Banner & Company

Liz McLaurin looks at the landscape a little different than the rest of us. As the head of the nonprofit Land Trust for Tennessee, she works with landowners who want to set aside some (or all) of their property for conservation. So when she sees forests and farmlands, she's not just thinking about what's there now; she's also thinking about what that land might look like decades or even centuries from now. Will it be protected and left unspoiled?

In her line of work, the answer is often yes. The Land Trust helps owners make arrangements for their land, to make sure it doesn't get paved over or covered in condos. Hers was an indirect path to this work, starting with years as a working actor. In the years since, she's come to know that people who've lived on land know that land and the stories it holds — and her job is to listen for how to sustain those stories for the future.

Guest: Liz McLaurin, president and CEO, The Land Trust for Tennessee

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Steve Haruch

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Shane Caldwell got his start on public access television as "kind of a goof," after watching a comedy show and thinking he and his fellow bartender friends could do much better. What they came up with, The Sylvan Brothers, became an underground sensation. That led to a local sketch comedy show called Cuts that aired right after Saturday Night Live. The first musical guest? Vince Gill.

The child of performers, Shane hails from Savannah, Tenn. — fishing worm capital of the world — where some of the off-kilter residents he observed growing up informed the characters he eventually created for his shows. Clips of one of those characters, the indelible "Rehab Guy," still get shared on social media. Since those days, Shane has worked with a long roster of collaborators, including Jeff Foxworthy and professional wrestler Dusty "The American Dream" Rhodes.

Guest: Shane Caldwell, comedian

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Steve Haruch

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You should never meet your heroes, the old saying goes. But for Jim McGuire, it has turned out pretty well. Jim grew up listening to country radio, and then — after a roundabout path took him to an Army base in Oklahoma, then to Vietnam and eventually to Nashville — he made a career capturing photos of some of the stars he had once only known through their music.

He started out in an old grocery store that he converted into a photo studio — he slept in the back — but it wasn't long before his skill behind the camera drew a steady stream of notable subjects: The Nashville Portraits include legends like Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, Doc Watson, Earl Monroe and Dolly Parton, to name but a few. He doesn't often give interviews, so this is a rare chance to hear his story firsthand.

Guest: Jim "Senor" McGuire, photographer

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Steve Haruch

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Tamara Saviano has worked in radio, been a publicist — Kris Kristofferson was a client — served as president of the Americana Music Association (the first woman to do so), and produced albums and award shows at the Ryman Auditorium. All of this has given her an inside view of the Americana scene from the very start. If that sounds like a singularly winding career path, you can now read about it in her new memoir.

This week, Tamara sits down with Demetria to talk about that book, as well as her path from Wisconsin to Music City, what she loves about working with musicians, and what it's been like wearing so many hats over the years while staying true to herself along the way.

Guest: Tamara Saviano, writer, author, Poets and Dreamers: My Life in Americana Music

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producers: Shauna Reynolds and Steve Haruch

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Shortly after the end of the Civil War, formerly enslaved African Americans established and settled Promise Land in Dickson County. They came from farms around Charlotte, Tennessee, and from Cumberland Furnace, the nearby ironworks town. Some of the first settlers, like Ed Vanleer and John Nesbitt served with the United States Colored Troops during the war. The town remained independent, and actually flourished through the Jim Crow Era.

Serina Gilbert is a descendant of those original inhabitants, and with the Promise Land Heritage Association, helps keep the stories of this historic community alive. And she is co-author of the book From the Fiery Furnace to the Promise Land: Stories of a Tennessee Reconstruction Community, which collects many of these tales, handed down through the generations. Her collaborator is esteemed historian and TSU professor Dr. Learotha Williams Jr., who joins her in conversation with Demetria.

Plus, after the interview, an audio story featuring sounds and voices from the annual Promise Land festival — essentially a big family reunion — produced by Banner managing editor Andrea Tudhope, which originally aired on WPLN.

Guests:

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producers: Steve Haruch and Andrea Tudhope

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Aaron Gray found peace after enduring the unthinkable. His 5-month-old son Joel died in August 2012 after Gray’s then wife accidentally left the baby in the back seat of the family car. But Gray didn’t allow Joel’s death to shatter his life forever — he found peace in nature as he learned to untangle and release his trauma.

Gray used the worst moment in his life as a catalyst to help him help others. Through his podcast, Guys Dealings With Feelings, he seeks to connect with men and help them find their own paths to healing. These paths include holistic wellness and realizing the connections between the mind and body. Along with his therapist co-host, Gray tries to normalize men identifying and discussing their emotions: "I’m living life today to make sure there’s no more regrets."

Guest: Aaron Gray, host, Guys Dealings With Feelings

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Shauna Reynolds

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From the time she job-shadowed at the Jackson Sun in 8th grade, Becca Andrews knew she wanted to be a journalist. This aspiration took her from Tennessee to California and back again as she began an award-winning career as an investigative reporter. Andrews’ extensive coverage of reproductive healthcare and right-wing extremism prepared her for her latest project, American Shrapnel.

As co-writer and cohost, Andrews retraces the violent crimes of serial bomber Eric Robert Rudolph, explores the past that filled him with hate and aggression and describes the manhunt that put the elusive perpetrator in prison. It’s a story that took Andrews, her cohost and their producer three years to research and report, now unfolding one disturbing podcast episode at a time.

Guest: Becca Andrews, journalist, co-host, American Shrapnel

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Shauna Reynolds

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On Tuesday, the state of Tennessee executed Byron Black, who was convicted and sentenced to death in 1989 for the murders of his then-girlfriend Angela Clay and her two daughters, nine-year-old Latoya and six-year-old Lakeisha. Black, who was intellectually disabled, had an implanted defibrillator that his attorney argued could cause undue suffering if it attempted to shock his heart as execution drugs took effect. Ultimately, after a series of legal challenges, the execution was allowed to proceed without intervention from either the Tennessee State Supreme Court or Gov. Bill Lee. As he was injected with a lethal dose of the barbiturate pentobarbital on Tuesday morning, Black was observed by media witnesses, including Banner editor Steve Cavendish, to groan, "Oh, it's hurting so bad."

Black was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m. Afterward, attorney Kelley Henry said her client had been "tortured." A statement from the victims' family read, in part, "I thank God for this day, a day that was a long time coming." While initial data indicated that the defibrillator did not activate during the execution, an autopsy will take 8-12 weeks; in the meantime, Henry said in an emailed statement, "Make no mistake, we all saw with our own eyes that the pentobarbital did not work like the State's expert testified that it would. Mr. Black suffered."

Guests: Steve Cavendish, editor-in-chief, official media witness; Steven Hale, criminal justice reporter and author of Death Row Welcomes You

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producers: Lilly Sabella and Steve Haruch

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What started as an ordinary ride home from a track meet changed Cathy Carillo's life. When Metro Police stopped her father for a broken taillight in 2009, they arrested him, and he was later deported. Cathy, who was 14 years old at the time, was left stranded on the side of the road and wondering: “Is this really home?”

That night set Cathy on a 15-year path that recently led to helping found The ReMIX Tennessee, a grassroots Latino community organization. As more families are torn apart by separation due to ICE arrests like those that took place during May's joint-federal state immigration sweep through Nashville’s Latino neighborhoods, Cathy spoke to Banner & Company about starting the anonymous hotline Music City Migra Watch for people to report ICE sightings and The ReMIX Tennessee’s urgent and evolving work.

Guest: Cathy Carillo, co-founder, The ReMIX TN

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producers: Steve Haruch and Lilly Sabella

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When he first arrived in Nashville sight unseen, Ron Brice was just here for a job — running a video arcade. So how did a Michigander with no background in music aside from being a fan end up owning one of the city's most important independent venues? That story involves a gym, a professional wrestler, a Mexican restaurant and a whole lot of sweat equity.

The club Ron eventually opened up, Third & Lindsley, has hosted some of the city's best musicians for three decades, with some updates to the sound system and floor plan along the way. In a changing Music City, it's one of the last indie venues standing. And with a brand new lease, they will keep that tradition going for at least a few more years.

Guest: Ron Brice

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producers: Steve Haruch and Shauna Reynolds

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