TheVoiceOfJoyce TheNashVillager is signing up interns to learn reporting and radio. Did you know Tennessee is one of 80 Nuclear storage sites in America. When we use Fusion technology, all that waste will be utilized. Did you know music, especially Jazz is being used in the ICU to calm patients and Oracles, AI, has been responsible for faulty payroll which has not been corrected , even though teams have worked since Christmas, to fix payroll errors.

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You power Nashville Public Radio.Donate nowFriday, March 27, 2026Moderate rain, High 73° / Low 45°Emily Siner

Nashville Public Radio has a long tradition of training the next generation of journalists.

The newsroom’s spring intern, Seth Thorpe, is a talented student journalist at Belmont University. He talked about his time at WPLN in a recent Instagram reel.

“My internship has exposed me to the entire world of public media,” he said. “I went from knowing absolutely nothing about radio to now feeling like I can thrive in this industry.”

And the station hasn’t just launched careers. It’s also kept them. WPLN’s Metro reporter, Cynthia Abrams, started as an intern here in 2021. So did former education reporter Alexis Marshall, in 2018. So did morning host Nina Cardona, 20 years earlier.

Environmental reporter Caroline Eggers started at WPLN as a reporting fellow. This Is Nashville host Blake Farmer started at WPLN as a freelance reporter, worked his way up and down the chain of command, left journalism altogether for a few years — and then came back. 

Why is this? Because it’s rare to find a newsroom that takes independent journalism seriously and is adequately funded. 

Reporting isn’t a commodity that can be sold at scale. It’s a service that requires audience support to continue and thrive. This only exists because people like you have decided to place a value on this work. I challenge you, on this final day of our spring fund drive, to do the same.

To quote Seth: Don’t wait, and go donate.

WHAT TO KNOW

Workers perform maintenance on the TVA nuclear plant in Athens, Alabama. Photo courtesy of TVA

Tennessee leaders want the state to house the nation’s nuclear waste. 

Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Energy requested proposals for a campus that would deal with the nation’s used nuclear fuel: fabricating fuel, enriching uranium, reprocessing used nuclear fuel and disposing of waste.

State lawmakers in Tennessee really want this campus here, according to reporting from Caroline Eggers. A Senate committee passed a resolution this week that says the state legislature will take any necessary legislation action to ensure Tennessee is selected as the host location. 

“This is a significant opportunity to generate billions of private dollars in Tennessee and create thousands of jobs statewide,” Sen. Ken Yager, R-Kingston, said Tuesday during a committee hearing.

Here’s what to know about nuclear waste today:➡️  Since the 1950s, about 80 sites around the country have collected nuclear waste. More than one in three people across the U.S. live within 50 miles of a nuclear waste site.

➡️. All of the national nuclear waste together could fit on a single football field, stacked less than 30 feet high, according to the Department of Energy.

➡️. The U.S. stores but does not recycle spent nuclear fuel, even though it still contains more than 90% of the source’s potential energy. Recent research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology shows that recycling nuclear waste can be safe but is technically less safe than underground storage.

➡️. President Trump’s administration set a goal of quadrupling U.S. nuclear capacity from roughly 100 gigawatts to 400 gigawatts by 2050.

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On today’s episode of the NashVillagerpodcast with host Nina Cardona 🎙️

How are the Covenant School Shooting victims memories being kept alive today? The most important thing on this somber anniversary is holding on to the memory of those who were lost. Plus the local news for March 27, 2026, and Rissi Palmer.

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MORE TO KNOW

  • Music therapy has been broadly adopted in healthcare, but Dr. Joseph Schlesinger at Vanderbilt is taking it to another level. He’s been organizing jazz concerts and other live music for ICU patients, and his team presented some of their early findings in Germany late last year. Schlesinger is mentoring two Vanderbilt music students who are taking pre-med classes. When schedules permit, they go room to room with Schlesinger, playing light jazz to critically ill patients. They invited This is Nashville host Blake Farmer to tag along on a recent ICU visit.
     
  • Roughly 2 out of every 100 people working for Metro Nashville government aren’t getting paid correctly. The city switched its payroll and pension systems to a new Oracle AI software in January. Since then, routing errors have prevented some paychecks and pension payments from being delivered to the bank accounts of some Metro employees and retirees. Officials say staff in the finance office have been working “7 days a week since Christmas” to fix those problems, according to WSMV
    .
  • Nashville police are investigating threats against Nashville Electric Service workers following backlash to the utility’s winter storm response. The CEO of NES told board members this week that utility management have received credible death threats, according to NewsChannel5. And they’ve also recorded nearly a dozen instances of harassment, threats or doxxing. This news comes as NES works to implement fixes across its systems.
     
  • Stream or tune in to WNXP tonight from 8 – 9pm. Music artist Chuquimamani-Condori will play never-heard-before edits and unreleased original music live on WNXP. Plus, there’s a special announcement about their band, Los Thuthanaka, ahead of their tour in Europe this April. Their album, Los Thuthanaka, was Pitchfork’s #1 album of 2025. Jeremy Larson wrote of the songs, “you can make out five centuries of music history dancing with each other.”

FROM THIS IS NASHVILLE

WNXP is the music discovery go-to in Nashville. On 91.1 FM, listeners get exposed to all kinds of songs not in their regular feed. But listeners also play an active role in how playlists are curated, making the station an interactive, communal space for sonic lovers. In this episode, folks who have been with the station since the beginning share their strategies on how they bust the online algorithms to bring you just the right song.

Your input is central to our show. Call (615) 751-2500 to leave us your feedback. Submit your idea or email us. Stream This is Nashville with host Blake Farmeron YouTube, or listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
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