The Tennessee History Nerd
A long-form, research-driven podcast exploring the people, places, and stories that shaped Tennessee history—one county, one legend, one narrative at a time.
Episodes
16 episodes
TTHN Ep 5a - The Talking Leaves - Bonus Material: Interview with Charlie Rhodarmer
Director, Sequoyah Birthplace Museum In this companion interview to Episode 5, The Talking Leaves, we go beyond the narrative and into the details with Charlie Rhodarmer, director of the Sequoyah Birthplace Mus...
TTHN Ep 13 - Driving Across Tennessee: Anderson County Edition
Anderson County has reinvented itself again and again.Founded in 1801 and named for U.S. Senator Joseph Anderson, the county began as part of Tennessee's frontier landscape of ridges, valleys, rivers, and scattered settlements. Over the ...
TTHN Ep 7a - The Iron Men (Addendum) - Bonus Material: Interview with Norman Jetmundsen
We're making this interview, which previously required a Patreon subscription to be able to access, available to the general public now--no subscription required.For Ep 7 - The Iron Men, I had the opportunity to sit down with Norman Jetm...
TTHN Ep 12 - A Pearl of a Story
Freshwater pearls may not be the first thing that comes to mind when people think about Tennessee history…but for decades, Tennessee rivers were at the center of one of the most unusual industries in America.Long before cultured pearls b...
TTHN Ep 11 - Red Stick Ruination
Division.Before there was Horseshoe Bend…there was a nation tearing itself apart.In the years leading up to the Creek War, the Muscogee Confederacy found itself divided over one question that would reshape the future of the Americ...
TTHN Ep 10 - Horror on the Mississippi: The Forgotten Inferno
For a few terrible hours in April of 1865, the Mississippi River became the setting for one of the greatest disasters in American history.The Civil War was ending. Thousands of Union soldiers, recently freed from Confederate prison camps...
TTHN Ep 9 - Terror in the Night
For a time, the quiet waters of Reelfoot Lake reflected more than cypress trees, flooded timber, and West Tennessee sky.They reflected fear.In the early 1900s, conflict over land, access, ownership, and outside control erupted aro...
TTHN Ep 8 - The Fort That Wasn't
Old Stone Fort has stood on this bluff above the Duck River for nearly two thousand years.Massive walls of stone and earth stretch across a natural peninsula, enclosing nearly fifty acres. To early settlers, it looked unmistakable—a fort...
TTHN Ep 7 - The Iron Men
The 1899 University of the South (Sewanee) Tigers football team is one of the most remarkable stories in the history of college athletics. In a single six-day stretch, this team traveled by train across the South and defeated five opponen...
TTHN Ep 6 - Damn the Torpedoes
There are moments in history that become larger than life—reduced to a single phrase, a single decision, a single flash of action.“Damn the torpedoes.”But behind that moment is a life shaped long before Mobile Bay.In this e...
TTHN Ep 5 - The Talking Leaves
Sequoyah, a Cherokee silversmith with no formal education, created a written language for his people—transforming a primarily oral culture into a literate society in less than a generation.In this episode of The Tennessee History Ner...
TTHN Ep 4 - Singing for Glory
In the years after the Civil War, freedom had come—but stability had not.In Nashville, a small group of students at Fisk University faced an uncertain future. Their school was struggling. Resources were scarce. The path forward wasn’t cl...
TTHN Ep 3 - The LOST Resort
There was a time when people traveled from across the region to a quiet corner of Tennessee—not for business, not for politics, but for healing.Tucked away in Warren County, Nicholson Springs Resort was once a thriving destination. Visit...
TTHN Ep 2 - What's In a (Nick) Name?
Why is Tennessee called the Volunteer State?It’s one of those names everyone recognizes—but not everyone really understands. The answer isn’t just a slogan or a bit of folklore. It’s a story rooted in moments when Tennesseans st...