The Town Square Podcast

More Than a Gym Finding Your People at the Y You can drive past the pool on Newton Drive, spend a Saturday on the soccer sidelines, or sign up for a workout and still miss what makes the Covington Y matter most: the people who find a place there. For Episode 110, Trey Bailey sits down with Louly Hay-Kapp, Executive Director of the Covington Family YMCA, to talk about what happens when neighbors ha...

He Bought His Hometown Newspaper at 25 At six years old, Evan Newton was picking up The Monticello News for the football contest and the arrest page. In 2023, he returned as an intern. At 25, he bought the newspaper. That is a pretty good hometown headline. The next question is what happens after the headline: Who covers the meetings, asks the uncomfortable questions, sells the ads, checks the pag...

Who Pays and Who Answers Don Scarbrough on taxes, data centers, and accountability | Town Square Podcast Episode 108 | Candidate Conversations Listen to Episode 108 in your favorite podcast app by searching for Town Square Podcast. Watch the full conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/dEDjt44eNjs You work, pay your bills, and pay your taxes. How much should government ask of you, and how clearl...

Our Candidate Conversation series continues as Trey Bailey welcomes Rev. Dr. Eric Lee, candidate for Georgia Senate District 42. A young family moves in with relatives, works to get on its feet, and hopes a first home is somewhere within reach. Rev. Dr. Eric Lee knows that experience personally. In this conversation, he recalls receiving food assistance and substitute teaching during the year he b...

A data center moves into the conversation. A school needs resources. A family needs medical care, but help is a long drive away. State policy can feel distant until the consequences land close to home. For Michael Caw, those concerns are connected by a question he says he hears from residents: Are the people making decisions actually listening? In Episode 106, our Candidate Conversation series con...

A grocery bill. A long drive to medical care. A veteran still trying to get help. When Pamela DeLancy talks about the people she meets on the campaign trail, those are the kinds of concerns she brings to the table. In Episode 105, our Candidate Conversation series continues with DeLancy, a retired Army colonel and registered nurse running for US Congress in Georgia’s 10th District. She joins us to...

What does “meeting in the middle” actually mean when the conversation turns to healthcare, immigration, abortion, and the cost of living? It is easy to say we need more cooperation. The harder question is where a candidate is willing to practice it. In Episode 104, our Candidate Conversation series continues with Jonathan Chavez, a Republican running for US Congress in Georgia’s 13th District. The...

What Ten Dollars a Month Can Do for Your Community YouTube: https://youtu.be/zaKh0YOmQYM Ten dollars a month may not sound like the beginning of a community investment strategy. Zayvion Sheppard thinks it is a perfectly good place to start. Get 50 people to commit, and those small gifts add up to $500 a month, or $6,000 over a full year. For a grassroots organization helping students prepare for c...

History Is in the Spirit: Rev. Dr. Terrence Evans on Faith Memory and Civic Life Town Square Podcast Episode 102 | Faith and Community Watch the conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/73cI1WtGUGg A church can hold a community’s history in ways that a courthouse file or a history book cannot. St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church has served Covington since 1878. Its congregation rebuilt af...

The Cost of Staying Home: Clint Crowe on Property Taxes Housing and Data Centers Watch the conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/XjBIapdxdqI For many homeowners, affordability is no longer an abstract campaign issue. It is the tax bill on a house they have owned for decades, the price of a starter home their children cannot afford, and the argument over whether new development will ease the pr...

Episode 100: From Furious to Curious with Kamal Carter of A Long Talk One hundred episodes ago, The Town Square Podcast began with a simple conviction: people who see the world differently should still be able to sit together, ask honest questions and search for understanding. We call it “unity, not uniformity.” For our 100th episode, we found a guest whose life’s work feels almost tailor-made for...

A church can add square footage without building community. It can fill seats without helping people feel seen. And it can say “everyone’s welcome” without ever proving it at the door. Pastor Justin Adams believes the proof comes in what happens after people arrive. In Episode 99 of the Town Square Podcast, Trey Bailey and Gabriel Stovall welcome Adams back for a candid conversation about the grow...

A Newton County Life Takes a New Turn Chris Haymore has spent most of his life in Newton County. His father returned here to teach and coach when Chris was six months old, and Chris later built his own career in local education: teaching and coaching at Rutledge Academy and Eastside, serving as an administrator at Alcovy, and finishing as principal at Mansfield Elementary. Now the longtime educato...

Politically Homeless, Still Hopeful Marshall McCart returns to The Town Square Podcast for a candid trip through political burnout, public surveillance, permanent standard time, Covington music history, and the stubborn hope that keeps him from hanging up his boots for good. Marshall McCart has spent roughly 25 years kicking at political anthills. Sometimes the ants bite back. On Episode 97 of  Th...

Data Centers, School Budgets & Speaking Your Mind with Larry Cox One of the greatest challenges facing local communities today isn't a lack of information—it's determining which information to trust. That theme surfaced repeatedly during Episode 96 of  The Town Square Podcast  as Rockdale County Board of Education member Larry Cox joined Trey Bailey and guest co-host Dr. Gregory Brown...

Candidate Conversations — Episode 95 of The Town Square Podcast Georgia’s 13th Congressional District is holding a political sprint. After the death of longtime Congressman David Scott, the state scheduled a July 28 special election to fill the remainder of his term. There is no party primary: Democrats and Republicans appear together on what Fayth Park calls a “jungle-style ballot,” and a runoff...

Ancient Faith, Daily Prayer, and a New Anglican Church in Covington For many Christians, words like  liturgy ,  Anglicanism ,  the Daily Office , and  the Book of Common Prayer  can sound like they belong in a church-history classroom—or at least somewhere with stained glass, incense, and a vocabulary quiz waiting at the door. But for Father Justin Clemente, these aren’t museum pieces. They are li...

The Next Chapter: New Voices, Big Ideas & What’s Ahead Sometimes the best conversations happen when there’s no guest sitting across the table. After several weeks of candidate interviews and election coverage, Trey Bailey and Gabriel Stovall return for a wide-ranging conversation about life, community, travel, family, and the future of  The Town Square Podcast . The episode begins with reflect...

After a full season of Candidate Conversations,  The Town Square Podcast  is back to regular programming — and Episode 92 brings us right back into the heart of what this show was built to do. This week, Trey Bailey sits down with Detective DJ Seals of the Covington Police Department for a conversation that is equal parts informative, funny, practical, personal, and deeply local. If you’ve been ar...

In this Candidate Conversations episode of  The Town Square Podcast , Trey Bailey sits down with Commissioner Demond Mason, the current Newton County Board of Commissioners representative for District 2 and a candidate for re-election. Mason shares how his journey began far from Newton County, growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, before moving to Georgia, buying his first home in Newton County, and even...

In this Candidate Conversations episode of  The Town Square Podcast , Trey Bailey sits down with  Tamara Strong , candidate for  Newton County Board of Commissioners District 2 , for a conversation about community, public safety, youth programs, transparency, and what she believes leadership should look like in Newton County. Strong describes herself as a lifelong Newton County resident, wife, mot...

In this episode of The Town Square Podcast , hosts Trey Bailey and Gabriel Stovall continue the Candidate Conversations series with Jodi Lewis , candidate for the Georgia House of Representatives in District 118 . District 118 includes the south side of Newton County, extends down Highway 36 into BOE/BOC District 1, includes all of Butts County, and covers much of Monroe County. It is a geographic...

In Episode 88 of  The Town Square Podcast , Trey Bailey and Gabriel Stovall continue the Candidate Conversations series with State Representative Houston Gaines, candidate for U.S. Congress in Georgia’s 10th Congressional District. Gaines currently serves in the Georgia House of Representatives, representing District 120, which includes portions of Barrow, Clarke, Jackson, and Oconee counties. He...

In this episode of  The Town Square Podcast , Trey Bailey sits down with Wendell McNeal, candidate for Georgia House of Representatives District 114, as part of the ongoing Candidate Conversations series. District 114 includes all of Morgan County, portions of Newton County, and part of Walton County, including communities such as Mansfield, Newborn, Social Circle, and areas near Good Hope. As the...

In this Candidate Conversations episode of  The Town Square Podcast , host Trey Bailey sits down with Nytravious “Nytro” Smith, candidate for Newton County Board of Commissioners District 4. For longtime listeners, Nytro may sound familiar. He previously appeared on the podcast for a conversation about the state of the church in Newton County, alongside Pastor Justin Adams. This time, he returns i...