Mary Sanders Ferriss Cavicchi, founder of Ferriss and Company, returns to Soul Sessions to talk about stewarding Jackson landmarks like Campbell's Bakery and Hal & Mal's, restoring the Kennington Mansion in Belhaven, and mentoring the next generation of designers through Downtown Jackson Partners' Urban Design Studio. She traces her love of historic preservation back to Babalu at Duling School and a mentorship with the late Bill Latham. The conversation covers what makes a small space feel intentional rather than just big, why Hal & Mal's still unifies Jackson across generations, and what's next for her firm — including work for the restaurant Josette, opening in Fondren this fall. TRANSCRIPT: https://www.visitjackson.com/blog/soul-sessions-mary-sanders-ferriss-cavicchi

On today's Soul Sessions EXTRA, we're handing things over to the Big Apple Inn's Geno Lee for the first episode of JXN's Table, a limited series podcast he's hosting for us. His first guest is Guillermo Salinas — pastry chef, chocolatier, and the force behind Just Vanilla at Duling Hall in Fondren. TRANSCRIPT: https://www.visitjackson.com/blog/soul-sessions-jxns-table

On today's show, we're talking with Joe Kosin, VP and Head of Programming at Innovation Arts & Entertainment, the company behind Broadway in Jackson, about the five productions coming to Thalia Mara Hall this season, what the hall's reopening means for touring Broadway, and why getting Jackson back to a week-long run of a blockbuster show is the goal — and why he thinks that's actually within reach. TRANSCRIPT: https://www.visitjackson.com/blog/soul-sessions-joe-kosin

On today's show, we're sitting down with Jerry Douglas — Alison Krauss and Union Station anchor and board member of the National Council for the Traditional Arts — ahead of his performance at the National Folk Festival, November 13th through 15th in Jackson. His latest album, The Set, his first solo release in seven years, captures exactly what makes him irreplaceable: a player who's always adapting, and always home. TRANSCRIPT: https://www.visitjackson.com/blog/soul-sessions-jerry-douglas

Jackson, Mississippi marks Juneteenth with seven free events across eight days — from a folk opera premiere at Jackson State University to a Ranger Talk at the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument to an inaugural gospel celebration at LeFleur's Bluff State Park. We've got the full guide, plus a conversation with Brad Franklin, the organizer behind the 10th Annual Juneteenth on Farish, on what it means to plant a decade-long tradition on one of the most historically significant streets in the South. TRANSCRIPT: https://www.visitjackson.com/blog/soul-sessions-juneteenth

On today's show, David and Jason talk about what it actually takes to bet on a neighborhood like Fondren — and why, for two people who aren't planning to go anywhere, that bet only keeps getting bigger. TRANSCRIPT: https://www.visitjackson.com/blog/soul-sessions-david-pharr-jason-watkins

On today's Soul Sessions Extra, we're talking about Jubilee: A Folk Opera — a collaboration between Jackson State University and Yale University debuting this summer, free and open to the public, right here in Jackson. I'm joined by Patricia Syner, Communications Director at the Margaret Walker Center. TRANSCRIPT: https://www.visitjackson.com/blog/soul-sessions-patricia-syner

On today's show, we're talking with urban strategist Josh McManus — partner at M|B|P, co-creator of JXN Rising, and the driving force behind Better Together, the effort to bring architect Sambo Mockbee's personal archive back into public view for the first time in 25 years. Josh has spent three decades working in post-industrial cities from Chattanooga to Detroit, and now he's turned his attention to Jackson — not as an outsider with answers, but as someone who keeps showing up with tools and a blueprint. TRANSCRIPT: https://www.visitjackson.com/blog/soul-sessions-josh-mcmanus

On today's show, we recorded live on location at the Mississippi Museum of Art during Third Space JXN's Soulfood Sunday event this April with our guest, Third Space founder Aisha Carson. We find out what it actually takes to build intentional community in a city that deserves to see itself celebrated. Her belief is rooted simply in this: that narrative change is where all other change begins, and that when people start experiencing their city differently, they start talking about it differently, too. TRANSCRIPT: https://www.visitjackson.com/blog/soul-sessions-aisha-carson

On today's show, we're talking with Andrea Patterson, Executive Director of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum about 30 years of preserving Mississippi's greatest sports legacy, a $4 million renovation that's redefining what the museum can be and why the stories told inside those walls still stop people cold. TRANSCRIPT: https://www.visitjackson.com/blog/soul-sessions-andrea-patterson-2026