📚 Nashville’s best indie bookstores

📚 Nashville’s Indie Bookstores Have Something for Everyone

Need a book? Shop local! Ahead of this weekend’s Southern Festival of Books, the City Cast Nashville podcast has your guide to Nashville’s vibrant indie bookstore scene. [City Cast Nashville 🎧]

🍞 Nashville’s Hunger Crisis Intensifies

The city is facing worsening food insecurity as more grocery store closures, cuts to food assistance programs, and rising prices are creating food deserts. Emergency food pop-ups in North Nashville have drawn overwhelming numbers of people, further highlighting what some experts say is an unprecedented food crisis. [Nashville Banner]

• Dive deeper: Cuts to food banks and SNAP benefits mean Nashville food programs are working overtime. But they say all hope isn’t lost. [City Cast Nashville 🎧]

😞 Guns are Leading Cause of Death for TN Kids

Gunshot wounds are now the leading cause of death for children in Tennessee as the state hit a record high for firearm deaths in 2023, according to a new report from the Tennessee Under the Gun project. “Let that sink in,” said State Sen. Heidi Campbell, who presented the findings this week. [WSMV4]

• Related: Can Nashville’s youth help end gun violence? [City Cast Nashville 🎧]

💰 Grants Reinstated at Meharry Medical College

The historically Black college this week secured the reinstatement of $25.5 million in National Institutes of Health grants to support research on health disparities. However, four grants totaling $17.5 million remain terminated, which resulted from the Trump administration’s sweeping NIH cuts across medical research institutions. [Nashville Business Journal 🔐]

• Plus: Meharry launched a new research initiative this month to build the world’s largest genetic database to address health disparities among people of African ancestry. [NewsChannel 5]