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Gone South – Audacy Podcasts — Society & Culture
Gone South – Audacy Podcasts

For years, Gone South has been a podcast about crime in the American South. But in Season 5, we’re widening the lens.Through deeply reported, narrative-driven stories—and conversations with journalists, historians, musicians, and people who’ve lived these stories firsthand—we’re digging into the myths, scandals, and power structures that still shape the South… and, in many ways, the country itself.From re-examining the cultural meaning of the Alamo to tracing the family history of Alex Murdaugh to investigating the federal indictment of New Orleans’s former mayor, each episode stands alone. Together, they paint a picture of what this region really is and how it came to be.Gone South is a show for people who want to understand how history lingers and why it still matters now.Written and hosted by award-winning journalist Jed Lipinski, Gone South is the recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award for Outstanding Achievement in Journalism.Previous serialized seasons include:Season 1: Who Killed Margaret Coon?Season 2: The Dixie MafiaSeason 3: The Sign CutterFollow Gone South to get new episodes every week.

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Goat Castle: Murder, Myth, and Jim Crow Justice in Natchez Mar 11, 2026

Show notes

In 2012, historian Karen Cox is digging through the Mississippi State Archives when an archivist tells her, “If you want to know about Natchez, you need to look at Goat Castle.” Cox expects a ghost story. What she finds is stranger and darker: a 1932 murder that turned into a national Southern Gothic spectacle.

The victim was a reclusive former Southern belle. The suspects were her eccentric neighbors, a failed concert pianist and an aging socialite, living in a decaying mansion overrun with goats. Newspapers dubbed them the Wild Man and the Goat Woman, and tourists flocked to Natchez to gawk.

But beneath the spectacle was the real tragedy: Emily Burns, a young Black woman forced into the story and ultimately blamed, while the white suspects became local celebrities. Sent to Mississippi’s brutal Parchman prison, Emily was erased from the public record.

Cox set out to write her back in and to expose what Goat Castle reveals about justice in the Jim Crow South.

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https://jedlipinski.substack.com/
Connect with Jed Lipinski:
https://www.instagram.com/gonesouthpodcast/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/gonesouthpodcast/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jed-lipinski/
Karen Cox is the author of Goat Castle: A True Story of Murder, Race, and the Gothic South:https://www.amazon.com/Goat-Castle-Story-Murder-Gothic/dp/1469661438

Charleston, 2015: Dylann Roof and Emanuel AME Mar 04, 2026

Show notes

At a 2024 House Judiciary oversight hearing, an exchange about racially motivated violence goes viral after FBI chief Kash Patel appears to stumble over a question about the 2015 Charleston church massacre. The moment sparks a grim question: how does a tragedy this defining slip out of view?

Jed Lipinski revisits what happened at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church when 21-year-old Dylann Roof sat in on Bible study, then opened fire and killed nine Black parishioners. With New Yorker writer Jelani Cobb and Charleston native Jack Hitt, we trace the deeper history Roof targeted: Denmark Vesey, the long shadow of Confederate “heritage,” and the symbols that still shape South Carolina’s public life.

From the Confederate flag’s removal to today’s backlash, this is a story about memory, denial, and what the country chooses to learn, or forget.

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Connect with Jed Lipinski: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/gonesouthpodcast/⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/gonesouthpodcast/⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jed-lipinski/

Stand Your Ground on Camp Swamp Road: The Scott Spivey Shooting Feb 25, 2026

Show notes

On September 9, 2023, a road-rage encounter in South Carolina turns into a nine-mile chase and ends with 33-year-old Scott Spivey dead on a rural back road. Police quickly call it self-defense under Stand Your Ground.

But Scott’s sister, Jennifer Foley, doesn’t buy it. As the case is closed and sealed off, she starts building her own timeline, until a civil lawsuit forces the release of the evidence file: thousands of documents, photos, body-cam and dash-cam footage, and recorded phone calls that suggest the official story was shaped from the start.

Wall Street Journal reporter Valerie Bauerlein and attorney Mark Tinsley follow the trail into a world of conflicts of interest, missing (or buried) evidence, and a system that treats the shooter as the victim.

Subscribe to our newsletter:⁠https://jedlipinski.substack.com/⁠

Connect with Jed Lipinski: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/gonesouthpodcast/⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/gonesouthpodcast/⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jed-lipinski/

Murdaugh Family History Feb 18, 2026

Show notes

Wall Street Journal reporter Valerie Bauerlein, who covered the Alex Murdaugh murder trial gavel to gavel, explains why the most revealing part of the Murdaugh saga isn’t Alex at all. It’s the 100-year legal dynasty that made him possible.

We go back to Hampton County, South Carolina, a post–Civil War “burned county” built to enforce White Rule, and follow three generations of Murdaugh power: Randolph Murdaugh Sr., the solicitor who learned how to bend the system; “Buster” Murdaugh, a charismatic, ruthless prosecutor tied to bootlegging and alleged jury tampering; and Randolph Murdaugh III, the smoother operator who kept the machine humming, until cameras and modern technology started capturing what used to happen in the shadows.

From the family’s early courtroom tactics and railroad lawsuits to the 2019 boat crash that killed Mallory Beach and the frantic hospital damage-control captured on security footage, this is the story of how a dynasty built its power and how it finally collapsed from the inside.

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Connect with Jed Lipinski: https://www.instagram.com/gonesouthpodcast/https://www.facebook.com/groups/gonesouthpodcast/https://www.linkedin.com/in/jed-lipinski/

Introducing Gone South, Season 5 Feb 17, 2026

Show notes

Gone South, the Edward R. Murrow award-winning podcast, is back for a fifth season. Join host Jed Lipinski as he investigates new southern-based stories each week.

BONUS: The Real Buford Pusser | Part 4 Nov 12, 2025

Show notes

Nearly six decades after Pauline Pusser’s murder, Tennessee investigators finally reveal what really happened. The TBI’s new findings suggest Walking Tall sheriff Buford Pusser staged the ambush that made him famous — and may have killed his wife. Host Jed Lipinski follows the fallout in Adamsville as investigators, locals, and lifelong believers wrestle over one question: what happens when a legend falls?

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BONUS: The Real Buford Pusser | Part 3 Nov 05, 2025

Show notes

In 1967, Sheriff Buford Pusser said gunmen ambushed his car, killing his wife Pauline and inspiring the Walking Tall legend. Nearly six decades later, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation exhumed Pauline’s body after learning no autopsy was ever done. Reporter Jed Lipinski travels to Adamsville, Tennessee, where new witnesses and old secrets threaten to upend the myth of Buford Pusser.

Find us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. You can also subscribe to our newsletter, Gone South with Jed Lipinski.

S4|E40: An Interview with Jed Lipinski Jul 23, 2025

Show notes

In the 40th and final episode of Season 4, Jed Lipinski answers questions about the making of Gone South.

Find us on ⁠Facebook⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠TikTok⁠ and ⁠Twitter⁠. You can also subscribe to our newsletter, ⁠Gone South with Jed Lipinski⁠.

S4|E39: Operation Sideswipe | Part 2 Jul 16, 2025

Show notes

After a federal witness is gunned down on his mother‘s doorstep, investigators began unraveling a murder conspiracy at the heart of operation sideswipe. In this episode, Reporter Mike Perlstein walks us through a dramatic bond hearing and the shocking details that finally brought two key players to justice.

Find us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. You can also subscribe to our newsletter, Gone South with Jed Lipinski.

S4|E38: Operation Sideswipe | Part 1 Jul 09, 2025

Show notes

Dozens of fake car crashes. Millions in bogus injury claims. And a murder that stunned federal investigators. This episode tells the story of ‘Operation Sideswipe’, the federal probe that uncovered a widespread fraud ring operating on Louisiana highways. Part one of a new two-part series.

Find us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. You can also subscribe to our newsletter, Gone South with Jed Lipinski.

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