KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The next episode of the "Dolly Parton's America" podcast is going to hit close to home for the University of Tennessee.
Some UT students from the honors history course the podcast was inspired by are going to be featured on the episode that drops on Tuesday, Dec. 3.
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Lynn Sacco, an associate professor of history, who taught a course called Dolly Parton’s America for three years, found out the RadioLab podcast took the course’s name. In return, they devoted nearly an entire hour-long episode based on hours of interviews they conducted with UT honors history majors, according to a release from UT's history department.
The department said host Jad Abumrad and his co-writer and producer Shima Oliaee conducted more than 12 hours of interviews and followed Parton for two years. Some of that time was spent in Knoxville and Sevier County with Sacco and her students.
“Jad visited our final class one semester and then came back to campus with Shima for a full day of interviews with students,” Sacco said. “They both turned to me at one point and said, ‘These are the voices of young people from the South that need to be heard.’”
For more information on the course, visit the department's website.