Former Nashville mayor Megan Barry unpacks her administration, her family and her grief in new memoir

It’s been a busy time for former Nashville mayor Megan Barry.

Last week, she concluded her unsuccessful run for Congress against incumbent Mark Green in Tennessee’s seventh district. This week, Barry released her book, “It’s What You Do Next.”

In the memoir, she details her time as the city’s first female leader. This includes the death of her son, an extra-marital affair, her resignation as mayor, and the rebuilding of her marriage.

WPLN News sat down with Barry to talk about the book, the election and the state of city politics.

More: Listen to a longer conversation with Megan Barry on This Is Nashville

Cynthia Abrams: The book is looking back closely on a five-year period of your life that involved a lot of heavy topics — about your career, family and grief. You tell the story of it with a lot of honesty and specificity, and I’m curious about what the experience of writing this book, and reflecting on this period of your life, was like for you?

Megan Barry: Well, the book is, as you say, is about the three things that I loved the most: It’s about Max, my son, it’s about my husband, Bruce, and my job as the mayor of Nashville. And over the course of those five years, the tremendous loss of our child and my job. And, then the one thing I could save, which was my marriage to Bruce. So, you know, being in those five years — and it’s a memoir, but it’s not a ‘hey, I was born’ — it really encapsulates those five years. And, you know, those were joyous years and painful years. And I hope that comes through in the book.

CA: At one point you write how your team tried to tie your affair to the death of your son. But, you write that it was more complicated than that, and it struck me how oftentimes in politics, in journalism, we want things to be neat, logical stories, even if reality is much more complex. How did you navigate that while working to construct your own narrative?

MB: Sure. So I think one of the things with grief and death, especially death of a child — you know, Max’s problem didn’t start the day he died. Max had an ongoing issue with substance use disorder, and it was something he was battling. And as parents, we were living through that. So, sure, it would have been nice and neat to make the connection that that Max’s death was somehow connected to my infidelity. But it was way more complicated than that because it’s never that clean.

CA: Was that something you ran into as you were writing your entire story of trying to figure out, you know, how pieces of five years kind of fit together?

MB: It was. And I mean, luckily, as you know, I had the opportunity during that time to take some classes because this isn’t something that I am innately gifted to know how to do. And I think oftentimes when we are faced with something new and different and a challenge that, from my perspective, it’s like: ‘Let’s go figure it out. Let’s get some education, let’s figure out, let’s take a class.’ And so, I was able to take a class that really helped me crystallize. I took “Memoir One” first and then I took “Memoire Two.” I took “Memoire One” again because I didn’t really think I’d gotten it. And so, you know, that process really helped me by putting together deadlines and, you know, because it’s a project I mean — writing is this book was a project and it required some discipline and it required some deep thought. And I was able to do it because I was also sharing it with my other classmates. We were all sharing our writing together, and that was really important.

CA: The release date of your book marks exactly one week since Election Day. You ran unsuccessfully against incumbent Mark Green in District 7. Walk me through the decision of deciding the release date. Were there pros and cons to sharing your story before or after Election Day?

MB: This book was written a long time ago and the publishing world takes a long time for things to actually come out. And so this book was actually slotted to come out during the election. And we made a decision that I didn’t want the book to step on the election and I didn’t want the election to step on the book. They’re very separate things. And so we decided to push the publication date out to launch past the election. That was a deliberate conversation. You know, the book is pretty honest and raw. And I wanted to make sure that there weren’t things in the book that could be taken and repackaged in ways that might have been detrimental to the campaign. And I didn’t want the campaign to be about the book.

CA: Tell me a little bit about how the last week has been for you.

MB: Well, it’s been … you know … now it’s time to shift, right? I mean, I think my team and we ran a great campaign for Congress. This was just not meant to be in Tennessee at the moment. We you know, there was a national red wave and there was a lot of things that needed to happen at the local and state level here in Tennessee in order to make our path possible. And they just didn’t materialize. So, Tennessee is going to continue to be a state that is a very red state for a pretty long time.

CA: I’m curious what you think is next for the Democratic Party here in Tennessee and, more specifically, Nashville. Is it about the candidates that are running? The policies? Do you feel any futility about what’s possible?

MB: I think you can’t ever give up. I mean, you know, one of the reasons I ran, even in this very red district — which was always going to be a longshot — was that in order to have democracy, you actually have to have choice. You have to have candidates. You have to have candidates that people can go into a voting booth and push a button for. And if we end up with nobody running against anybody, then that’s not democracy. And so I believe that the state party absolutely will continue to find and field candidates that will run in these districts so that Democrats and Independents and Republicans can have a choice.

CA: Do you have any thoughts on what a city like Nashville, a blue dot in a red state, should do next?

MB: Well, I think I mean, transit passed in Nashville. So, I think that is a great repudiation that somehow local the local voters don’t want to vote for their best interests. They do. And transit is a great example that Nashville will be able to take forward and access, hopefully, the federal dollars that are out there so that we can continue to invest. This will help with housing and all kinds of other components. But, you know, I think we can be proud that Nashvillians passed transit.

CA: I noticed that your book is almost bookended by these mentions of transit. And last week I was at the watch party and Mayor Freddy O’Connell really thanked you for really getting the ball rolling. What do you think it means for Nashville?

MB: Well, I think it’s very positive. I think Nashville has to continue to invest in itself. I think that one of the things that we have done well with the Metro Council and with Mayor O’Connell — think about where we want to go and put in place the infrastructure that we need to get there.

CA: The plan that passed is significantly scaled back from the one that you put forth in 2018. What do you think about that?

MB: Well, I think we have to start somewhere. So clearly the voters in 2018 weren’t ready for what was on the table at that time. But they’re ready for this now. So that’s the positive and that’s the excitement.

CA: Do you have any regrets about not being a light rail city?

MB: Well, I have a lot of regrets. And light rail is definitely one of them. But I don’t think that means we’ve shut the door completely on light rail. It just means that in 2018 we weren’t ready for light rail. But now with this new initiative and transit for this vote, I think it opens the door for more. And I think hopefully we’ll see that.

CA: How do you think about the legacy of your term?

MB: We were in office for two and a half years. And, you know, it’s interesting to think in that two and a half years what we were able to accomplish. I had the most amazing team that worked in my mayor’s office who got up every day and thought about the constituents that they were serving. And that was everything from housing to transit to youth violence to new Americans to this gambit of initiatives and plans for Nashville. My biggest regret, of course, is that we didn’t get to finish so many of those things that we had on the table. The good news is that all of them who are incredibly talented, amazing people have all gone on to continue to serve in really deep, meaningful ways across Nashville. So, you know, their work, my work was, you know, cut short, but their work continued.

CA: So you just completed a big campaign and now you’ve put your book into the world. What’s next for you?

MB: Gosh. Well, it is what you do next. Right? Great question. My hope is that I can spend some good time with the book. You know, one of my passions has been and will continue to be showing up and discussing the opioid and the overdose crisis. And so I will go out anywhere, anytime to talk to any group so that I can shine light and hope on the story that people are struggling. And I think people don’t need to struggle by themselves and they don’t need to struggle in the dark. The shame that comes with substance use disorder is so prevalent. My hope is that my voice can give some hope and sunshine to that.