Kudzu is a woody, hairy vine with distinct three-pronged leaves. During the blooming season in late summer, the plant produces grape-smelling purple flowers. And, always, it has a way of crowding out other plants. "Kudzu is like a glamorous villain ... ‘the vine that ate the South,' " says Ben Nanny, the conservation director at Ijams Nature Center. This ubiquitous vine prompted this question: How did that annoying "kudzu" first get introduced to the area? The answer ties back to the late 1800s, reports Jacqui Sieber with WUOT in Knoxville. You can learn more in our "signal species" series.

J.T. Moore Middle School in Nashville is named after John Trotwood Moore, an author and prominent landowner. He was also openly racist, a proponent of lynching, and an apologist for the "Old South". This sparked a question to Curious Nashville: Please help us understand why schools in Metro are named after people with such heinous records and what can be done to correct this. The answer, in part, has ties to the state's Tennessee Heritage Protection Act. (You may recall this prior episode: Why is it so hard to alter Confederate monuments in Tennessee?) Today, WPLN Education Reporter Camellia Burris hears from Larry Woods, a parent of former J.T. Moore students (he's also a civil rights attorney and professor of criminal justice at Tennessee State University) and fellow TSU professor and Davidson County Historian Learotha Williams.

There’s a piece of infrastructure in downtown Nashville that is about to go away. When it does, there may not be any clues left from a fascinating — and brief — chapter in the city’s transportation history. Do you remember when WeGo had a fleet of super-quiet all-electric buses running for free throughout downtown? Bus commuter Joe Pagetta does. He wrote to Curious Nashville with this question: In the not-so-distant past, Nashville used to have a free electric bus circuit called the Music City Circuit, which connected downtown to Bicentennial Mall and the Gulch. And then it just disappeared sometime around COVID. I’m curious about that, but even more curious about the abandoned electric bus charging infrastructure that’s still standing … like dystopian props from Old Detroit in Robocop. If there are no plans to bring the electric buses back, what is going to happen to that decaying infrastructure? The question reached the right place, as WPLN has covered the rise and fall of those buses since 2015.

It all starts with a question: “I live in East Nashville, on Sharpe Avenue. We adopted a hound mix and she digs up bizarre trash. Did people bury their trash? Was there no trash pick up? Auto parts, beer bottles, air gun cartridges, porn videos. Others in East have described similar experiences.” We’ve learned this is not an isolated experience. You folks are obsessed with what you find in the dirt. So, why do we dig what we dig? We’re unearthing some answers with metal detectorist Whit Hill, landscaper Matt Pilcher, and Ben Nance with the Tennessee Division of Archaeology. This episode was reported and produced by Tasha A.F. Lemley.

There's a hot topic after the ice storm response this winter, and guest Wade Sexton has 30 years of experience working in the utility industry. He's here to answer a question that’s been on our minds: What would it take to put electrical lines underground? And, would it even be worth it? This segment was produced by WPLN's Cynthia Abrams and hosted by Blake Farmer.

Much of Middle Tennessee’s important Native American history has been disturbed by development. This has prompted listeners like Kelly Cannon to wonder what’s been lost. She asked Curious Nashville about something she’d heard about the Brentwood Library: “A colleague recently told me that when the Brentwood Library was built remains were found of ancient Mississippian people, along with evidence of ancient mounds. Is this true? Where were the bodies moved to? Who took responsibility for the remains?” WPLN’s Cynthia Abrams went to find the history of that site and shares the story — and its connections to other local sites, and the national movement for repatriation. We also learn from ProPublica reporter Mary Hudetz about her reporting for "The Repatriation Project" and Tom Kunesh, who is working to protect Native American sites as president of the Tennessee Ancient Sites Conservancy.

We got a question about a grass-covered mound — or building? — at the corner of Thompson Lane and Vultee Boulevard, near Nashville's airport and the iconic gold box of a building known as International Plaza. Educator and sixth-generation Nashvillian Sonia Fernandez LeBlanc is a big Curious Nashville fan — such a fan that she knew we had slowed down on answering questions in the last few years. But she said to herself that if we ever revived the project, she was asking about this mysterious mound she just began to notice. I know it's probably mundane, but they are working hard to make it just blend in with nature and yet there are stairs, air ducts and drainage pipe in the stone wall. I have driven this route for decades and just noticed that it was something more than a hill in the past seven or eight years. I can't be alone in wondering! WPLN's Blake Farmer met her out there and invited a Metro agency to pinpoint the answer.

What are the pictures on the front of the Metro Courthouse that appear to be outlined in gold? Are they ever going to be restored? This question came to Curious Nashville way back — in 2016 — during the first year of the project. As the series is now marking 10 years of answering your questions, it's finally time to tackle this answer. And we're getting research help from Harpeth Hall "Winterim" intern Allyson Mao. Learn more, and see photos, at Curious.WPLN.org.

It’s the 10-year anniversary of Curious Nashville and we’re revisiting some of the weirdest and most surprising questions you’ve asked. This means we're going underground to a fallout shelter, to the top of a skyscraper, and in between we’ll visit beehives, talk about dump trucks, and revisit some infamous pranksters. And you get to go behind the scenes of the reporting with WPLN Metro Reporter Cynthia Abrams and host Tony Gonzalez. This episode highlights these seven stories: How One Man Created A Peace Sign Visible From The Sky What’s Inside The Governor’s Old Fallout Shelter In The Woods? Whatever Happened To Nashville’s Revolving Restaurant? Arabic is the third-most spoken language in Tennessee. So why isn’t it offered on the state’s driver exam? Graves, lawn pranks, and other answers about the Tennessee State Capitol Stay back 100 feet? Here’s the truth about dump truck liability on Tennessee roads. Who cares for Centennial Park’s bee colony? Come along for a hive check with the volunteers

Today we shine a light on an obscure album recorded in Nashville more than 50 years ago that features a Christmas choir performing inside the lobby of a downtown bank. Local listener Matthew Bond came across the vinyl record two decades ago and wondered: Why did a bank form a choir? And what were their performances like? To figure this out, we dive into the city's banking history, glean clues from the recording itself, and learn just how popular this all-volunteer choir became. Credits: Curious Nashville is a production of Nashville Public Radio and uses music from Blue Dot Sessions. Special thanks to Nashville Public Radio's Tasha A.F. Lemley, Blakle Farmer, Mack Linebaugh, and Cynthia Abrams. Host: Tony Gonzalez Reporter & producer: Justin Barney