Tennessee’s legislature isn’t just partisan—it’s often polarizing. Inside the House chambers, Democrats and Republicans disparage one another, at times—outside, they rarely engage.

Has the proverbial political aisle been stretched too far to reach across?

It wasn’t always this way. There was once camaraderie and compromise.

Few understand this culture shift better than Brian Bivens. The East Tennessee native has spent the last 25 years lobbying elected officials.

But Bivens bent ears long before he was in the business of bending ears. His father, Steve Bivens, served in the State House from 1978 to 1992. The Cleveland guidance counselor was the House Majority Whip at a time when Democrats ruled the roost.

In this episode of Climbing the Charts, Angie Lawless and Brandon Miller sit down with Bivens to examine Tennessee’s legislature—its present, past, and personalities.

David French is a dissenter. The attorney turned conservative political commentator abandoned the Republican party in 2016. His reason? Donald Trump.

The evangelical Christian was disgusted by the controversial candidate, his lack of character and authoritarian beliefs. Since then, his critiques of the MAGA movement have only grown — so too has his voice.

In 2019, French became the Senior Editor of the Dispatch, an online conservative news outlet. Four years later, he left. In 2023, French joined the New York Times as an op-ed columnist. Last August, he penned one of his most read works, “To Save Conservatism from Itself, I am Voting for Harris” for the outlet.

In this episode of Climbing the Charts, Angie Lawless and Brandon Miller sit down with self-proclaimed “independent conservative” to understand how personality politics, primaries and activists have landed American politics in extremism.

When Nashville identified its first case of coronavirus in March 2020, the city was between Public Health Department directors and as unprepared as the rest of the world for what was to come.

Dr. Alex Jahangir, a trauma surgeon acting at that time as chair of the Metro Nashville Board of Health, unexpectedly found himself head of the city's COVID-19 Task Force and responsible for leading it through uncharted waters.

Now, he’s reimagining a new Nashville. Jahangir is the co-chair of Imagine
Nashville, a citywide study that explores the needs of Nashville’s residents and imagines goals to address them.