The minister doesn’t think being gay is a sin, but “If I were to even hint” at that belief, he says, he probably would be fired by the church.
A man who considers himself a solid conservative expresses powerful pro-feminism views from the progressive side of the political street.
Two veterans on the opposite side of the political spectrum bond over their shared military experiences.
Teachers. School bus drivers. Politicians. Veterans. Lawyers. Librarians. Students.
All are participants in “Tennessee Valley Across the Table,” a series of recorded conversations that debut June 6 on WUTC-FM 88.1, the National Public Radio station on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
UTC students in the honors-level “Storytelling with Podcasts” course were given 22 hours of conversations and edited them into a series of 22, four-minute segments that will air—one each week—on WUTC-FM on Tuesdays at 7:45 a.m. and 9:45 a.m. during “Morning Edition” and at 4:30 p.m. during “All Things Considered.”
“Tennessee Valley Across the Table” follows the same format as “One Small Step,” setting up conversations between two people whose ideas—be they political, social, religious or otherwise—suggest the pair have diametrically opposed viewpoints. The only rule for participation was that conversation must remain civil.
“One Small Step” is an initiative from StoryCorps, the National Public Radio-affiliated nonprofit that records, preserves and shares stories from everyday Americans. In 2022, Chattanooga was one of six sites chosen across the country to record conversations for “One Small Step.”
“It was two people that, on paper, should oppose each other. Two people who would never meet each other because they’re never going to be in the same place at the same time,” explained Will Davis, who teaches podcasting at UTC and is outreach manager for the UTC PodLab, where the conversations were recorded.
“Most of the time they were strangers to each other and just talking about what matters most to them,” he said.
Between July and December 2022, multiple conversations were recorded and sent to StoryCorps. All are now stored in the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress. Only a few are chosen to be aired nationally on NPR.
Will Davis, who teaches podcasting at UTC and is outreach manager for the UTC PodLab, and the “Storytelling with Podcasts” class that made the “Tennessee Valley Across the Table” series.
Davis made use of every minute of the audio recorded for “One Small Step” in Chattanooga in his “Storytelling with Podcasts” class. “Tennessee Valley Across the Table” is the result. Of the six sites around the country to host “One Small Step,” UTC is the only one turning the recorded conversations into a brand-new program.
Students chose the parts of the conversations that most interested them, he said, even if he thought other parts were more compelling. Choices were discussed in the “Storytelling with Podcasts” class, he said, but the final decision on what to include in the edited conversations was left up to students.
In the conversations, the two participants sometimes discussed their differences, as would be expected. Other times, they talked about what they had in common, not bringing up differences at all, Davis said.
“That happened all the time,” he said.
Airing the show on WUTC is another way the radio station is a vital part of the Chattanooga community, said Ray Bassett, editorial director for WUTC and host of “Scenic Roots,” which airs weekdays at 3 p.m. on the station.
“Not only does it aspire to be reflective of the community—both the project itself and us carrying it—but also it’s another sign of how this university engages the community in as many ways as it can. Trying to meet the community where it can, as many ways as it can,” he said.
Davis found that, despite polarization documented almost daily by the news media, people don’t readily fit into easy-to-label boxes with opinions that reflect specific ideologies.
“A lot of times I heard them talking about their philosophies and their beliefs, and it’s a mix,” he said.
Labels such as Republican, Democrat, progressive and conservative were rejected by many participants, especially the younger generation, Davis said.
“Those labels mean nothing to them,” he said.
For the students, creating “Tennessee Valley Across the Table” gave hands-on experience with—as the course’s name says—telling stories through podcasts, including the technical aspects for actual recording and editing, Davis said.
On a philosophical level, it was a chance for them to hear the expected differences between people and, perhaps more importantly, the unexpected similarities, Davis said.
“I know it sounds grandiose, but I think what this does is they hear people connecting,” he said. “They hear people how complicated people are. How thoughtful people are. And how much we have in common.”
