Gloria sits down with Rev. Dr. Harold Middlebrook, a Memphis-born civil rights leader who marched with Dr. King, worked on voter registration drives across the South in the 1960s, and was present at the Lorraine Motel when King was assassinated. 

They trace his path from a 10th-grade voter registration drive in Memphis through Morehouse College, Selma, and decades of ministry in Knoxville, drawing direct lines between the fights of the 1960s and what's happening in Tennessee and the country today, from voting rights and book bans to Christian nationalism and the erosion of local political engagement.

Gloria sits down with musician and activist, Morgxn and his husband, therapist Gabriel Starner, to talk about Fruity Farm, the agroforestry farm they run in Sumner County, which they have cultivated into a genuine safe haven for Pride in a county that offered none.

They get into the farm's pawpaw orchard and regenerative growing practices, and the wild story of how Fruity Farm became Sumner County's Pride venue after local business owners and even a church backed out under pressure. What started as a last resort turned into Affirming Sumner, a full-blown celebration and a hub of community and resistance.

They also dig into a tense meeting with a Republican state representative over a "religious freedom" same-sex marriage bill, the farm's lost USDA/NRCS greenhouse funding, and what keeps Morgxn and Gabe hopeful in Tennessee's current political climate.

Check out Affirming Sumner on September 19th! RSVP here.

Listen to Morgxn’s album Heartland, out now!

Gloria and Brandon pick back up for a second, wide-ranging conversation covering Tennessee's abortion restrictions and a personal-privilege bill Gloria brought to add narrow exceptions, a wave of "Charlie Kirk" bills restricting campus speech and inserting religion into schools, a series of pro-corporate deregulation bills (including one custom-built for Elon Musk's Nashville tunnel project), state takeovers of local school boards and airports, an unfunded immigration enforcement mandate, and a rare bipartisan win on voting rights restoration.

Gloria talks with Corbin Trent, the East Tennessee organizer behind Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats, who helped recruit and elect AOC before working as her first communications director. They trace Corbin's path from food trucks in Morristown to the Bernie Sanders 2016 and 2020 campaigns to Capitol Hill, then dig into the state of the Democratic Party, disinformation and the "socialist/communist" label problem, healthcare and housing supply, immigration policy, and Corbin's current project, a super PAC called "A Fight Worth Having" aimed at building a team-based, cross-country progressive movement.

Gloria talks with independent journalist Rachel Wells, founder of TN Repro News, about what's really happening to reproductive healthcare in Tennessee: real patient stories, the crisis pregnancy centers now teaching sex education in schools, and a new state-church data-sharing initiative most Tennesseans don't know exists yet. They dig into cases of patients denied care under Tennessee's Medical Ethics Defense Act, the maternal mortality crisis driven by rural hospital closures, and what it actually looks like when reproductive policy reaches into everyday life far beyond the headlines. Gloria and Rachel also share how they first connected years ago through advocacy work, and close with what's giving them both hope heading into the next election cycle.

Gloria sits down with longtime friend and colleague Brandon Puttbrese, press secretary for the Tennessee Senate Democratic Caucus, for a deep, wide-ranging breakdown of how Tennessee's Republican supermajority actually operates. They open with the story of Gloria's first major press moment as a legislator, blowing the whistle on a K12 online charter school illegally changing failing grades to passing ones, then dig into the "distraction and deflection" strategy Brandon says defines Republican governance in Tennessee: school vouchers, Christian nationalism in classrooms, a $80 billion infrastructure backlog, and Tennessee's fall to 51st in the nation in public school funding.

Gloria talks with musician and activist Allison Russell about the through-line connecting her art and her advocacy — from co-founding the Love Rising benefit concert in response to Tennessee's anti-drag legislation, to her gun violence advocacy following the Covenant School shooting, to the personal history that shapes her commitment to showing up for marginalized communities. They also dig into empathy, generational change, farmland loss and AI data center expansion in Black communities, and Allison's new record, "In the Hour of Chaos," out now.

Gloria talks with fellow State Rep. Gabby Salinas about her personal journey, arriving in Memphis as a seven-year-old cancer patient at St. Jude, her family gaining citizenship with help from then-Senator Fred Thompson, and how that history shapes her work in the legislature today. They cover the 2025 special session fight over Memphis redistricting, Gabby's bipartisan-sponsored cold case bill, the defeat of a bill Gabby says would have challenged Plyler v. Doe nationally, and close with a get-out-the-vote push ahead of the August 6th primary, including details on how to volunteer in Memphis this week.

Ahead of the 50th anniversary of Alex Haley's Roots: The Saga of an American Family, Gloria sits down with two of Haley's descendants, Chris Haley and Bill Haley Jr., to talk about the book and miniseries' cultural impact, the recent (and reversed) banning of Roots from Knox County Schools libraries, and the rise of book bans, "divisive concepts" laws, and historical whitewashing across the country. The conversation moves from personal family history into a broader discussion of racism, dehumanization, and the common humanity Haley's work was built to illuminate — closing with details on the upcoming Roots 50th anniversary commemorative tour.

Gloria Johnson talks with Civil Miller-Watkins, a middle school math teacher and former Fayette County school board vice-chair who is running for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Bill Hagerty. The two ran against each other in the 2024 Senate Democratic primary and now sit down as allies. They cover Civil's roots in rural West Tennessee, the origin of her name (tied to her mother's civil rights activism), maternal health care and hospital closures in rural Tennessee, reproductive rights, voucher programs and public school funding, redistricting, and what it will take to turn out Democratic voters in a state that hasn't elected one to the Senate since 1990.

Gloria Johnson talks with Justin Kanew, founder of the progressive news outlet The Tennessee Holler, about the state of Tennessee media and politics. Kanew traces his path from a 2016 congressional run against Marsha Blackburn's seat to founding the Holler, and the two dig into press access at the Capitol, the 2023 expulsion of the "Tennessee Three," the erosion of floor debate under recent House speakers, corruption in the legislature (with a focus on school vouchers and a troubling judicial confirmation story), and what gives them hope, including youth political engagement and the rise of figures like Zohran Mamdani.