As the year comes to a close, we bring you this special episode of Salvation South, where we take a look back on our most popular commentaries aired by GPB Radio in 2025. (Part 1 of 2)

Southern noir meets 1980s Atlanta. In this Salvation South Deluxe episode, Southern crime-fiction stars S.A. Cosby and Ace Atkins dig into "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" Atkins’s Cold War thriller about Gen X kids, Russian spies, and suburban Atlanta in 1985. They talk Southern noir, Cold War paranoia, VHS-era pop culture, and why telling the real, diverse South on the page still matters.

A week ago, the world mourned the passing Steve Cropper, a key figure in Southern soul music. Cropper was the guitar player in Booker T. & the MG’s, who were the house band at the legendary Stax Recording Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. He wrote and played songs for the likes of Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, and Georgia’s own Otis Redding. Salvation South editor Chuck Reece has a remembrance.

Tomorrow, families all over Georgia will gather to celebrate Thanksgiving. At most of those tables, someone will say grace over the meal. There are probably as many ways to bless the food on a Southern table as there are Southerners waiting to eat it. We asked Salvation South editor Chuck Reece for his thoughts on table blessings.

Discover how Muscle Shoals, Alabama, became the unlikely birthplace of legendary music by Aretha, the Stones, and more.

When the Atlanta hip-hop superstars OutKast were inducted into the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame, it was more than a celebration of the immense talent of Antwan “Big Boi” Patton and André “3000” Benjamin. Salvation South editor Chuck Reece believes it was a jubilee for the city of Atlanta—and a Southern musical revolution that spread around the entire world.

Get to know a new crop of Southern musicians who are taking their deeply rooted cultural influences into new territory in the 21st Century, defying all expectations of genre and subject matter. Featuring: Amythyst Kiah, B.J. Barham, Chris Casey and Tommy Prine.

Hurricane season is here in the Southeast, and won’t be over until the end of November. Salvation South magazine recently published a story by a woman in Macon who, as a hurricane roared up from Florida years ago, told people on social media her doors were open to evacuees. We all love the idea of “Southern hospitality” when it comes to our friends. But complete strangers? Chuck is here with some thoughts.