Banner & Company

A historical marker commemorating the storied dance club Warehouse 28 was unveiled this month. The Warehouse began as a gay disco but was an inclusive environment that served as a refuge and hangout for Nashville's LGBTQ community starting in 1978 until its doors closed for good in 1995. It was also the place where Nashville CARES got its start, working to fight the AIDS epidemic. Macon Kimbrough...

In 2023, Phil Williams became the first Nashville reporter to receive the John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism from Columbia University. It was yet another piece of hardware to add to his already crowded shelf of accolades, full of numerous Peabody Awards, including one for his coverage of Franklin mayoral candidate Gabrielle Hanson. Investigative reporting is hard work, and it can r...

Acclaimed music critic Ann Powers wasn't always sure this was the career path for her. In fact, she wasn't sure there was a path to making a living as a music writer. But after falling in with the right crowd — first at Tower Records in San Francisco and later at the Village Voice in New York — she found her calling and her voice. These days, Ann works for National Public Radio, but she calls Nash...

When Richard Courtney was growing up in Columbia, Tenn., he went to visit a friend whose sister put "I Want to Hold Your Hand" by The Beatles on the record player — a moment that changed his life. So much so, that all these years later he has a Beatles museum in the basement of his house in Nashville that houses more than 3,800 items, including obscure vinyl, autographs, rare artwork and even lock...

Long before Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter album re-ignited the conversation, Frankie Staton was booking showcases aimed at highlighting Nashville's Black country music talent, which remained hidden in the mix. "I knew that I was not the only Black person that was being treated the way I was being treated," she says. A North Carolina native inspired to move to Music City by the likes of Loretta Lynn and...

Dr. Jon Roebuck comes from a family of preachers, and for 17 years he was the pastor at Woodmont Christian Church. That experience laid the groundwork for what has become a staple on Nashville television: "A Moment That Matters." The one-minute bursts of inspiration air every Sunday and, while they're much shorter than the sermons he used to prepare every week, they've found a devoted audience. In...

When Eden Wilkinson was less than two years old, she had a different name, and lived in an orphanage in Romania. At the time, the country, like many former Soviet satellite states, was struggling economically and, thanks to government policies mandating that women have at least 5 children, was filled with children whose families could not afford to raise them properly. It was estimated that 100,00...

Content warning: This episode contains discussion of intimate partner violence and child abuse. Like other survivors of domestic violence, Mark Wynn has never forgotten what happened to his mother, his siblings and himself. In particular, he never forgot how the police who showed up at his house acted — or more importantly, how they didn't act. After a long career in law enforcement, which include...

Elisheba Mrozik is probably best known as a tattooer: She made an appearance on the TV show Inkmaster and owns her own shop in North Nashville. But she’s also a painter, muralist and textile artist who uses whatever medium she’s working in to explore community and cultural interconnectedness. And yes, some of that work involves fermenting mud. An artist from an early age — including an elementary...

As of April 2024, the account A Girl Has No President has more than 760,000 followers on Instagram. That following includes scores of celebrities. But the creator of the account chooses to stay anonymous, in part because of threats against her and her family, and in part because she is not interested in notoriety. She also rarely grants interviews, but made an exception for this episode of Banner...

In his new book Death Row Welcomes You: Visiting Hours in the Shadow of the Execution Chamber, Steven Hale details the time he's spent getting to know some of the men on Tennessee's death row. In this special episode, we're bringing you a live recording of the book release event at Parnassus Books last month, where Steven talked with host Demetria Kalodimos — herself a frequent death row visitor —...

Sharon Ferrara has lived a full and wildly interesting life. From Long Island to Nashville — with many stops in Texas along the way — she's rubbed shoulders with the likes of Johnny Cash, backed David Allan Coe on tour, written an international hit and run sound for presidential inaugural balls. And that's not even the half of it. She's also still singing with a big band at age 79. In this episode...

For our premiere episode, we break from our one-on-one format to bring you an abbreviated — but nonetheless colorful and complicated — history of the Nashville Banner: a look back at the days of a two-newspaper city from people who lived it, day in and day out, in the storied newsroom at 1100 Broadway. Guests: Parker Toler, paperboy Mary Hance, reporter aka Ms. Cheap Kay West, writer aka Betty Ban...

Coming soon! Banner & Company is a weekly interview podcast from the Nashville Banner hosted by Nashville media legend Demetria Kalodimos. Fresh episodes will drop every Sunday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices