Notable quotables for the week look at Nashville’s film industry, which could be on a major upswing. Paramount Skydance is hiring and building stages in the area. There’s discourse on whether Nashville can draw the talent it would need. Metro’s new enterinment office director says she’s not worried.
Earlier this summer, WPLN and ProPublica published an investigation into a company that operates juvenile justice centers acorss the state. Lawmakers are now wanting the statehouse to conduct its own investigation.
And a semi-driver allowed his intrusive thoughts to win. He crashed his rig into the entrance of the Aldi grocery store on Gallatin Pike, causing a stir for the chain’s devotees.
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Pooja Reddy is white trash.
Years ago, Pooja Reddy left the American South for a prestigious international internship. The supervisor didn’t conceal their surprise at her background. “I`ve never met anyone from Kentucky,” they told her. “It`s probably because they`re not smart enough to leave. And how could you be from there? I thought only white trash lived there.”
Reddy was first-generation Indian-American and positively brimming with ideas and ambition. She was also uninterested in distancing herself from her upbringing in a farming community in southern Kentucky.
As Jewly Hight reports, after several interactions with people dumbfounded by how dramatically her experience diverged from the uninformed Southern and rural stereotypes, Reddy conceived of a strategy. She would write autobiographical comedy. Disarm the narrow-mindedness with satire. Acknowledge what might seem absurd about a brown child of immigrants who practiced Hinduism also learning to shoot a gun and harboring country singing dreams—and make her embrace of multiplicity not only truer to life, but more appealing, too.
Reddy created a country cabaret show called “Pooja Reddy is White Trash,” which premieres at the famed nightclub Joe’s Pub beginning this week. The show is bound to resonate across regions once she takes it on the road. It’s a brilliant contribution to the new wave of voices reimagining the comedic potential of country music and storytelling and defying hidebound assumptions of who gets to represent country culture.
Tap link in the bio and follow for more from Senior Music Writer Jewly Hight.
Among all the other things about AI, it is noisy. All the time. 24/7. Noisy.
Elon Musk’s xAI complex consists of multiple data centers, a busy construction site and a power plant, currently consisting of about 60 truck-sized gas turbines. The resulting noise is traveling into the surrounding community and penetrating some people’s homes. Jason Haley, a resident in Southaven, Miss., filed a citizen lawsuit against the SpaceX-owned company over this noise.
Experts say this noise is more than a nuisance, leading to stress, lost sleep and lower property values.
“The number one problem is that this is a 24/7 noise source and there is no escaping,” said Mathias Basner, who researches noise at the University of Pennsylvania.
Caroline Eggers reports that xAI set up turbines one year ago and recently said it will remove them in one year while also adding noise-reduction measures.
Meanwhile, Musk told investors last month that he was targeting a tenfold expansion of the complex’s capacity to 20 gigawatts -- more than half of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s entire seven-state grid -- without any details on what that would look or sound like.
Tap link in bio for the full story and follow for more from Caroline Eggers.
Photos and video: Musk video public domain, Caroline Eggers / WPLN, Christopher Blank / WKNO-FM, video library and Mathias Basner TED talk
Metro Nashville has filed seven lawsuits against the federal government over funding losses since President Donald Trump began his second term.
The cases, which are jointly filed with other localities and supported by the Public Rights Project, allege that the Trump administration has acted unconstitutionally by canceling or redefining the terms around dollars that had already been appropriated by Congress.
The seven challenges can be categorized into two types: There are four lawsuits challenging federal grants that were eliminated outright, while the other three cases take issue with the federal government attaching new conditions to grants that had already been appropriated.
WPLN’s Cynthia Abrams has followed the cases and reports on where they stand.
Tap the link in bio for the full story.
Photos: Julia Demaree Nikhinson / AP Photo
Money from a legal settlement with Volkswagen is helping pay for more electric vehicle chargers for Tennessee renters.
The new program focuses on apartments and multi-family housing. Owners and property managers can get rebates of up to 60% of the cost for new chargers.
To understand where the funding comes from, you have to go back roughly a decade to a scandal known as “Dieselgate.” For years, VW had been marketing cars as “clean diesel,” while installing devices to cheat on emissions testing. In reality, the cars were sometimes emitting dozens of times the legal limit of pollution.
That eventually led to VW paying a $15 billion settlement, some of which helps pay for program to lower pollution and support EV adoption. In past years in Tennessee, that’s included efforts to add a statewide network of fast charging stations.
EVs have been slow to gain popularity in the state. About 5% of new passenger vehicles sold in Tennessee are EVs; that’s about half the national rate, and far behind the global average of around 25%.
Tap link in bio for the full story from environmental reporter Caroline Eggers.
Images: Anderson-EV/Unsplash
Notable quotables for the week took a dive into the common threads in Nashville’s seven ongoing lawsuits against the Trump Administration. They’re largely focused on federal funding — canceled grants, new conditions on money Congress already promised. The cases have seen early successes, with the courts at least temporarily halting the revocations.
State Rep. John Ray Clemmons is among the critics of Gov. Bill Lee’s “Choice Lanes” project on Interstate 24. The state awarded the construction and management contract to a consortium of private-sector companies called Drive TN. It spans 50 years and is expected to be worth $10 billion.
There is a lot of discussion about data center proposals in Tennessee, but Gallatin has already had a hyperscale project operating in its borders for two years. It’s the top tax revenue contributor for the city government, but it still has critics in its neighborhood.
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Nobody really teaches you how any of this voting stuff works.
We are talking about how your vote gets counted, why Nashville`s district lines changed, or whether a single vote even matters in a state like Tennessee. It’s hard to figure out — particularly in a social media flood of information.
Nashville Public Radio covers elections and voting as part of our duty to public service and our community. So we`re opening our doors and inviting you in to talk about it.
On October 6th, from 6 - 8pm we are inviting you inside our station. We will be putting the people who run elections in the same room as the people who report on them. Bring your concerns, questions, thoughts. We can delve into it all.
One night. Real discussion and answers about elections and voting. No question is too basic.
This election event is free, with convenient free parking. This is best suited for folks 18 years old and up. Space is limited.
Tap link in bio to RSVP today.
License plate readers (LPRs) have been on the front lines of debate this summer.
And now lawmakers say they will take the reins on writing legislation to potentially place regulations on the policing technology when session starts in January.
For now, activists and police don’t see eye-to-eye on licence plate reader usage.
Tap link in bio for the full story.
Reporter: Emily West
Photo: Emily West
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‘They’re putting kids’ lives at risk’: How abuse in a Tennessee businessman’s juvenile prisons remained under wraps
Tennessee’s highest-security youth prisons are operated by a single private company. Former staff say they felt pressure to hide abuse and other serious incidents from the state and to handle medical emergencies without calling 911.
Curious Nashville Returns!
Back by popular demand, the WPLN fan favorite series Curious Nashville is here to investigate oddities, share local history, tell stories of interesting people, and explain how local institutions operate.
You ask the questions, and we answer.
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