KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts

KUT and KUTX news and music podcasts for Austin, Texas and beyond

Trump

Texas Standard: June 14, 2017

File under “Texas Two Step”: Texas sues to terminate DACA, the federal government says it won’t fight back. Any guesses who’ll win? The story today on the Texas Standard.

Pete Williams of NBC News tells us about the lawsuit playing out in a Texas courtroom that could do a stealthy end run around orders to keep deferred action for childhood arrivals the law of the land.

Hurricane help from above? The Texas-made satellite that might save lives.

As the World Cup kicks off in Russia, a Texas researcher claims he can tell you the champion today. We’ll hear what’s in his algorithm.

And the virtual battle for your video box getting all too real at E3. Digital savant Omar Gallaga joins us and a whole lot more today on the Standard.

Texas Standard: June 11, 2018

Singapore for the win? Leaving flustered allies in his wake, Donald Trump begins what some think could become a “Nixon in China” moment. The story today on the Standard.

Tomorrow, the world’s media landscape could change in an instant. So say many closely watching a decision expected in Texas-based AT&T’s planned takeover of Time Warner. We’ll hear why the stakes are considered so high.

Is there life on Mars? A skeptical Texas scientist says even she’s surprised by new findings which suggest the answer may be yes.

The family of a former Longhorn sues the NCAA. Why the case could become a landmark over the issue of head injuries. All those stories and much more today on the Texas Standard.

Texas Standard: April 13, 2018

Though you may have heard about James Comey’s book, have you heard how the president may be planning to fire back? The scoop on Scooter today on the Texas Standard.

Long before President Trump claimed to be the target of a witch hunt, the ally of a powerful Texan complained he too was the target of one. Why Dick Cheney’s onetime teammate Scooter Libby is making headlines.

Also, you’ve heard of the calm before the storm, what about the storm that follows the storm? Why Texas lawmakers are worried about economic blowback post-Harvey.

And one of the best known actors in Hollywood keeps his heart and his home in Texas. Matthew McConaughey talks about Wooderson, guns and the samurai way.

Texas Standard: March 1, 2018

Texas based Academy Sports sticks to its guns, but fans of the AR 15 face a new backlash, including perhaps from the White House. The story today on the Texas Standard.

Lloyd Doggett & Beto O’Rourke among the Texans in Congress writing a letter to the Speaker of the House. The message: time to rethink the blank check for the US military in Syria. There’s a reason this push may have traction, and we’ll hear why.

Attention Texas home renters, have you double checked your contract? A warning about so called landlord’s liens.

Also, sworn to secrecy: Army vets come out of the shadows claiming health problems tied to top secret experiments.

Texas Standard: January 17, 2018

The big freeze—it’s not just a buzzphrase for Texans right now as congress is stuck over DACA and the threat of a government shutdown. The search for a thaw today on the Standard

The Trump Department of Justice asks the Supreme Court to intervene over a California judge’s order to keep DACA going. We’ll hear why that judge’s move has become a controversy in legal circles.

Also Governor Abbott’s opening volley in his reelection bid: property taxes.

And a solution for Texas schoolkids living in poverty: weekday boarding?

Also after a false alarm in Hawaii–parents talking about apocalypse with their children.

And what’s the key to keeping your car from getting stolen? A politifact-check and more today on the Texas Standard.

Texas Standard: September 22, 2017

After Trump, after a special session, after Harvey—where does Texas go from here? From the biggest annual political event in the Lone Star State, this is the Texas Standard.

With the federal government in the hands of republicans, what kind of mark is Texas making on American politics right now?

This is the place to ask such questions: tonight’s the kickoff of the Texas Tribune festival–a weekend in the Texas capitol city devoted to all things Lone Star politics.

From what to do about interminable commutes to the role of Texas cities in climate change —and we assume, of course you can name the governor? We’ll try a little “on the street” test. We’ve got miles and miles to cover, we’re at Tribfest today on the Standard.

Texas Standard: September 13, 2017

Those Texas political maps ruled as drafted with discriminatory intent? The supreme court says they’re staying for now, we’ll have the latest. Plus, something weird happening in Waco? A certain disorder in the court as the first trials get underway in the so-called twin peaks biker shootout story, we’ll explore. And in El Paso the demolition of historic buildings despite a court order. We’ll hear about why, and the protests over the changing character of a downtown. And if the business is fighting deadly pathogens, in Texas business is very good. We’ll hear why. Those stories and so much more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: August 22, 2017

Change in plans: the president does a 180 on Afghanistan. When will the US leave? We’ll explore why the commander in chief says that’s the wrong question. Also, the navy takes a knee after another ship in the pacific fleet collides with a commercial vessel. 10 navy crew members missing. Who’s on lookout and what’s going wrong? Plus popping the cork on a controversy between grape growers and their cotton pickin’ neighbors: are pesticides killing Texas wineries? And as kids go back to school, will there be enough teachers? That depends: you live in the city or the country? Those stories and a whole lot more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: June 29, 2017

As the president’s travel ban takes effect at airports today who’s in and who’s out, and who’s watching the gatekeepers. We’ll talk to one of em today. Also a dramatic helicopter attack on Venezuela’s supreme court, caught on video. The images so surrealistic some wonder: did this really happen? We’ll explore. And you thought space was the final frontier? Nasa relaunches a program that got stalled in the 60’s: an all american supersonic airplane. And the rockets red glare: the view from the other side of the roadside fireworks stand. Those stories and so much more today on the Texas Standard:

V&B – Postcards From the Great Divide

Taking a quote from former US speaker of the house Tip O’Neil, we ask if “all politics is local” why were pollsters, politicians, analysts, pundits, and practically everyone surprised by the election of Donald Trump? What part was not understood? The “politics” or the “local”? Here with me to screen parts of the PBS series “Postcards From The Great Divide” and talk about the role of small town

In this edition of Views and Brews, hosted by Rebecca McInroy, we explore the PBS series “Postcards From The Great Divide” and talk about the role of small town America in politics today with filmmaker and lecturer in Radio, TV, and film at The University of Texas at Austin, Miguel Alvarez; Chair of The Department of Radio-TV and Film at UT and documentarian Paul Stekler; and political analyst, strategist and consultant Matthew Dowd.

The Documentary (EP. 8)

Stuart Hall: In Conversations revisits the life and work of the Jamaican-born cultural theorist, Stuart Hall, a key figure in the foundation of the field of Cultural Studies. Through interviews, music, and audio archives, this program examines the political and historical context that shaped Stuart Hall’s ideas.

From the 1950s until his death in 2014, Hall was a world renowned black public intellectual, known for his role in establishing the New Left in Britain, his groundbreaking analyses of Thatcherism, and his dialogical understanding of culture and representation.

Hall saw politics in a range of human formations, from the mundane and everyday to the global expansion of free market capitalism.He argued that culture should be understood both as a site for the reproduction of dominant ideologies as well as a location for resisting power and claiming new identities.

Stuart Hall’s visionary understandings of neoliberalism and what he called “authoritarian populism” are worth revisiting today in an era of racially charged nationalism, evidenced in the 2016 Brexit vote in the United Kingdom, Marine Le Pen’s rise in popularity in France, and the election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States.

Texas Standard: February 24, 2017

What does the Trump administration really have in store for the next 4 years? Don’t say nobody warned ya. The story today on the Texas Standard.

Social media and text messages suspected behind skyrocketing numbers of inappropriate stident teacher relationships in Texas. What to do? The Texas legislature now stepping in.

Also: a rare conversation with the judge who’s likely to be at the center of a forthcoming wave of lawsuits over a southern wall. NPR’s John Burnett joins us with his one on one.

Texas leads the nation in windpower, but it’s been so successful they’re having to give away power…what if they could store it? What could be a breakthrough.

Stuart Hall Live (Ep. 7)

Listen back to our Views and Brews discussion from December 13, 2016 with KUT’s Rebecca McInroy, along with sociologist Ben Carrington, art historian Cherise Smith, and journalist Steven Thrasher of The Guardian.
They talk about the life and legacy of Stuart Hall and take audience questions.
Who was Stuart Hall? What can his ideas teach us about populist politics, the importance of the visual arts, and the role of the media in our current social and political moment?

V&B: Stuart Hall

Listen back to our Views and Brews discussion from December 13, 2016 with KUT’s Rebecca McInroy, along with sociologist Ben Carrington, art historian Cherise Smith, and journalist Steven Thrasher of The Guardian.
They talk about the life and legacy of Stuart Hall and take audience questions.
Who was Stuart Hall? What can his ideas teach us about populist politics, the importance of the visual arts, and the role of the media in our current social and political moment?

Roderick Ferguson (Ep. 6)

In this interview, Ben Carrington, Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, interviews Roderick Ferguson, Professor of African American and Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, about his relationship to the work of Stuart Hall.

In the words of Ferguson, he was introduced to Stuart and Catherine Hall when he was 22 under the advisement of George Lipsitz at UC San Diego. During this meeting, Ferguson was struck by Hall’s openness to what cultural studies could be; that Hall was not a patriarch “trying to lay down the law and determine the discipline” but was instead able to separate his ego from doing his scholarly work.

Ferguson’s commitment to treat culture as something important to study – in relation to both race and capital – was something that Hall’s work inspired him to do despite the lack of reception that this kind of work had within the field of American sociology.

That the discipline is painfully far removed from the influence of Stuart Hall was evidenced for Ferguson by his failure to be accepted to the annual American Sociological Association meeting with a panel that was intended to honor Stuart Hall.

This rejection speaks not just about the relationship between American sociology and the work of Hall, but also about the discipline’s marginalization of scholars of color more generally. The loss for sociology in not incorporating the influence of Hall is that the discipline is practiced as “one-dimensional sociology” where neither culture nor race are given the attention they deserve.

While Hall understood all analytical categories to be complex and historically contingent, Ferguson argues that American sociology focuses on an illusion of one-dimensional objectivity at the expense of having real political stakes.

Ferguson pays gratitude to Hall by claiming that his book, The Reorder of Things: The University and Its Pedagogies of Minority Difference (2012) would not have been possible without Hall’s influence.

 

Transition

Inauguration Day is here, and that means change. We don’t know what’s next – but we rarely ever do. Whether you cheered or not, tomorrow is a new day, with new problems, new ideas, and new ways to be a part of your community.

Threatening To Leave The Country

When elections don’t go your way, you might be tempted to seek out a change of scenery, perhaps a change of citizenship. But it’s important to remember that you are what makes this country so special. So put down your visa application and look around – this can still be your home.

Tips: Saru Jayaraman (Ep. 23)

“Building unity across divide is possible. Building something even better than we had before, out of terrible tragedy, is possible. A movement for change is never more ripe than when we are, in some cases, at our lowest moment. Because it’s the moment in which we are going to demand absolute transformation, and I have every faith and hope that we will do that now.”-Saru Jayaraman

 

In this edition of The Secret Ingredient Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy talk with Saru Jayaraman. She is the Co-founder and Co-director of The Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United) and Director of the Food Labor Research Center at The University of California, Berkeley.

 

 

Steven Thrasher (Ep. 5)

Steven Thrasher is a writer for the guardian and a PhD student in American Studies at New York University. In this conversation with University of Texas Sociology Professor Ben Carrington, Thrasher discusses his first encounter with Stuart Hall’s work.

The interview provides insight into Hall’s intellectual reach. Thrasher shares how his engagement with Hall comes from a journalistic perspective. Having first read the British intellectual in his American Studies classes, Thrasher discloses feeling initially confused about why a British scholar would be relevant to American Studies. However, he found Policing the Crisis to be especially important for his thinking about covering the aftermath of Michael Brown’s shooting and the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement.

The conversation includes a discussion of how being a public intellectual is not limited to the academy, but also how Hall created a space in which black people can take up the space of public intellectual. Likewise, Thrasher and Carrington comment on the importance of popular media as a “gatekeeper of intellectual space” and Twitter is posited as a useful platform for making intellectual interventions in the public sphere.

-Anima Adjepong

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