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Zack and David have breaking news with this episode as the city's grant-writer Susan Wilder has submitted her letter of resignation. Wilder, who has spearheaded the city's fossil park, the Alva Temple Museum and other projects, cited a toxic work environment in her letter. The guys discuss how the city can expect to hire top notch talent if it hamstrings its top players.

After that, the guys preview a Friday meeting between the city and county. Each likely owes the other money, but they have been at a stalemate in terms of collecting. Who's right and who's wrong?

Then the discussion turns to whether it's appropriate for the city to be sponsoring religious events on city property.

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A contract gets signed, a check gets cut, the city council approves the check without questioning it. There's enough embarrassment to go around with this one. We walk through the story in which a grant-funded documentary tied to the planned airport museum honoring Tuskegee Airman Alva Temple suddenly becomes a case study in municipal oversight, public funds and who is responsible when procedures break down.

From there, we change gears to two issues people feel every day. On violent crime, we talk about why community policing cannot be a one-way street, why fear keeps witnesses quiet, and why programs only help if families actually use them. On animal control, we explain the city-county-Humane Society interlocal setup, what is changing, and what residents should know about roaming dogs, liability, and emergency calls for aggressive animals.

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Brand-new Mississippi State sports reporter Jake McMahon moves to Starkville, checks a score while unloading a U-Haul, and suddenly ends up on a midnight roadtrip to Oklahoma City to cover the Women’s College World Series. That’s where we start, because it says a lot about college athletics right now: chaos, speed, and the kind of joy that still breaks through when a team catches fire.

Zack is on vacation this week so Dispatch columnist Slim Smith joins David and Jake to discuss how sports journalism has changed as access gets tighter and why the best work still comes from writers who avoid the herd, show up early, and paint a scene.

David and Slim then turn to a local headline that surprised us: a Bitcoin mining operation in Columbus, running thousands of machines and drawing megawatts of power, raising real questions about the grid, rates, and what crypto “value” even means.

We close with Moak Griffin, CEO of BankFirst, on what community banking looks like after 138 years, why their Columbus headquarters and training campus matter, and how to protect yourself from fraud.