It’s Thursday and time for another episode of The Roundabout.

The Roundabout is the news of the week, analyzed by our panelists from points of view that span left, right and center. Joining us today are Maryam Abolfazli, Shaka Mitchell and Pat Nolan.

Today we talk about a tightening 7th congressional district race, political pardons, school voucher expansion, plus a smile story or two and more.

And The Roundabout also welcomes your voice on the big stories of the week. Give us a call at 615-760-2000 to weigh in — or join us live streaming on YouTube at noon and pop your question into chat!

This episode was produced by Mary Mancini.

Guests:

Stream video on YouTube.

Now that tariffs levied by the second Trump administration have taken effect, small businesses in Nashville are beginning to feel the pinch and praying for relief.

Importers of coffee and tea and artisans making apparel and musical instruments join the show to explain how tariffs have challenged their small businesses. Professors from Vanderbilt and MTSU bring global context to the local impact of tariffs in 2025.

This episode was produced by Josh Deepan. 

Guests 

Further listening:

Nashvillager Podcast: A bad year for a major cash crop

Our question today: What is a "Chicago-style gyro," and why are there so many shops with that name in Nashville?

Little did we know that trying to figure this out would take us way beyond Nashville and lead us to uncover the very creation of the gyro as we know it. WPLN reporter Justin Barney is taking you along as he crisscrosses the country, plunges into culinary history, hits the factory floor, and gets face-to-face with the man who elevated a niche menu item into a cultural staple.

You can find more Curious Nashville stories at WPLN.org/Curious and submit a question to our team below.

This episode was produced by Tony Gonzalez and Justin Barney.

Special thanks to Blake Farmer, Tasha A.F. Lemley, Mack Linebaugh and Cynthia Abrams

It might look like anything Mike Curb touches turns to gold. But he says he’s never been great at anything – just passionate. After more than 60 years in the record business, Curb is still looking for the next big hit. He's also looking for a way to preserve the thing that brought him to Nashville and made his career so successful — Music Row. In this career-spanning interview, Curb talks music and business, politics and philanthropy. 

Further Reading:

From a young age, Colby Keegan said he hoped to "affect positive change." He was homeless when he died of an overdose at the age of 23. His mother, Lisa Wysocky, founded Colby's Army in his honor. 

Our In My Place series has taken us through the steps of homelessness to housing and beyond. That’s from the first point of contact between a service provider and someone experiencing homelessness — through all the twists and turns to an apartment — and then sometimes doing it all over again more than once.

In this episode, which is the season finale, we're spending the whole hour with Wysocky, looking through the eyes of family members of people who have experienced homelessness.

Further listening:

In My Place is a special project of WPLN’s This Is Nashville, supported in part by the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.

It’s now just a matter of time before federal benefits are restored that help nearly 700,000 Tennesseans put food on the table.

 But the government shutdown exposed just how many people struggle to keep their families fed. So we’re putting hunger at the center of our Roundabout episode today. We’ll bring you the latest on SNAP and food distributions. We’re also taking your calls about your own experience as a recipient or a volunteer. That number is 615-760-2000. And if you’ve got a pop-up feeding program, please share. It’s SNAP and hunger in the roundabout. 

This episode was produced by Josh Deepan and Mary Mancini. 

GUESTS

Additional Reading: 

WPLN'S SNAP Coverage 

On today's show, we honor those who’ve served their country by welcoming three combat veterans from Middle Tennessee, all from the decade after 9/11.

A cook. An HR specialist. And an intelligence officer. It takes more than the infantry to go to war. Wisdom from our neighbors who answered the call of duty and were forever changed. 

This episode was produced by Josh Deepan. 

GUESTS

Bill DeMain has been creating and evolving for decades. A prolific songwriter, music journalist, walking tour guide, and one half of the pop duo Swan Dive, he’s still not slowing down. In fact, during the pandemic, he added yet another career to his résumé: cartoonist. Today, Bill tells us how it all started, why he continues to try new things, and his thoughts on the untimely death of his friend and co-writer, Jill Sobule.

Further reading and listening

The latest wave of Kurds is arriving from Turkey — fleeing political repression and nationalist hate groups. They're coming to a very different America than the Kurds who have called Nashville home for generations. It’s an America in turmoil — a place where immigrants are increasingly seen as enemies within, to be rooted out and sent back to where they came from.

In this final installment from The Country In Our Hearts, we meet a new generation of Kurdish Nashvillians and leave on a hopeful note with a Kurdish new year celebration.

Series Credits:

The Country In Our Hearts was reported and produced Rose Gilbert, who also produced the visual trailer. Meribah Knight edited and co-produced the series. Sound design by Martin Cruz, and traditional music is by Arkan Doski. The original logo artwork is by Nuveen Barwari.

Special thanks to Paul McAdoo and Jennifer Nelson and huge thanks to Mehmet Ayaz, who made so much of this storytelling possible. Additional thanks for all of the people who welcomed Rose in Kurdistan, like Azad Sameen, the Barmarne family and the village of Chalke; and, of course, the many journalists she met along the way, Suha Kamel, Makeen Mustafa, Paul Idon, Namo Addullah and Wladimir van Wilgenburg.

They opened businesses and raised their kids. As those kids grew up, they had to figure out how to navigate the world of a first-generation Kurdish-American teenager. And in that world, something new was forming — something that threatened to tarnish the sterling reputation their parents worked hard to build.

The Country in our Hearts is the story of how Nashville became home to the largest Kurdish diaspora in America is an epic one. A tale of bloody genocide, of freedom fighters, of stunning perseverance.

But the story of the Kurdish people, no matter where they are, is a story about a country that only exists in the hearts of its people. And the lengths they’ll go to make it real.

Guest:

Series Credits:

The Country In Our Hearts was reported and produced by Rose Gilbert, who also produced the visual trailer. Meribah Knight edited and co-produced the series. Sound design by Martin Cruz, and traditional music is by Arkan Doski. The original logo artwork is by Nuveen Barwari.

Special thanks to Paul McAdoo, Jennifer Nelson and Samantha Max.