The most iconic type of Nashville bar is part of a colorful history that includes cattle drives and sailors on shore leave. Plus, the local news for September 18, 2025 and reclaiming the banjo.

Credits: 

This is a production of Nashville Public Radio

Host/producer: Nina Cardona

Editor: Miriam Kramer

Additional support: Mack Linebaugh, Tony Gonzalez, LaTonya Turner and the staff of WPLN and WNXP

Zoning laws may sound arcane, but they set the tone for so much of what gives a neighborhood its character. Plus, the local news for September 17, 2025, and this week’s edition of What Where Whens-day.

Credits: 

This is a production of Nashville Public Radio

Host/producer: Nina Cardona

Editor: Miriam Kramer

Additional support: Mack Linebaugh, Tony Gonzalez, LaTonya Turner and the staff of WPLN and WNXP

Not all deaths in the public sphere get the same level of response. Whether or not someone like Charlie Kirk should be remembered with large scale vigils or a moment of silence is a politically loaded question. Plus, the local news for Sept. 16, 2025, and a landfill controversy in a rural area of Tennessee.

Credits: 

This is a production of Nashville Public Radio

Host/producer: Nina Cardona

Editor: Tony Gonzalez

Additional support: Mack Linebaugh, Miriam Kramer, LaTonya Turner and the staff of WPLN and WNXP

There was a time when the majority of parks in our city were about ball fields and band shells, but now the four largest parks in the system are mostly given over to nature. Plus, the local news for September 15, 2025, and NPR’s Pod Corner. 

Credits:  
This is a production of Nashville Public Radio. 
Host/producer: Nina Cardona 
Editor: Miriam Kramer 
Additional support: Mack Linebaugh, Tony Gonzalez, LaTonya Turner and the staff of WPLN and WNXP 

One of our most beloved rights in this nation is also one of the most contentious. Plus, the local news for September 12, 2025, and deciding where Nashville needs more housing.

Credits: 

This is a production of Nashville Public Radio

Host/producer: Nina Cardona

Editor: Miriam Kramer

Additional support: Mack Linebaugh, Tony Gonzalez, LaTonya Turner and the staff of WPLN and WNXP

Our history as a state and country has been defined, in large part, by waves of migration. Tennessee has been part of many of those exoduses. Plus, the local news for September 11, 2025, and a look at the debate around IVF in this state.

Credits: 

This is a production of Nashville Public Radio

Host/producer: Nina Cardona

Editor: Miriam Kramer

Additional support: Mack Linebaugh, Tony Gonzalez, LaTonya Turner and the staff of WPLN and WNXP

For a brief moment, it looked like our part of the state could have played host to an underground atom smasher. The conversations around the Boring Co.’s planned Music City Loop today holds some parallels. Plus, the local news for September 10, 2025, and this week’s edition of What, Where, Whens-day.

Credits: 

This is a production of Nashville Public Radio

Host/producer: Nina Cardona

Editor: Miriam Kramer

Additional support: Mack Linebaugh, Tony Gonzalez, LaTonya Turner and the staff of WPLN and WNXP

From the early days of auto safety to the current attempts to reduce overdose deaths, new ideas for increasing safety are often met with skepticism or annoyance. Plus, the local news for September 9, 2025, and This Is Nashville’s harm reduction week.

Credits: 

This is a production of Nashville Public Radio

Host/producer: Nina Cardona

Editor: Miriam Kramer

Additional support: Mack Linebaugh, Tony Gonzalez, LaTonya Turner and the staff of WPLN and WNXP

Two men who became emblematic for pandemic disagreements back in 2020 are facing off again, this time in a Congressional election. Plus, the local news for September 8, 2025, and a dip into the archive for Mule Day 2021.

Credits: 

This is a production of Nashville Public Radio

Host/producer: Nina Cardona

Editor: Miriam Kramer

Additional support: Mack Linebaugh, Tony Gonzalez, LaTonya Turner and the staff of WPLN and WNXP

Content Warning: This episode contains explicit discussions of hard drug use. It also contains mature, uncensored language.

For about the last four years, This is Nashville's managing editor Tasha A.F. Lemley has been reporting on ways to support people who use dangerous drugs, often without requiring, or even suggesting, that they should stop using.

It’s a philosophy known as harm reduction. The concept has become more widely embraced in recent years as a way to keep drug users from dying – whether that’s from an overdose, disease or infection. But some champions want to take it even further, beyond what the law in Tennessee allows right now. 

And that’s the story we’re bringing you today for this special episode of the NashVillager. 

Credits:
Producer: Tasha A.F. Lemley
Host: Blake Farmer
Legal review: Paul McAdoo
Special thanks: Tony Gonzalez