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The South’s long and twisting history with kudzu

Flickr/Katie Ashdown https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Kudzu first arrived in the U.S. as decoration, but after the Dust Bowl it was touted as a way to save farms from soil erosion, and it spread its roots deep and wide. Somewhere in the mid-20th century, kudzu went from “savior” to “scourge,” in the words of writer Alexis Hauk.

Hauk joins hosts Leoneda Inge and Jeff Tiberii to talk about our complicated relationship with kudzu and some of the people who are making the best of the invasive species – in the form of food and art.

Guest
Alexis Hauk, writer and author of“Of Vines and Villains”in The Bitter Southerner

Leoneda Inge is the co-host of WUNC's "Due South." Leoneda has been a radio journalist for more than 30 years, spending most of her career at WUNC as the Race and Southern Culture reporter. Leoneda’s work includes stories of race, slavery, memory and monuments. She has won "Gracie" awards, an Alfred I. duPont Award and several awards from the Radio, Television, Digital News Association (RTDNA). In 2017, Leoneda was named "Journalist of Distinction" by the National Association of Black Journalists.
Jeff Tiberii is the co-host of WUNC's "Due South." Jeff joined WUNC in 2011. During his 20 years in public radio, he was Morning Edition Host at WFDD and WUNC’s Greensboro Bureau Chief and later, the Capitol Bureau Chief. Jeff has covered state and federal politics, produced the radio documentary “Right Turn,” launched a podcast, and was named North Carolina Radio Reporter of the Year four times.
Rachel McCarthy is a producer for "Due South." She previously worked at WUNC as a producer for "The Story with Dick Gordon." More recently, Rachel was podcast managing editor at Capitol Broadcasting Company where she developed narrative series and edited a daily podcast. She also worked at "The Double Shift" podcast as supervising producer. Rachel learned about audio storytelling at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. Prior to working in audio journalism, she was a research assistant at the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC.