Brian Ragle — Reporting from the Upper Cumberland

Latest posts

Free for Indigenous Peoples Day: Columbus and the New Conquistadors

October 12, 2026 · blurb

For Indigenous Peoples Day I took the paywall off my two part Columbus series. Part 1 covers the genocide, the whitewashing, and the hero worship. Part 2 covers the new conquistadors carrying the same logic forward. Both are free to read now.

Crosstalk: An Agentic Love Story 3

September 30, 2026 · link

Part 3 of my short story Crosstalk: An Agentic Love Story is live on Medium.

Crosstalk: An Agentic Love Story 2

September 29, 2026 · link

Part 2 of my short story Crosstalk: An Agentic Love Story is live on Medium.

A 1926 Chevrolet that might not be a 1926 Chevrolet

September 29, 2026 · blurb

A pristine 1926 Chevrolet sitting in a local showroom might not be the car everyone thinks it is. Its own serial number is telling a slightly different story.

Crosstalk: An Agentic Love Story 1

September 28, 2026 · link

Part 1 of my short story Crosstalk: An Agentic Love Story is live on Medium.

Planted in public soil

September 26, 2026 · link

My latest for the Herald-Citizen: near the end of Monday night's show, Raniece handed Lisa and Dave Uhrik a potted plant and thanked them for nurturing people's dreams.

Herald-Citizen stories

Sep 26, 2026Planted in public soil
Sep 25, 2026The dirt yard at Standing Stone: 43 years of keeping marbles alive
Sep 21, 2026'Really Really Free Market' returns Saturday
Sep 14, 2026Cookeville centenarian gives up the car, not the wit
Sep 8, 2026Girl Scout restores rail trail benches
Jul 29, 2026Full Circle
Jul 22, 2026From cradle to casket: Tennessee Basketry Association holds annual convention in Cookeville
Jun 24, 2026A family reunion for everyone
Jun 18, 2026Cookeville print shop marks 30 years
Jun 17, 2026The 'Really Really Free Market'
May 14, 2026Revitalizing History
May 12, 2026Bohannon celebrates 99th birthday
May 9, 2026Cookeville granite shop bets on craftsmanship over automation
Apr 29, 2026When the prayers have been said
Apr 21, 2026Cookeville kickboxer fights for title Saturday
Apr 20, 2026Cookeville's Wild Grove brings holistic health practitioners under one roof
Apr 14, 2026Young Republicans host 'King of Kings' rally at courthouse
Mar 31, 2026'No Kings'
Mar 25, 2026Free clinic brings $425,000 in healthcare to Cookeville for 10th straight year
Mar 19, 2026A place to relax and decompress
Feb 25, 2026Age of Aquariums
Feb 18, 2026'Hurts so good'
Feb 3, 2026TVA's "small" nuclear reactor, and why Cookeville should care
Jan 9, 2026Emerald Ash Borer
Jan 8, 2026Gene Watson brings 50 years of pure country to Cookeville
Dec 18, 2025Dialysis three days a week, a transplant still out of reach
Dec 4, 2025Author turns childhood loss into stories that resonate across generations
Nov 26, 2025Shutdown increases food bank demand
Nov 26, 2025Box of blessings
Nov 25, 2025Small-town magic at the Warren County Fair
Nov 25, 2025Beef vs. dairy: Two shows, two stories at the Warren County Fair
Nov 25, 2025Tennessee's dairy farms fight to survive as costs rise and land disappears
Nov 23, 2025Little kids, big cows steal the spotlight at Warren County Fair
Nov 13, 2025Ten veterans honored at Quilts of Valor presentation
Nov 7, 2025Seibers named Caregiver of the Year
Oct 31, 2025Stamps Cemetery a labor of love, history
Oct 20, 2025'No Kings 2.0' draws hundreds to courthouse
Oct 10, 2025Cookeville-area legends explored in new book
Sep 4, 2025Johnson Nursery celebrates 110 years of roots in Putnam County
Aug 5, 2025613,245 Books
Jun 16, 2025'A safe place to sleep'
Jun 3, 2025Doll exhibit gets new life after 2020 tornado
May 30, 2025That's a 'Grand Old Flag'
May 2, 2025CrossFit Mayhem hosts Operation Conquer Hunger
Apr 21, 2025WWII veteran celebrates 103rd birthday
Apr 10, 2025Monterey gears up for April off-road extravaganza
Apr 3, 2025Living large on the lake
Mar 13, 2025Windstorm leaves Cookeville woman with expensive mess
Feb 27, 2025Woodson visits the White House
Jan 31, 2025UC Quilt Festival celebrates 35 years
Jan 22, 2025Appliance Mart has new owner
Dec 9, 2024Motorcycle club provides Christmas for kids
Nov 26, 2024Turning history into craft
Oct 30, 2024Comedy punk band performs in Cookeville
Oct 29, 2024Container home development coming to Clay County
Oct 24, 2024Brothers Tavern opening on Sparta Square
Oct 18, 2024Green JellÃ¿ to perform in Cookeville Oct. 26
Oct 16, 2024Unsung Heroes
Oct 7, 2024Baxter couple's new foster facility offers hope to vulnerable puppies
Sep 11, 2024Cookeville centenarian reminisces about life
Aug 22, 2024Anna Green celebrates 100th birthday with song, dance memories
Jul 30, 2024Cookeville woman and New Jersey couple share surrogacy story
Jun 11, 202448 dogs find new homes
Jun 6, 2024Animal shelter waives adoption fees for some dogs through June 8
May 17, 2024Baxter couple opens puppy rescue
Feb 28, 2024Michael's coming to Willow Tree Shopping Center
Jan 17, 2024City struggles with litter problem
Nov 20, 2023Animal shelter faces persistent challenges
Oct 13, 2023Cedar Recovery abandons plans for Rickman treatment center
Aug 3, 2023Injured dog needs help with medical bills

Medium stories

Sep 22, 2026The Same Species
Sep 20, 2026Magic Beans
Sep 14, 2026Shut Up and Multiply
Sep 12, 2026Charlie was a mainframe
Sep 8, 2026The Data Centers Are Not Watching You. Something Else Is.
Aug 12, 2026The Jihad Comes For The Small
Jul 19, 2026You Didn't Watch a Movie. You Watched Somebody Else's Video Game.
Jun 30, 2026Same Guy, Three Costumes: From Falling Down to the Supreme Court to the Movie Elon Musk Gave Away… (title truncated in list view)
Jun 11, 2026The Left Always Loses Because It Wants To
Jun 7, 2026Seven Days of Strawmen: PragerU's Socialism Series, Fact-Checked and Filleted
Jun 6, 2026The $1.75 Trillion Magic Trick
Apr 18, 2026A Galaxy Built on Chains: The Unexamined Slavery Economy of Star Wars
Mar 5, 2026The Dog Had No Name
Mar 4, 2026You Are Already Dead
Mar 3, 2026"Fascism Is Leftist" Is a LibertAryan Fairy Tale — Let's Burn It Down
Feb 27, 2026Something is Off: The Post-Apocalyptic Romance You Didn't Know You Were Watching
Feb 8, 2026The Roots Run Deep: A Comprehensive, Meticulously Sourced History of the Trump Family and Racism
Feb 1, 2026Cheaper Tea, Bigger Lies (subtitle truncated on page: 'When Trumpists start shouting "No…')
Jan 30, 2026The Kremlin's Playbook: How Alexander Dugin's Geopolitical Fantasies Became Trump's Foreign and… (title truncated in list view)
Jan 29, 2026Andrew Isker: Now Casting for the Role of Alex Jones Jr.
Jan 29, 2026Bioshockingly stupid (subtitle truncated on page: "I previously posted about how the Trump…")
Jan 28, 2026Misérables in the Multiverse of Missed Points
Jan 27, 2026Shock, Awe, and a Side of Freedom Fries
Jan 26, 2026Alligator Auschwitz and the New American Fascism
Jan 25, 2026Make America 1950 Again: The America Party 卐 Rises
Jan 24, 2026Very Fine People on One Side, Nazis on the Other (Part 2 of GOP Fascism series)
Jan 22, 2026Fountain of Youth: Apple's $200 Million Cutscene Compilation
Jan 22, 2026From Slave Patrols to ICE: The Institutional Ancestry of Racialized Enforcement in America
Jan 19, 2026Blood Libel Reborn: The Sascha Riley Story and the Return of Satanic Panic
Jan 13, 2026The Linguistic Phantom: How the DHS Weaponized a Fake Nazi Quote to Sell Real Nazi Doctrine
Jan 8, 2026"AI Psychosis" (Part 2): The Reinforcement Machine
Jan 7, 2026The White Man's Burden, Reheated (subtitle truncated on page: "Stephen Miller, imperial nostalgia, and…")
Jan 6, 2026The Chatbot Delusion Machine, (Part 1)
Jan 4, 2026Crisis in Caracas: What Happens After Maduro's Capture?
Jan 3, 2026The Transactional Hegemon Came for Maduro: A Nineteen-Day Prophecy
Jan 2, 2026The Watchdog's Leash
Jan 1, 20262025: Robots, Coups, Propaganda, and Haunted Limestone (year in review)
Dec 29, 2025The Humanoid Fallacy
Dec 27, 2025The Christmas Pivot
Dec 26, 2025The Misfit Singularity
Dec 25, 20255 Psychologically Dark (or Horrifying) Moments in Toy Story 3 (repost; originally written 2010 — vintage outlier, not normative)
Dec 24, 2025The Reindeer Industrial Complex
Dec 16, 2025The Gentrification of Yesterday: How Wealthy Nostalgia Tourists Are Pricing the Poor Out of the Past
Dec 15, 2025Narco Pardons, Peso Lifelines, and Seized Oil: The New Monetized Foreign Policy
Dec 12, 2025Labor Rights Are Not a Suicide Pact
Dec 11, 2025The Viper in the Vestry
Dec 9, 2025The Grand Old Putsch
Dec 8, 2025The U.S. Keeps Blowing Up Go-Fast Boats in the Caribbean.
Dec 2, 2025The United States Military May Have Committed a War Crime in the Caribbean.
Nov 25, 2025The Local AI Manifesto: Why the Real Future of Artificial Intelligence Belongs to You, Not the Cloud
Nov 23, 2025The Panic Is Old, The Technology Is New: How Anti-AI Arguments Are Just Recycled Rhetoric from… (title truncated in list view)
Nov 7, 2025Faith, Fear, and Limestone
Oct 13, 2025Castizo Futurism and the New Conquistadors, Part 2
Oct 12, 2025Christopher Columbus: The OG of Genocide, Whitewashing, and Republican Hero Worship, Part 1
Oct 7, 2025"The Devil Wears Loro Piana": How Silicon Valley's Philosopher-King Weaponized the Antichrist
Sep 27, 2025Code, Kings, and Coup Fantasies: Curtis Yarvin and the Silicon Crown That Would Be
Sep 25, 2025They're Eating the Dogs: How the Far Right Turned Disgust Into a Thousand-Year Weapon
Sep 19, 2025Sgt. Tavistock's Lonely Braincell Club Band
Sep 17, 2025When We Said "Never Again," the GOP Heard "Not Yet"
Sep 9, 2025Schmitt's America: White, Christian, and Confederate-Curious
Sep 9, 2025Pedocon Theory Undefeated
Sep 9, 2025Freddie & Friends: Teenage Nazi Hunters History Tried to Forget
Sep 9, 2025"Reverse Discrimination" Gets Its Day in Court: Ames v. Ohio DYS, the Death of a Dumb Rule, and the Coming Stampede of White-Grievance Lawsuits
Sep 9, 2025The Lost Cause: America's Original Fanfiction Cult
Sep 9, 2025Automation, AI Agents, and the Post-Labor Future
Sep 9, 2025Orwell's Boot, Huxley's Soma, and America's Ongoing Face-Plant
Sep 9, 2025Why JB Pritzker's "Do Not Come to Chicago" Press Conference Is Exactly The Leadership Democrats Should Be Showing
Sep 9, 2025Labor Day isn't a picnic. It's a receipt.
Sep 9, 2025Superman is Making Fascists Angry Again
Sep 8, 2025When "Except" Becomes the Rule: Prison Labor, Food Security, and the 13th Amendment's Shadow
Sep 7, 2025PragerU's Hungarian Rhapsody: When "Educational" Content Meets Authoritarian Apologetics
Sep 7, 2025What Nate Silver Gets Wrong About "Blueskyism"
Sep 7, 2025The Lost Cause of Fascism: D'Souza's Comfort Lies for the Right
Sep 7, 2025The War on Birth Control: White Replacement, Musk's Pseudoscience, and the GOP's Obsession with Women's Wombs
Sep 7, 2025Trump's 11 "Life Lessons" — And How He Broke Every Single One
Sep 7, 2025The Cuck Complex: How One Gross Internet Slur Explains Trump's Entire Political Career
Sep 7, 2025From Ellen G. White to RFK Jr.: How Two Anti-Science Rivers Converged

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