Episode 12: Kathleen Purvis

Donna and Rachel are friends who aren't afraid to ask questions, laugh loudly, obsess freely and covet vintage items. The pair created the Smart Mouth Life Podcast to celebrate women who run their mouths and the world.

Kathleen Purvis wasn’t always a food journalist.

She started out as a copy “boy” at the Palm Beach Post in the 1970s, she just wanted to be in the newsroom. She’s been around words and colorful characters ever since. 

For more than 25 years, most recently as the Charlotte Observer, she’s been an incredible food editor, columnist and reporter, running a weekly section and online food coverage. In early 2019, she left the Observer to strike out on her own, and has since been nominated for a James Beard Foundation journalism award (her third time as a finalist) and had work published in Southern Living and Garden & Gun, among other media outlets. She’s published three books so far, the most recent is “Distilling The South,” and is a walking encyclopedia of southern foodways knowledge.

Among the people and topics Purvis covers in this episode:

Jonathan Gold
Kim Severson
Hanna Raskin
Kristen Wile/Unpretentious Palate
Mashama Bailey
Rick Nelson
Southern Foodways Alliance
Sandra Gutierrez
Naomi Tomky
Garden & Gun barbecue story
Tamales La Pasadita
Moccamaster in Extra Crispy
Franciscan Starburst dishware
THE Chrissy Teigen tweet