Welcome to Charleston Through Their Eyes

Charleston is one of those places that seems to have an endless number of stories written about it.

Search online and you’ll find plenty of information about where to eat, where to stay, what to see, which beaches to visit, which historic homes to tour, and how to spend the perfect weekend in the Holy City.

And there’s certainly nothing wrong with that.

Charleston is a remarkable place to visit.

But we believe there is another Charleston worth discovering.

It’s the Charleston you find when you sit down with someone who has lived here their entire life and ask what the city was like when they were growing up.

It’s the Charleston seen by someone who arrived five years ago and decided, for reasons entirely their own, that this was where they wanted to build the next chapter of their life.

It’s the Charleston experienced by the artist selling work at the City Market, the chef working behind the scenes in one of the city’s restaurants, the historian who has spent decades studying its past, or the business owner watching a neighborhood change outside the front window.

That is the Charleston we want to explore.

Welcome to Charleston Through Their Eyes.

Why Another Charleston Podcast?

That’s a fair question.

There is already a tremendous amount of content about Charleston. There are podcasts, YouTube channels, travel websites, social media accounts, magazines, books, tours, blogs, restaurant reviews, history programs, and endless lists of “10 Things You Have to Do in Charleston.”

We don’t want to duplicate them.

Charleston Through Their Eyes is built around a different idea: instead of simply telling you about Charleston, we want you to experience Charleston Through The Eyes of the people who know it.

Every person sees this city a little differently.

Ask ten Charlestonians to name their favorite place in the city, and you might get ten answers.

Ask them what Charleston does well, and the answers will vary.

Ask what Charleston gets wrong, and things might get even more interesting.

Ask someone who grew up here about the Charleston of their childhood, and you may hear about a city that barely resembles the one we know today.

Ask someone who recently chose to move here why they came, and you may begin to see Charleston from an entirely different perspective.

Those differences are exactly what interest us.

We’re not looking for one definitive answer to the question, “What is Charleston?”

We’re looking for hundreds of answers.

The People Will Tell the Story

Our guests will come from across the Charleston area and from many different walks of life.

You may meet historians, artists, educators, chefs, restaurant owners, preservationists, entrepreneurs, hospitality professionals, authors, community leaders, craftspeople, tour guides, longtime residents, newcomers, and people whose occupations may have absolutely nothing to do with Charleston history or tourism.

Some may have family roots here stretching back generations.

Others may have unpacked their moving boxes last year.

Some guests may be well known.

Others will be people you've never heard of before.

And that’s intentional.

A great Charleston story doesn’t require a famous name.

What matters is having experiences, memories, knowledge, opinions, or stories worth sharing.

We also want guests with different backgrounds, ages, professions, interests, neighborhoods(in and near Charleston), and perspectives. Charleston has never been experienced in exactly the same way by everyone who has called it home, and pretending otherwise would leave out much of what makes the city fascinating.

We won’t always agree.

Our guests won’t always agree with one another.

You may not always agree with them.

That’s okay.

The goal of Charleston Through Their Eyes isn’t to tell you what to think about Charleston.

The goal is to help all of us understand how someone else sees it.

Who Is This For?

If you live in Charleston, this is for you.

Perhaps you’ll discover a piece of history you never knew, hear a story about a building you pass every day, learn about a neighborhood you rarely visit, or meet someone doing something remarkable just a few miles from your home.

If you’re visiting Charleston, this is for you too.

We hope these conversations help you look beyond the postcards and experience more of the city than the familiar checklist of attractions. Charleston becomes far more interesting when you begin understanding the stories behind the streets, buildings, businesses, traditions, food, and people you encounter.

And if you’re considering moving to Charleston, we especially hope you’ll join us.

Moving somewhere is very different from vacationing there.

What is it actually like to make Charleston home?

Why do people choose to come here?

Why do others choose to stay?

What surprises newcomers?

What do longtime residents wish newcomers understood?

How has the city changed?

What has improved?

What has been lost?

And where might Charleston be heading next?

We want to have those conversations too.

More Than History, But Plenty of History

Charleston’s history will naturally be an important part of this project. It would be nearly impossible to understand Charleston today without understanding something about what came before it.

But Charleston Through Their Eyes isn’t intended to be a history lecture.

History will appear where it belongs: inside the stories.

We’ll talk about architecture, neighborhoods, churches, food, businesses, traditions, preservation, tourism, development, nature, beaches, hurricanes, hidden places, favorite places, changing communities, and the everyday experiences of living here.

Sometimes we’ll look backward.

Sometimes we’ll talk about Charleston today.

And sometimes we’ll ask what Charleston might look like tomorrow.

Most importantly, we want these to feel like conversations rather than interviews built around a rigid list of questions.

Because some of the best stories begin when the conversation goes somewhere nobody expected.

Through Their Eyes

The name of this project is also its mission.

Charleston Through Their Eyes.

Not Charleston through our eyes.

Not Charleston through a travel writer’s eyes.

Not Charleston through a tourism brochure.

Through their eyes.

Every guest gets an opportunity to show us their Charleston.

Their favorite places.

Their memories.

Their discoveries.

Their frustrations.

Their traditions.

Their stories.

Their Charleston.

Over time, we hope those individual perspectives begin creating something much larger: a living portrait of Charleston told by the people who have experienced it.

There will never be just one Charleston story.

There are thousands.

We’re going to start collecting them.

And we hope you’ll come along for the conversation.

Welcome to Charleston Through Their Eyes.

One city. Countless stories. See Charleston through their eyes.

Neal Greenberg
Host, Charleston Through Their Eyes