About the Program
Nashville Public Radio is committed to strengthening the public’s understanding of the issues facing consumers, providers and the many companies that support health care.
Our goal is to be an essential source for trusted health care information for audiences in our community and beyond. As one of the nation’s leading health care centers, Nashville possesses extensive resources and unique opportunities that will enable us to cover this vital topic in all its dimensions.
To accomplish these goals, we have created a dedicated Health Care Reporting Desk within WPLN’s News Department led by Senior Health Care Report Blake Farmer. As members of the Kaiser Health News Network we will access to Kaiser’s deep editorial resources and guaranteed access to a national audience through NPR.
Our goal is to use the tools of objective, balanced journalism to tell Nashville’s health care story.
You can see all of WPLN’s health care stories here.
Our Funding Partners
Nashville Public Radio gratefully acknowledges our local funding partners who make health care reporting possible:
- Nashville Health Care Council
- Bass Berry & Sims
- Lovell Communications
- Jarrard Phillips
- LBMC
- The Nashville Public Radio Board of Directors
About Blake Farmer
Blake Farmer is Nashville Public Radio’s senior health care reporter. In a partnership with Kaiser Health News and NPR, Blake covers health in Tennessee and the health care industry in the Nashville area for local and national audiences.
Blake has worked at WPLN throughout his career, most recently serving as news director and primary editor for the newsroom. Previously, his reporting focused on education and the military. He’s also enjoyed producing stories about midnight frog gigging and churches holding gun raffles.
Growing up in East Nashville, Blake attended Lipscomb Academy. He went to college in Texas at Abilene Christian University where he cut his teeth in radio at KACU-FM. Before joining WPLN full time in 2007, Blake also wrote for the Nashville City Paper and filed international stories for World Christian Broadcasting.
An active member and past-president of the Society of Professional Journalists Middle Tennessee Chapter, Blake has also won numerous regional and national awards from the Associated Press, RTDNA and PRNDI. In 2017, his alma mater honored him with the Gutenberg Award for achievements of journalism graduates.
This may say more than anything: he always keeps his audio recorder handy, even on vacation, just in case there’s a story to be told.