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KUT and KUTX news and music podcasts for Austin, Texas and beyond
We might take rules for granted. For example, we all know that 55 mph means 62 mph, and that crosswalks are for leisure time–just kidding. But, seriously, do we ever wonder why we make rules in the first place?
In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke, talk about why we make rules, and why it’s important to talk about it.
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.
“Why do some people think that the rules don’t apply to them?” That is a question one listener tweeted us a few weeks ago. It turns out that the idea of rules and rule breaking opens up a Pandora’s Box of complexities that it’s gonna take more than one show to unpack.
In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke take on a few of the psychological issues around rules.
People are interesting animals. We look to many things to help us understand our place and identity in this world. We have maps, passports, languages, families, clothes, books and (among so much more) we also have food.
At first thought, we might not consider food as part of our identity. We might have toast for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, soup for dinner and go to bed not thinking much about how that relationship to food constructs, not only your psychical bodies, but also our national identities.
We might not think much of it, but anthropologist Arjun Appadurai does.
“It is the most artificial thing that humans have ever built,” says Appadurai of nationalism. “That seems the most natural.”
In this edition of The Secret Ingredient, Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy talk with Dr. Arjun Appadurai about food and nationalism – food trucks, Maggi noodles, cook books and much more.
Some might say that as long as you have your needs covered, the amount of money you have is irrelevant to your happiness. While for others, money has a lot to do with well-being. As Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke discuss in this show, the ratio of money to happiness has more to do with you, than with what’s in your wallet.
In this special SXSW edition of Two Guys on Your Head, KUT’s Rebecca McInroy joins Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke in a discussion about the myth of invention and the process of creativity.
When it comes to imagination and happiness, it turns out there’s a lot going on. If you think, as William Arthur Ward said, “If you can imagine it, you can achieve it; if you can dream it, you can become it,” you might be in for a surprise when it comes to well-being.
In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about why it’s important to manage our exceptions and goals, and enjoy the moments in the process of becoming, in order live happier lives.
Have you ever been in a situation that you just can’t see your way out of? Have you ever been stuck on a path you did not want to follow? In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about how we can practice gaining experiences that can help us imagine different possibilities for a future we never knew we wanted, to get out of a present we’re not happy with.
Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy talk with peasant farmer Blain Snipstal about the history of agriculture and racism in America, power, food sovereignty, La Via Campesina, land, and much more.
In this special SXSW edition of The Secret Ingredient, Tom Philpott, Rebecca McInroy and Raj Patel talk about technologies that will shape the future of food. Technologies, as it turns out, that might surprise you, mainly biodiversity, and gender equality.
Listen back to this discussion, recorded live at the Convention Center in Austin, Texas for SXSW 2016.
“While no one would argue that Bolivian farmers shouldn’t get a good price for their crop, these trends cannot be ignored—or left up to global market forces. Perhaps most tragic of all is that this boom (and booms are always followed by a bust) is leading the poorest, most vulnerable farmers to degrade their own environment—i.e. the material basis for their very survival and cultural identity—in the name of short-term food security.” Tanya Kerseen “Quinoa: To Buy or Not to Buy…Is This the Right Question?”
In this edition of TSI, Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy talk qunioa with Tanya Kerssen, author of Grabbing Power: The New Struggles for Land, Food, and Democracy in Northern Honduras.
I’ve long been a fan of the beautifully dark and bitingly funny fiction of Amelia Gray. Her short story collections AM/PM, Museum of the Weird, and most recently Gutshot rank among my favorite books to pick up for a quick, smiling nightmare.
Her novel Threats digs deeply into grief and melancholy, so deeply that the pages seem soaked in an unstable sadness, a madness that runs through the characters, the setting, and the prose itself. As NPR described it, “Amelia Gray’s psychological thriller takes us to the brink between reality and delusion.”
The dream logic and expansive bizarreness of Amelia Gray’s fiction can have a reader gasp and laugh in the same shudder. Compassion and outlandish cruelty hold hands, and it’s the combination of these opposing elements that make Gray’s work such a delight to read. We squirm, we laugh, we turn the page.
Like Kelly Link and Manuel Gonzales, Gray is part of a modern tradition that seeks to re-mystify the world. The inexplicable becomes the norm. But her writing is in no way escapism. Magic and monsters can appear, but more frightening still are the grounded-in-reality lovers and mothers.
Gray has also been compared to David Lynch and even body-horror filmmaker David Cronenberg. She dips into horror, but it’s a stranger, more nerve-tickling horror than you’d expect from the establishment of the genre.
To read Gray is to risk. She takes readers to dark, honest places. And like a nightmare, we may dispute the logic, but the emotion and terror are inescapable. Her stories and essays has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, VICE, and The Wall Street Journal.
Gray came to the KUT studios while visiting Austin from her home in Los Angeles. We chatted craft, risk, and the joys of writing. We talk about her writing routine and how she mines her own fears and desire to inspire her fiction. We also trace her career and how she sees herself in the current literary scene.
It’s always a treat to talk with Amelia Gray. Her imagination, wit, and insight ensure any conversation will shine. And, like her stories, humor and darkness weave through all her words.
-Owen Egerton
When the unexpected happens, some people shut down, while others are cool as cucumbers. We might think that the people who handle crisis well, are just born that way, perhaps they are just flexible.
However, in this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke, talk about how the more you know, and the more experiences you have help you to become a more flexible person, and why it’s important to learn to deal calmly with whatever comes your way.
Why do we give gifts? Why can giving gifts be stressful? What are the gifts that really matter? What are the gifts that people will remember?
In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke, talk about the psychology of gift giving.
Why do we confess when we feel bad about something we’ve done or haven’t done? What is the evolutionary benefit of confession? In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke explore the psychology of confession.
What is Golden Rice? If you know the answer to that question chances are you have a strong opinion on it. That is because a lot of the rhetoric swirling around Golden Rice is heated, but many times ill informed.
Golden Rice is a technology that was developed in the 1990s to try to make the endosperm of rice contain beta-carotene. It’s been hailed as having nutritional possibilities that could, “save a million kids a year,” according to Time Magazine.
Yet, as Tom Philpott asks in his article for Mother Jones, “If golden rice is such a panacea, why does it flourish only in headlines, far from the farm fields where it’s intended to grow?”
In this edition of The Secret Ingredient we talk with Dr. Glenn Davis Stone. His research on environmental anthropology, political ecology, food studies, and science & technology studies, takes a deep look into the world of GMOs and the science behind them.
About the hosts:
Raj Patel is an award winning food writer, activist and academic. The author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System, and his latest, The Value of Nothing, is a New York Times best-seller.
Tom Philpott is an award winning food writer for Mother Jones, who’s ground-breaking work on almonds exposed a myriad of environmental and ethical issues around almond production in California.
Rebecca McInroy is an executive producer and host for KUT Radio in Austin, Texas. She is the co-creator, producer and host of various podcasts and shows including, Views and Brews, Two Guys on Your Head, Liner Notes, The Write Up, and The Secret Ingredient.
In each episode we chose one food to investigate, and talk with the people who’s life’s work has been to understand the complex systems of production, distribution, marketing and impact, these foods have on our lives.
In this edition of Liner Notes, Rabbi and jazz historian Neil Blumofe talks about the life and legacy of bassist, cellist, and composer Oscar Pettiford.
In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about low information decision making.
On this edition of The Write Up we chat with novelist, playwright, and professor Kirk Lynn about the craft of writing, the adventure of theater, and the deep desire to abandon society and escape into the wild. We also discuss his debut novel Rules for Werewolves.
Lynn began writing prose in college, but found the companionship of his desk and typewriter unsatisfying and so he took a chance on theater. It was on the stage that he found his passion for the human voice. Along with six friends, Lynn founded Austin’s Rude Mechanicals , now called the Rude Mechs. For nearly twenty years this growing company has produced some of the more daring and critically acclaimed plays to come out of Texas, a number of them penned by Lynn including Stop Hitting Yourself and Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century.
Lynn has a gift for voice. Whether he’s writing from the view point of a founding father, a new mother, or a runaway teenager, Kirk inhabits a voice to such depth that we forget the writer and engage the character. Rules for Werewolves is a chorus of voices narrating the struggles of a group of young people attempting to create an mini-utopia in the uninhabited houses of American suburbia. Lynn incorporates chapters of pure dialogue, first person point of view, and poetic inner monologues to trace the compelling story of the societal marginals.
We dive into what drives Lynn as a writer and the disciplines that shape his craft. We also talk about the path his career has taken since his early dreams of writing. We discuss his marriage to poet Carrie Fountain and how becoming parents has influenced both their work.
Lynn is currently Head of Playwriting and Directing in the Department of Theatre and Drama at the University of Texas. We talk about Lynn’s approach to teaching and the strange sensation of standing before a classroom of students as a presumed “expert.”
Years ago Lynn gave up alcohol. The experience has impacted how he approaches life and writing. He talks about drinking and sobriety with humor and insight.
Sitting with Kirk Lynn is a thrill. His energy and wit seem endless. Whether talking about Jack Kerouac, parenting, or public nudity, it’s always a pleasure to hear from this beloved Austin writer.
-Owen Egerton
In this edition of The Secret Ingredient we talk with Gary Nabhan, author of: Chasing Chiles – Hot Spots Along the Pepper Trail; Why Some Like It Hot: Food, Genes and Cultural Diversity; and Cumin, Camels, and Caravans: A Spice Odyssey. Nabhan is an internationally-celebrated nature writer, food and farming activist, and proponent of conserving the links between biodiversity and cultural diversity. He is also the W.K. Kellogg Endowed Chair in Sustainable Food Systems at the University of Arizona Southwest Center, where he works to build a more just, nutritious, sustainable and climate-resilient foodshed spanning the U.S./Mexico border.
About the hosts:
Raj Patel is an award winning food writer, activist and academic. The author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System, and his latest, The Value of Nothing, is a New York Times best-seller.
Tom Philpott is an award winning food writer for Mother Jones, who’s ground-breaking work on almonds exposed a myriad of environmental and ethical issues around almond production in California.
Rebecca McInroy is an executive producer and host for KUT Radio in Austin, Texas. She is the co-creator, producer and host of various podcasts and shows including, Views and Brews, Two Guys on Your Head, Liner Notes, The Write Up, and The Secret Ingredient.
In each episode we chose one food to investigate, and talk with the people who’s life’s work has been to understand the complex systems of production, distribution, marketing and impact, these foods have on our lives.