This Is Nashville

Multimedia producer Magnolia McKay has been with the  This Is Nashville  team since October 2022, and has produced episodes on topics ranging from  the proposal to arm teachers , to  Nashville's ride ecosystem , to  karaoke . For her turn in the host seat, Magnolia brings listeners a lost scene from last spring about one of the city's most charming beekeepers, and a lively conversation about Nashv...

The holiday season is in full swing! With preparing for all of the fun, parties, family gatherings- and maybe even traveling, you might find yourself feeling a bit drained and tired. That is where practices like tai chi, yoga and meditation come in. Today we’ll talk with Nashvillians who use those practices to help themselves and others recenter and find peace. We'll learn about what the practices...

East Tennessee native Dr. Stephen Loyd once had a 100-pill-a-day addiction and even stole pain pills from his own patients. Years after he first sought help for his substance use disorder, he's now the Chief Medical Officer of Cedar Recovery and the Chairman of the Tennessee Opioid Abatement Council. Loyd's says he has yet to find a way to treat dead people. His past has shaped his approach to add...

The holidays are a time full of joy and celebration for most- but they can also be an especially challenging time for those struggling with alcoholism or addiction - or who have a loved one who is. Today, we are talking to members of different recovery communities here in Middle Tennessee to learn about 12 Step programs, local 12 Step resources and how they themselves are approaching staying healt...

Devastating tornadoes touched down in our community on Saturday. Residents of Clarksville, Hendersonville, and Madison felt the brunt of the storm’s force. We’re talking with a WPLN reporter who’s been covering the storm, folks who were impacted, someone who’s dedicated their time to keeping us safe and a professor who studies infrastructure vulnerabilities.

Coming up on the end of 2023, more than 100 unhoused families have found a permanent place to live. Family homelessness is called an “invisible” type of homelessness. Those who don’t have a permanent place to stay are often able to stay away from public view — in cars, couch-hopping, shelters, or low-budget motels. In just a couple days, Safe Haven, in partnership with 30 other nonprofits, is set...

First up is Chris Crofton also known as the Advice King for his column with the Nashville Scene. He’s a comedian, musician, philosopher and an interesting human being. He recently ran for local office and reflected on that journey as well as what it means to be a person who cares about the city they live in. He travels to the halls of Metro Council to Trader Joe's as he explores his civic duty. Al...

On the latest  Ask the Mayor,  the This Is Nashville team broke the news of the pending sale of the historic Morris Memorial Building to a boutique hotel chain. And let’s just say, people were  not  pleased. The news of the pending sale added fuel to the ongoing debate on whether the city should or should not purchase the building. With resident Metro Council “expert” Nicole Williams, we’ll dive i...

Hemp and CBD are legal in Tennessee but marijuana (medical and recreational) is not. So where does this leave Delta-8? A Tennessee lawmaker proposed a bill this legislative session that would  have regulated and taxed Delta-8 products,  but the bill didn’t make it out of committee. Meanwhile, stores selling Delta-8, CBD and hemp products are cropping up across the state, and there’s even a  CBD re...

And we did it without use of excessive force. On Halloween, the newly formed This Is Nashville Blaction Team (aka producer Elizabeth Burton and host Khalil Ekulona) took to the streets to find Nashville's unofficial mayor, Willie "Big Fella" Sims. Along the way, they sought answers to a question at the top of all of our minds: what is the scariest place for Black people in Nashville? Now, we recei...

Nashville has been drawing in musicians of all stripes for the better part of a century. The city offers many outlets for these composers to apply their talents — from scoring the ballet, to writing arrangements on a hit record or even making music for video game soundtracks. But first our sister station WNXP’s Marquis Munson brings us a new edition of What Where Wednesday. Guests: Marquis Munson,...

With more than 40 years of journalism experience in Nashville, emmy-award-winning Demetria Kalodimos is still one of the best-known names and faces in local news. After a long career in television, she’s moved on to documentary filmmaking, teaching, and resurrecting the print-gone-web Nashville Banner. We sit down with her to talk about her career, the golden days of local tv news, and what’s next...

Some community members and parishioners are taking a new approach to the old concept of “charity.” There are countless governmental and non-profit support systems for citizens in need, but these resources often funnel people through without meeting one fundamental need: community. That’s where radical hospitality comes in. Community centers and churches are finding ways to bring neighbors together...

Traffic in our city is…a mess. But there is a bright side to having more congestion on the streets. You get more time to have a captivating conversation. TIN host Khalil Ekulona has taken lots of rides with some of our fellow Nashvillians for the Riding Shotgun series. Fortunately, not many of the rides have had us stuck in traffic, but they have been some truly insightful conversations.  For this...

It's the day before Thanksgiving. Regardless of how you spend your holiday, the vibes will be cozy. And what better way to manifest that than with some spoken word? In this episode, we'll hear from some of Nashville's best spoken word poets. We'll learn about what exactly spoken word is, and how it can be used as a tool for education and community building. Then, we'll close the episode with some...

Nicole Williams is back! On this week’s edition of Inside Council Chambers, Nicole Williams (aka @startleseasily on X or Twitter) takes us out west. In this recap of November 7’s Metro Council meeting, we hear  a lot  from CM Courtney Johnston about some rules and regulations on the proper etiquette. We also dive deep on what the what is going on with the pythons being around people’s necks, Nashv...

On February 1, 1981, the Metropolitan Interdenominational Church held its first Sunday service — or celebration, as they call it. The founders of the church are Dr. Billye Sanders and Reverend Edwin Sanders. Observing denominational and political division amongst the Christian community, they decided to found a church where all  were welcome. Their guiding principle is the Bible verse John 3:16, w...

You can call him on your cell phone. It's the third Thursday of the month, which means it's time for the next installment of  Ask the Mayor . At noon, call the studio at 615-760-2000 to ask your burning questions to our city's mayor, Freddie O'Connell. In the second half of the show, we'll hear from Nicole Williams, the host of Inside Council Chambers . Ahead of next week's episode, she'll give us...

Nashville has a rich indigenous history that dates back to the last ice age, as well as a small but vibrant Native American community that is working to gain recognition and resources in Middle Tennessee. The first people to inhabit the area that is now modern Nashville were Native Americans who arrived here about 14,000 years ago. During the Mississippian period they built farms, villages and eve...

As of Wednesday, Nov. 8, SAG-AFTRA announced that it had reached a tentative deal with the AMPTP. After months of delayed negotiations, contentious conversations, and a simultaneous strike with the Writers Guild of America, Hollywood is now ready to get back to work. But just because the strike is over, doesn’t mean that we won’t be dealing with the ramifications for a long time. While many of the...

And Nashville will be as one. After a hiatus, Imagine Nashville is a community-led initiative to include residents in shaping the city's future. Through a survey, Imagine Nashville asks the city what we want to see in our future. From the survey results, they will advocate for policy that promote that vision of the future. To accomplish this lofty goal, they are " (reaching) across geographic, soc...

What, to the Black Nashvillian, is the scariest place in Nashville? It's Halloween, the spookiest day of the year. Ghosts and ghouls, razors in children's candy, and weirdos who still think it's funny to chase kids with chainsaws roam our sidewalk-less streets. But, for Black Nashville, today is not the only  scary day. In fact, some might argue that it's scary to be Black  all the time . The horr...

Nashville Design Week is an annual series of citywide events that brings the local design community together. But Nashville hasn’t always had a design week — this marks this fest’s sixth year. So, what is design week? And what is design? We see design in skyscrapers and curated cocktail lounges. But design is all around us, from street lights to email formatting. Every choice is an opportunity for...

In 2016, WPLN’s senior reporter and special projects producer Meribah Knight heard a disturbing story from Rutherford County, a suburban Tennessee community southeast of Nashville. A group of elementary schoolers were arrested for something that didn’t seem like a crime: watching a fight between other kids and not intervening. Meribah dug in further and discovered a pattern of young kids in Ruther...

It's Thursday. We are tired. So, here is some of everything. Today, we'll have our second installment of Inside Council Chambers with Nicole Williams. We'll dive into the votes on key Metro Council leadership positions including planning and zoning committee chair and the vote on school resource officer funding. Next, we'll hear from local author and change-maker Jerome Moore for his new recurring...