TheVoiceOfJoyce The NashVillager highlights Tennessee’s part in creating the 14 th Amendment to the Constitution. In celebration of our 250 th Anniversary, there will be podcasts highlighting Tennessee’s role in Democracy. As Nashville celebrated pride week, they noted, animals are also “queer “. And Tennessee hemp growers suffer as their products are now deemed illegal?

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Keep us strong. You power public media.Donate todayThursday, July 2, 2026Good morning! Nina Cardona

This weekend marks a landmark milestone for our nation: 250 years since the Declaration of Independence. 

Last month was a milestone for Tennessee: 230 years of statehood. 

At a moment like this one, looking back at how we got to this point is a natural impulse. Indulge in it, and you may just find the path didn’t always take the course you may have assumed. 

WHAT TO KNOW

Image: Alexis Marhsall / WPLN

The way I see it, news and history are deeply intertwined. Often, in my work as a journalist, I see us struggle with laws and systems that were created for another set of circumstances – and those circumstances aren’t always as simple as what we took from social studies classes back in our school days. The more we understand about how things came to be the way they are, the more we can make sense of what’s happening now. 

That’s why I routinely dip into local history in WPLN’s daily NashVillager podcast. It’s also why we’re partnering with the Tennessee State Library and Archives to present a curated collection of those podcast episodes during the next year. 

The project is called The Backstory. Every month, you’ll find a group of episodes centered on a theme. This month, Tennessee’s statehood anniversary prompted us to highlight a few key moments in time that formed Middle Tennessee: the founding of Nashville, the way Tennessee rejoined the United States after the Civil War, the establishment of Fort Campbell, and the Silent March that lead to an important Civil Rights victory.  

Now that we’re on the verge of Independence Day and America’s 250th birthday, we’re taking a look at times when Tennessee has impacted the nation as a whole.  

Some of these stories are familiar or expected. Women’s suffrage probably comes to mind for you as a way that we’ve had an outsize role to play. Same for the Trail of Tears.  

Some of them will likely surprise you, like the way a shocking incident in Memphis helped spur on passage of the 14th amendment, or the way a Tennessee court case affected Congressional redistricting all over the nation. 

They’re all our story.

They all continue to have ripple effects in our community to this day. And we’ll keep sharing them in these themed groupings all through the coming year at The Backstory. Dive into The Backstory

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and Nashville Public Radio members

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

250 years of American independence doesn’t exactly mean 250 years of 4th of July celebrations. A look at how Nashville has marked the day through the years. Plus the local news for July 2, 2026 and Tennessee communities find their own ways to celebrate the nation’s milestone.  

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MORE TO KNOW

  • Republican state senators want a formal investigation into last month’s botched execution attempt.  A letter sent to Gov. Bill Lee says the failure to end Tony Carruthers’ life amounted to a miscarriage of justice. Meanwhile, attorneys for several other death row inmates are calling for a new moratorium on the death penalty until the court system can finish its constitutional review of the new lethal injection protocol. [WPLN]
  • This week, many popular hemp-derived products became illegal in Tennessee. That’s left farmers scrambling to grow different varieties of the plant for industrial uses — or different crops all together. [WPLN]
  • Tennessee’s humans celebrated LGBTQ pride last month, but queerness is also common in some of this state’s animals. Red foxes, blueberry bees and Eastern bluebirds are among the 1,500 species worldwide that have been documented to show same-sex mating behavior. Some even have the ability to change their sex. 

FROM THIS IS NASHVILLE

It’s been twenty years since the first Music City Hot Chicken Festival. Today, we get a little spicy with founder and former mayor Bill Purcell, and second-generation proprietor of Prince’s Hot ChickenAndre Prince. Plus, retiring state house representative Caleb Hemmer joins for an exit interview. And Anita Wadhwani shares the latest on sick and disabled kids with questionable immigration status being turned over to authorities. A judge considers their fate this week. 

Catch This is Nashville with host Blake Farmer on YouTube,
or listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. 
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