Studio SPJ will kick off a series of podcasts called "The Road to Nashville"  previewing our upcoming Excellence in Journalism 2014 conference on Sept. 4-6.

Ken Paulson will be our guest for the first of these broadcasts on Thursday at 3 p.m. / 2 p.m. Central time. (Please note: this program was rescheduled from an earlier broadcast date.)

Paulson is the dean of Middle Tennessee State University's College of Mass Communication. He previously has served a president of the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University, as president of the Newseum in Washington D.C. and as editor-in-chief at USA Today.

We'll be talking to Ken about Freedom Sings, a musical program at the convention featuring songs that were once banned as well as the tribute planned for the late John Seigenthaler, the former editor of The Tennessean and founder of the First Amendment Center.