KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts
KUT and KUTX news and music podcasts for Austin, Texas and beyond
In this bonus episode, Brazilian journalist and podcaster Filipe Speck explores the Austin Music Scene from his perspective as someone visiting the city for the first time.
Filipe is the co-founder of Matinal
You can listen to Filipe’s podcast Noites Gregas.
Where there’s smoke there’s, a lack of oversight? Calls for greater accountability in the aftermath of fires in the nation’s petrochemical capitol. Plus, a year and a half after the deadly mass shooting at Sutherland Springs a new chapter opens for the church and the community, we’ll take a look. Also, the difficulty of getting closure after the death of a loved one. Why it may be taking longer here in Texas. And at what price Whataburger? 6 billion dollars? The iconic Texas brand explores a possible sale. Those stories and so much more today on the Texas Standard:
9 people dead, 22 others injured, since 2006 because of natural gas leaks. What are Texas regulators doing about it? An investigative reporter with the Dallas Morning News tells us about dangers facing homeowners due to natural gas leaks and the failure of Texas regulators to to hold companies accountable. We’ll hear details. And going up? Normally gas prices drift lower as we move into fall, but a 4 year high in the price of crude today has some worried. We’ll look at what’s behind it. And our attitude toward doctors: bad for our health? All of that and then some coming up today on the Texas Standard:
The Trump Administration wants changes to a long-held agreement affecting young immigrants held in detention. We’ll take a look at what that would mean here in Texas. Also, it’s been quite a week in Brazil. An attack on a political candidate, a major fire, and now it’s Independence Day. We’ll talk to a Brazilian with a Texas perspective. And do you know what a gun is? It’s actually a lot more complicated than you might think. Why the question may be more important than the debate over 3D printing weapons. Plus we’ll question some of the common narratives about Texas history. And we’ll take a little escape to the movies. All that, politics, the Typewriter Rodeo and so much more on today’s Texas Standard:
A federal judge struck down another Texas abortion law. We’ll take a look at what this ruling means and what’s next for the ongoing fight. Also- have you been paying attention at all to what’s happening in Venezuela? It’s bad. But what should the U.S. do about it? We’ll get one perspective. Plus Texas is trying address the impacts of denying hundreds of thousands of students special education. Unraveling the challenge. And the next time you go to a live concert your experience could be enhanced by some new technology. We’ll explore. Plus… why you may want to take a trip to Mount Vernon, Texas and what you’re really smelling when you think you smell rain. All that and a whole lot more today on the Texas Standard:
President Trump has set some ideas in motion: a budget proposal and an infrastructure plan. We’ll break down what it could all mean for Texas. Also tne issue leaders across Texas are trying to sort out – just how and where they’re supposed to get money needed to fulfill their end of an infrastructure bargain. We’ll get some perspective from the Gulf Coast. Plus, more women on the ballot all across the state this year. But not all of them get to take advantage of funds designed to support female candidates, we’ll explain. And could space tourism and private manufacturing soon take over the International Space Station? All of that and a whole lot more today on the Texas Standard:
A Deadly Deluge as Texas flooding makes national headlines….warnings continue thru the week. Has this become the new normal? We’ll explore. Also in a year of unpredictable politics, what trumps a Trump? Anyone wanna bet on a constitutional convention? You sure about that? And nearly a third of all small businesses are victims of a crime where the culprit is right under the bosses nose…we’ll crunch the numbers. Plus: when pigs fly…off the shelves, that is…why Spanish sows could give Texas cows a run for their money. And is Texas the new Brazil? All that and more today on the Texas Standard:
In this episode of The Write Up, we talk with prizewinning journalist and nonfiction writer Juliana Barbassa about her book Dancing with the Devil in the City of God: Rio de Janeiro on the Brink depicting the beauty, crime, pressures, and violent paradoxes shaping Brazil’s most vibrant city.
Juliana Barbassa has lived and written all over the world. Born in Brazil, she has lived in Iraq, Spain, Malta, Libya, France, and the United States. As a journalist, her ability to dive in and find the human face in the most desperate of stories won her acclaim including the Katie Journalism Award, the emerging journalist of the year by the U.S.-based National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and the John L. Dougherty award by the Associated Press Managing Editors.
In 2003, Barbassa joined the Associated Press and returned to her home country of Brazil to be the Rio de Janeiro correspondent. There she found a city in the midst of massive growth and explosive change. Poverty and crime still plagued much of the city, but Rio was also enjoying an influx of new business and international attention. This attention increased when Rio won the hosting honors of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games. Rio now feels the pressure to grow into the ideal Brazilian city, at least in appearance, at an accelerated pace.
Barbassa’s book is not one of dry economics or global public relations. Instead Barbassa shares the narrative of a city and its people in the midst of radical transformation. She zooms in on the people and places that give Rio its complex character. We meet criminals and prostitutes, shopkeepers and mothers, police officers and children. Barbassa’s journalistic instincts drive her into heart of the story, often putting herself in mortal danger as police stand off with drug lords or raze impoverished neighborhoods to the ground.
Her own story of returning to Brazil and experiencing the tension pulling at Rio firsthand gives the book a memoiric thread. Her intense feelings for the city serve to enliven her excellent research.
On the Write Up we discuss her thirst for stories as a journalist, her willingness to investigate the darker narratives, and her struggle to care for herself, both physically and psychologically, while reporting on violence and brutality.
She also gives us insight as to how her life and career led her all over the world and eventually back to Brazil. And how her growing desire to explore the strange contradictions of Rio led to writing this book.
When talking with Barbassa, you sense the conflicting feelings she has for Rio. There’s a real love as she describes the smells and sights, and unflinching honesty as she chronicles the hardships of the disenfranchised city. She highlights the extremes of this incredible city where natural beauty and corruption both thrive. It is her ability to love the city as a local while also maintaining the critical distance of an investigator that gives this book such depth.