In this very special episode of bigcitysmalltown, we share a panel recorded live in front of an audience at Texas Public Radio for CityFest San Antonio 2024. Host Bob Rivard moderated a panel of city leaders discussing how San Antonio's downtown has navigated the past decade and what's ahead. The panel included Veronica Salazar of UTSA, David Robinson, Jr. of Weston Urban, Trish DeBerry of Centro San Antonio, Andres Andujar of Hemisfair, and San Antonio City Manager Erik Walsh.
Nov 01, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 78
This week’s guest is JC Clapsaddle, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and medical administration officer with a background in Pentagon assignments involving human rights and humanitarian efforts. Listen as JC discusses his multiple missions to aid Ukraine in its defense against Valdimir Putin and Russia, whose forces invaded Ukraine in 2022, eight years after that country’s invasion and occupation of the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine.
Oct 25, 2024•40 min•Ep. 77
This week’s guest is Jessica Conrad, a San Antonio realtor, Air Force veteran, and now, the emcee of the semi-annual PechaKucha creative presentations, the latest edition of which was recently staged at the Carver Cultural Center. Listen as Jessica discusses how she works to help first-time home buyers and others find their dream homes in San Antonio.
Oct 18, 2024•35 min•Ep. 76
This week’s guest is Grant Pinkerton, the man, the chef, the impresario behind Pinkerton’s BBQ, located right in the heart of downtown San Antonio on Legacy Park across from Frost Tower. Listen as Grant discusses his choice to expand to San Antonio instead of Austin, how he got started in BBQ, and more.
Oct 11, 2024•36 min•Ep. 75
This week’s guest is Dr. Lisa Campos, the Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics and Athletic Director, at the University of Texas at San Antonio, a position she has held since Nov. 17, 2017. Listen as she discusses the extraordinary growth of UTSA Athletics since 2017 and looks forward to what's ahead.
Oct 04, 2024•50 min•Ep. 74
This week’s guests are part of the bigcitysmalltown family. First, Monika Maeckle, founder of the San Antonio Monarch Butterfly and Pollinator Festival, and the author of the newly released book, “The Monarch Butterfly Migration, Its Rise and Fall,” published in August by the University of Oklahoma Press; and Ashley Bird, who now serves as the festival’s director in its 9th year and also is the founder of Blooming with Birdie, which connects children to nature by creating empathy-driven, immersi...
Sep 27, 2024•51 min•Ep. 73
This week’s guest is Ray Cantu, founder of a company called SIMMIE that until recently was known as ColdCALR. By either name Cantu, the consummate salesman, says his company is revolutionizing the world of sales with what he describes as an “AI-powered platform designed to train sales professionals faster, smarter, and more effectively.”
Sep 20, 2024•28 min•Ep. 72
This week we welcome a returning guest: Trish DeBerry, CEO and president of Centro San Antonio, the nonprofit organization dedicated to building and maintaining a better downtown for locals, businesses and visitors. Trish was a bigcitysmalltown guest last December, and in this episode she offers an update on exciting projects on the drawing board, including the relocation of the San Antonio Missions and the San Antonio Spurs to new downtown venues. She also talks about closing Houston Street to ...
Sep 13, 2024•49 min•Ep. 71
Have you heard of NukuDo, the cybersecurity training program located at Geekdom? Today’s guest is Michael Blair, an entrepreneur and NukuDo’s Managing Director. NukuDo pays its enrolled students $4,000 a month during their half year or so of training. Blair is joined by Jose Herrera, a member of NukuDo's first cohort. Listen as we discuss how NukuDo came to be, and how their training program is sourcing exciting new talent to enter the cybersecurity workforce in San Antonio and beyond....
Sep 06, 2024•44 min
This week’s guests are Vicki Yuan, an architect with Lake/Flato, and Libby Morris, a leader in San Antonio’s design community and the principal of Morris Design. Vicki and Libby are with us to talk about their roles as leading organizers of PechaKucha San Antonio, the local chapter of a global entertainment and education stage production that was started by two Tokyo-based architects in 2003. The word "PechaKucha" is Japanese for "chit-chat" or "the sound of conversation". The next installment w...
Aug 23, 2024•33 min•Ep. 69
This week’s guest is Dawn White-Fosdick, the longtime president and CEO of Christian Assistance Ministry, widely known as CAM, which serves both the city's homeless as well as families who have housing but are experiencing crisis in their lives. For the month of August, the Wade Richmond Foundation is matching every dollar raised up to $100,000, so now is a great time to learn how you can help support the 70K members of our community served annually by CAM or learn how to access their services y...
Aug 09, 2024•43 min•Ep. 68
This week’s guest is Krissy Salinas, the director of Let’s Go Texas, a nonprofit that helps people with disabilities in South Texas and the San Antonio metro area find gainful employment. Let’s Go Texas partners with the Texas Workforce Vocational Programs, and also has launched innovative programs in area public high schools where Krissy and her team work with students with disabilities to prepare them for the workplace, a service that has only grown in importance after the COVID-19 pandemic. I...
Aug 02, 2024•50 min•Ep. 67
This week’s guests are Naphtali Bryant, the Childcare Scholarship Coordinator at United Way of San Antonio, and Raylynn Hampton, a United Way Scholarship recipient. Raylynn is a 27-year-old student pursuing an online undergraduate degree in education at Southern New Hampshire University with the goal of becoming a teacher and starting her own nonprofit. While she pursues that degree, she is working fulltime as an administrative assistant to the principal at Oak Meadow Elementary School in the No...
Jul 26, 2024•37 min•Ep. 66
This week’s guest is Lea Rosenauer, president and CEO of Girls Inc. of San Antonio, an affiliate of the national Girls Incorporated organization that was established locally 20 years ago this November. Its mission is to inspire all girls ages 6-18 to be strong, smart, and bold, and to overcome barriers that prohibit them from achieving their personal, educational, and career goals.
Jul 19, 2024•32 min•Ep. 65
This week’s guests are San Antonio artist Kathy Sosa and Antonio Arelle Barquet, the director of the Museum of Art in Queretaro, a city of more than 1 million people in Central Mexico and a UNESCO World Heritage site celebrated for its Historic Monument Zone. Kathy Sosa, together with her husband and fellow artist Lionel Sosa, have embarked on an exciting project that will bring new attention in Mexico to many of San Antonio’s artists who trace their heritage to Mexico, and introduce new generat...
Jul 12, 2024•47 min•Ep. 64
This week’s guest is George Hernandez, who retires as the longtime CEO of the University Health System, officially known as the Bexar County Hospital District, the only locally owned hospital and outpatient clinic network. Hernandez has led the district for 19 years, a period time that saw remarkable growth in both facilities and services beyond the south Texas Medical Center.
Jun 28, 2024•40 min•Ep. 63
This week's guest is Mario Lopez, a wounded warrior who served deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan. He survived critical injuries from a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, which brought him to The Burn Center at the San Antonio Military Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston. After years of surgeries and recuperation, Mario has gone on to write a book about his experiences, and he is a self-taught artist whose work now hangs at the very military installation here where he was treated.
Jun 21, 2024•45 min
This week’s guests are Erika Borrego, the CEO of Corazón Ministries, and her colleague Brittney Ackerson, the Day Center Director and recovering addict who experienced homelessness in her own life before finding her way back to good health and a purpose-driven life. Their work serving the hardcore homeless population in San Antonio is transforming lives. Listener discretion is advised; this episode discusses substance abuse and rape.
Jun 14, 2024•48 min•Ep. 61
This week’s guest is Victor Reyna, vice president for business banking at Amegy Bank in San Antonio, who also serves as president of the Asociación de Empresarios Mexicanos in San Antonio. AEM, or The US – MX Business Association, as it is known in English, helps Mexican business professionals achieve success in the United States, and assists U.S. citizens interested in doing business in Mexico. As both countries experience presidential elections this year, Victor discusses San Antonio's special...
Jun 07, 2024•39 min
Belinda Román, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Economics at St. Mary’s University. Locally, Dr. Román is also Secretary/Treasurer of the San Antonio Business and Economics Society, and has conducted impact studies for the SABÉR Research Institute, an economic development think tank dedicated to researching regional economies and their development, with a focus on assisting the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal named Román as the most accurat...
May 31, 2024•44 min•Ep. 59
How did the South Texas Medical Center become San Antonio's leading smart jobs engine over the last 25 years? This week’s guest is Jim Reed, the recently retired longtime chief executive of the San Antonio Medical Foundation, which led that extraordinary growth in the medical, health care and biscoences sectors. During his tenure managing the development of hundreds of acres to the growing medical center, it became home to the region's greatest concentration of hospitals, clinics, medical office...
May 24, 2024•32 min•Ep. 58
This week’s guest is Mary Thorsby, the CEO of the nonprofit ABODE, whose mantra is contemplative care for the dying. ABODE operates end-of-life care in a single home on San Antonio’s near-Northside, caring for terminally ill individuals in the last weeks and months of life. It’s one of only three such programs in Texas. As it prepares to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its founding, listen as we learn more about ABODE.
May 17, 2024•40 min
This week, two perspectives on innovation in San Antonio. We revisit our conversations with Jenna Saucedo-Herrera of Greater: SATX as she discusses how San Antonio is winning on workforce development, and Emily Royall of Smart Cities San Antonio on how her team is using data to improve the quality of life for San Antonians. Listen in full to both conversations: Jenna Saucedo-Herrera's episode originally aired on October 30, 2023 as Episode 30. Emily Royall's episode originally aired on July 11, ...
May 10, 2024•54 min•Ep. 56
We have Garrett T. Capps in the studio this week with guest hosts Kory Cook of KRTU 91.7 and Nicholas Frank of the San Antonio Report. Garrett T. Capps tours internationally with his band, Nasa Country, and has been a longtime curator of unique musical events in our city. Listen as we discuss how Capps has created space for other touring musicians at the bar he co-owns, The Lonesome Rose, how they weathered the disruptions to business on the St. Mary's Strip from COVID to construction, and the d...
May 03, 2024•34 min•Ep. 55
Liz Tullis never gave up advocating for her son Conrad after his near-drowning and anoxic brain injury as an infant. Neither did Dr. Peter Fox, the founder and head of the University of Texas Health Science Center's Research Imaging Institute in San Antonio; and they are this week's guests. Listen as they discuss their unlikely journey to change how the medical community views pediatric non-fatal drowning and the powerful story behind the founding of the nonprofit Conrad Smiles Foundation....
Apr 26, 2024•48 min•Ep. 54
Today's guests are Bonnie Prosser Elder and David Zammiello, the volunteer co-chairs of Mayor Ron Nirenberg’s 15-member Charter Review Commission, formed last November to explore amendments to the city charter for voters to consider on the Nov. 5 ballot.
Apr 19, 2024•43 min•Ep. 53
This week’s guest is Joe Holley, a longtime Texas journalist and the author of a new book titled “Power: How the Electric Co-Op Movement Energized the Lone Star State.” Power is a book that anyone who cares about Texas history and the state’s development will want to read, and Joe will be a featured author at this year’s San Antonio Book Festival at the Central Library, Saturday, April 13.
Apr 12, 2024•32 min•Ep. 52
San Antonio entrepreneurs and startups often find themselves meeting with Cat Dizon, the chief operating officer at venture capital firm Active Capital and the chairwoman of the Geekdom board. The former senior Rackspace executive is the gatekeeper to San Antonio's leading seed fund, and is always on the lookout for young, promising businesses.
Apr 05, 2024•39 min•Ep. 51
Innovative interpretations of theatrical classics are creating a buzz in San Antonio at the San Pedro Playhouse under this week's guest, returning CEO Asia Ciaravino, who continues to re-energize the city's oldest performing arts organization. April's performances of "A Midsummer's Night Sueño" suggest this will not be a traditional performance of the Shakespeare classic. Listen as she discusses the upcoming season for the San Pedro Playhouse and ways that you can get involved.
Mar 29, 2024•37 min•Ep. 50
Why is affordable housing in San Antonio everyone's problem? This week’s guest is Mark Carmona, the city of San Antonio’s first Chief Housing Officer, a position created by City Council in 2018 when council members first approved Mayor Ron Nirenberg’s housing initiative. Carmona overees the city’s Strategic Housing Implementation Plan (SHIP), and previously served as CEO of Haven for Hope and Deputy CEO for the Center for Health Care Services. Listen as Carmona tackles some of the most challengi...
Mar 22, 2024•47 min•Ep. 49
