Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev

Join Kosta and his guest: Scott Miller , Founder and CEO of The Poverty Solution . In conjunction with countless partners and community leaders, UCDD and The Poverty Solution are overseeing a region-wide effort to lift 1,600 children and their families out of poverty by 2025. In this episode: Poverty isn’t a fringe issue. It’s our economic reality. As someone that’s dedicated their life to helping...

Join Kosta and his guest Chad Mynatt , Director of Manna Global Missions and Co-Director of El Puente Community Cente r.  El Puente is a Hispanic Community Center located in Cookeville, TN. El Puente's mission is to create a welcoming community and offer resources that empower and connect the Hispanic community of the Upper Cumberland. In English “El Puente” means “Bridge”. El Puente es un centro...

Join Kosta and his guest: Susan Luna-Hazlewood , Director of Crawford Alumni Center at Tennessee Tech University . In this episode: Susan, you’re the Executive Director of the Tennessee Tech Alumni Association, you’re the Director of the Crawford Alumni Center and you also serve as the University's Chief Alumni Officer - needless to say, you know TTU alumni. But what do you wish every alumni knew...

Join Kosta and his guest: David Uhrik , Owner and Director of Franklin Fixtures , US Pillars and Plenty Downtown Bookshop . In this episode: We’ll start with the most topical question first, Plenty Bookshop moved across the street from  48 West Broad Street to 41 West Broad Street on January 1st. This is Plenty’s 3rd location, and as an operations expert, I have to ask - what specifically spoke to...

Join Kosta and his guest: McTelvin Agim , Defensive Lineman for the Tennessee Titans . In this episode: You know better than anyone becoming a professional athlete takes a lifetime of work and dedication. Let’s go all the way back to the beginning - what was life like for you as a kid? Over the last two years you’ve signed with the Broncos, Colts, Texans, and now the Titans - you’ve had the opport...

Join Kosta and his guest: Dr. Chelsea Dowell , Professor of Economics at Tennessee Tech University . In this episode: It was the most Googled question on November 6th, the day after the 2024 United States Presidential Election, and we’re here to ask you (a much more qualified resource than Google) what is a tariff? James Carville said it best, “It’s the economy stupid.” We’re all worried about the...

Join Kosta and his guest: Zakiya Roberts, Master Gardener, Director of Growing Garners and Owner of Pots of Peace . In this episode: Through Pots of Peace you’re not only able to interconnect our community through generations, you're able to bridge the information gap that’s expanding from generation to generation. What skills are you teaching that most Millennials, Gen Z, and even some Gen Xers d...

Join Kosta and his guest: Hailey Sullivan , Upper Cumberland CTE Consultant for the Tennessee Department of Education . In this episode: For parents, especially in the Upper Cumberland, it feels like we’re being pulled in 20 different directions to figure out what’s “best” for our children. Whether it’s going to college, getting a technical certificate or entering the workforce right out of high s...

Join Kosta and his guest: Lisa Mackie, Executive Director of Deeper Still Upper Cumberland . The mission of Deeper Still Upper Cumberland is to bring healing and lasting freedom to abortion wounded hearts of women and men. The Upper Cumberland chapter was founded by Lisa Mackie after she attended a Deeper Still retreat. This chapter is an affiliate of the founding Deeper Still based in Knoxville,...

Join Kosta and his guest: Shaun Scantland , Business Development Consultant at Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development . This week we're celebrating Thanksgiving, biscuits and gravy, and all the ways we're better together. We’re honored to host Shaun on this special Thanksgiving episode, because he makes this community and podcast better everyday. Thank you to our guest host of...

Join Kosta and his guest: Jennifer Hutchinson-Tracy, Director of the Putnam County Animal Shelter . In this episode: Adopting a pet is a magical experience. What’s one of your favorite adoption stories from here in Putnam County? And what do we need to know about how to adopt our next furry friend? How many animals are currently at the Putnam County Animal Shelter and what does the intake to adopt...

Join Kosta and his guest: Senator Paul Bailey , Tennessee State Senator , Representing the 15th District. In this episode: I know some people are listening and thinking, I know what a State Senator is - but I don’t actually know . Will you walk us through what you do at the Capitol and how the State Senate impacts our lives here in the Upper Cumberland? You’re a strong supporter of small governmen...

Join Kosta and his guest: Amy McBroom (Stockwell), Director of The Upper Cumberland Family Justice Center . In this episode: It’s almost the holidays, it’s an election year, and we’re feeling stress from every angle right now. I read something really devastating on your Facebook that sometimes people feel like they have to wait until after holidays or big life events to ask for help or leave an ab...

This episode contains themes that may be distressing to some listeners: including child loss, death, extreme weather events and other content that is not intended for children. We understand if this episode is too overwhelming for you to listen to at this time. We hope all our audience will read the Collin's Family Story and consider making a donation to The Magnolia Foundation . Join Kosta and hi...

Join Kosta and his guest: Amy Ing, Owner of Spotlight Costumes . In this episode: Collectively we spend a pretty penny on Halloween, in America alone we spent 12.2 billion dollars in 2024. So, how does renting a costume from you compare to buying a costume online or at a big box store? Because after you buy the costume, wig, shoes, and accessories, it can easily be $200-$300 for a cheap costume yo...

Join Kosta and his guests: Carroll Moore and Erica McElroy, Owners of Halloween Hollow Haunted House . In this episode: Visiting a haunted house or haunted corn maze at Halloween is nothing new, but Halloween Hollow provides a multi-event experience. Will you talk about what it’s like to visit the haunt and what makes Halloween Hollow different? I love Halloween. I love scary movies. I love spooky...

Join Kosta and his guest: Eddie Walker, Magic: The Gathering community organizer and Manager of Knighthood Games . In this episode: To be totally honest with you, we’re sailing in uncharted territory. I’d venture to guess most of our audience (and myself) have very limited knowledge on games like Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons. So let’s start there, what is tabletop gaming? In 2016...

Join Kosta and his guest: Mark Creter , Professor of Theatre for the School of Music at Tennessee Technological University. Proudly serving as the artistic director of the campus theatre, the Backdoor Playhouse from 1992-2024, for the past 30-years Mark's dedicated his life to the development, expansion and betterment of the performing arts at Tennessee Tech, and across the Upper Cumberland. In th...

Join Kosta and his guest: Kathryn Wisinger, Director of the Putnam County Library . In this episode: In this community we’re lucky to have the partnership of local government, education, public resources like the library, non-profit resources like Plenty Book Store and countless businesses and community members working to improve the “book culture” as our friend Lisa Uhrik would say. *However, in...

Join Kosta and his guest: Ryan Risher , Realtor at Skender-Newton Realty representing The Risher Team. Like the rest of Tennessee we love following Ryan you on social media. Whether it’s ghost stories, memes about Cookeville or just sharing funny things that happen with your family, he always know exactly the content we want to see. In this episode we're finding out why Ryan decided to go such a d...

Join Kosta and his guest: Emily Armstrong , Graduate Student at TN Tech and photographer . A note for everyone listening to this episode, we’ll be exclusively talking about Emily’s trip to the 2024 Paris Olympics where she photographed the games’ archery competitions. She is an incredibly talented photographer and creator, so we hope you’ll look at her other work, but for now, we are going full ga...

Join Kosta and his guest: Téa Phillips . CEO of ATS Innovations Inc., and inventor of MetaFlex Gloves .  In this episode: Roughly 20% of adults in America are living with an Arthritis diagnosis. When we lose the ability to grip or use our hands as we normally would, with conditions like Arthritis our life changes completely. For almost the past decade you’ve worked on engineering, testing and scal...

Join Kosta and his guest: Tyler Buck , Owner of Baskin Robbins Cookeville , and coming this fall, Baskin Robbins Algood. Tyler is the youngest Baskin Robbin's franchise owner in the company's history.    In this episode: Our Baskin Robbins isn’t just in the community, it’s part of the community and that’s something you’ve championed since buying the store. What does it mean to you as a business ow...

PSA: If you get a random Dropbox Link from Kosta, please don't open it! 😬 Join Kosta and his guest: Dr. Muhammad Ismail Director of CEROC and Associate Professor of Computer Science at Tennessee Tech University . In this episode: This goes without saying, but we use the internet for everything. Even my washer and dryer are hooked up to Wi-Fi. That being said, a cyber attack on the United States c...

Join Kosta and his guest: Dr. Mark Green, educator, community organizer and actor. Currently Dr. Green is a professor of biology at Tennessee Tech University and Vol State Community College where he facilitates a campus community garden and non-credit based outdoor series open to all adventurers of the Upper Cumberland. In this episode: The first thing you told us when we started working on this e...