Banner & Company

Sixty years ago this week, activists marched for civil rights in Selma, Ala., including many, like John Lewis and Diane Nash, who had trained in Nashville. In his role as overseer of the Civil Rights Room at the downtown Nashville Public Library, Elliott Robinson keeps watch over the history that was made here and reverberated across the country.

A "math kid" turned history major, Elliott has a gift for singing and a knack for the stage he discovered later in life than some. (He portrayed Joseph in a Christmas play at TSU at age 41.) He brings a warmth and approachability to his work at the library — telling stories of bravery for all who come to visit. He also has a close personal connection to that history.

Guest: Elliott Robinson, program specialist for the Civil Rights Room, Nashville Public Library

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producers: Steve Haruch and Andrea Tudhope

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As a musician, Ellen Angelico plays many instruments well, but her first love is still her go-to: the guitar. You can hear her play on albums by Lola Kirke and Adeem the Artist. She's backed up the likes of Mickey Guyton and Brandy Clark. She writes her own music as Uncle Ellen, and writes a column for Premier Guitar magazine. In short, she's living the dream that started when she got her first real six-string at age 4.

It was the Music City dream that attracted both Ellen and one of her former bandmates, the talented singer Shelly Bush. In the new podcast Girl in a Hurry, Ellen tells Shelly's story, from a small town in Missouri to the honky tonks of Lower Broad — a life cut tragically short but lived to the absolute fullest. 

Guest: Ellen Angelico, musician, writer and host of Girl in a Hurry

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producers: Andrea Tudhope and Steve Haruch

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Content warning: This episode contains references to sexual assault and murder.

Nine-year-old Marcia Trimble was delivering Girl Scout cookies in the affluent Green Hills neighborhood when she went missing on Feb. 25, 1975. Thirty-three days later, on Easter Sunday, her body was discovered not far from her family home. She had been sexually assaulted.

The early investigation focused on 15-year-old Jeffrey Womack, who lived near the Trimbles and was one of the last people to see Marcia alive. He was arrested and charged in 1979 but released the following year due to lack of evidence. Thirty-three years after Marcia's death, in 2008, Jerome Sydney Barrett was charged with first-degree murder. This special episode of Banner & Company looks back on the case that rocked the city.

Producer and Host: Demetria Kalodimos

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The first time Rebecca Haw Allensworth attended a licensing board meeting, she could hardly believe what she was seeing: A physician with a long malpractice history, including sexual misconduct and giving drugs to patients off the books, was trying to get his medical license reinstated. And to Rebecca's disbelief, the Tennessee Medical Examiners Board did just that. And so the book she thought was writing changed instantly. 

Now, several years and many, many public meetings later, that book has been published. The Licensing Racket takes a deep look at the ways licensing boards operate. These are bodies made up of professionals essentially policing themselves — often with little understanding of the actual statutes they're upholding and little training about how and why they render their judgments. And Rebecca asks whether public safety is really being served by this type of regulation.

Guest: Rebecca Haw Allensworth

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producers: Andrea Tudhope and Steve Haruch

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When the other kids wanted to watch Indiana Jones, Willie Steele took a chance on a baseball movie instead. He didn't know it at the time, but watching Field of Dreams by himself in 1989 would alter the trajectory of his life. He would go on to write his master's thesis about Shoeless Joe, the novel the film was based on, and then, in an unlikely turn, write the biography of that book's author, W.P. Kinsella.

These days, Willie is working on a new book about how Major League Baseball reacted to the events of 9/11, from the perspectives of the four teams that were closest to where the planes went down: The Mets, Yankees, Pirates and Orioles. And he's also learning how to throw a knuckleball — with some help from a few former big leaguers.

Guest: Willie Steele

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producers: Andrea Tudhope and Steve Haruch

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Dr. Agenia Clark's path to becoming president of Fisk University is not a typical one. She didn't come up through academia. She had led the Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee; she had worked in the corporate world and even nearly launched a tech startup after getting her MBA. But her somewhat unusual path had also given her the tools she needed. And more importantly, she had a passion for this historic institution.

Growing up in Alabama, Agenia learned early on the importance of education. It was drummed into her by the women in her church and, yes, her own Girl Scout troop. And even though her experience as the only Black student at an elite prep school was trying and often lonely, it also taught her the power of perseverance.

Guest: Dr. Agenia Clark, president, Fisk University

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producers: Andrea Tudhope and Steve Haruch

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Giancarlo Guerrero has been the Nashville Symphony's music director since 2008. Under his direction, the symphony has risen in prominence and reputation, premiering important compositions and taking home 14 Grammy awards. Maestro Guerrero also helped guide the symphony through difficult times: The 2010 flood damaged the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, and the COVID-19 pandemic shut it down for an entire concert season.

Were it not for a revolution in his home country, Giancarlo's parents may have never moved the family to Costa Rica, where he joined a youth symphony that set him on a path that has taken him around the world many times over. When he leaves the Nashville Symphony at the end of the current season, his 17-year tenure will be the second-longest in the organization’s history. He plans to leave the orchestra in the best shape he possibly can.

Guest: Giancarlo Guerrero

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producers: Andrea Tudhope and Steve Haruch

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When you think of television, you probably think of the visual image first. But the sound quality — and the variety of sounds you're able to hear as you watch — can add a lot to the experience. Over a decades-long career, Marty Slutsky has been at the sound board for some of TV's biggest events: the Olympics, the Kentucky Derby and, for nearly 30 years, live presidential debates. During his time at ABC, there was an internal term for the multiple-microphone, catch-all sound recording approach: "Slutsky Audio."

As many Nashville stories do, Marty's begins with music. He performed with the folk-rock band McKendree, which released multiple albums and opened for the likes of Fleetwood Mac and Jimi Hendrix. And it was out on the road where he met his wife, fellow musician and audio wiz Sharon Ferrara, who was our first guest on Banner & Company.

Guest: Marty Slutsky, audio engineer and presidential debates producer

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producers: Andrea Tudhope and Steve Haruch

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Alisha Haddock believes in the power of community. With a resume filled with service-oriented work, Alisha stays committed to the idea that Nashville can be better — if we all work together. That's what landed her at the helm of the community nonprofit Neighbor 2 Neighbor, and on Nashville's Community Review Board overseeing Metro police.

Alisha's Nashville roots run deep: There's a portrait of her grandmother Nora Ransom on display in Elizabeth Park. Ms. Ransom was a pillar of the community who brought people together and looked out for her neighbors. And today, her granddaughter Alisha carries that forward, crediting her upbringing in North Nashville and in the church for her commitment to service and her optimism about the power of ordinary people to make the world better.

Guest: Alisha Haddock, executive director, Neighbor 2 Neighbor

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producers: Andrea Tudhope and Steve Haruch

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A familiar face to many, Joe West is the "house band" at Nashville International Airport. In this role, he performs regularly for ever-changing crowds as they arrive in the city for the first time, or return home from far-flung travels. His regular gigs at the airport have also earned him high-profile spots on other stages in Nashville and beyond.

Joe comes from a musical lineage. His parents, Sarge and Shirley West of Fayetteville, Ark., formed the first African American country music duo, and toured together and broke barriers with every performance. Today, Joe's daughter Rebecca often joins him onstage. And after a recent health scare involving a ruptured aorta — he's fully recovered now — Joe is more grateful than ever for the chance to make music.

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