About
Welcome to Alabama Short Stories, the podcast created to celebrate those stories about Alabama that you don’t hear about often, if ever. These are the stories that your teacher did not share with you in your fourth-grade civics class.
My name is Shawn Wright, and I am the creator and host of the Alabama Short Stories podcast. I created this podcast after my podcast, the “Shades Cahaba Oral History Project,” was completed. I had spent the year leading up to the 100th Anniversary of Shades Cahaba Elementary School, telling the school’s history as a high school in Homewood, Alabama. I shared the stories of individuals who attended and worked at the school, and I shared what was happening in the community.
I finished the Shades Cahaba podcast episodes in the spring of 2020 when the world went into lockdown due to Covid-19. My full-time business as a graphic designer was understandably slow, and I took the opportunity to use what I had learned and rework my podcast into a book, Shades Cahaba: The First 100 Years, which was published on Amazon.com on September 1, 2020, just weeks before the schools 100th anniversary.
I enjoyed researching and telling the stories about the school, and I decided I wanted to continue and expand my focus. I chose my home state of Alabama. You can say a lot about Alabama, the good and the bad, and many stories must be told. The Alabama Short Stories podcast was born.
I started close to home with stories that had been told to us in my family. Bear Bryant’s “call your mama” commercial was the starting place. I didn’t have to go far to find out the story. My father was the creative director for the project and brought the story to his team. I interviewed my father for this episode. I also tell the story of my grandfather going to the first state championship basketball tournament in 1921. The first season has stories about meteorites, monkeynauts, painters, Miss Liberty, windshield wipers, radio stations, and a football game played in court.
If you would like to support the podcast, make sure you subscribe on your podcast app of choice. You can also purchase one of my books or make a donation using Paypal and Venmo. You can also buy one of the items for sale on my TeePublic store.
I hope you enjoy the podcast and the books!