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When Denice Hicks has to step unexpectedly into the role of King Lear, in some ways, she’s doing what she’s always done: living life like it’s her last day. What happens when you do that everyday over the course of a life?
Eddie and Mary Helen live in Chattanooga, Tenn. — a city, like many in the country, that still feels the effects of segregation. They started by examining their hometown through the lens of race and ended up throwing a party.
Dave Hayes is a “social media-rologist”. He has no meteorology degree, but posts dense and poetic weather updates on Facebook where he’s grown quite a following. Hear how one man uses his computer to bring western Massachusetts together and protect them from the elements.
Bethany embalmed bodies for a living, but she couldn’t help but empathize with every corpse she worked on, seeing her job as one final gift—one that was taking its toll. It turns out, some professions require a certain detachment.
Hannah has a rare genetic disorder that causes her to stop breathing when she goes to sleep. She wears a ventilator at night. How does having to constantly monitor a basic human function change how Hannah and her family approach life?
In 2011, Rinker Buck crossed the Oregon Trail — yes, that Oregon Trail — in a covered wagon pulled by a team of mules. He traveled with his brother Nick and a Jack Russell Terrier named Olive Oyl. The journey forced Rinker to confront his greatest fear.
The season 3 finale is a little different. It is a personal story of Jakob’s told by taking a musical journey all around Nashville. Together, you will experience an Irish session, an Indian jam in a Mexican restaurant, a Jewish musical Shabbat, Beer and Hymns, and sacred harp singing.
In 1969, Leroy and Gloria Griffith got married in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It would have been an ordinary event, except that they are believed to be the first interracial couple to legally wed in the county. We hear the story of why they opened up their wedding to the public, despite racial tension in the community.
Two men walk over a mile once a week just to give each other a high five. It's a seemingly meaningless act, but one that can take on a powerful meaning over time. We examine why they do this and check back in with one of them a year later.
Like Part one—this is a story of a barber who followed an unlikely path to the grooming profession. Stephen Mason's journey took him from 20 years on the road, playing guitar in a Grammy-winning Christian rock band, to a one-chair, one-man barbershop called The Handsomizer.
Ronnie Clardy grew up near the barbershop he owns in Nashville, but the path that led him to his current life is anything but short and straight. He started dealing drugs at 13 and relapsed into a life of crime and prison several times, before he finally redirected his entrepreneurial spirit.
On a rainy night 1949, a young woman arrived by train in Franklin, Tennessee and walked off into the night. The next morning, her body was found near an incinerator by the high school. Her throat had been cut. The murder has become a fixture of town lore, yet its victim lies in an unmarked grave. An effort to give her a headstone raises the questions: Who do we choose to remember? And why?
Most people might think it’s not worth the trouble to intervene in someone else's life. But in this episode of Neighbors, we get to know a woman who sees that obstacle—and will do everything she can to jump right over it.
Michael Kearney is a genius — he holds the Guinness World Record for being the youngest person to graduate from college, at age 10. Now he's 32, and he's not curing cancer or solving world hunger. He's running an improv comedy company in Nashville. Why did this child prodigy decide to use his genius in such an unconventional way?
We meet Gin Thawng. The 66-year old is a refugee from Burma living in a Nashville apartment with his ailing wife, a baby grandson, his daughter-in-law and son. A graduate of an innovative ESL program-on-wheels, Thawng shows us something about the power that language has and how human connection is bigger than just words.
What keeps you up at night? For some, it's the sound of a mocking bird outside the bedroom window. It turns out, not everyone is amazed by this bird's shape-shifting musical feats. What is a wonder of nature to some, to others is the sound of torture. This time on Neighbors, a guest episode from our friends at Nocturne.
It's an odd scene: A man, playing a sousaphone, stands inside a tunnel on a busy Nashville road during rush hour. Is he crazy, divinely inspired or something else entirely? In this episode of Neighbors, we go inside the world of "tuba man" Joe Hunter and discover what brings him and his instrument to the tunnel.
Sam Tucker is a gifted baker, but the one thing that is his greatest passion just might put his family in danger. Along with the premiere of season 3, I am thrilled to announce Neighbors' partnership with Nashville Public Radio.
If you’re wondering what I’ve been up to, here’s a peek. Season three of Neighbors is around the bend. And it can be found in your podcast feed on March 1st.
BONUS EPISODE - This is a small bonus story about how the christmas tree from your curb disappeared.
A story of how one clown turns his sorrow into connection.
Why do two grown men walk a mile and a half every week, rain or shine, to give each other a high five? Find out in "The High Five."
Today we feature a story from the podcast Anxious Machine called "These Things Is Miracles." What happens when a woman refuses to admit she can't hear, and what happens when she finally does?
"I guess they can't go to no church or whatever and ask to lick their preacher's armpits...so they come around the mission."
Two stories of people going to church for two very different reasons.
Today we explore that idea of home by going into the houses of two very different Nashville musicians. The first is Roger Weismeyer. a classically trained English horn and piano player who plays for the Nashville Symphony. The second, the introverted indie rocker, Ben Elkins of the band El El.
Our newest addition to our Sans Houses series has the theme of music. Producer Tasha A F Lemley takes us along to glimpse into the lives of three men living on the street. You'll hear beautiful, funny, and tragic moments from our homeless neighbors in Nashville.
Find out the meaning behind the words highbrow and lowbrow through the construct of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You'll visit a man who is currently homeless and learn how he brews his coffee by the interstate. Enter into the home kitchen of a barista at the high end Nashville coffee shop CREMA. Let Neighbors' food reviewer Chance Perdue take you from Italy to Nolensville, TN to try the holy grail of all bologna sandwiches at Martin's BBQ Joint. You'll get to go inside the mind of Josh Habiger, the chef who set up one of the classiest restaurants in Nashville, The Catbird Seat. You'll end up in Rwanda being exposed to a form of high art that most westerners don't want to even touch.
Since 2006, Neighbors producer Tasha A F Lemley has interviewed men and women who are homeless on the streets of Nashville. We've grouped these interviews by theme in a series called Sans Houses. This episode's theme is "purpose." Listen to Cowboy and Debbie talk about the purpose they find in living on the street.
It's been almost a year since I reported the story "Bringing Wes Home." It was a story about a family losing their son, Wes Vose, in a car crash two and half years ago. Instead of leaving it to the funeral home to take care of arrangements, they took the role upon themselves. The women cleaned his body. The men built his casket. A community dug the hole.
In Honor of Mother's Day, I am rebroadcasting this story with an addendum. I see where Jane, the mother who lost her child, is one year later.
A SHOW ABOUT WHAT CONNECTS US
A Proud Member of the Podcast Collective:
We want to do right by the people we care about. But sometimes, honoring someone's wishes can put us at odds with social norms, our own values, or even the law. In this episode of Neighbors, three stories where the desire to honor wishes pushes us into uncomfortable territory.