Listen: Peak cicada? First-timers share their appreciation and grievances about the brood

It’s hard to remember a time before the cicadas. Their daily screaming has become the soundtrack to life in Nashville, and the pieces of their dead litter seemingly every surface. But scientists say we’ve maybe reached the midpoint of Brood XIX’s emergence.

WPLN has been checking in with the newsroom’s cicada first-timers to see how they’re feeling about the bugs.

Listen to the audio postcard above to hear from health reporter Catherine Sweeney, Metro reporter Cynthia Abrams, politics reporter Blaise Gainey and news editor Miriam Kramer.

And below, find their initial — naive — thoughts about the brood as it emerged (including Cynthia’s first plea for a plate of cicadas “cooked up in an especially delicious way”).

Tony Gonzalez WPLN News

A cicada interrupts news director Tony Gonzalez’s recent meeting on Nashville Public Radio’s back patio.