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John Watkins has been planting seeds and watching them grow at Discovery Park since the 50-acre heritage park was first built in an empty field more than a decade ago. In this episode, he shares stories of his earliest meetings with Robert Kirkland where Discovery Park’s founder laid out his vision for the landscaping. Watkins also provides details about the future plans for the new Farm Credit Mid-America Education Pavilion, the vineyards and the upcoming All American Selections Display Garden.

This episode is sponsored by Leaders Credit Union.

Chef Dylan Costantino has prepared meals in kitchens from Colorado to Mackinac Island to Nashville. Here in Northwest Tennessee, we’re lucky he’s now calling Paris home. Costantino is the executive chef at the Lodge at Paris Landing State Park in Henry County. The new 91-room lodge provides hotel resort-style vacation rentals on Kentucky Lake near Land Between the Lakes. In this episode, Chef Costantino shares some of the exciting things happening in their kitchen including Murder Mystery Dinner. Also discussed is some of the history of Henry County hospitality and the current location of their first tourist attraction, Sulphur Well. Let’s just say that business is now under water.

This episode is sponsored by Leaders Credit Union. Leaders Credit Union is insured by NCUA.

A collection of 19 sculptures created by Lego artist Sean Kenney will be on display throughout Discovery Park’s 50 acres from May 3 to Sept. 2, 2024. This version of the award-winning traveling exhibition, “Sean Kenney’s Nature Connects®  Made with LEGO®   Bricks,” sponsored by Leaders Credit Union, was specially curated to enhance a visit to Discovery Park. Included in the collection is a monarch butterfly built with 60,500 LEGO® bricks that took 377 hours to build, a life-sized gardener built with 37,400 LEGO® bricks that took 320 hours to build and various plants, animals and insects. In this episode, Sean Kenney takes us behind the scenes from his Amsterdam studio and provides more details and a few of the stories of the artwork he creates.

For more about Sean’s work, visit seankenney.com.

This episode is sponsored by Leaders Credit Union.

On Saturday evening, March 2, 2024, Discovery Park of America honored four individuals who, like the museum and heritage park, inspire others to see beyond. Proceeds from the Robert E. and Jenny D. Kirkland Discovery Awards benefit the Kirkland Scholarship Fund that provides free admission for student groups to Discovery Park. The event was attended by a sold-out crowd from around the country who joined Discovery Park in celebrating the honorees Dr. Nick Dunagan, former UT Martin Chancellor; Deanie Parker, non-profit executive and champion of the arts; David Ring, businessman and developer and Elizabeth Taylor, community activist and philanthropist. In this episode, you get to listen in as we pay tribute to our winners and shine the spotlight on Discovery Park’s mission to inspire children and adults to see beyond.

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Photos from the 2024 Discovery Awards

Video from the 2024 Discovery Awards

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Norma Pruitt is the “Pilot” of the board of directors of the organization that oversees the operations of the Mississippi River Parkway Commission. The multistate organization works collectively to preserve, promote and enhance the scenic, historic and recreational resources of the Mississippi River. In the episode, Pruitt shares some fascinating insight into The Great River Road that stretches for 3,000 miles through and beside 10 states. The Great River Road National Scenic Byway is the longest and one of the oldest such designated roadways. It has also been named one of America’s All-American Roads. Discovery Park was added an interpretive center for The Great River Road in 2023.

Pruitt is also the executive director for the Spastic Paraplegia Foundation. The Spastic Paraplegia Foundation is dedicated to advancing research and finding cures for two groups of closely related, progressive neurological disorders: Primary Lateral Sclerosis (PLS) and Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP).

This episode is sponsored by Leaders Credit Union. Leaders Credit Union is insured by NCUA.

A collection of 19 sculptures created by Lego artist Sean Kenny will be on display throughout Discovery Park’s 50 acres from May 3 to Sept. 2, 2024. This version of the award-winning traveling exhibition, “Sean Kenney’s Nature Connects®  Made with LEGO®   Bricks,” sponsored by Leaders Credit Union, was specially curated to enhance a visit to Discovery Park. Included in the collection is a monarch butterfly built with 60,500 LEGO® bricks that took 377 hours to build, a life-sized gardener built with 37,400 LEGO® bricks that took 320 hours to build and various plants, animals and insects. In this episode, Sean Kenny takes us behind the scenes from his Amsterdam studio and provides more details and a few of the stories of the artwork he creates.

For more about Sean’s work, visit seankenney.com.

Dr. Elaine Harriss, a professor in the University of Tennessee at Martin Department of Music and recent inductee into the Steinway & Sons Teachers Hall of Fame, has been teaching piano for more than 50 years. She began teaching music as an undergraduate student in Nashville and continued in Monroe, Louisiana where she taught in an all-Black school during the early days of integration. In this episode, she shares inspiring stories from her award-winning career along with tips for parents who want to discover ways they can incorporate music into the lives of their children.

This episode is sponsored by the Reelfoot National Wildlife Refuge.

Filmmaker Derek Purvis is the producer-director of the just released action pic “The Ballad of Davy Crockett.” In this episode, Purvis shares a little about the early inspiration that led him to a career in filmmaking along with a few stories that take listeners behind the scenes of his production. Filmed in Tennessee, “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” is an action-packed Western featuring William Moseley who is known for his portrayal of the fictional character Peter Pevensie in the “The Chronicles of Narnia” trilogy. Set in 1815, the film focuses on Crockett’s fictional adventures while fighting his way through the wild frontier to save his children from the clutches of an evil land baron (Colm Meaney of Hell on Wheels). “We wanted to explore the larger-than-life mythology that enshrouds the Crockett name and use his ardent opposition to Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act as a throughline for what turned out to be a beautiful action-adventure tale,” said Purvis.

This episode is sponsored by Leaders Credit Union. Leaders Credit Union is insured by NCUA.

Documentary filmmaker Randall Kendrick grew up in Brownsville, Tennessee in the shadow of The Mindfield, a “you-have-to-see-it-to-believe-it” outdoor art installation created by Tennessee outsider artist Billy Tripp. The artist has been constructing a massive steel sculpture for the past 33 years, and is finally setting his sights on retirement. In his documentary, “The Steel Garden: A Documentary” Kendrick examines Tripp’s life and work as he builds one of the final pieces of his ever expanding sculpture. In this episode, Kendrick shares more about the inspiration for his documentary, the process he went through to get the story on film and the early response from the documentary film festival circuit, Brownsville residents and Billy Tripp himself.

This episode is sponsored by Leaders Credit Union. Leaders Credit Union is insured by NCUA.

Sean Gasaway is an entertainer who wears many hats. His titles include songwriter, producer, music mogul, record producer, actor and entrepreneur. On this episode, the two-time Native American Music Awards Song of the Year winner shares more about using music to change young lives as education coordinator with the Mississippi Songwriters Alliance and some of the exciting things happening with arts and entertainment down in the historic Mississippi Delta. You can find out more about Sean at seangasaway.com.

This episode is sponsored by Leaders Credit Union.