Banner & Company

When Margot McCormack bought the former gas station that eventually became her restaurant, East Nashville was not considered a culinary destination. More pressingly, there was a gaping hole in the roof. With a lot of elbow grease, Margot set to work building out the space for her concept: a new menu daily, in tune with the seasons, —combining classic cooking techniques, fresh local ingredients and her own personal touches.

Margot Cafe & Bar will be closing its doors 25 years to the day after opening its doors for the first time in 2001, serving soft shell crab, veal scallopini with polenta, tuna steak, pasta with white clam sauce, flourless chocolate cake, raspberry sorbet ... an assortment of her favorite crowd-pleasing dishes. It's been a good run, Margot says, and she wonders if she'd be able to do it if she were starting in today's Nashville — one whose food scene she helped shape. The final service will be June 5.

Guest: Margot McCormack, chef and restaurateur

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Steve Haruch

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

It was the Music City dream that attracted both Freddy and one of his former bandmates, the talented singer Shelly Bush. In the podcast Girl in a Hurry, Freddy 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.

This episode was originally broadcast, in a slightly different form, in March 2025.

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producers: Steve Haruch and Andrea Tudhope

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Banner reporter Steven Hale sits down with editor Steve Cavendish to talk about a day that will go down in history in Tennessee. The day the state intended to execute Tony Carruthers — a Memphis man sentenced to death for the kidnapping and murder of three people in 1994 — but failed to do so. A doctor contracted by TDOC spent more than an hour trying to insert a secondary IV to administer pentobarbital before an emergency motion was filed and Gov. Lee issued a one-year reprieve. Hale was there to witness the events, and recounts them in detail.

Produced by Andrea Tudhope

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Every morning at breakfast, Ruth and Lloyd Shular hold hands and, as Lloyd puts it, "associate" — that is, talk about their plans for the day. It's a ritual they've kept going for three quarters of a century: On May 6 they celebrated their 75th anniversary. (They had originally planned to get married in June, but Lloyd was drafted to serve in Korea.) The happy couple have outlived all of their bridesmaids and groomsmen.

Their courtship began in high school in Knoxville, where Lloyd's father, a carpenter, installed the staircase at the Tennessee Theatre. They'd take the bus to see movies, and go to the Orange Julius afterward. After love and marriage came children — one of them not-so-easily. Then Lloyd, who was working for BellSouth, got transferred first to Kingston, Tenn., and finally to Nashville, where they've lived ever since.

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Banner reporters Steven Hale and Mikeie Honda Reiland sit down to discuss the ongoing litigation over Tennessee's abortion ban. Mikeie shares the stories of women and providers he talked to and the details of the recent legal developments that have delayed a trial in the case.

Produced by Andrea Tudhope

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This week we’re sharing a special episode from our friends at the You Might Be Right Podcast, the chart-topping politics/government podcast produced by the University of Tennessee’s Baker School of Public Policy & Public Affairs.
Recently featured on NPR, and hosted by former Tennessee Governors Phil Bredesen (D) and Bill Haslam (R), You Might Be Right tackles timely policy conversations with world and US luminaries like Ben Sasse, Al Gore, Judy Woodruff, Paul Ryan, Jon Meacham, Carly Fiorina, and many more. It’s a place where people can disagree constructively and problems can actually get solved.

Like today’s special episode with former Indiana Governor and OMB Director Mitch Daniels and Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center co-director Elena Patel. As billions of federal dollars flow through state budgets, they begin to dive into a very timely conversation — who should decide how that money gets spent? Together with the hosts, they unpack the balance between federal priorities and state flexibility, and what it means for taxpayers. 

For more episodes like this, make sure to follow You Might Be Right Podcast, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And tell them we sent you.

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Banner reporters Steven Hale and Sarah Grace Taylor sit down to discuss the state legislature's special session and rapid redrawing of Tennessee's congressional maps. They talk about what led to the whirlwind week, how the new maps divide and dilute Memphis' Black population and the legal questions surrounding the legislature's actions.

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"That's not how your movie is supposed to end," Audrey Shulman remembers a director telling her. It was surprising to hear, since the movie was based on her own life. But in the end, it was the right choice. The movie in question, Sitting in Bars With Cake (which includes a cameo by Bette Midler) helped launch Audrey's screenwriting career.

After a few years in Los Angeles — including the chapter that became the basis for Sitting in Bars — Audrey has returned to Nashville. She's still writing, though, and while she can't say much about them at the moment, she has several projects in the works. She's also also still baking cakes.

Guest: Audrey Shulman, screenwriter

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Steve Haruch

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Banner reporters Steven Hale and Stephen Elliott sit down to talk about the 2026 State of Metro. They discuss the speeches they've attended in the past with memorable musical guests before getting into the details of Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s speech. Among them: affordability, transit, the East Bank and He’s Running.

Produced by Andrea Tudhope

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Michael Shane Neal knew from an early age he wanted to be an artist. But there were no artists in his family, so he wasn't sure how he'd turn that into a career. After taking classes in the basement of a dormitory at Lipscomb University, he had a chance meeting with someone who knew the famed portrait artist Raymond Kinstler. And after a trip to New York, a mentorship was born.

Shane credits Kinstler with showing him the way to an artist's life. And since then, he's painted everyone from John Lewis to Sandra Day O'Connor, Morgan Freeman to former Tennessee governor Phil Bredesen — and most recently, former president Joe Biden. It's painstaking work, sometimes taking months of sittings, sketches and many, many conversations. It's in that process that, Shane says, he gets to know the essence of a person in order to convey it on canvas.

This episode was originally broadcast in April 2025.

Guest: Michael Shane Neal, portrait artist

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Steve Haruch

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