The Rural Voice interviews the Honorable Brandon O. Gibson, who serves in the Office of the Governor of Tennessee. The co-hosts interview her regarding rural educational initiatives in Tennessee and how rural education varies between counties. She discusses some of the current initiatives within the state and the foci of the current administration. She discusses some of the current trends and how the landscape of rural education is changing. Brandon is a member of the Tennessee Bar Association, where she was co-chair of the TBA’s Leadership Law program and co-chair of the TBA’s Public Service Academy. She is active in the Tennessee Judicial Conference and is the Chair of the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct. Brandon is a graduate of Class IV of Leadership Tennessee and currently serves as the Chair of the Leadership Tennessee Advisory Council.
The Rural Voice interviews the Honorable Brandon O. Gibson, who serves in the Office of the Governor of Tennessee. The co-hosts interview her regarding rural educational initiatives in Tennessee and how rural education varies between counties. She discusses some of the current initiatives within the state and the foci of the current administration. She discusses some of the current trends and how the landscape of rural education is changing.
Brandon O. Gibson is a native of Dyersburg. She graduated from Mississippi State University with a B.S. in Agribusiness in 1996 and a Master’s degree in Agribusiness Management in 1997. She graduated from the Southern Methodist University School of Law in 2000, and after practicing for a year in Tyler, Texas, moved to Jackson, where she practiced with the firm of Pentecost & Glenn PLLC. In December 2013, she was appointed to serve on the Tennessee Court of Appeals, Western Section, and took office on September 1, 2014. In January 2019, she was named senior advisor to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee.
Brandon is a member of the Tennessee Bar Association, where she was co-chair of the TBA’s Leadership Law program and co-chair of the TBA’s Public Service Academy. She is active in the Tennessee Judicial Conference and is the Chair of the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct. Brandon is a graduate of Class IV of Leadership Tennessee and currently serves as the Chair of the Leadership Tennessee Advisory Council.
Jared Bigham:
We are thrilled today on the National Rural Ed Association podcast to have an awesome guest with us,
Brandon Gibson from the governor's office in Tennessee, who is the senior advisor to the governor and
charged with looking at rural [inaudible 00:00:33] and how to support rural communities, and other
things. But that's one of the primary functions that Brandon is charged with.
Jared Bigham:
And so Allen and I are anxious to talk to her because it's our home state. And so anytime that we can put
Tennessee forward, I at least, I know Allen is a little more agnostic, has to be. But I love putting
Tennessee forward. So very excited to have Brandon here. And I've been fortunate enough to get to
work with Brandon in some professional settings and different things across the state and get to
network with her.
Jared Bigham:
So a little background on Brandon, who I ... Actually, I could spend a whole podcast on her bio, so I'm
just going to try to hit the highlights. A former lawyer, former judge, former growing up on a soy bean
farm in a rural community in West Tennessee in Crockett County, Tennessee. You can't get much more
rural than being in Crockett County, Tennessee. And now she is senior advisor to Governor Bill Lee and
has, I'll see her all over the state. So I mean beyond, she is definitely trying to get out there in rural
communities and support the work that's going on there. So Brandon, welcome to our podcast.
Brandon:
Thank you so much for having me.
Allen Pratt:
Hey Brandon, thanks for taking time and we do appreciate Governor Lee's efforts to recognize rural
Tennessee and to highlight and spotlight what's going on in rural, and in ways to kind of help our rural
communities as well.
Jared Bigham:
Yeah. And so if you could just kick us off a little bit with your background and tell us what did it mean
coming from a rural community to the various positions you have. And now you are senior advisor to the
governor and so obviously somebody that's an influencer on policy and practice and programs and
systemic change. So just if you could highlight for us your journey to where you are now.
Brandon:
Well you like to think sometimes that life takes you from one place to another in a straight line, but that
is definitely not been my experience. To be fair to my true homeland, my family farm is actually in Dyer
County. I grew up in Dyersburg. Actually not in the city but out in the country. I was the fourth
generation to live and work on a family farm, raising soybeans, hay, Angus cattle. Instead of going on
vacations, my summers were full of running around cattle pastures are sitting on the back of a four row
planter as we were planting soybeans over and over again when it got rained out.
Brandon:
I grew up going to public schools in Dyer County. My mother was a public school teacher there in the
Dyersburg city school system and so I graduated from Dyersburg High School, and left Dyersburg and
went to Mississippi State, followed a boy who I happened to marry a few years later and that seems to
have worked out pretty well.
Jared Bigham:
[crosstalk 00:04:01] I'm glad that story ... When you started that with followed a boy, I thought, uh-oh,
where's this going?
Allen Pratt:
Yeah, we were worried about that one. Yeah.
Brandon:
Well we'll be married 25 years this year, so I think it's worked out okay. Just don't ask him. But I went to
Mississippi State and majored in agricultural business down there and got a master's degree in Ag
Business. I really thought I probably would leave Mississippi State and go and maybe go to law school
and focus on agricultural law, but ultimately I decided to go to Dallas, Texas. Went to the big city, really
the first big city I was ever exposed to on a longterm basis, and got my law degree there and practiced
law out there for a year before I realized that West Tennessee really kind of draws you home. So we
moved back home and settled in Crockett County then where I began practicing law in nearby
metropolitan Jackson.
Jared Bigham:
You know, and how I almost stopped you earlier when you said you graduated from Dyersburg city. It
cracks me up is I go across Tennessee in my role that you've got "city" school systems that are in the
middle of a cornfield or soybean field or surrounded by mountains, but yet they're, we call them city
schools. So that's, I don't know if that's an anomaly to Tennessee, but Pratt, you could probably speak to
that more since you're the world traveler.
Allen Pratt:
I think city school system, if it's in the middle of a, I guess as you would say, a cornfield, it would be
considered a rural city district. I think we're okay. And I've been to Dyersburg so I can verify that she is in
a rural zip code.
Brandon:
That's right. That's right. Well, when I was growing up, Dyer County had two school systems. [inaudible
00:06:03] city school system and Dyer County. And because we lived on a farm, I was actually zoned to
go to Dyer County. But because my mother taught school in the city school system, I was able to go to
the city school. And I heard my parents talk about how they struggled with whether the right thing to do
was send me to the school where I was zoned or whether they would do the easy thing, which was to
take me in my mom's car every day to and from school since I was basically going to the same school
where she taught. So ultimately, I think they opted for ease, but all the schools in Dyer County have had
really good reputations and a really good opportunity for education for the kids that have come through
either one of those school systems.
Allen Pratt:
So basically you had a school choice thing going on already. That's a joke, by the way. We're kidding. We're not going to go on that route on this call.
Brandon:
Thank you.
Allen Pratt:
Yeah. So tell us a little bit about, you talked about your background and how you were raised and where you came from, and you've obviously learned a lot of lessons growing up with the hard work and doing what's right in your community. What are some things you bring from that experience to your office every day?
Brandon:
Well, that's a really good question. There is a work ethic that I think folks from rural communities really embody. It wasn't uncommon during the winter months for my dad to put me on a tractor with him to go feed cattle. You just bundled up and you went out and you did what needed to be done.
Brandon:
That's one of the things that I hope that the governors would say that I'm doing is that I'm just doing what needs to be done. But also just having that perspective. I think it's really important for elected leaders to have people around them who have a variety of different perspectives. And so many of the things we talk about here, policy, budget issues, legislative issues. When I think through them, I think through them based on how they would impact the people I grew up with, my own parents, my child or the people I go to Sunday School with. And so it's really important for us as we sit here. We kind of call it being in the bubble. You get into government and sometimes it's really easy to forget that you're in a bubble and you need to make sure you're thinking about a variety of things based on how it affects people where you live or where you came from. So I hope that's an important thing I bring is just a different perspective that other folks might not have.
Jared Bigham:
Yeah. And in thinking about that, and I know that Governor Lee really has a heart for rural Tennessee. I mean I don't know that I've heard him speak that the word rural wasn't embedded somewhere in his speech or just even in casual conversations with groups. He is always highlighting the needs in rural Tennessee. So I think we're going to have to do that again because Allen's playing on his phone and he's doing something.
Allen Pratt:
I'll take the four second pause. Sorry.
Jared Bigham:
Okay. Let me ask you again. So with that in mind, growing up in a rural community and upbringing and those values and work ethics you bring to this role, and you're working with a governor, advising a governor that really has a heart for rural Tennessee. And I don't think I've heard him give a speech or even in a casual conversation that the word rural doesn't come up somewhere in that dialogue. And so
you've got this perspective, you got this opportunity. What is exciting you right now as a state leader,
that either a policy or a program that is being implemented to support rural communities or you hope to
implement to support rural communities?
Brandon:
So one of the things that I've been amazed that we're able to do is that the governor has this power to
convene, and it's a very unique power. When the governor's office calls and asks someone to come to
Nashville or meet us somewhere out in the communities, out somewhere in the state, people generally
show up.
Jared Bigham:
Yeah. Let me know that person that turns down the governor's invitation. I'd like to do a podcast with
them.
Brandon:
Well, we've been at it a year and I haven't seen it yet, but I'll take notes for you, Jared. But one of the
things we did early on is we hosted what we called a Rural Opportunity Summit, and we invited leaders
from 15 of our more economically distressed communities. The governor was very focused on A, having
that event in a distressed community, going to the people that we are trying to serve. B, he wanted to
make sure that the people who were invited were a huge variety of people. Everything from the County
mayor to someone representing Commerce and Industry, most often was the chamber director,
someone from the school system because we recognize what a huge role the schools play in economic
and community development, and even in industrial recruitment. And then we wanted nonprofit
leaders. So his philosophy on life is that government alone is not the answer and it takes nonprofit
community and the business community and the government working together in order to solve our
biggest challenges.
Brandon:
So we brought all those people to Perry County, Tennessee. Rural middle Tennessee. And every
commissioner of all 23 departments in Tennessee state government also went to Perry County. We had
a cabinet meeting there before and it was an excellent opportunity for commissioners to hear directly
from community leaders. And it was an excellent opportunity for community leaders to hear directly
from commissioners that they might have never had contact with otherwise.
Brandon:
So that convening power, although that doesn't magically change a community simply by having a
meeting. Building relationships has the potential to change communities. So that was one step forward
in helping build those relationships that are really necessary to help move communities forward and
identify and respond to their specific needs. So that's been a really exciting thing. We hosted that last
August and have continued to see the fruit that's been produced from that meeting. And those
relationships are continuing to flourish. And we're talking a lot about how we can do a better job in
serving the state, serving those rural communities, how we can make it easier for them to access
everything from grants to services to just having a question answered.
Brandon:
Oftentimes our rural communities have so much heart and soul in them, but they might not have the
deepest payroll. They might not have the most people. The Director of Schools assistant is probably
going to be a generalist in most everything that a school could ever possibly touch. Same thing for a
County mayor's assistant.
Jared Bigham:
And let me interrupt you just one sec because I think you pointed out something really glaring that I see
as I go around rural communities. You rattled off the attendees for these convenings of schools,
chambers, nonprofits, county government, city government, and one that I have never seen so far at any
convening are the foundations that you have in urban areas. And I think that's one of the resources that
is really lacking for rural communities, is they don't have those big foundations that are pouring millions
of dollars into the communities. And I really wish there was a way we could reach out to some of these
foundations to get them more involved in rural communities, even though most of them have a mission
to work in their impoverished areas or do community development, whether it's Memphis, Nashville,
Chattanooga, Knoxville. You cannot throw a rock without hitting a foundation in any of those cities. And
literally, they pour millions of dollars into the school districts and in community development.
Jared Bigham:
How could we maybe get some foundations beyond national, because we got some national
foundations that puts some money in rural communities, but our local foundations, how can we get
them to extend maybe into some of these communities to help with the wraparound supports, to give
money to those nonprofits so they can have more capacity to do things in those communities? And just
what are your thoughts on that?
Brandon:
Well, I love that you asked that question. I would like to claim that we had planned for you to ask that
because the second answer to the question that you asked previously about what excites me about
what we've done or are doing. One of the things we did last year in the budget is that we invested about
four and a half million dollars in a pilot program with a nonprofit called Communities in Schools. Now
Communities in Schools is in a lot of urban areas. Some states have Communities in Schools statewide.
In Tennessee, prior to last year, Communities in Schools, to my knowledge at least, was only located in
Metro Nashville and in Shelby County.
Allen Pratt:
That's correct.
Jared Bigham:
Yep.
Brandon:
So the state said, I'll tell you what, we will partner with this nonprofit. We want to put up four and a half
million dollars, we're going to fund 70% of a three year pilot, and we want to put a Communities in
Schools case worker in 23 high schools in the 15 most economically distressed communities.
Brandon:
So we put out 23 caseworkers into 23 high schools in 15 different counties from the far Eastern edge,
Cocke County to the far Western edge of Lake County and Lauderdale. So it's a perfect example of
government partnering with a nonprofit. Now the challenge is Communities in Schools of Tennessee has
to raise the other 30% of that funding. And you look at the program in Nashville or in Memphis, and
there's a good bit of support for the program from those foundations that you just talked about. It's a lot
harder to raise philanthropic money in counties that are already economically challenged. So we've
been able to, of course, Communities in Schools is responsible for raising that 30% that match to the
state dollars. But we've been able to highlight the fact that poverty is poverty, and poverty in a rural
community, I mean, you might have to drive a little bit further down the road to get a gallon of milk, but
poverty in a rural community and poverty in an urban community are still poverty.
Brandon:
And there are a lot of things that are very consistent with those populations. So we've been doing some
work. The Communities in Schools both began in these rural high schools in August. So it's still early in
the three year pilot. But some of the stories that have come out have just been remarkable. And it's just
an opportunity to put someone in place to help with those wraparound services so that teachers can
focus on teaching the content and the subject matter that they need to teach.
Jared Bigham:
Right. And just so listeners know, the difference in Communities in Schools and community schools is
that Communities in Schools has that support system within the school, in the individual school for
students. So man, that's awesome that that's going on, especially in the distressed counties.
Allen Pratt:
So can you share a little bit about some, maybe one story, or some specific example from the work going
on in those distressed counties with this Communities in Schools?
Brandon:
So one of the stories that causes me to choke up just a little bit every time I tell it is that Communities in
Schools focuses primarily on the causes of absenteeism. Because if kids aren't coming to school, they're
not learning, or at least they're not learning the content that school wants them to learn, let's put it that
way. But a student in a rural community has some real problems with being at school and the real
problems with absenteeism. So this Communities in Schools representative is able to pull that child into
a special room that this particular school set the representative up with their own classroom, that she
was able to stock with toiletry items, and extra clothing, and just those things that those students might
need and might not otherwise have access to.
Brandon:
Pull the child in and say, "Let's talk about what's going on at home." And the child says, "Well, I'm not
sleeping at night, and when I don't sleep at night, I just can't come to school and pay attention. So I just
don't come to school at all." So the communities and schools representative kind of began to dig into
the issue and come to find out the student's home was infested with bedbugs. So the Communities in
Schools representative who has contacts with the right state agencies and the right kinds of people in
the community jumps into action. They take care of the issue. I mean, it required burning mattresses
and burning clothing and really helping this family start over. They start over, new clothing, new
mattresses, the child is coming to school every single day, her grades have improved drastically, and she looks at you and says, "I didn't really realize somebody really cared that much."
Allen Pratt:
Oh wow. That's good.
Brandon:
I know from growing up in a rural school that the teachers care that much, but when you've got 30 kids in your class, being able to really dig in and figure out what's causing the absenteeism is a challenge, and just providing that extra resource so the teachers can focus on content, and we've got somebody else to help with those wraparound services, is such an excellent opportunity to make a difference in kids' lives and communities.
Allen Pratt:
Yeah, I will say in the areas I've visited across the nation that when you have those communities that are doing the wraparound and/or trying to meet the needs of all their students, like expressed the story you told or the example, I think you're seeing some positive results. And I applaud the governor's office, applaud your work as well. I think that is a much needed and we hope we can increase that across the state and make possibly down the road in future budgets with the help of community members and/or foundations. So that's good.
Jared Bigham:
Let's zoom out just for a second, Brandon, because I know you ... There's a lot of things happening in Tennessee and I know you probably, you and the governor's team, and the governor have a vision for other things that you'd like to do in rural communities. But if we zoom out to the national stage, how do you think Tennessee is positioned maybe to lead in this space for other states either through best practices or some policy. So because Allen, he deals with that a lot. He's in Washington DC and talking to our legislators at the national level. So how do you think Tennessee as a state is positioned to be a leader in the country, in the rural space?
Brandon:
Well one of the ways I think we are uniquely positioned is that Tennessee from west to east, it looks very different, and lots of folks who joke that Tennessee is like three states in one because it's the road crop lands of the West, and then rolling hills in the middle, and then the mountains of the East, and it's most definitely a different state from rural West Tennessee to rural East Tennessee.
Brandon:
So we have a unique opportunity to be able to show how policies or opportunities can really be spread across that geographic difference. We have a ton of opportunities because our economy is good. We are very fiscally- conservatively managed as a state. And we have a lot of opportunities to help everything from rural broadband to the way we handle our education system across the state.
Brandon:
The rural challenges that Tennessee faces are not unique to Tennessee. As you said, there are States across the country that are struggling with this same issue, and we've got migration out of rural areas.
into metropolitan areas. And I don't know that there's been any one state that's been able to "solve the
problem".
Brandon:
But I think we are uniquely positioned. We've got the right people at the table. I think we have the right
conversations going on and we've got the right focus to be able to come up with some unique
opportunities and some unique solutions to the challenges that we face.
Jared Bigham:
And I think it's ... I'm glad you brought up the point about the different geographic areas of Tennessee
because I drive all over the state and I'm in these different rural communities and it cracks me up
because each one of these different rural communities say that they're the stepchild of the state.
Nashville never listens. They all think that they're the stepchild of the state just because they're isolated.
But it is so different that Western part of Tennessee. If I drive 30 miles out there, it takes me 20 minutes.
And then Southeast Tennessee where I live and where I'm from, if I drive 30 miles it takes 60 minutes
because all the curvy mountain roads. But I know Allen, if you would speak to this because you're all
over the country and rural means different things to different people. And we always fall back on our
own definition of what is rural. If you think you're rural, you're rural, because it is so different across the
country. So just speak a little bit to that.
Allen Pratt:
Well you brought up, Brandon you brought up a good point about maybe traveling a little bit further to
get a gallon of milk and poverty is poverty. We always look at it from a sense of, and a lot of times in the
Midwest and out West, they talk about how far is it to Walmart. That's the one. And we complain about
maybe driving 45 or 50 minutes, and there's people that are good friends of mine in Montana that we
work with. That trip to the store may be an hour. That trip to the doctor's office may be three hours. But
that's a normal drive a lot of times for them. And I think that's a total different rule than what we deal
with and live with every day.
Allen Pratt:
And then how the federal government looks at rural compared to state government, and how we look at
it obviously very different. But it is unique. And Tennessee really, it's three States but almost could be
five in one because of [inaudible 00:27:37] as in Southeast are a little bit different. And obviously I guess
Northwest and North, the Southwest Tennessee are totally different as well.
Jared Bigham:
Yeah. And I won't put a plug in for the NRA conference here because that's one of the things I love about
going to that conference is you've got people from rural Midwest or from agriculture, Indiana, you know
where the schools are pulling kids from like a hundred square miles or so from these farms. And yet they
only have maybe 50 kids in the schools, and Allen loves those one room school houses out in Montana.
And so that's one of the things I love about going to that conference is you get to meet all these people
that have a different definition of rural. So we needed to drag you there this year, Brandon.
Allen Pratt:
Yeah, you can come November 4th through the 6th in Indianapolis. Love to have you.
Brandon:
That'd be great.
Jared Bigham:
So this is my back pocket question that I love to ask people, whether it's on a panel or on podcast. So I'm
going to get ready, get locked in, tighten up the boot laces. I actually should say, this is one thing before
we start tailing off here that we should have brought up earlier. Brandon is a rodeo queen. She is-
Brandon:
I'm not a rodeo queen.
Allen Pratt:
Not a queen.
Brandon:
I'm a rodeo mom.
Allen Pratt:
Oh, okay.
Brandon:
Which is worse than any rodeo queen [inaudible 00:29:11].
Allen Pratt:
So for our folks on the east coast, how's that different than a dugout mom.
Brandon:
Well let me tell you how that's different than a dugout mom. A dugout mom takes snack, bats, gloves
and cleats. I'm responsible for massive horses, saddles, feed. I made the mistake of making fun of a
friend of mine for doing travel baseball.
Allen Pratt:
Came back to haunt you.
Brandon:
About two years later we got into rodeo, and in December my husband and daughter drove from West
Tennessee to Las Vegas, Nevada hauling two horses with them.
Allen Pratt:
Wow.
Brandon:
I've just about believe we've lost her minds.
Allen Pratt:
No, you just described Colorado, let's say Idaho, Montana, Wyoming. So most parents there kind of feel
your pain, I would think.
Brandon:
Yes, they do, and we meet up with them, sometimes in those locations.
Allen Pratt:
Yeah. You've pretty much met a lot of our conference folks if you met up with them.
Jared Bigham:
Yeah, you're going to see some familiar faces. Yeah, that sounds like a lifestyle choice there. That's not
just weekend little league.
Allen Pratt:
I'm impressed.
Brandon:
It's great. I wouldn't change it for the world. We talk about growing up in rural Tennessee, you learn- or
in rural America, even, you learn a certain work ethic. You put a kid in charge of multiple horses,
feeding, mucking stalls, no matter how rainy, wet or cold it is, and you really started to begin to build a
kid who's full of resilience, and grit, and perseverance, and determination and it's a joy to watch them
develop into that. And I just hope that as she's an adult, she'll be able to carry on those traits.
Jared Bigham:
Yeah. And I grew up on a farm of horses and when I was real little and I'd go with my grandpa to feed
the horses or feed the cattle, dumping hay off the back of a truck, or going to the feed stalls. Of course, I
thought that was so cool. Like, let me pour that, Grandpa, let me put the feed down the pipe, all that
stuff. And until I got to be about 11 or 12, and is like, "Jared, go feed the horses." It lost its luster at that
point.
Jared Bigham:
So, okay, here's my back pocket question now that I love to ask. So now this is when you need to lock in,
Brandon.
Brandon:
Okay, I'm prepared.
Jared Bigham:
All right. So you get to be Harry Potter for a day, or maybe I should say Hermione Granger, and you've
got a magic wand and you can wave it one time to change anything in rural Tennessee. What would you
do?
Brandon:
Oh wow. What a difficult question. [crosstalk 00:32:10]. I'll tell you one thing.
Jared Bigham:
I told you to lock in.
Brandon:
So I'll do what my kid used to do to me. I would wave my magic wand and say I want the power to wave
my magic wand as many times as I possibly want to. All the wishes.
Jared Bigham:
Thank you for putting that caveat in. I will have to start putting a disclaimer from now before I ask that
question. So I'll give you a break then since you outwitted me, and the judge [crosstalk 00:32:37]. See, I
see the judge and lawyer coming out now. Okay. If you could do three things, three things, in rural
Tennessee, with that magic wand.
Brandon:
Okay. Three things in rural Tennessee. If I could wave a magic wand, the first one would be I would
figure out a solution for youth retention in our communities. I'd figure out a way to keep the best and
brightest that are born and raised in these rural communities in those rural communities where they
continue to contribute and help those communities thrive. That's one.
Brandon:
Two, I would probably want to ... It's funny enough, most of these that I would wave my magic wand
and create, deal with education because I really believe that that is the place where we can do the most
investment for our future communities. Second thing I'd do is I would figure out a way where we can
make every high school and middle school in the state a learning exploration, where your students can
hands on, learn what it's like to be a nurse, learn what it's like to be a pilot, learn what it's like to put
your hands in the dirt and grow plants in a greenhouse. Learn what it's like to build a robot. I would
make every middle school and high school have all of those options where kids can be kids and learn
what's really possible in the world.
Brandon:
And then the third thing I think I would do is I would wave a magic wand and make sure that we have
plenty of opportunities for jobs and because we've got to have those jobs in order to have those
talented kids come back to those rural communities. Finding that balance between having the right
number and kind of jobs and opportunities for those kids while still maintaining and hanging on to that
rural way of life is a very delicate balance. And if I could wave my magic wand, I would figure out what
exactly that balance looks like for every community in rural Tennessee.
Allen Pratt:
You really only needed one. I think you gave three excellent examples. I think if we did two, and we did
it really well, we might solve one in three.
Brandon:
You might be right.
Jared Bigham:
When you were hesitating on three, I thought you were getting ready to say, make Jared the czar of
rural Tennessee.
Allen Pratt:
I don't think she- you didn't say like, if you were in a fantasy world, right? I mean that you ... And by the
way, that would be a good idea.
Jared Bigham:
Yeah. Hey, I can have a throne. I could have a palace in Turtletown on my farm.
Brandon:
A crown might be a little bit too much.
Allen Pratt:
A house, like, a palace in Turtletown.
Jared Bigham:
A palace in Turtletown. The gravel road would still lead up to it.
Allen Pratt:
Keep it real.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, you've got to have the pickup truck at least.
Jared Bigham:
Exactly.
Speaker 4:
It's good enough for Sam Walton.
Allen Pratt:
Yeah. This is ... We derailed this whole podcast, basically, on Jared.
Jared Bigham:
No, we got real, we got real.
Allen Pratt:
Okay. Brandon, I'm sorry ahead of time, okay.
Brandon:
No, it's good to have some laughs, especially at Jared's expanse.
Allen Pratt:
There you go. There you go.
Jared Bigham:
Well, Brandon, thank you so much for giving us your time today. We know you are a very, very busy
person and man, it's a privilege to have somebody of your stature on our humble podcast for NREA, and
we're really proud of the work you're doing as Tennesseeans and really glad you're in the position you're
in to help rural communities.
Brandon:
Well, thank you for the work that both of you are doing. Your contribution should not go unnoticed and
I'm glad that the podcast gives you a platform to talk about what's important to rural Tennessee, rural
America, and rural education, in particular.
Allen Pratt:
Thank you. It means a lot. I appreciate it.
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