KUT News

Tearing something down is quick, easy, and very gratifying. What is more time-consuming and difficult is creating, building, and constructing. However, as Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about in this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, the reasons why we are more likely to criticize than create aren't just about effort.

The StoryCorps mobile booth was in Austin this January, and we’re bringing you some of the stories that were recorded there. Lucille Harrell recently sat down in the StoryCorps mobile booth with Joni Rogers, a longtime family friend. Joni asked Lucille, who is 93, to talk a little about growing up in Victoria, Texas during the Depression.

With so much information available to us so quickly and easily these days, it might feel as if there is just too much to learn. But encountering massive amounts of information is not the same as actually discerning and then learning what is essential. In this episode of KUT's podcast "Higher Ed," KUT's Jennifer Stayton and Southwestern University President Dr. Ed Burger discuss information saturat...

The slow smoked barbecue famous in Central Texas is slowly spreading nationwide and beyond, but the entirely different barbecue out of Korea has already attained worldwide popularity. Austin has a handful of restaurants specializing in the cuisine, and we spoke to Austin American-Statesman restaurant critic Matthew Odam about his review of one of them: Charm Korean BBQ. Read the review: https://ww...

Travis Audubon was founded in 1952 by visionary Central Texans who recognized the vital connection between conserving wildlife habitat and the ecological balance necessary for healthy, sustainable, and habitable communities.

The nonprofit group South Asian Austin Moms has been working for quite a while now to bring the Smithsonian Institute’s Beyond Bollywood exhibition to Austin. It’s now on display at the Asian American Resource Center. South Asian Austin Moms board members Ami Gandhi, Parul Mehta, and Pooja Sethi talk about bringing "Beyond Bollywood" to Austin.

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.

Vice President Mike Pence, speaking in Dallas, said that "along the southern border of the U.S.," the government apprehends "seven individuals a day who are either known or suspected terrorists." Is that true? We asked Gardner Selby of PolitiFact Texas. You can read the fact-check here: http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2018/feb/21/mike-pence/pants-fire-mike-pences-claim-about-nabbing-7-t...

The StoryCorps mobile booth was in Austin this January, and we’re bringing you some of the stories that are being recorded there. Timothy Hobbs and his wife Donna Walker-Nixon shared a conversation in the mobile booth while it was in Austin. They’re both authors, but they typically don’t read each other’s work. While in the StoryCorps booth, they took the opportunity to talk a bit about their writ...

Poet Maggie Smith talks about her poem "The Mother" with poet and novelist Carrie Fountain. https://maggiesmithpoet.com/ http://waxwingmag.org/items/Issue9/26_Smith-The-Mother.php

The StoryCorps mobile booth is in Austin this month, and we’re bringing you some of the stories that are being recorded there. Chad Seales recently sat down in the StoryCorps mobile booth with his wife Emily. Adopted into a loving family as a baby, Chad had no interest in seeking out his birth parents for forty years. But recently, he made the decision to find out more about his biological family.

The Sci-Fi sex comedy "Agent Andromeda: The Orion Crusade" opens this week at the Ground Floor Theater. Playwright Reina Hardy, producer/performer Ginger Snaps and performers Lola LeStrange and Shannon Grounds talk about the show.

It might seem odd that when we have so much entertainment at our fingertips every day that anyone still treks out to see live theatre. However, as Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke discuss in this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, psychologically we may get more from a visit to our local playhouse than we think.

How do you persuade someone to examine - and maybe change - their thinking, especially when it comes to broad societal issues such as equality, diversity, and fairness? The YWCA Greater Austin has launched a two-year Community Partnership Initiative to train other organizations to apply a gender- and racial-justice framework to their work. The training sessions encourage people to explore and refl...

A trade magazine Southwest Farm Press wrote in its January 2018 news story, "Texas is home to more feral pigs than any other state — an estimated 50 percent to 75 percent of all feral swine in the nation." Is that true? We asked Gardner Selby of PolitiFact Texas. Read the fact-check here: http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2018/feb/01/southwest-farm-press/more-feral-hogs-texas-than-any-oth...

The StoryCorps mobile booth is in Austin this month, and we’re bringing you some of the stories that are being recorded there. Locally recorded stories will air Monday and Wednesday mornings during Morning Edition. Lacey Saye and Caroline Kittelson have been best friends since meeting at school in the small town of Celeste, Texas, more than twenty-five years ago. They recently sat down in the Stor...

After more than ten years of research Berry has come up with the first book to chronicle the economic value of enslaved people through every period of their lives — including preconception, infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, their senior years, and death.

Haven’t we all seen couples in a restaurant or bar… sitting across from each other at the same table… with their faces in their phones?! KUT's Jennifer Stayton wanted to find out why couples do that, so a little before Valentine's Day 2018 she checked in with Central Texas psychotherapist, Licensed Professional Counselor Intern and relationship intervention specialist Junice Rockman and author and...

Making decisions - large and small - is not always easy. We are called upon to make countless decisions in life, but are we ever given some effective tools for doing that? In this episode of KUT's podcast "Higher Ed," KUT's Jennifer Stayton and Southwestern University President Dr. Ed Burger discuss how what we learn in our formal education can be used to help us make better decisions.

Poet Diane Seuss talks with poet and novelist Carrie Fountain about the how writing her poem "Song in My Heart" gave her strength after a devastating divorce. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/53141/song-in-my-heart https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/diane-seuss http://www.carriefountain.com/

The StoryCorps mobile booth is in Austin this month, and we’re bringing you some of the stories that are being recorded there. Locally recorded stories will air Monday and Wednesday mornings during Morning Edition. Amelia Lewis recently sat down in the StoryCorps mobile booth with her ex-husband, Carlo Bligh. Though the two are no longer married, they remain friends and have dedicated themselves t...

This is too good to leave on the cutting room floor. Dr. Art Markman explains new research on how dogs read human facial expressions and what it could tell us about how they think.

This is too good to leave on the cutting room floor. Dr. Art Markman explains new research on how dogs read human facial expressions and what it could tell us about how they think.

We are as transfixed as you are by the Westminster Dog Show. So on this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about why we want to know what our lovely pups are thinking.

A new study of civic activity in Texas finds some of the reasons behind the state's notoriously low voter turnout rate and some glimmers of hope for more political participation. We spoke to Susan Nold, director of The Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life at the University of Texas. Check out the Civic Health Index here: https://moody.utexas.edu/centers/strauss/texas-civic-health-index Photo b...