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You power public media. Keep local reporting strong.Donate todayTuesday, September 1, 2026Good morning! Catherine Sweeney

It’s always interesting when reporters find themselves living in one of their news stories.

This weekend, I was in Birmingham visiting friends. We saw a movie at the film festival going on, walked to get lunch, walked to the art museum. I routinely walk a few miles in a day, even in the summer. But this time, I was getting dizzy and nauseated.

Everyone else was fine! A little damp, maybe. Worried about covering their shoulders when we were in direct sun. Meanwhile I ended up getting sick in a public restroom.

I was embarrassed, mostly because I felt weak compared to all of my seemingly more resilient friends. Then realized, wait, I’m not sweaty. Not even at the hairline. Why not? My first frantic Google results said it might be a heat stroke. Then it struck me to search medications and heat. And yeah… some meds inhibit sweating.

I should have remembered my story from last summer: “Tennessee heat poses more risks for those on some medications.”

WHAT TO KNOW

Photo: courtesy Shehan Rodrigo/Unsplash

We were in a heat wave when I wrote that story last year, and we just had another bad one. 

Our environmental reporter, Caroline Eggers, excels at contextualizing. She’s doing that again in her story about the current weather threats.

The heatwave seasonhas extended by about six weeks since the 1960s, she writes. And more individual heatwaves are happening. And they’re getting longer. 

But it might not look like it in Middle Tennessee. At least at first glance. Caroline explains that  air temperatures don’t often go above 90 degrees in the area, partially because our air is so moist. So unless folks are looking at the heat index, they might not realize the true risk to their health. 

Speaking of risks to health, here’s an excerpt from the story I should have remembered:

Bodies are generally pretty good about keeping a steady internal temperature. They depend on the brain to gauge the heat, and then tell the body what to do — how much to sweat, to let the face get flushed to expel some warmth.

But behavioral medications like antidepressants change the way brains interact with the chemicals used in its communication system, known as neurotransmitters.

“It can make heat exhaustion, or heat stroke even, a little more likely,” said Dr. Marshall Hall, who works in the emergency room at TriStar Skyline Medical Center.

Several kinds of medications — especially those used for heart conditions — are diuretics. They fight fluid retention, which can make dehydration easier.

Hall said heart conditions themselves and many chronic diseases make people less heat tolerant. These at-risk groups should keep an even closer watch for early signs of heat exhaustion: “You stand up, you almost pass out,” he said. “If you start to have any type of confusion at all, if you ever stop sweating, if you’re not producing the same amount of urine.”

So learn from my mistakes. If you’re confused and stop sweating, take it seriously! Think about what medications you’re taking. (And maybe drink something other than a Diet Coke.) 

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

Will Tennessee’s portion of the Meta settlement help the state’s teens? Tennessee played a vital role in securing the massive Meta settlement. Now state needs to spend that money the way officials promise they will.

Listen and subscribe on your favorite podcasting app
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MORE TO KNOW

• The Nashville Electric Service plans to develop a unique retail electricity rate for data centers. The NES Board approved a recommendation to make this change last week, the Tennessean reports, along with a new method of charging data centers for the transmission infrastructure needed to serve them. This is happening now because the Tennessee Valley Authority finally introduced its own rate change. NES buys its power from TVA and is subject to its rates, policies and decisions on how to generate power. TVA is constructing more gas plants, largely to support demand from data centers. TVA revealed the new rate change last week, but it did not show its math on how it would protect customers from higher bills.  
   
• As you might have seen, Tennessee is slated to get $750 million from a legal settlement with Meta, and the money is going into the Children’s Digital Protection Fund. But what is that? Earlier this spring, lawmakers voted to establish the pot of money, which is set to pay for:
  • Youth mental health support  
  • Research into social media’s effects on young people 
  • Law enforcement resources to address the impacts of social media and fight online child exploitation 
  • Education about how social media affects youth mental health 
  • Deposits to the K-12 Mental Health endowment 
  • And youth suicide prevention
     
• Tennessee’s Secretary of State is pushing for more universities to offer accelerated bachelor’s degrees in 90 hours of coursework rather than 120. Tre Hargett’s role also gives him a seat on the Tennessee Higher Education Commission. He told our daily show, This Is Nashville, he doesn’t like the names some accrediting bodies are using, like “abridged” or “reduced-hour” bachelor’s. He compared it to sales at the grocery store, which can be enticing for the price, but raise eyebrows about the quality. Hargett proposes “focused bachelors.”

FROM THIS IS NASHVILLE

The business of healthcare is Nashville’s biggest business. And some of the fastest-growing startups who’ve made the city their home are focused on finding efficiencies in the healthcare system. Robin Shah is the co-founder of Thyme Care, which specializes in supporting patients while they undergo cancer treatment. He talked with This Is Nashville about driving down healthcare costs, falling in love with this city, and Robin’s perspective on work-life balance.

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