DUKE: Well, well, well...looks like we're doing this thing for real now. Welcome to Red Dirt Radio,y'all. I'm Duke Teynor, and if you've been following my music, you know I don'tdo anything halfway.

JESSICA: And I'm Jessica,Duke's new partner in crime here on Red Dirt Radio. Duke, I gotta say—it'sabout time you got behind the mic for something other than laying down tracks.

DUKE: chuckles Youain't wrong, Jess. I've been making music about Carolina culture, writing songsabout this place I love, but I realized something—there's more stories to tellthan what fits in a three-minute song. That's where this podcast comes in.

JESSICA: So for anyone justtuning in, what exactly is Red Dirt Radio? What are we doing here?

DUKE: Red Dirt Radio isabout digging into the real North Carolina. The stories, the music, theculture, the history that doesn't always make the headlines. We're talkingabout everything from BBQ debates to tobacco fields, from NASCAR to new music,from mountain culture to coastal living.

JESSICA: And we're not justtalking about North Carolina—we're talking from NorthCarolina. Duke, you're from here, you make music here, you live this life. Thatauthenticity matters.

DUKE: Exactly. This ain'tsome outsider's perspective or some tourist guide version of the South. This ishome. These are our people, our traditions, our struggles, our victories. Andyeah, our contradictions too—because the South is complicated, and we're notgonna shy away from that.

JESSICA: So Duke, let'stalk about the name—Red Dirt Radio. Where does that come from?

DUKE: Red dirt. That'sCarolina soil, right there. You drive through the Piedmont, you see iteverywhere—that deep red clay. It stains everything it touches. It's in ourboots, under our nails, part of our DNA.

When I was a kid, my granddaddy used to say,"Boy, you got red dirt in your blood." Meaning you're from here, thisplace made you, and you can't ever really shake it—even if you wanted to.

JESSICA: And you don't wantto.

DUKE: Hell no. I'm proud ofwhere I'm from. This place shaped me. The music I make, the stories I tell, theway I see the world—it all comes back to Carolina. Red Dirt Radio is aboutcelebrating that, exploring that, and sharing it with folks who get it.