The Living South's top 5 of 2025
In the first year of The Living South, I did my best to tell the stories that captured this complicated place. In year two, I want to go bigger and deeper.
The Living South was created by journalist Billy Ball in 2024. Every Tuesday, I write about the most interesting stories, people, and thoughts in the American South. Sign up here for free. Want to reprint something from The Living South? Write me. If you like The Living South, share it with your friends. That's how we grow.
Unbelievably, The Living South is a year old.
I'm grateful for every single one of you reading this little site.
As I wrote in December 2024, "the South is not an old, dead thing. Like all living things, it's flawed, evolving, contradictory."
In the first year of The Living South, I did my best to tell the stories that captured this complicated place. In year two, I want to go bigger and deeper. I want to keep talking to the game-changers. I'm already hard at work on that.
Recently, I spoke to prominent civil rights attorney Anita Earls, whose 2026 campaign for the North Carolina Supreme Court figures to be one of the most bitterly contested in the nation. The winner is going to have big things to consider. Voting rights, gerrymandering, the state of public education—they're all on the docket. Look for that story in early 2026.
The Living South's top 5 of 2025
In the meantime, let's celebrate The Living South's best work of 2025.
If anything, I want this storytelling to be unexpected, open-hearted, curious, inspiring. Here are some of my favorites.
