For more than a quarter-century, Mike Collins has been one of the most prominent radio voices of the South.

He recently celebrated 25 years as the host of "Charlotte Talks," the daily news program on WFAE, the NPR station that also brings you this podcast.
For "Charlotte Talks’" anniversary episode, which we’ve adapted here for "SouthBound," we flipped things around and put Mike in the guest chair.
I asked him the questions: about his early life in radio, his influences, his most memorable guests, and what it means to have the platform he’s had in this city and this region.
I think we made him uncomfortable once or twice. That’s a good thing.