This Is Nashville

Nolan Smith still has a vivid memory of heaving a basketball into the Atlantic Ocean from the deck of a cruise ship. It was the loss-induced tantrum of a highly competitive 8-year-old. He was on a family trip with the NBA team his father coached for, playing pickup basketball with some older boys who also had their own basketball pedigrees.

His father, who won a national championship in college and played nine years in the NBA, demanded better.

“Son, if you’re going to play this game, you have to always have a great attitude and be a great teammate,” he told his son.

The scolding seared into Smith's brain because they were the last words he ever heard from his father. There, in the middle of the ocean, Derek Smith died from a heart attack that night at the age of 34.

Now in his second season as head coach of the Tennessee State University men’s basketball team, Nolan Smith talks about attempting to follow in his father’s footsteps. Like his dad, he won a national championship when he led Duke University to a national title in 2010. In fact, they won in the same city (Indianapolis) 30 years apart. Derek Smith reached legendary status at the University of Louisville after its championship run in 1980.

Injuries cut short the younger Smith’s playing career. But coaching has become his new calling. After working in some of the winningest programs in college basketball, Smith took his first head coaching job with TSU. In his first season, the Tigers broke a 32-year post-season drought and went to the NCAA tournament after winning the Ohio Valley Conference championship.

The success helped him recruit 11 new players inspired by his goal to not just revive a culture of winning at TSU but to become the first historically Black university to win an NCAA title.

In This Interview

There was a time not so long ago that neighborhoods were fighting against greenways – the tucked-away alleys that connect our communities through the woods and along our waterways.

Now, developers treat greenways like beachfront property. Nashville now has more than 100 miles of them. Murfreesboro has laid 17 miles. Franklin, Brentwood, Mt Juliet, Hendersonville? Going nowhere but up. But we’re still at the point where we’re talking about our greenways — plural. Not “THE greenway,” a potential reality where all the walkways are linked into one outdoor nexus. We'll hear more about the controversial history, the current state of our greenways, and leave you with a challenge if you dare accept it. 

This episode was produced by Josh Deepan. 

Guests:

It’s always wise to pay close attention to our wild critters.

The squirrels are gathering up nuts for the winter, the birds are flying south, the mosquitoes are mostly gone. But sometimes it’s more than those seasonal changes like what we’re seeing right now. Armadillo appear where they’ve never been. Bears start showing up in places they haven’t roamed in modern times. And vines from afar start swallowing up hillsides. It’s a special hour on our signal species – a collaboration across the Appalachia + Midsouth Newsroom. We’re listening to Calls from the Wild.

This episode was produced in coordination with the Appalachia Mid-South Newsroom. 

This month marks 50 years since the premiere of "Harlan County USA."

The Academy Award-winning documentary film shined a light on an eastern Kentucky coal mining community and its fight for a union contract. Today, we hear from director Barbara Kopple, others on the crew, and the miners themselves to talk about the documentary’s lasting impact. From our partners at the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom, we present Harlan County USA at 50.

This episode was produced in coordination with the Appalachia Mid-South Newsroom. 

If you bring up the name Buddy Miller in Nashville’s music circles, you’re likely to get a story about how he’s wonderful to work with — humble, talented, and a great collaborator.

Sometimes he’s in the band. Other times, he helps write the songs. But he’s just as well known for his production chops. It’s one of the reasons he was tapped to serve as executive music producer on the TV show Nashville.

Last month, Buddy released a new self-titled solo album made with friends and collaborators over his five decades in the business and with songs that span multiple genres— gospel, soul, early rock ’n’ roll, and country.

Buddy joins Blake in the studio for a wide-ranging conversation about his life, his love, his faith, and his music.

Happy Southern Festival of Books week!

To celebrate, we’ve invited nine local authors to join us to talk about their work. History, memoirs, YA, fantasy, cooking and more, local authors have been busy, busy, busy putting ideas to the page. Today we hear about their work, their process, and what compelled them to write and, in most cases, self-publish their work.

Guests:

Who says politics can't be fun?

Today, independent candidate for governor, Lauren Pinkston, joins us for a one-on-one interview. And a couple of Nashville's political reporters give us the latest on the governor’s race, highlights from our redrawn congressional districts, and a look at what kind of help candidates are getting from out of state.

Plus, an attorney helps us parse the language of constitutional amendments you’ll be voting on. We top this episode off with an IRL ballot party host who shares tips on how to get funding from a nonpartisan group to throw your own ballot party.

This episode was produced by Mary Mancini.

Guests:

A lot of family businesses make it to the second generation. Very few make it to the third. So a fifth generation is something special.

We’re looking at our multi-generational businesses in Middle Tennessee, starting with a couple that have reached the end of the line this year. But we’re also going to glean some wisdom from those that have been able to keep the family business afloat — and discuss the value of having the name on the sign match the people in charge. You’ll hear name drops like Levy, Varallo, Boyd, Bass, Bell, Buchi, and Draper. Got a family business to shoutout? Drop it in the chat of the WPLN youtube live stream.

This episode was produced by Josh Deepan.

Guests: 

On June 20, 1940 in Brownsville, TN, Elbert Williams was overheard vowing to register Black voters. Someone reported him to the local police. That night, police seized him from his home, jailed him, and interrogated him.

Three days later, WIlliams' battered body was pulled from the Hatchie River. His killers sent a chilling message to Black citizens: register to vote and die.

Attorney Jim Emison grew up near the Hatchie in a family of lawyers. Yet he never heard Williams’s story. After retiring, Emison made it his mission to bring this largely forgotten early civil rights era murder to light.

Emison joins us to discuss his new book about the case, Murder on the Hatchie, and his West Tennessee roots and the community that kept the murder a secret for decades.

One week ago, Tennessee tried to carry out the execution of Christa Pike. The execution did not go as planned. Pike survived the lethal injection, making her case an unprecedented moment in the history of capital punishment.

Today, we’re bringing together a death row chaplain, a policy expert from the nonpartisan Death Penalty Information Center, and two journalists who witnessed the execution. We’ll discuss the latest on Pike’s condition and case, as well as the broader legal, ethical and policy questions surrounding the death penalty.

And we want to hear from you. Did what happened to Christa Pike change your perspective on capital punishment — or strengthen your viewpoint?

This episode was produced by Mary Mancini.

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