New Mexico in Focus (A Production of NMPBS)

Lou DiVizio chats with the policy director from Common Cause New Mexico, Mason Graham, about several measures moving through the Roundhouse that would modernize our state legislature. Graham explains Common Cause's mission and how changes like paying lawmakers could help them craft better policy. Host: Lou DiVizio Guest: Mason Graham, Policy Director, Common Cause New Mexico

Senior Producer Lou DiVizio asks two students and a law professor how their proposal to create a task force to analyze desegregating gendered acting categories at the Oscars reached the doorsteps of Hollywood. Host: Lou DiVizio Guests: Abigail McCoy, UNM Constitutional Law Student, Proposal Contributor Devrah Fung, UNM Constitutional Law Student, Proposal Contributor Lawrence Jones, UNM Adjunct Pr...

Lou DiVizio opens the show with updates on several items in the state legislature, including concern from democrats over federal budget plans that threaten to cut Medicaid funding. Then, Politics Correspondent Gwyneth Doland asks two former lawmakers how this year’s legislative session is shaping up. Former state senators Mark Moores and Eric Griego discuss the state's budget and a package of...

KUNM's Megan Kamerick interviews Emily Kaltenbach, the state's top official focused on aging, who tells us how officials are preparing financially for an expected boom in our elderly population. Host: Lou DiVizio Correspondent: Megan Kamerick Guest: Emily Kaltenbach, Secretary Designate, NM Aging and Long-Term Services Department 

Lou DiVizio opens the podcast with headlines from around the state including the resignation of the Bernalillo County Undersheriff in the ongoing federal DWI corruption investigation. Then, Politics Correspondent Gwyneth Doland speaks with state representatives Nathan Small and Cathrynn Brown about the state budget as the 60-day legislative session passes the midway point. Gwyneth also talks with...

According to the state Health Department, young people in New Mexico are subjected to the highest rates of adverse childhood experiences in the nation. These experiences, known as ACEs, can add up and have devastating effects on children. Senior Producer Lou DiVizio sits down with Dr. Evelyn Plumb, a clinical psychologist with UNM's Project ECHO, to talk about a program focused on counteractin...

Lou DiVizio introduces a conversation between KUNM's Megan Kamerick and Chip Conley, an expert on aging. Conley reframes what it means to grow old and contribute to society and explains what an expected boom in New Mexico's elderly population could mean for our state. Host: Lou DiVizio Correspondent: Megan Kamerick Guest: Chip Conley, Founder, Modern Elder Academy 

Lou DiVizio opens the podcast with some headlines from around the state including news of a public safety package passed by the state House of Representatives over the weekend. Then, Politics Correspondent Gwyneth Doland catches us up on several high-profile health care bills introduced at the Roundhouse. She speaks with Fred Nathan from Think New Mexico about a bipartisan bill aimed at changing o...

KUNM's Megan Kamerick speaks with journalist and author Kyle Paoletta about multiculturalism in New Mexico and his new book, "American Oasis: Finding the Future in the Cities of the Southwest." Host: Lou DiVizio Correspondent: Megan Kamerick Guest: Kyle Paoletta, Journalist and Author, “American Oasis: Finding the Future in the Cities of the Southwest” 

This week, Politics Correspondent Gwyneth Doland asks state Democratic lawmakers about their efforts to protect undocumented immigrants from a Trump administration that's ramping up raids across the country. Then, Lou DiVizio speaks with Archbishop John Wester in response to President Trump's decision to roll back back immigration protections for schools, health care facilities and places...

Executive Producer Jeff Proctor asks longtime civil rights lawyer Peter Cubra and Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman where the two find common ground when considering the future of criminal justice in our state. First, Jeff asks what they would like to see accomplished at the Roundhouse during this year's legislative session. Then, Bregman and Cubra consider whether bills intended...

This week on New Mexico in Focus, politics correspondent Gwyneth Doland sits down with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to discuss her top agenda items during this year's legislative session. In the first half of their discussion, the governor is asked how she plans to shield state programs that might be put on the financial chopping block by President Donald Trump. Gwyneth also asks the governor how s...

Source New Mexico's Danielle Prokop sits with Our Land's Laura Paskus to look back at Laura’s time as a reporter and senior producer at New Mexico PBS. Host: Lou DiVizio Correspondent: Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico Guest: Laura Paskus For More Information: Final issue of Our Land Weekly! – Our Land 'Our Land' host Laura Paskus to leave NMPBS – KUNM   

Lou DiVizio starts out the podcast with headlines from around New Mexico, including news of a plea deal in the federal investigation of alleged corruption in APD's DWI unit. Politics correspondent Gwyneth Doland speaks with former state senator Dede Feldman and former state representative Justine Fox-Young about Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s State of the State address. Gwyneth asks whether thi...

Senior Producer Lou DiVizio interviews educator and Democratic state Rep. Andrés Romero about potential changes to federal education policy. Romero, who chairs the Legislative Education Study Committee, says he’s preparing for the possibility of cuts to Title I funding. Correspondent: Lou DiVizio Guest: G. Andrés Romero, (D) NM State Representative, District 10, Bernalillo County  For More Informa...

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham addresses the Legislature with her State of the State speech from the Capitol on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. This is the Democratic governor's seventh annual address and her third since reelection.

Joshua Bowling, an investigative reporter at Searchlight New Mexico sits down with state Attorney General Raúl Torrez to talk about the lawsuit over a $1.9 million buyout for Western New Mexico University’s outgoing president, Joseph Shepard. Bowling broke the story of lavish spending and other possible misconduct at the school in 2023. This week, he asks Torrez how the alleged misuse of public mo...

Lou DiVizio starts the podcast this week with headlines from around the state, including news New Mexico snowpacks are smaller than usua l so far this year. Then, Politics Correspondent Gwyneth Doland interviews three journalists to preview the  2025 legislative session, which begins next week in Santa Fe. Trip Jennings, executive director of New Mexico In Depth, Julia Goldberg, editor-in-chief at...

Lou DiVizio introduces the first podcast episode of 2025 with headlines from around the state. That includes a ruling from the State Supreme Court prohibiting counties and cities from restricting access to abortion . Then, Executive Producer Jeff Proctor interviews U.S. Attorney Alexander Uballez during what will likely be his last days on the job as Donald Trump prepares for a second term in the...

Lou DiVizio introduces an interview from Correspondent Antonia Gonzales as she interviews two New Mexicans about President Joe Biden's recent apology for Native American Boarding School Policies. Dr. Joannie Suina (Pueblo of Cochiti) from the Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition and Gerilyn Tolino (Diné), a descendent of boarding school survivors explain why they see this just as a fi...

Lou DiVizio introduces an interview between Executive Producer Jeff Proctor and Sophia Genovese, Managing Attorney at the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center. Genovese tells us how advocates and lawmakers are already working on new ways to push back against a second Trump administration and a president-elect who campaigned on the promise of “mass deportations.” Correspondent: Jeff Proctor Guest: Sophi...

Lou DiVizio opens the show with headlines from around the state, including a new lawsuit filed against the state's Children Youth and Families Department by a current employee. That employee claims actions by a superior in the department led to the death of a child who had once been under state care. Then, Lou talks to journalist Shaun Griswold about what's next for Indigenous communities as the n...

A study published in September shoes Project ECHO's online mentoring model effectively teaches rural healthcare providers how to better care for their patients. Executive Producer Jeff Proctor speaks with doctors Matthew Bouchonville and Tamara Singleton about how Project ECHO's new diabetes care courses are already changing the lives of rural New Mexicans. Host: Lou DiVizio Correspondent: Jeff Pr...

Earlier this year, Arturo Sandoval, founding director of the Center of Southwest Culture, appeared on the show to talk about his role in organizing the first Earth Day in 1970. Now he’s back, talking about how to protect the federal environment laws Congress passed in that era. Host: Lou DiVizio Correspondent: Laura Paskus Guest: Arturo Sandoval, Founding Director, Center of Southwest Culture 

Lou DiVizio opens the podcast with headlines from around the state including news the city of Las Cruces will pay a $20M settlement in the deadly police shooting of an unarmed woman. After that, Executive Producer Jeff Proctor speaks with the legal and policy directors from the ACLU of New Mexico about what a second Trump administration could mean for civil rights protections in our state. Jeff as...