clichés, and ideas commonly associated with the U.S. South.Approaching these propositions as memes Scott argues that many of them developed in defense of slavery and evolved in its aftermath to continue to form a southern group whose “way of life” naturalized an emergent regime of segregation. -
This week we're going to explore South Carolina from A to Z. Walter and Alfred will take five topics from past episodes of our companion podcast, South Carolina from A to Z, and discuss each at length, giving these people and events from our state's history some room to "breathe."We'll tell you about the man who founded the earliest European settlement - 1562 - in what is now South Carolina. We'll look at this history of a very important ingredient in South Carolina foodways. And, we'll learn about a singular, perceptive observer of the Confederate elite and whose writings add to our understanding of a tumultuous time in our history. -
This week we'll be talking with Timmonsville native Johnny D. Boggs about his latest novel, Bloody Newton: The Town from Hell, his journey from a childhood in the Pee Dee, his life in Santa Fe, New Mexico,and his career as a celebrated author of Western fiction. Bloody Newton has just won for Johnny his tenth Spur Award from The Western Writers of America. -
This week we going to explore South Carolina from A to Z. That’s the title of our sister podcast and the title tells you all you need to know about what that podcast does: Letter by letter Walter goes through the South Carolina Encyclopedia, giving you bite-sized takes on the history of the Palmetto State. The challenge he faces for each episode is that it is only one minute long - 145 to 149 words of text to cover the topic.On today's Journal Walter and Alfred are taking five topics from past editions of South Carolina from A to Z and are discussing each at length, giving some of these people and events from our state's history room to "breathe."
