Advertise on podcast: The Sidebar with Eric Barnes

For more than 20 years, Joey Lewis loved the Hotel Pontotoc, the former Downtown Memphis bordello that is now a hotel - and much more. Lewis bought the Hotel Pontotoc in 2022, then embarked on a three and a half year process of renovating the building.  Lewis talks about the first year of the hotel's new life as a boutique hotel, a bar (The Dame), and a music venue.

Brian Goldstone wrote a book about the millions of homeless people in the U.S., "There is No Place For us: Working and Homeless in America," which won the Pulitzer Price for nonfiction.

With a lineup that includes the band Soccer Mommy and a show at the new Satellite Music Hall, WYXR's Raised by Sound Fest announced the bands that will be playing at the radio station's annual festival.

Brady Walkinshaw joins Eric Barnes to talk about the importance of local media, the network of local alt weeklies he's creating, and how print publications can be an antidote to the problems of AI.

Tim Disney, who'll be at Novel on August 29, joins Eric Barnes on The Sidebar to talk about his dark satire of a culture of lying, misinformation and the global elite -- plus his life as the grandnephew of Walt Disney.

Pat Mitchell Worley, the president and CEO of the Soulsville Foundation, joined Eric Barnes on this week's episode of "The Sidebar."

Rachel Knox, senior program officer for arts & culture for the Hyde Family Foundation, talks not just about the arts organizations that the foundation has supported, but the entire landscape of the arts in Memphis.

The principal of Constellation Properties, Stuart Harris, and the executive director of HiFi Memphis, Mersadies Burch, join Eric Barnes to talk about the scope and scale of the Downtown project.

Elizabeth Cawein, who founded Memphis Export Memphis ten years ago to promote Memphis musicians and help them in their careers, talks about the organization's birthday celebration concerts on July 25, the realities of making money as a musician, and what Memphis does right - and could do better - in being a music city.

International exhibition "Café Society" at Dixon Gallery and Gardens centers on Belle Époque Paris and explores how Parisian cafés shaped the city's culture from 1855-1914. Julie Pierotti, the Martha R. Robinson Curator of the Dixon, was the primary organizer of the exhibition. She joins us today to discuss the exhibition, as well as with the process of coordination it requires.

Robby, who is the executive director of WYXR, joined this week's episode of The Sidebar to talk about how the station has evolved in its six years, the range of program and events WYXR supports, and the station's growth into a full-blown arts and community organization.

John Zeanah has written a book: Today's Comprehensive Plan: An Adaptive Approach, which he describes as the book he wished he'd had when he started a project as big as Memphis 3.0. Zeanah joined Eric Barnes on "The Sidebar" to talk about the book, his history of planning in Memphis, and more. They touched on some of the controversies around Memphis 3.0 and focused on the differences between the smart and dumb ways cities have planned for their growth.

Two music festivals are coming to South Main this weekend, as the Ghost River Brewing Co.'s Made to Wander Music Festival and the South Main Songwriter Festival kick off. Organizers from both festivals - Tori Keskey with Ghost River Brewing and Mike Mielenhausen with the South Main Songwriter Festival - joined this week's episode to talk about events, the music, and - of course - the beer at Ghost River.

Olivia Wall, director of marketing and communications for Memphis Botanic Garden, joined this week's episode to talk about Live at the Garden's 2026 line up, including the first show featuring the band Alabama on June 13. The full line up and ticket information is here on Live at the Garden's site.

For the 30,000 children in Shelby County who get a book every month from Books from Birth, the benefits are innumberable. But getting those same books to the 30,000 kids in Shelby County who aren't in the Books from Birth program is the work of Wynett Jones and Porter-Leath.  Jones, program director for Books from Birth, joined this week's episode of "The Sidebar." The program, which is statewide, is run by Porter-Leath in Shelby County and sends 30,000 children of all backgrounds one book a month from birth till five years old.