KUT News

Arts Eclectic: Tango with El Cachivache by KUT News

Poet and novelist Carrie Fountain talks with poet Natalie Diaz about her poetry project with Ada Limón for the New Yorker, "Envelopes of Air", and much more.

Austin is a city of renters: 55 percent of households in the city rent. That number drops slightly, but not much, when you look at Travis County. That got Audrey McGlinchy wondering – how common are evictions? What she found surprised her. On average of 12 Travis County families a day are evicted from their homes. In the first of four stories in a series, we learn exactly how evictions work and ho...

Can you remember what it was like for you to learn your native language? Probably not, but why is that? As humans, we begin learning to speak our native language during the earliest stages of our lives, in infancy. Most people don’t have many accessible memories from this period of development. How do we do that? If we can learn a language in our infant stages of life, why is it so difficult to le...

The StoryCorps mobile booth was in Austin in January, and we’re bringing you some of the stories that were recorded there. Larisa Dávila and her 6 month-old son Alejandro sat down in the StoryCorps mobile booth with Larisa’s good friend Alma Gloria. As baby Alejandro played with his rattle toy, the women talked about growing up in Nuevo Laredo and about their dreams. One desperately wanted to leav...

Test scores... transcripts... essays... teacher recommendations. College applications are a quest for students to try and put their best foot forward and demonstrate why that school should accept them. In this episode of KUT's podcast "Higher Ed," Southwestern University President Dr. Ed Burger and KUT's Jennifer Stayton discuss the art and the science of college applications and address some comm...

Fall means the new school year is well underway; so is the new football season; and midterm elections are coming up soon. It seems like whether our team or our candidate loses, people have a harder time being good sports or gracious losers these days. Competition is key, and losing can trigger emotional and volatile responses. Why does losing hit us so hard? KUT's Jennifer Stayton talked recently...

As the only African American female in her UT/Austin law class. Murphy has long been a champion of diversity issues. As a young girl growing up in the Buckhead section of Atlanta, GA she recognized early on that fighting injustice and inequality would be her life calling.

Wizard World returns to Austin this weekend, and as always, it’s a celebration of all things pop culture and sci-fi. There’ll be celebrity guests, panel discussions, and plenty of costumes, of course, and there’ll also be a handful of local artists, like sci-fi novelist Henry Melton and artist Sean Russell.

Musician Darden Smith has just released the book 'The Habit of Noticing.' It’s a collection of memories, photos, drawings, and bits of advice written in a style that’s somewhere between prose and poetry, all centered around the theme of living a creative life.

The StoryCorps mobile booth was in Austin in January, and we’re bringing you some of the stories that were recorded there. Locally recorded stories will air on Monday mornings during Morning Edition and archived here. Cristina Helmerichs sat down in the StoryCorps mobile booth with her good friend Bibi Lobo. They talked about Cristina’s longstanding job as a court interpreter, but started by talki...

A summer op-ed in the New York Times (no, not that op-ed!) was headlined "Make Your Daughter Practice Math. She'll Thank You Later." The author, an engineering professor, believes girls would benefit from more drilling on math to "break the cycle of dislike-avoidance-further dislike" and help them build confidence in their math skills (which research has shown are pretty similar to boys' math skil...

Anger is an interesting emotion. It creates energy and can be contagious, it can also motivate you to act. But it's not always the most effective form of motivation if you want to get people to think and work together to create change. On this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the psychology of weaponizing anger.

This weekend, Lucky Chaos Productions is presenting '30 Heroes in 60 Minutes,' a collection of 30 mini plays on the subject of heroes and heroism, all created by the cast. Ensemble member Hollis Lapree Edwards III and director Leng Wong talk about the show.

Dr. Patrice A. Harris, is a practicing psychiatrist in Atlanta, GA. She was recently chosen to be the 174th president of the American Medical Association. She will serve one year as president-elect and in 2019 she will become the first African American female to lead the organization.

Time flies when you're having fun, the old saying goes. But how can time – maybe the most fundamental concept of the universe – feel different under different conditions? On this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman, and Dr. Bob Duke – break down the factors influencing our perception of time.

Poet and novelist Carrie Fountain talks with poet Tarfia Faizullah about, growing up in Texas, her first memories of writing poetry, and how the loss of her sister in a car accident influenced her poem "West Texas Nocturne."

The StoryCorps mobile booth was in Austin in January, and we’re bringing you some of the stories that were recorded there. Locally recorded stories will air on Monday mornings during Morning Edition and archived here. Lance Blanks, who played basketball at the University of Texas before embarking on a career in the NBA, sat down in the StoryCorps mobile booth with his daughter, Riley. Riley sees h...

Remember those old film strips in school that would advance frame by frame, fueled by an annoying beep? Instructional media has certainly improved quite a bit since those days. In this episode of KUT's podcast "Higher Ed," Southwestern University President Dr. Ed Burger and KUT's Jennifer Stayton discuss the evolution of the instructional video as an educational tool. Modern versions feature more...

“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Versions of that saying have been attributed to different people throughout history, but you get the idea : we have a lot to learn from where we have already been. The new Director of the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas believes the tumultuous year of 1968 has a lot of lessons for us today. Dr. Kyle Longley came to the LBJ L...

Nix spent two and half decades in law enforcement – first as a central Texas police officer and later with the Texas Department of Public Safety, which included more than 10 years as a Texas Ranger.

Austin Youth River Watch transforms and inspires youth through environmental education, community engagement, and adventure. As a result of our work, youth are better prepared to create positive outcomes for themselves and the environment, ensuring a better future for all.

The StoryCorps mobile booth was in Austin in January, and we’re bringing you some of the stories that were recorded there. Locally recorded stories will air on Monday mornings during Morning Edition and archived here. Sandra Molinari and Lisa Pous are friends and co-workers at the SAFE Alliance, which serves the survivors of child abuse, domestic violence, and sexual assault. But when they met, Sa...

A few weeks ago we came across an article on "The Cheerleader Effect," or the idea that people seem more attractive in a group than in isolation. Although there does seem to be evidence that this is true, we couldn't help but speculate as to why. In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the possible psychology behind this phenomenon.

This September, Austin Playhouse is presenting Lisa B. Thompson’s play 'Monroe.' Though this is the world premier production, Thompson originally wrote the work two decades ago. Director Lara Toner Haddock, playwright Lisa B. Thompson, and actors Crystal Bird Caviel and Kriston Woodreaux talk about the play.