White lightning. Firewater. Mountain dew. There are a lot of names for moonshine, but what is it? Strictly speaking, it’s any illegal homemade spirit, and can be made from pretty much anything including fruits, grain and vegetables.
People all over the world have been making their own alcohol for millennia, but moonshine as we know it today came to be after Prohibition laws made getting legally-produced liquor impossible. Tennessee was both the first state to adopt Prohibition laws and one of the earliest birthplaces of moonshine.
To learn more, we’re joined by a local historian, a distiller and a fourth-generation moonshiner from Cannon County.
Guests:
- Sarah Arntz, program coordinator at the Nashville Public Library Metro Archives
- Billy Kaufman, owner of Short Mountain Distillery
- Ricky Estes, fourth-generation Cannon County moonshiner
Additional reading:
Metro Archives: The Death of John Barleycorn: Prohibition in Nashville
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