Exciting news: We’ve hired Rachel Iacovone as our new City Cast Nashville host! Rachel previously served as a host, editor, and director at Nashville Public Radio before joining Connecticut Public to report on the Puerto Rican diaspora, where she won a 2026 award from the Public Media Journalists Association. We’re absolutely thrilled to have her return to Nashville to join our team! And never fear, the wonderful Marie Cecile Anderson isn’t leaving the team; she’s returning to her role as creative producer.
Why did you want to return to Nashville?
“I missed Music City more than I cared to admit — to others or myself — for a while. There are the predictable things like live music and great food, but ultimately, I really missed the culture we experience day-to-day living here. The seven degrees of separation are two at most in this city, and I love being able to get together a group last-minute on a weeknight and discover that two unrelated friends actually work at the same campus or hospital or coffee shop. I hadn’t experienced that interconnectivity before or since coming to Nashville, and I won’t ever take it for granted again!”
What Nashville restaurant did you miss most while you were in Connecticut?
“Despite what my Beli account will tell you (which lists Noko, Locust, and Peninsula at the top of my Nashville restaurants), it was Big Al’s Deli I thought about and missed the most. It’s our best-kept secret from the tourists, though every time I’m there lately, I do see a couple sneaking in with expressions like they know they’re getting away with something. The good news is chef-owner Alphonso Anderson will treat them as kindly as he does when he greets me with a question about how my mom is doing each time. (They’ve met twice.) You can’t order wrong at the cozy converted home: The breakfast biscuit sandwiches are killer, but so is the fried chicken with mashed potatoes and green beans, and shrimp and grits, and…”
If you could change one thing about Nashville, what would it be?
“Our external reputation. I know. I know. I shouldn’t care so much about what others think. But coming from a Latino family, I fielded a lot of questions about my initial move here in 2019. Since then, I’ve made sure to acclimate them, like you do to a pet-store goldfish, by submerging them in Plaza Mariachi, picking up breakfast from Tempo or Soy Cubano, and ensuring them I’ll keep up my Spanish skills through Voces de Nashville. Over the years, I’ve expanded that to include the diversity of exhibits at the Frist, foreign films at the Belcourt, and the many other cultures with populations here willing to share their food and customs (most recently, at TashTea’s Kurdish breakfast with my mom). Nashville is so much more than, to quote Hayley Williams, the latest racist country singer’s bar opening.”
