This Is Nashville

Every community needs a “keeper of the flame” – someone who can connect the present with the past.

And in Middle Tennessee, we’re fortunate to have several of these sages who can remind us of our history. At WPLN, that’s the gift Nina Cardona shares with listeners each day on the NashVillager podcast – connecting the past with the present, while helping us break out of the news cycle and think about the news in a historical...

Welcome back to In My Place — a series about finding, and losing, home in a growing Nashville.

This season, we’re getting to walk through the specific steps from homelessness to housing with people who have done it.

In our last 8 episodes, we’ve talked about everything from connecting with services for the very first time to celebrating an apartment. But for many folks it doesn’t stop there — so neither did we.

Most recently,...

When Dr. Lisa Piercey left state government after guiding Tennessee through the pandemic, she decided to turn over an entirely new leaf. She was tired of working for someone else. So she got into the business of buying businesses. And even though she’s only a few years in, she also wrote a book about it. We talk about her journey to entrepreneurship, her hindsight on public service, and grappling with this new era in publi...

As the federal government shutdown rolls into its fourth week, paychecks for federal employees have halted.

At the local level, many are wondering how federal policies will impact their day-to-day lives. The Nashville job sector has remained stable for the past year, but as the manufacturing industry in Tennessee remains among the most vulnerable to tariffs, the future cost of production becomes less clear. Additionally, he...

Gospel and Christian music call this city home. But until now, there hasn’t been an obvious physical location. 

With the opening of the Museum of Christian & Gospel Music this month, we’ll look at the history of a unique genre that focuses as much on the lyrics and meaning as the song itself. We’re joined by historians, executives and a Dove Award winning artist. Additionally, our guests will highlight the importance of...

It’s been nearly a year since Davidson County voters passed the Choose How You Move transit referendum, approving a half-cent (0.5%) sales tax increase to fund transit upgrades and improvements. The chief program officer, Sabrina Sussman, joins us to give an update and take questions from listeners.

We end the episode with our Shared Calendar, giving you the microphone to plug local events coming up in the next week.

Call 61...

It’s a Roundabout episode with guest host and familiar voice Nina Cardona. This panel spanning the political spectrum helps you think about the news — sometimes from a different lane.

This week we welcome former speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives, Beth Harwell. Former congressional candidate Kiran Sreepada and TSU political science professor Ian Shapiro are also back. Together, we’ll mourn the loss of life in...

On our show today, we’re talking about native spiders. 

Why? Well, it’s spider season. You tend to see more this time of year because the males are looking for a mate. They’re also looking for a warm place to get in out of the cold and that may mean moving in with us. Spiders may make your skin crawl, but it’s useful to know what’s actually worth being scared of. Spoiler alert, there’s not too much to worry about — even wit...

When Vanderbilt polled Nashvillians in March about top priorities for city investment, there was near unanimity around one issue. Nearly 90% wanted investment in more affordable housing. But when the questioning hit closer to home, the support waned. According to this same poll, 56% of residents support allowing multifamily housing "everywhere in my city to revitalize neighborhoods and local economies."

If Nashville is goin...

When Stuart McWhorter gets introduced on stage, at some point he feels the need to cut off the emcee. From his resume, it starts to sound like he either can’t hold a job or he’s always looking for the next thing — a joke that he makes about his own varied career. This week, he takes on yet another a new role in Gov. Bill Lee’s administration — deputy governor. But he’s been Lee’s right hand man since he decided to run for ...

The Roundabout is your news of the week, analyzed by our panelists from points of view that span left, right and center.

Congressional District 7 candidate Rep. Jody Barrett, Owen School professor and Tennessee Lookout contributor Bruce Barry, and @WPLN's Marianna Bacallao join today to help us think through the biggest news – including the special election in the 7th congressional district. We’ll digest the primary results...

Not long ago, everybody seemed to want to get in on Pride month festivities. Then the political winds shifted.

Companies that were proudly flying the rainbow flag decided to fold up their colors this year, or at least drop their financial support — including Vanderbilt Medical Center, Nissan, Cracker Barrel, Dollar General and Jack Daniel’s. So Nashville Pride has been scrambling to fill the gap with a symbolic deadline of ...

Nothing remains of Roger Williams University except a couple of historical plaques tucked away on Vanderbilt’s Peabody Campus. Founded in the wake of the Civil War alongside Fisk and Meharry, this historically Black institution once thrived before being destroyed in two suspicious fires in 1905. Today we uncover the forgotten history of Roger Williams, visit the nearby The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise & Public Polic...

Americana often becomes a place for artists or music industry types who don’t fit neatly elsewhere. And for Tamara Saviano, it was a place for a writer and publicist who was shunned by country music. Saviano moved to Nashville and quickly found herself crossways with industry heavyweights. A fateful firing over politics led to a phone call from actor and singer/songwriter Kris Kristofferson, and the rest is a history that’...

The Roundabout is your news of the week, analyzed by our panelists from points of view that span left, right and center. Joining us today are Mark Rogers, Republican Party advisor; Dahron Johnson, chaplain and co-chair of the Nashville committee of Tennessee Equality Project; And Meribah Knight, reporter and producer of special projects for WPLN.

What stories are making the rounds in your circle? Call 615-760-2000 to join o...

There’s a poster in the This Is Nashville studio that says “Our City, Our Stories.” And today it could say “Nuestra ciudad, nuestra historias.”

Eleven percent of Nashvillians identify as Hispanic or having Hispanic heritage and today we're spending the hour with some of our Spanish-speaking neighbors: a coffee shop owner who can be found some days passing out free sweet bread to drivers stuck in traffic, a community health ...

In My Place is a series that educates listeners on what communities like Nashville can do to prevent and end homelessness — while caring for our neighbors who are still unhoused.

In our last episode, we celebrated getting those keys!

In this episode, we’re talking about the difficulties of having a home.

It’s easy for those of us who have never been homeless to celebrate someone getting housed, breathe a sigh of relief, and t...

Fred Bailey didn’t just defy the odds. He didn’t see his circumstances as a deck stacked against him. In fact, he couldn’t see at all, which was one of the challenges you’d expect to hold someone back. "You’re Black, blind, and poor," his father told him, adding that hard work was going to be the only way out. 

And he lived it out. 

In this profile interview, Bailey talks about his memoir, his career and his nonprofits that ...