Alice Randall, the griot of country music

She's a subversive storyteller, slipping in sideways with hard-to-swallow truths. Growing up in Motown, Alice Randall was drawn to the sounds coming from Music City. The dream was to invade the “citadel” of country music, elevate progressive ideas and highlight the Black roots of a very white genre. She would become the first Black woman to co-write a number one country hit — Trisha Yearwood’s “XXX’s and OOO’s.” She got her number one, made it big as a publisher, then got a little burned. So she assumed new roles. Randall has come to be viewed as a "griot" for the way she preserves and promotes the overlooked history of country music as laid out in her 2024 book "My Black Country." From her early days in Nashville learning the craft from Steve Earle to her evolution into a best-selling author and professor at Vanderbilt, she has her own remarkable stories to tell.This episode was produced by Blake Farmer.

We started the year with a strong roster of profile episodes, each featuring an outstanding guest with a story that’s made a local impact.But six of them stood out to us, and we want to give listeners a recap. In today's episode we feature an Olympic Gold Medalist, a public school teacher who performs drag, one of the few Black artists to ever crack the Billboard country charts and more. So you can see why we had to make a profile playlist to recap the last couple of months. We cast a wide net when we search for profile candidates. And we had quite the catch.This episode was produced by Josh Deepan and Blake Farmer. 

Unemployment rates are still quite low. But they don’t tell the whole story. The face of joblessness has changed in recent years. Mid-career professionals, six-figure family breadwinners, are finding themselves laid off or downsized and seeing far fewer options than they expected. We’ll talk with some of them. Get some career coaching. And check in with a labor economist to understand what’s going on here.  This episode was produced by Blake Farmer.Guests: Brett Kling, human resources information systems professional and job seeker Steve Jones, marketing and communications and job seeker Lynise Harris, professional executive coach and lead career coach at UpRise Nashville Lauren Kiproff-Downer, organizational development consultant at Perpara Organizational Development and facilitator of the career transitions group for Middle Tennessee SHRM Celeste Carruthers, professor and labor economist, University of Tennessee — Knoxville

Today we travel along with Music Citizens to go inside the highest stakes job in the industry – A&R.Through the lens and life of A&R lifer Kim Buie, we get to see that this glamorous job is mostly about losing: missing out on artists who become superstars (her near-miss tale of N.W.A. is amazing), knowing that the majority of albums you help shepherd into the world will flop, and being the person who has to say no to a musician’s lifelong dream.Buie, and guests Stevo Robertson and Anay Richardson, explain what keeps them going, what shapes their tastes and how their approach to the job differs. It is the TikTok era after all.Guests Kim Buie, A&R veteran Anay Richardson, A&R coordinator, Prescription Songs Steve Robertson, Label founder & Co-president, Severance Records Music Citizens is a podcast series by WNXP and Nashville Public Radio about the people who make music work. Each episode will explore what it takes to do the jobs that keep the music business moving and introduce you to the characters who are often well known within their worlds but whose vital work goes largely uncelebrated. Listen to all episodes at wnxp.org.

Alex and Eiman Jahangir are brothers, doctors, and two of Nashville’s most remarkable public servants.Both are physicians at Vanderbilt. Alex is an orthopedic surgeon who led the city’s COVID-19 task force. Eiman is a cardiologist and lifelong space enthusiast who eventually got the chance to travel to space.The sons of Iranian immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as preschoolers, the brothers once believed they’d never return to Nashville after leaving for college and medical school together. But life had other plans. Today, the Jahangir brothers are deeply woven into the fabric of the city.

It’s time for our weekly Roundabout where our panel with an assortment of viewpoints take on the headlines of the week. If you’re wondering why there’s so much talk about property taxes in Nashville, it’s partly because 2025 taxes were due last week and a lot of homeowners and businesses simply can’t afford it. It’s hard to complain about the value of your property doubling or tripling in the last decade — but selling isn’t a simple solution. There’s new movement from local businesses pushing back, and the state legislature is advancing a cap on future increases. Today we dive deep into local issues including this considerable increase in property taxes, the risk of sinkholes from the tunnel construction and the proposed six-lane boulevard that’s part of the East Bank development project.And we hear from you! Call 615-760-2000 with your question or comment during the show. Or, you can chime in on our live YouTube stream.Guests Cynthia Abrams, Metro Reporter, Nashville Public Radio Lauren Morales, Chief Operating Officer, TomKats Hospitality Tom Wills, Community Volunteer

This may be a healthcare town but, even here, figuring our way around the system – affordably – is a real challenge. And it's becoming a greater challenge for many people who've dropped coverage because the Affordable Care Act Marketplace has become anything but affordable. In this episode, we tour our federally-qualified health centers (FQHCs) and community clinics, get some help for anyone without insurance who finds out they're pregnant, and learn the value of HealthQ.Guests:  Cara Anthony, HealthQ co-host and reporter, KFF Health News Katina Beard, CEO, Matthew Walker Comprehensive Health Center Sade L Davis, board chair, Neighborhood Health Katie Richards, CEO, Siloam Health Dr. Rohini Chakravarthy, medical director, Vanderbilt's Shade Tree Clinic This episode was produced by Blake Farmer.

A glistening mane flowing over disproportionately top-heavy muscles, bulging under hairless and perfectly-tanned skin. This zeus of a man holds the tiniest of women, also top heavy and surely breathless. No shade on Fabio, but what about the rest of us? The romance genre is seeing a new era. Still every bit as fun — and hot — authors and readers are steering away from "inspiration porn" and towards experiences they understand. From swiftly expanding queer options, to body size and ability, to...merfolk...we've got your happily ever after.From romance book stores to dedicated book clubs to a genre-expanding author, this episode sheds light on why we're no longer hiding the covers of what we're reading, even in the traditionally conservative South.Guests• Tonya Pineda, owner, Slow Burn• Katie Garaby, coordinator, Between the Covers Romance Book Club• Caleb Haynes, romance novel enthusiast• Tracy Crum, newly self-published author of "On The Outside", a love story where disability isn't the tragedy

It started with one request to speak to a group of risk analysts. Former Vanderbilt nurse RaDonda Vaught reluctantly told her story on a stage for the first time — she was still on probation from her felony conviction."It was emotionally overwhelming and a little cathartic, but I'm gonna tell you, you could have heard a pin drop," Vaught tells This Is Nashville.She's gotten used to recounting the incident and the courtroom saga that followed, but she still chokes back tears when talking about the family of Charlene Murphey, the 75-year-old patient who died. Vaught's medication error, which involved overriding a safety system, resulted in losing her nursing license and being convicted of a felony."There won't ever be a day that goes by that I won't think of this. My life will never be the same," she says in a wide-ranging interview on her sheep farm in Sumner County.This episode was produced by Blake Farmer.

It’s time for our weekly Roundabout, where our panel representing views across the political spectrum dives into the biggest headlines of the week. We take a deep look at new details surrounding immigration enforcement in Middle Tennessee, including an investigation by a media collaborative including Nashville Banner, as well as challenges to marriage equality and gender-affirming surgeries. We also discuss the latest developments with the underground Tesla loop. And we hear from you! Call 615-760-2000 with your question of comment. You can also chime in on our live YouTube stream.Guests Sarah Grace Taylor, reporter, Nashville Banner Bill Phillips, former deputy mayor for Bill Purcell and John Cooper, Republican analyst Sophie Esteves Varvella Vicente, MDiv student, Vanderbilt Divinity School