Bill Haslam (left) and Phil Bredesen record their “You Might Be Right” podcast in the UTC Library studio. Photo by Angela Foster.
If you were in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Library on Thursday, Aug. 22, you may have bumped into two prominent figures—former Tennessee Governors Phil Bredesen and Bill Haslam.
The two visited campus to record an episode of their podcast series, “You Might Be Right,” in the library’s recording studio.
The podcast, hosted by the Howard H. Baker Jr. School of Public Policy and Public Affairs at the University of Tennessee, discusses issues such as crime, the media, gun violence and education disparities with guests of differing viewpoints.
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The episode recorded at UTC featured Rachel Kleinfeld, an international relations scholar and senior fellow in the Democracy, Conflict and Governance program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who discussed research on the roots and repercussions of polarization in American politics. Click here for the podcast link.
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“Both of us are from the reasonable wings of our respective parties and we have been distressed about the way so many issues have caused a deep polarization and made it difficult to talk about with one another,” said Bredesen, a Democrat who served as the Tennessee governor from 2003 to 2011. “We just thought the idea of a couple of people with different worldviews—but are friends and have a lot of respect for each other—who talk about issues could be interesting.
“When we started, I don’t think we knew how successful it would be, but it struck a chord with people.”
Haslam, a Republican who was elected governor in 2010 and re-elected in 2014, said that as he’s gotten older, he has realized the value of hearing the “other side.”
“If I’ve been wrong in the past, there’s a good chance I could be wrong now,” Haslam said. “This podcast series is all about polarization. This country has gotten more polarized. It’s not that we’re on different sides, it’s that we think the other side is wrong for bad motives.
“I never do a podcast where I don’t learn something from our guests and then from Phil as well. We don’t always fully agree with their positions, but at least we always learn something.”
With their busy schedules, Bredesen said it is sometimes difficult for them to align their schedules to record the podcast. When they realized they would be in Chattanooga for a live taping of their podcast at a Rotary Club meeting, they decided to take advantage of the opportunity and record another episode at UTC.
Susan Lazenby, the interim station manager of WUTC-FM 88.1 in Chattanooga, said the Baker School first contacted her in hopes of recording at the station, but it was undergoing renovations.
“I collaborated with the library studio to see if they would let us use their space,” Lazenby said. “Sarah (Kantor) was interim over the studio during that time and she was like, ‘Yes. We will definitely work with you.’ She booked the rooms for me and then I facilitated all the conversations with UTK.”
Kantor, a studio librarian, said that hosting the two former governors in the UTC Library was “very exciting.”
“It’s such a good opportunity for the whole University since it’s the first week of classes and the library is so busy,” Kantor said. “We have multiple people here working on projects and having appointments, so it’s exciting to be able to show off what we do here in the library.”
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