Southern Gothic podcasts bring to life everything from spooky tales to stories about Southern life, crime and local characters.
by Sonya Alexander
A modern popular gateway to Southern Gothic tales is podcasts. Podcasts have been around since the early 2000s. Originally called “audioblogs,” they were created by MTV VJ Adam Curry and developer Dave Winer in 2003 and dubbed “podcasts” by broadcast journalist Ben Hammersley in 2004. This aural treat has become increasingly popular over time, and there are numerous ones where Southern Gothic storytelling flourishes. This genre incorporates universal story tropes along with those particular to Southern lifestyle, history and tradition. Depending on the tale, it can be categorized as comedy, drama or horror, but woven in are the threads of unique Southern life.
Books (John Berendt’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird), movies (“Eve’s Bayou,” “The Gift”) and television shows (“True Detective” season one, “Sharp Objects“) are great sources of entertainment that feed the need for Southern Gothic narratives. Podcasts like “Southern Gothic” and “Ghost Stories Told from the South” are obvious audio resources for intriguing Southern Gothic tales, but prior to the easily portable podcast, there were other audio formats that took us to the South.
In 2010, the concept album “Ghost Brothers of Darkland County” was released. Legendary author Stephen King and award-winning singer/musician John Mellencamp joined forces to create this musical thriller, which hit the Alliance Theatre stage in 2012. King penned the book and Mellencamp created the roots-based score. Renowned music producer T Bone Burnett was also a co-creator on the project and helped shape its sound. There’s been an album, a soundtrack CD that includes Elvis Costello, Rosanne Cash and Kris Kristofferson, a behind-the-scenes DVD and a successful tour of the stage musical. Mellencamp, a Midwest native, referred to the CD as having an “old radio show” sound.
There’s nothing like the crackling and nostalgic sound of an old time radio show. While there haven’t been any shows strictly with the Southern Gothic theme, there have been many that had episodes dedicated to spooky Southern Gothic tales. If one takes a deep dive into the Internet Archive’s plethora of archived material, one can find shows with episodes dedicated to Edgar Allan Poe—the grandfather of Southern Gothic literature—or Flannery O’Connor reading her award-winning Southern Gothic classic “A Good Man is Hard to Find.”
These kinds of shows laid the groundwork for podcasts that focus on Southern Gothic. Some podcasts focus on spooky tales, hauntings and the supernatural. Others focus on Southern life, crime or local characters. Here are two that can satisfy your itch for the Southern, the macabre or moral decay.
The Moonlit Road: Strange Tales from the Back Roads of the American South originated in 1997 with audio stories before introducing podcasts. Southern-born founder Craig Dominey wasn’t happy with the way Southerners were being viewed by people outside of the region, so his impetus for starting the stories was that he “wanted to show how diverse our region really is, and the best vehicle to drive that home is our oral storytelling tradition.” The site not only has spooky tales and regional folklore, but it also has a “Schoolhouse” section where teachers can develop lesson plans about Southern Gothic culture. Many of the storytellers are traveling, giving these campfire tales a different tone each episode. Dominey’s aim has been “to teach a lesson, or just give people something to think about.” His longevity illustrates that he does have an effect on his audience.
Sweet tea is a front porch elixir that’s indicative of summer breezes and dips in the lake in the South. Pearl Duclos and Holly Schroeder’s Hold My Sweet Tea podcast has only been around since 2025, but they’ve already developed a clear voice amongst other podcasts. They have a steady flow of remarkable episodes six times a month. Though neither was born in the South, both have lived there long enough to claim it as home and have it shape their perspective and influence their “approach to storytelling, culture, and history on the show.” These true crime buffs infuse their crime stories with regional folklore and eerie tales, swathed in a homespun aura. Pearl and Holly understand what the rich dirt under their feet means. They define Southern Gothic as “contrast. It’s the beauty and warmth of the South existing alongside its shadows. It’s front porches and small towns — but also secrets, silence, injustice and the things people avoid talking about.”
Other podcasts to check out are Southern Mysteries, Old Gods of Appalachia, Paranormal Society of Savannah, Ghost Stories Told from the South and From the Front Porch. The United States is a big country, and the South played an important role in its growth. Its history is stained by slavery, Jim Crow and lynchings, but also sustained by a complex society that is as languorous as it is decadent and as mysterious as it is entrenched in family values. In this rapid-paced world, it’s important to know that one can step back in time or escape to the hominess of the South through these well-crafted Southern Gothic podcasts, a modern form of oral storytelling.
Sonya Alexander is a freelance entertainment journalist, academic writer and screenwriter who began her career as a talent agent-in-training. Read more of her work here.
