A songwriter who climbed out of the shadow of her first song, a nonprofit leader who refuses to see his own disability, a restaurateur with a hot take on tourism, a humorist who leaned into her heritage, a forward-thinking physician who rediscovered her mom’s remedies, and the sentimental saint of the Opry. It’s the best […]
Nashville’s Nook and Cranny Holiday Music Traditions
Nashville has a long history of celebrating the holidays with musical performances.
Picturing Nashville: Ray Di Pietro on photographing local history
If you see a man with three, maybe four cameras hanging around his neck, odds are you’ve crossed paths with Ray Di Pietro.
Middle Tennessee in memoriam, 2025
Mary Elizabeth Vinett died on November 21, 2025, and her family decided her 90 years on the planet deserved more than the average obituary. So they tried to capture her essence starting with the first paragraph.
One mayor, three muppets and eight french horns. It’s Festivus!
Watch live at noon on YouTube. Audio will be added after the broadcast. A simple aluminum pole. The annual airing of grievances. The legendary feats of strength. It can only mean one thing: It’s Festivus – the holiday for the rest of us.
Curious Nashville: Why did a Nashville bank release a Christmas album?
It’s Curious Nashville: where WPLN News answers your questions about Middle Tennessee and takes you on a monthly adventure to find answers. Today we’re shining a light on an obscure album recorded in Nashville more than 50 years ago that features a Christmas choir performing inside the lobby of a downtown bank. Astute local listener […]
Marie Williams on bringing heart to Tennessee’s bureaucracy
Marie Williams is the kind of state official who will get choked up on stage talking about the passion of her team. She came up through homeless services in Memphis and found her way to the state agency that oversees mental health and substance abuse services when Gov. Bill Haslam appointed her to lead the […]
The Debt: What Tennessee owes its HBCU (Call-in)
What happens when government funding is withheld from a public university that’s served generations of Black Tennesseans? And what could be possible if that debt were finally paid?
Death penalty activists sit down in our studio — one for, one against
On days when someone is executed at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, community members are generally allowed to gather outside the prison in a large field. Separated by fences and distance are the “against” and “for” sides. The “againsts” are usually made up of a few dozen clergy and abolitionists, including one of our […]
Andi Marie Tillman and her hilarious TikTok characters
When Andi Marie Tillman moved to Nashville from Scott County, Tennessee, she had dreams of writing the next hit song.
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