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Curious Nashville

Nashville Public Radio

In Curious Nashville from Nashville Public radio, we answer your questions about the city and region. Listeners decide which question we should investigate and answer next.

422317

In Curious Nashville from Nashville Public radio, we answer your questions about the city and region. Listeners decide which question we should investigate and answer next.

422317
9hr 8min
Thumbnail for "For sale: one beach. How did this sandy triangle come to be in downtown Nashville?".
Little Chill Beach
June 16, 20234min 8sec4.11 MB
Thumbnail for "Coming Soon: "Making Noise" — How a Sunday night party changed Nashville".
A new podcast from WPLN and WNXP
February 1, 20242min 29sec3.58 MB
Thumbnail for "You might also like: The Kids of Rutherford County".
The Kids of Rutherford County
October 20, 20232min 19sec2.23 MB
Thumbnail for "Who cares for Centennial Park’s bee colony?".
Come along for a hive check with the volunteers
May 20, 20234min 14sec4.21 MB
Thumbnail for "Searching for the 'space capsule' in rural Hickman County".
In search of a 'space capsule' in rural Hickman County
April 4, 202323min 7sec22.34 MB
Thumbnail for "Reverse Curious Nashville: Can YOU help us answer this question about a Bob Dylan song? ".
A musical mystery to solve
March 14, 20235min4.94 MB
Thumbnail for "What’s with these cryptic cement markers around Tennessee?".
Little markers and a big big monument
February 24, 20234min 38sec4.58 MB
Thumbnail for "Burials, lawn pranks and other answers about the Tennessee State Capitol".
4 quick answers to your musings about the state capitol
January 21, 20235min 47sec5.69 MB
Thumbnail for "Update: No progress adding languages to Tennessee’s driving test, but pressure is growing".
Checking in on a 2022 favorite
December 30, 20222min 58sec2.99 MB
Thumbnail for "How Nashville became a destination for Kurdish families, and how the community is evolving".
Exploring how Nashville became home to so many Kurds
September 10, 202223min 59sec23.16 MB
Thumbnail for "How an ornamental tree led neighbors to their street’s hidden history".
A tree history mystery
July 31, 20226min 56sec6.79 MB
Thumbnail for "Why do freight trains stop and block Tennessee streets so often?".
Blocked train crossings are a chronic problem in Tennessee.
July 11, 202217min 16sec16.72 MB
Thumbnail for "Tennessee's strange pronunciations — explained!".
How to say "Demonbreun" and other tricky Tennessee names
June 30, 202219min 5sec18.45 MB
Thumbnail for "Why isn't Arabic available for Tennessee's driving exam?".
Can a listener's question encourage Tennessee to change its driver exam?
June 6, 202215min 37sec15.14 MB
Thumbnail for "Can traffic improve at one of Nashville’s most baffling interstate exits?".
Bell Road (Exit 59) is a mess for Antioch drivers.
May 4, 202210min 29sec10.2 MB
Thumbnail for "Who decides which ‘I Voted’ stickers are at my polling place?".
Sticker envy prompts a question about voting stickers
April 13, 20224min 10sec4.14 MB
Thumbnail for "This Is Curious Nashville".
Revisiting 6 years of stories with WPLN's new show This Is Nashville
March 26, 202232min 3sec30.91 MB
Thumbnail for "Coming Soon: Behind The Blue Wall".
In WPLN News' latest investigation, we'll holds up a mirror to see how officers treat their own. Episodes drop Sept. 29.
September 27, 20213min 58sec3.89 MB
Thumbnail for "How Stick Figures Spotted Downtown Fit Into A Global Street Art Project".
Why are there little creature characters embedded in some downtown Nashville streets and crosswalks?
April 6, 202111min 17sec10.98 MB
Thumbnail for "Whatever Happened To Nashville’s Revolving Restaurant?".
A major change for Nashville's revolving rooftop restaurant
December 21, 202020min 20sec19.67 MB
Thumbnail for "How Overlooked Buildings And Trees Can Reveal Wonderment Around Us".
Four short stories that reveal surprises about everyday things
November 23, 202013min 36sec13.19 MB
Thumbnail for "How Black Political Power Changed In Nashville After Government Consolidation".
A question about 'satellite' cities opens an examination of Metro consolidation
October 26, 202014min 27sec13.87 MB
Thumbnail for "Tennessee Voting Rules Are Causing Confusion, So We're Answering Your Questions".
WPLN News answers your 2020 voting questions.
September 28, 20204min 21sec4.32 MB
Thumbnail for "How A Handmade Sign On A Dead-End Road Had Us Searching For A Tennessee Cult".
In search of a possible cult in South Nashville.
August 24, 202018min 43sec17.97 MB
Thumbnail for "Why Is It So Hard To Alter Confederate Monuments in Tennessee?".
Tennessee's historical monuments and the laws that govern them
November 11, 201924min 24sec23.43 MB
Thumbnail for "The True Stories Behind Nashville’s Claims To Fame (Live Taping)".
Answering questions about how Nashville is perceived worldwide
September 23, 201927min 29sec26.4 MB
Thumbnail for "Inside The Governor’s Defunct Nuclear Bomb Shelter".
The hidden history of an epic Tennessee facility
August 19, 201921min 42sec20.83 MB
Thumbnail for "The Construction Pit That Became Known As A Lake — And What’s Happening Now".
A notorious construction failure explained
June 24, 201910min 23sec10.11 MB
Thumbnail for "Whatever Happened To The Red Grooms Carousel, And Why It Could Come Back".
Whatever Happened To The Red Grooms Carousel — And Why It Could Come Back
March 18, 201912min 31sec12.02 MB
Thumbnail for "Curious Convo: The Do’s And Don’ts Of Nashville Recycling".
Answers to tricky recycling questions
February 11, 201916min15.36 MB
Thumbnail for "Piranhas, Pink Elephants, And Other Wild Animal Mysteries Explained".
Three odd stories of exotic animals in Nashville
December 12, 201813min 10sec12.65 MB
Thumbnail for "How One Man Created A Peace Sign Visible From The Sky".
From the proper vantage point it materializes unmistakably: A gigantic peace sign, cut into roughly 3 acres of forest next to the Nashville International Airport.
August 19, 201817min 2sec16.43 MB
Thumbnail for "What Happens When The Wrong Stuff Gets In The Recycling Bin?".
The recycling process is mysterious, filled with arbitrary rules and a vague reassurance that we’re doing the right thing for the environment. We unpack it.
August 31, 201715min 49sec15.33 MB
Thumbnail for "Remembering America’s Deadliest Train Crash".
Even many Nashville natives don’t know about the head-on train crash at Dutchman’s Curve on July 9, 1918. It killed 101 people — mostly African Americans — and by most counts remains the deadliest train accident in American history.
July 10, 201712min 16sec11.91 MB
Thumbnail for "The Life And Death Of An Old House In Boomtown".
We tackle a question that’s elemental to Nashville these days: What happens to the waste when old houses get demolished?
April 13, 201718min 26sec17.83 MB
Thumbnail for "The Year Jimi Hendrix Jammed On Jefferson Street And How It Still Reverberates".
Before he was an international superstar, Jimi Hendrix spent a year on Nashville’s Jefferson Street.
December 15, 201620min 14sec19.56 MB
Thumbnail for "‘Water Witching’ And The Search For Unmarked Graves".
We found family graveyards that date back 200 years or more — and some owners, it turns out, relied on a generations-old practice with mysterious power to find unmarked graves.
October 28, 201613min 7sec12.72 MB
Thumbnail for "How We Got Left With A Nice Station And No Passenger Train".
What happened to passenger rail service in Nashville? Residents are right to be curious. Nashville is one of the largest cities in the country to have no rail connection to another city.
August 18, 201615min 10sec14.7 MB
Thumbnail for "Tunnels That Live Up To The Legends, And Some That Don’t".
"I’ve heard rumors of a mysterious tunnel system winding beneath downtown Nashville. Is this true?" Here's what we found.
May 16, 201623min 21sec22.55 MB
Thumbnail for "A Tombstone Mystery About Who ‘Turned From Bloodkin’".
"In the Nashville City Cemetery, there’s a grave that says ‘Margaret H. McCutchen — She Turned From Bloodkin.’ What’s the story behind that?" Finding an answer led us on a circuitous path.
February 26, 201615min 39sec15.17 MB

For sale: one beach. How did this sandy triangle come to be in downtown Nashville?

Thumbnail for "For sale: one beach. How did this sandy triangle come to be in downtown Nashville?".
June 16, 20234min 8sec

Something new has hit Nashville’s hot real estate market: a beach, right smack in the middle of downtown Nashville.

But, until it’s sold, Nashvillians driving through the intersection of Lafayette, Division and 4th Avenue may wonder: What is that sandy triangle doing there?

One listener directed this question to our Curious Nashville project, so we took a brief “vacation” to SoBro to find the answer.

Photos: Visit this story at WPLN.org to see photos of the Little Chill Beach.

Thumbnail for "For sale: one beach. How did this sandy triangle come to be in downtown Nashville?".
For sale: one beach. How did this sandy triangle come to be in downtown Nashville?
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