The Town Square Podcast

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...

In Episode 85 of  The Town Square Podcast , Trey Bailey and Gabriel Stovall continue their Candidate Conversations series with Ryan Millsap, Republican candidate for U.S. Congress in Georgia’s 10th District. The seat is currently held by Congressman Mike Collins, and with voters preparing for another important election cycle, this conversation was designed to help listeners better understand one o...

There are some interviews where you can feel within the first two minutes that the conversation is going to be different. That was this one. In Episode 84 of  The Town Square Podcast , Trey Bailey welcomed  Richard Wright , Democratic candidate for  Lieutenant Governor of Georgia , into the studio for a conversation that was funny, thoughtful, policy-heavy, personal, and refreshingly unpolished in...

In Episode 83 of  The Town Square Podcast , Trey Bailey and Gabriel Stovall continue their Candidate Conversations series with Alan Fowler, Republican candidate for the Newton County Board of Education District 5 seat. With current board chair Abigail Coggin retiring from the position, Fowler will appear on the November ballot, and this episode gives listeners an opportunity to hear directly from...

In Episode 82 of  The Town Square Podcast , Trey Bailey and Gabriel Stovall continue their Candidate Conversations series with Georgia House District 113 candidate  Hon. Alana Sanders . Representing a district that now covers only Newton County, Sanders joined the show to talk about her story, her preparation for state office, and the issues she believes matter most to local families. As with the...

The  Candidate Conversations  series continues on  The Town Square Podcast  with a conversation that widens the lens beyond local races and into the national arena. In Episode 81, Trey Bailey sits down with  Everton Blair , a Democratic candidate for the United States House of Representatives in Georgia’s 13th Congressional District. For listeners in Newton County and across the district, this con...

The  Candidate Conversations  series continues on  The Town Square Podcast  with Brett Mauldin, Republican candidate for Georgia House District 114. Covering Morgan County and parts of Newton and Walton counties, House District 114 includes communities that are deeply shaped by agriculture, small-town identity, conservative values, and growing concerns about development, taxation, and the future o...

The Town Square Podcast continued its  Candidate Conversations  series with Karla Hooper, candidate for Georgia House of Representatives District 113. As Trey Bailey and Gabriel Stovall explained at the top of the show, the goal of this series is not to create more political noise, but to give voters a fair, thoughtful way to hear directly from the people asking to represent them. In a climate whe...

In Episode 78 of The Town Square Podcast, Trey Bailey sits down with newly elected Covington City Councilman Dwayne Turner. With Gabriel Stovall away on assignment, Trey leads a one-on-one conversation designed to help listeners get to know one of Covington’s newest public servants, understand what drives him, and hear how he is thinking through some of the city’s most debated issues. Turner is st...

In this special edition of  The Town Square Podcast , hosts Trey Bailey and Gabriel Stovall begin a new series designed to help voters better understand the individuals seeking to serve Newton County in public office. The goal is simple: create a space where candidates can share their stories, explain their priorities, and connect with the community in a meaningful way. Dr. Adam Phyall, a longtime...

At its best, a community invests in the next generation. In Newton County, few organizations embody that idea more clearly than  Building Strong Futures (BSF) . On  Episode 76 of The Town Square Podcast , hosts  Trey Bailey and Gabriel Stovall  sit down with  Michelle Norrington and Monica Banks , the co-founders and executive directors of Building Strong Futures. The conversation explores how a s...

On this episode of  The Town Square Podcast , Trey Bailey and Gabriel Stovall sit down with  Dr. Quinita Morrow , the  2026 Newton County Schools Teacher of the Year  and a marketing teacher at  Alcovy High School . But if you think this episode is simply about an award, think again. Dr. Morrow represents something much bigger than a title. Her classroom is a place where entrepreneurship is born,...

The Chamber Isn’t Government… and That Matters Debbie Harper comes back into the studio for her second appearance on The Town Square Podcast , and right out of the gate she re-anchors something people still confuse: the Chamber of Commerce is not government . The Chamber is a member-driven organization —which means it works “at the pleasure of the members,” advocating for the business community fr...

If you’ve been anywhere near local government conversations lately—city council meetings, social media threads, neighborhood group chats, or just the line at the coffee shop—you’ve heard the same word on repeat: Affordability. It’s not a trendy political slogan anymore. It’s a pressure point. A real-life math problem families are trying to solve every month: rent, groceries, utilities, gas, childc...

Data Centers, Communication, and the New Newton County Conversation If you’ve been anywhere near Newton County or the handful of Facebook pages our there, the last few months, you’ve felt it: the volume is up, the stakes feel higher, and the words  annexation ,  zoning ,  moratorium , and especially  data center are showing up in everyday conversations like they’ve always been part of the local vo...

Every now and then, we get a guest on  The Town Square Podcast  who reminds you there’s a whole lot more happening behind the scenes than what most of us see on Facebook or the evening news. This week, we sat down with  Covington Police Chief Brent Fuesting , a man who has quietly served this community for  23 years , and who was officially named Chief just recently—after stepping into the role as...

If you’ve ever been to a ribbon cutting, a Chamber luncheon, a Rotary event, or basically  anything  happening in Newton County… you’ve probably seen Jim Corbin. That’s exactly why we wanted him on  Episode 70 of The Town Square Podcast . At first glance, Jim is just one of those familiar faces who’s always smiling, always shaking hands, always showing up. But once we sat him down at the mic, it b...

A Chief With a Story—and a Calling Chief Turner didn’t stumble into public safety. In fact, he told me he believes he was  raised into it  without realizing it. He grew up in a family culture where helping people wasn’t a hobby—it was the posture. That theme showed up again and again in our conversation: service as identity, not just occupation. But before fire service ever entered the picture, Ch...