On March 19, 1,700 people packed into the Koger Center to see former R.E.M. lead Michael Stipe reflect on his life as a Southern man at anevent hosted by USC's "Take on the South" podcast.
For the past three years, the USC Institute for Southern Studies has been releasing episodes of its "Take on the South" podcast about once a week with a different guest.
The institute encourages the study of the South through public programs, courses and projects such as the podcast, according to the College of Arts and Sciences.
Podcast creator Mark Smith is the director of the institute, who said "Take on The South" is representative of the department.
“We are an interdisciplinary institute, which brings together the study of English, history, anthropology, public health, music, popular culture," Smith said. "As long as it’s Southern, we cover it.”
Smith conceptualized the podcast when he became appointed director about four years ago, he said. The original goal was to help publicize the Southern Studies institute of USC and bring attention to the work it does, he said.
"I was thinking of ways ... To make more apparent what we do inside these four walls and kind of populate our scholarship, our work and the work of other people to the general public, and it seemed to me that the most cost-efficient and effective way to do that was a podcast,” Smith said
Smith and music professor Emily Ruth Allen host the podcast.
While Allen's expertise is music, her work on conducting interviews on the podcast goes beyond just musical topics, she said.
"It's mostly music, but I think the nature of the Institute for Southern Studies has so many different academic fields tied into it that it is kind of inherently a given that I'm gonna have to do stuff besides music, too," Allen said.
Interviewees on the podcast vary significantly, including faculty members, students and even former South Carolina governor David Beasley in September.
The podcast hosts the McNair conversation in spring semesters and the Neuffer lecture series in Southern literature in the fall. These events bring in well-known authors such as Jill McCorkle in 2024 to campus who have expertise in Southern literature.
While Smith and Allen usually record podcast episodes privately, the McNair and Neuffer lectures are given in front of live audiences.
The most recent McNair Conversation for the podcast hosted former R.E.M. lead vocalist Michael Stipe for a conversation at the Koger Center for the Arts due to high audience demand.
The discussion varied widely in scope, ranging from Stipe’s Southern heritage, his identity as a gay man both today and in the past, his artistic pursuits after R.E.M and which states really count as “the South."
Smith helmed the talk, asking Stipe wide-ranging questions throughout the talk, primarily of his own creation. At the end of the discussion, he included a handful of curated audience-submitted questions.
Fourth-year political science student Turner Owens said he was excited for Stipe coming to speak at USC.
"It was good to have somebody of such a high profile, like Michael Stipe, come to speak at our university," Turner said.
In previous years, the Institute hosted conversations in the law school auditorium. Last year, the McNair conversation featured former South Carolina Chief Justice Jean Toll. This conversation covered Toll's southern upbringing and her experiences within the politics of South Carolina.
In the future, the goal of the podcast is to be monetized and help provide scholarship money for students pursuing Southern Studies, Smith said. He hopes to help undergraduate students in the Southern Studies program with expenses once monetization is implemented.
Allen said she plans to take the podcast on the road across the South, reaching beyond just USC.
“(I will) do some podcast episodes on different festivals around the South and the role of music and sound in those festivals. I’m trying to branch out the podcast to examine stuff more broadly around the South,” Allen said.
Allen plans to record and release these on the road episodes of the podcast in mid-to-late 2026.
Both the McNair and Neuffer lecture series are free for the public to attend, but attendees must claim spots in advance.
Episodes of "Take on the South" including the Michael Stipe conversation can be found on YouTube or Spotify.