Coming September 3rd, Rebel Spirit is a brand new podcast series from Akilah Hughes (Crooked Media’s “What a Day”) about her return to her small town of Florence, Kentucky with a mission to change her high school’s mascot from a Confederate General into a Biscuit. Through conversations with local students and parents, and interviews with experts on everything ranging from mascot design to the history of the Confederacy, Rebel Spirit endeavors to make the process of correcting historic wrongs less of a bummer.

Over the past year, Akilah Hughes (Crooked Media’s “What a Day”) has been on a journey back to her hometown of Florence, Kentucky to convince her high school that now is the time to change their mascot from a Confederate General into something everyone in the South loves: a Biscuit. Throughout the process she has had conversations with local advocates and allies who are supportive of making a change. She has also interviewed tons of incredible people like journalist Jemele Hill, NFL player Calais Campbell, and even Brian Allen, the creator of the Philadelphia Flyer's beloved mascot Gritty, plus many more. And now, Akilah is thrilled to share her journey when Rebel Spirit premieres Sept. 3rd, in just one week!

Akilah heads back to her hometown of Florence, KY to attend her former high school’s homecoming celebration and kick off her campaign to get the Boone County Rebels mascot changed.

After dubious claims from the school board about the origin of the Rebels team name, Akilah dives deep into the history of the high school, the influence of classic cinema, and the term Rebel historically in the south.

In speaking to alumni from Boone County High School willing to share their experiences across multiple decades, a clearer image of all the half-measures taken to remove the confederate imagery and racist symbols from the school emerges–even as the name “Rebels” remains. 

Taking a step back from Akilah’s campaign, we spend some time with a local minor league baseball franchise, The Florence Y’All’s, and hear all about how they were able to rebrand their team name from something blah to something more inclusive–which led to a positive impact in every area of their business.

If you’re going to create a new mascot, you’ve gotta talk to the experts. In this episode, Akilah speaks with the creators of Benny the Bull, the Chicago Bulls’ mascot, and Gritty, the Philadelphia Flyers mascot, about how to successfully bring a new mascot to life.

By now we’ve learned that changing the Rebels mascot and team name is a difficult process. For guidance and inspiration, Akilah turns to other former Rebels who didn’t take no for an answer and pushed for their schools to make a change.

In a set of riveting interviews with a determined high school principal and an NFL star, Calais Campbell, Akilah gets schooled on the successful process that changed the Denver South High School Rebels into the Ravens.

The biggest advice Akilah has gotten for changing the Rebels mascot has been to get in touch with NFL MVP running back and Boone County High School alum, Shaun Alexander. Using the unfortunate power of Facebook, Akilah gets pretty darn close to that goal.

After so much research and work, it is clear that this uphill battle is not coming to a close soon as Akilah finally gets to speak in front of the school. How do you keep fighting for change when endless roadblocks keep getting in the way? How do you stay positive when progress seems to be moving backwards? 

As we finish up our next episode, and given that everyone’s minds are probably occupied with the Election today, the Rebel Spirit team wanted to take a moment to look back on the process of making this podcast over the last year. Akilah sat down with producers Dan Sinker and Elizabeth Baquet for a conversation about everything they experienced while pushing for change. Hope you enjoy it and we will be back next week with our tenth episode covering Akilah's journey. 

Akilah returns to Florence for one last push toward change as she speaks at the final Boone County High School SBDC meeting of the school year, which just so happens to be on Juneteenth. 

As Akilah and the Rebel Spirit team continue to pursue updates from BCHS on the mascot change, we wanted to share one more bonus episode before the end of the year. Within today's episode you get an expanded look at three of the many interviews we conducted when creating Rebel Spirit. We'll be back in the new year with a larger update on our progress in continuing to follow this story. Until then, wishing everyone very happy holidays!

Akilah sits down with her producers, Dan and Elizabeth, for a check in on where the journey has taken them since airing the initial episodes. Though there hasn't been much movement from Boone County High School, they have heard some updates from local supporters. Additionally, the team shares an overview of what they plan to share in future episodes.

Since our last episode, we've heard rumors coming out of Boone County: there WILL be a new mascot; there definitely will NOT be a new mascot; the new superintendent wants to know what's going on; there are meetings happening. We've tried hard to get anyone at the school district or the high school to talk with us, so we can find out what's real and what isn't, but nobody will. And so this episode Akilah asks: is there another way to find out what folks are saying?

It's the last episode of the season, and Akilah is thinking about her home, Florence, Kentucky. Over the course of our reporting, we've been told how much the town and county are changing, how much more diverse they're getting. What does the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration and diversity mean for Florence? What does it mean for all of us? One last open record request underscores what we're up against, even as the battle feels larger than ever.