Revisiting some of the pins we dropped around Middle Tennessee in 2022

It’s a new year, and we’ve got big plans for 2023. But before we get the ball rolling on our first full year on the air, we want to take you … back in time.

When we were gearing up to launch WPLN’s first daily show, one of the challenges we got: help set and keep a record for our city. We’ve been working to do this in many ways. One of them is by dropping a pin at various locations across our city and region — to stop and really dig into the history there.

Today, we’re revisiting some of the pins we dropped in Nashville and Middle Tennessee in 2022. Press play above to hear them all, or take your pick from the list below.

• Etta James once rocked the New Era Club, one of North Nashville’s most famous stages. Today only a few pieces remain.
• Middle Tennessee researchers are studying rare, wild ginseng in a secret location
• Native Americans were forced to travel through Nashville on the Trail of Tears. A remnant of the bridge they crossed remains downtown.
• What an elusive island on the Cumberland tells us about Nashville’s first big business — buying and selling enslaved people
• Bass Street was home to Nashville’s first post-Emancipation Black neighborhood. Descendants want to keep its memory alive
• ‘This is ours’: Promise Land, Tennessee, lives on through descendants of the formerly enslaved people who founded it

Where should we drop a pin next? Let us know.