Texas Overture

Hey everyone, and welcome back… This week, we’re happy to sit down with author and political commentator David Griscom to discuss his debut book, The Myth of Red Texas: Cowboys, Populism, and Class War in the Radical South. There is a commonly held belief that conservatism and rugged individualism run through the veins of Texas. In an innate sort of way like the tributaries of the Guadalupe, the F...

Hi everyone… we’re back! In this episode, we take a research trip down to the Texas-Mexico border to view a portion of the 335+ fading pictographs scattered across the rocky walls of Seminole Canyon… Through this, we discuss the work of artist Mary Virginia Carson and cognitive anthropologist and muralist Dr. Carolyn Boyd; the White Shaman mural; Mesoamerican mythology; fragrant offerings through...

After a two-year hiatus, Faith and Camille are finally back with a new episode of Texas Overture! In this installment, we go on a journey through time from 1920s San Antonio to 1950s Austin. We end up, of course, in the year of 2026, where we discuss how air conditioning has transformed both the world around us and the world inside. Our special guest for this episode is Sachin Benny, writer of Sum...

We explore the life of "Border Healing Woman" Jewel Babb. Babb lived for nearly 90 years in the West Texas desert as a mystical healer, mother, and goat herder. Source: "Border Healing Woman" by Pat Littledog

Fellow Texan Sam Cummins of Nymphet Alumni fame joins us for our Valentines's Day special. Together we explore the life of a notorious Texas jeweler of legend. James Avery is known for his tinkling silver charm bracelets, sleazy love life, and vigorous Episcopalianism. We discuss the TX archetype of The James Avery Girl, sleep away camps, talismanic charms throughout the ages, charm bracelets...

2023... what a year! We catch each other up on our personal lives ( Faith journeyed to West Texas, Camille ritualistically burned effigies) then list the films, books and songs we had on heavy rotation in the past calendar year. Plus, as a special end of year treat, we answer select calls from TO listeners.

In honor of the Christmas season and the recent feast day, we pay respects to the Virgin Mary and her place in South Central Texas culture. We discuss Mary as a unifying maternal figures, Juan Diego and the Virgin de Guadalupe, Ingo Swann’s “The Great Apparitions of Mary,” and the implications of Marian apparitions around the world. Plus, we’re joined by our friend Abby to talk briefly about her e...

Wrangling tumbleweeds, we explore the deception and promise of the West Texas desert, Baudrillard, the mythology of Marfa, Donald Judd's unique criticism and minimalism, the viability of artist enclaves, the precarity of small towns, 10,000 year old clocks, the rise of 'instagrammable spots', survival, surveillance, etc.

We're back -- and we're developing a Spiritual Map of Texas. Born from a dream Faith had, we each select a special TX location and unravel its many layers on historical, emotional, geological and geomagnetic levels...

We are joined by friends from Campo de Estrellas, a conservation burial cemetery in Bastrop County. We discuss contemporary burial practices in Texas, climate concerns, the allure of lingering in cemeteries, being a good ancestor, memory in land, death in industrialization, and more. Companion reading: Campo de Estrellas website https://campodeestrellas.co At Rest in the Fields by Sarah Wambold ht...

We discuss legendary Texas artist Jerry Hunt, a pioneering presence in the development of electronic composition and experimental new music. Influenced by everyone from John Cage to John Dee, Hunt was a virtuosic pianist by trade who made his name through his experimental, interactive, and technical way of making music. He is noted for incorporating celestial alphabets and occult themes in the com...

We discuss the legacy of Don Pedro, the famous South Texan curandero, healer, and folk saint. We are joined by Ixa, a Texas woman whose great-grandmother actually studied under the man in question, for a broader discussion contextualizing modern spirituality, her family's experiences with 'the healer of Los Olmos Creek,' herbalism, prayer, and more.

We explore the glamorous and enterprising heyday of hot healing water resorts in Texas — from Mineral Wells to Marlin. Many of these places were built (late 1800s-early1900s) around natural, mineral imbued springs that were said to have a wide variety of benefits. The attracted everyone from Hollywood elites, grifters, miracle workers, and magnetic healers. Many of them have fallen to ruin. Plus,...

In this special episode of Texas Overture, we break traditional narrative form to enact an eerie dream Faith had one fateful night. Armed with our metal detector and a reservoir of "summer feeling" we explore the rich and colorful scent pathways and silent forces of various outdoor locations in our local environment. Listen for: Jonathan Richmond, dispatches from the dreamworld, memory m...

Zoyd Wheeler (@ShakenJack) joins us in the East Texas wilderness to discuss the Archives of the Impossible conference, inter-dimensional love, Husserlian phenomenology, the perils of tragic romance with orbs of light, Medieval mystics Hildegard of Bingen and Margery Kempe, near death experiences, UFOs & the Nation of Islam, disinformation campaigns, Raymond Carver, small town legends, and more...

A special bonus episode of Texas Overture... We break down our upcoming road trip to the big Archives of the Impossible Conference at Rice University.

We discuss the state of cryptozoology in Texas, industrial dance music, Texas Bigfoot, time slips, science, and "The Big Bird" with local cryptozoologist Ken Gerhard.

We dive into alchemy, the unconscious, and the strange visionary life of Forrest Bess — the East Texas shrimp fisherman, outsider artist, and mystic.