Curious Nashville

Typically, the Curious Nashville team assigns reporters to answer your questions. Today, we’re taking everything we’ve learned in the past decade and turning it into the Curious Nashville Quiz Show! And who better to stump than WPLN’s very own Blake Farmer and Nina Cardona?

This episode was first broadcast on 90.3 WPLN as a live radio call-in.

For decades, celebrities signed autographs on marble slabs inside the Belle Meade Theatre. But the ornate theater has been vacant, so whatever happened to the "wall of fame?" Cynthia Abrams takes Curious Nashville in search of the celebrity slabs, and finds local cinematic history along the way.

Elm Hill Pike may be an industrial artery in Nashville now, but it was once a main thoroughfare with a rich history. But listener Chad Smith wonders:

“Elm Hill Pike is very hilly. Where is the actual elm hill?”

The investigation pushes WPLN’s Blake Farmer to hop on a bike and ride the length of the road. The journey takes him into some rich city history and to a dead end across the county line — but that doesn’t mean the answer is elusive.

If you know where to look, there's a god frolicking amid Nashville's skyline. It's the mythological messenger Mercury, gleaming at the top of the Union Station clock tower. But he's had his share of ups and downs, and once fell in 1952.

WPLN listener Christina called to ask:

Curious Nashville chases down what happened next, some interesting ties to local history and landmarks, and even an infamous storm.

Have you ever looked closely at your Tennessee driver’s license? There might be something surprising in the fine print. Curious Nashville listener Sam Barocas used his microscope to find it. And then he asked:

In some instances — likely on millions of licenses — a thin ribbon of text reads “The VolunDeer State.” With a ‘d.’

Among the theories:

WPLN’s Justin Barney helps Curious Nashville get to the bottom of this mystery. 

Kudzu is a woody, hairy vine with distinct three-pronged leaves. During the blooming season in late summer, the plant produces grape-smelling purple flowers. And, always, it has a way of crowding out other plants.

"Kudzu is like a glamorous villain ... ‘the vine that ate the South,' " says Ben Nanny, the conservation director at Ijams Nature Center.

This ubiquitous vine prompted this question:

The answer ties back to the late 1800s, reports Jacqui Sieber with WUOT in Knoxville. You can learn more in our "signal species" series.

J.T. Moore Middle School in Nashville is named after John Trotwood Moore, an author and prominent landowner. He was also openly racist, a proponent of lynching, and an apologist for the "Old South". This sparked a question to Curious Nashville:

The answer, in part, has ties to the state's Tennessee Heritage Protection Act. (You may recall this prior episode: Why is it so hard to alter Confederate monuments in Tennessee?)

Today, WPLN Education Reporter Camellia Burris hears from Larry Woods, a parent of former J.T. Moore students (he's also a civil rights attorney and professor of criminal justice at Tennessee State University) and fellow TSU professor and Davidson County Historian Learotha Williams.

There’s a piece of infrastructure in downtown Nashville that is about to go away. When it does, there may not be any clues left from a fascinating — and brief — chapter in the city’s transportation history.

Do you remember when WeGo had a fleet of super-quiet all-electric buses running for free throughout downtown? Bus commuter Joe Pagetta does. He wrote to Curious Nashville with this question:

The question reached the right place, as WPLN has covered the rise and fall of those buses since 2015.

It all starts with a question:

We’ve learned this is not an isolated experience. You folks are obsessed with what you find in the dirt. So, why do we dig what we dig?

We’re unearthing some answers with metal detectorist Whit Hill, landscaper Matt Pilcher, and Ben Nance with the Tennessee Division of Archaeology.

This episode was reported and produced by Tasha A.F. Lemley.

There's a hot topic after the ice storm response this winter, and guest Wade Sexton has 30 years of experience working in the utility industry. He's here to answer a question that’s been on our minds:

This segment was produced by WPLN's Cynthia Abrams and hosted by Blake Farmer.