Nashville's local news and NPR station

Curious Nashville

Listener-powered investigations
We investigate oddities, share local history, tell stories of interesting people, and explain how local institutions operate. You ask the questions, and we answer them.

A Curious Nashville question about a persistent puddle leads to a water main fix

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It’s not every day that local news helps repair infrastructure.

Curious Nashville: What are those gleaming golden portraits on Nashville’s historic courthouse?

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What are the pictures on the front of the Metro Courthouse that appear to be outlined in gold? Are they ever going to be restored?

You asked for it: 10 years of your quirky questions for Curious Nashville

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It’s the 10-year anniversary of Curious Nashville and we’re revisiting some of the weirdest and most surprising questions you’ve asked. This means we’re going underground to a fallout shelter, to the top of a skyscraper, and in between we’ll visit beehives, talk about dump trucks, and revisit some infamous pranksters. In this ep, you get […]

Curious Nashville: Why did a Nashville bank release a Christmas album?

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The album cover intrigues: A choir in red robes singing in the lobby of a bank lobby, with the conductor standing behind a desk of deposit slips. By how did it come to be?

Curious Nashville: Why did a Nashville bank release a Christmas album?

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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 […]

Curious Nashville: What does it take to be a member of the Grand Ole Opry?

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What does it mean to be a member of the Opry? Do you have to have a hit?

Curious Nashville: Why do we have Chicago-style gyro restaurants?

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How a simple question about gyros in Nashville led to epic revelations about how regional food styles come into existence — and the role of one entrepreneur in changing gyros forever.

This Is Curious Nashville: Why do we have Chicago-style gyro restaurants?

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Little did we know that trying to figure this out would take us way beyond Nashville and lead us to uncover the very creation of the gyro as we know it.

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