Southern Fork Sustenance: A Conversation with MacArthur Fellow J. Drew Lanham about SC Barbecue & Beyond

J. Drew Lanham is a 2022 MacArthur Fellowship Recipient, an Alumni Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Master Teacher at Clemson University, an ornithologist, poet, and essayist, and he’s also a native of Edgefield, SC, where he grew up on lots of fresh veggies from the garden and the occasional Krispy Kreme doughnut from trips to Augusta. I first encountered him like many of you will today -- on a podcast, This is Love with Phoebe Judge to be exact -- and his joyful and accurate renditions of birdcalls sustained me through that dark spring of 2020 when the world was shut down and reeling. Since his work resonates with me so much, I invited him to chat about food, and when he accepted, he decided to read two never-before released poems on the subject. We dive deep into BBQ and SC Foodways here, as he invites us to consider the intersection of race, history, identity, and the very nature of language to name a thing, be it a pig or a person.