Number fifty-four is the only senior on the basketball roster at Roane State Community College. Senior citizen, that is. Seventy-three year-old Ken Mink took some time off between his freshman and sophomore terms — fifty-two years, to be exact. He’s garnered international attention in his attempt to put a few more points on the board before he retires for good. In the process, he’s inspiring granddads and grandkids everywhere to believe in the impossible. Nashville Public Radio’s Kim Green reports…

Five years ago, John Guider was making a good living as a commercial photographer. But he didn’t feel fulfilled as a man or as an artist. He spent long hours sitting by the creek behind his Franklin farmhouse, dreaming about a journey that might provide answers. The Tennessee State Museum is showcasing photographs from that journey — a canoe trip from Franklin to New Orleans. WPLN’s Kim Green reports.

If you don’t know anything else about poet Dylan Thomas, you’ve probably heard his most famous line: “Do not go gentle into that good night.” The Welsh writer loved the sounds of words as much as their meanings, and he famously played the English language like a musical instrument. It’s fitting, then that American composer John Corigliano decided to make actual music out of Thomas’ words.

A camp called “Act Like A Grrl.” aims to ease the transition from giggly little kid to young adult by letting girls swing between silly and serious as much as they want. In any given day they might go from dressing in glittery superhero outfits to reading aloud deeply personal essays. The program’s founder hopes to help young girls find their true voices, as WPLN’s Kim Green reports.

Around Nashville and pretty much everywhere else, Jerry Douglas’s name is synonymous with the Dobro. The acoustic guitar has a distinctive look – almost like a large steel plate on the front where a the sound hole would be on regular guitar; and a distinctive way of being played, lying flat in the lap with both hands on top like a steel guitar. Jerry Douglas is its master. He’s graced more than two thousand recordings with his instrument’s mournful strains and catapulted the Dobro into the mainstream music canon. WPLN’s Kim Green has this profile.

Earlier this year, a dozen middle-schoolers spent a couple of months combing South Nashville’s J.C. Napier Public Housing project, armed only with disposable cameras.

A few weeks ago, more than a hundred and fifty lady anglers descended on Old Hickory Lake, into the very male world of professional bass fishing. The Women’s Bassmaster Tour gives female bass pros their very own tournament series, sponsorships, and prize money. Although the women’s payouts are much lower than the men’s, female and male bass pros have a kinship – the thrill of the chase for “the big one.” WPLN Kim Green reports.

You may know Peter Cooper as a music writer for The Tennessean, and magazines like No Depression and Esquire. What you may not realize is that Cooper’s also a first-rate singer-songwriter. He’s just released his first full-length solo album, called Mission Door. He co-produced it with pedal steel virtuoso Lloyd Green, forging a folk-rock-Americana album that defies genre. WPLN’s Kim Green reports.

Third-World disasters and epidemics can seem remote, the phrase “global health” a mere abstraction. But some Middle Tennesseans are addressing these problems head-on. As WPLN’s Kim Green reports, one Nashville ophthalmologist is helping Russians see differently.

In recent years, shrinking radio playlists and illegal file sharing have only made it harder for songwriters to make a buck. According to the Nashville Songwriters Association International, the average songwriter earns just short of five thousand dollars a year. Last year, the US Congress gave them a much-needed reprieve—a tax change that saves them big money if they sell a song catalog. The change benefits catalog buyers too, and is luring new kinds of investors to Music Row. WPLN’s Kim Green reports.