Helix garage in downtown Lexington(Image provided by Pohl Rosa Pohl) The art — and challenges — of raising backyard chickens in an urban setting. Natalie Voss interviews Jackie Jacob, Ag Extension Project Manager at the University of Kentucky. In a conversation with with Art Shechet from our partner arts pub, undermainarts.org , Lexington architects Clive and Graham Pohl discuss architecture as public art. The Lexington Children’s Theatre has new leadership. Jeff Sachs arrives from Chicago where...
Jun 05, 2025•53 min
Business leaders say improving workforce participation in KY requires better child care options(Shutterstock / Shutterstock) This week on Eastern Standard: Research projects hit with Trump administration funding cuts include two major government reports that tell us where things stand with nature and climate here in the US, and how any changes that are happening could impact people and the economy. But writing in Inside Climate News , Kiley Price reports that scientists, themselves , are taking ...
May 29, 2025•53 min
Part One Democracy must have at least two robust parties that both agree on certain core values—in particular, the importance of democratic institutions and accepting election outcomes. From 2021 to early 2025, Stephen Richer served as the County Recorder, administering elections, in Maricopa County, Arizona, which includes Phoenix. After strongly defending the integrity of the 2020 election, he lost the 2024 Republican primary election for his office but continued to serve voters admirably in r...
May 22, 2025•53 min
Flooded Farm(Shutterstock / Bilanol) This week on Eastern Standard, Q&A with Inside Climate News reporter Kiley Price on the intersection of climate change, tariffs, and homeowner insurance Clear and consistent research has found that parents and families play an important role in student success. Education contributor Brigitte Blom has a conversation with April Draine, a Kentucky mom, a Commonwealth Institute of Parent Leadership fellow, and a substitute teacher. Newly minted Kentucky Supre...
May 15, 2025•53 min
Instruments destroyed by flood.(Commons / Commons) The Trump administration cuts to federal funding of colleges and universities, and the linkage of funding to the termination of DEI programs is raising concerns at the Kentucky Council for Postsecondary Education, as we hear from CPE President, Aaron Thompson. The heavy presence of celebrities in politics is the focus of ES Contributor Carolyn Dupont and her guest, Darrell West, author of Celebrity Politics . ReString Appalachia, headed by folk ...
May 08, 2025•53 min
Vet Tech Students with patient.(Wikimedia Commons) On this week's Eastern Standard Debra Hamelback, executive director of the Kentucky Veterinary Medical Association, on the factors driving a shortage of large animal veterinarians in Kentucky Daily Yonder reporter Ilana Newman, host of "Getaway," a new podcast series about rural tourism Amanda Higgins, executive director of the Lexington History Museum, on the history of the Women's Club of Central Kentucky Christine Genoveley, executive directo...
May 01, 2025•53 min
Scotia Mine Disaster Historical Marker(Historical Marker Database / Historical Marker Database) On this week’s Eastern Standard: Tracking “cause and effect” of the Trump administration’s federal funding and staffing cuts brings us to the closures of Mine Safety and Health Administration inspection offices in Kentucky; an end to BRIC, a program that has been helping communities get better prepared for extreme weather events; the closure of the office shaping NAEP, known as The Nation’s Report Car...
Apr 24, 2025•53 min
In her book "Stolen Pride," Arlie Hochschild describes the “pride paradox” she documented in Eastern Kentucky.(Shutterstock / Shutterstock) In this week's episode... In her book “Stolen Pride,” the Berkeley professor emerita Arlie Russell Hochschild uses reactions to a 2017 white supremacist march in Pikeville as a window into the political and sociological shifts that have transformed the country. “It occurred to me,” she writes, “that a close look at this vulnerable patch of red America — Kent...
Apr 17, 2025•53 min
Even holders of permanent residency "green cards" are facing uncertainty about their status(Shutterstock / Shutterstock) John Koehlinger is the Executive Director of Kentucky Refugee Ministries. He discusses the atmosphere of uncertainty and fear among refugees and asylees who have resettled in Kentucky as the Trump administration takes aggressive actions to revoke documentation and carry out detentions and deportations. Becky Jordan, State Coordinator for the Kentucky Office for Refugees. She s...
Apr 10, 2025•53 min
Lexington Police horses take a lunch break.(Friends of the Lexington Mounted Police, Inc.) Eastern Standard launches "The First Kentuckians", a new series on Indigenous life in what became The Commonwealth of Kentucky. In this initial segment, co-hosting archeologists Chris Begley and Gwynn Henderson discuss coverage plans. We're joined by Blake Moss from the Big Sandy Area Development District to talk about a program to aid small businesses and entrepreneurs, especially those hit by recent floo...
Apr 03, 2025•53 min
The Girl Puzzle monument to Nellie Bly on New York's Roosevelt Island(Brad Connell) President Trump’s use of his presidential powers to retaliate against certain law firms has sent a chill throughout the legal profession, threatening not just the ability of lawyers to do their jobs but also the ability of private citizens to hire lawyers to represent them. Joining us to sort out the meaning of this is Jonathan Shaub, a professor at the University of Kentucky’s Rosenberg College of Law, where he ...
Mar 27, 2025•53 min
(Shutterstock / Shutterstock) Thinking of the times we are all living through, our bandwidths stretched to the limit, and our patience with those who see things differently stretched thin, contributor Carolyn Dupont, EKU historian and state coordinator of the Red-Blue dialogue facilitators Braver Angels, hosts a conversation with the author of a book about overcoming all of that divisiveness in our daily lives. Gerald Smith discusses his account of Slavery and Freedom in the Bluegrass State. We ...
Mar 20, 2025•53 min
The “Excellence Gap.” Many Kentucky school districts lack the resources to offer the advanced courses required for employment in the Commonwealth’s growing tech industry. Dolly Parton’s “Imagination Library” is getting books into the hands of children across Kentucky. Richmond novelist Wesley Browne is out with a new crime novel. He describes it as “The Sopranos meet the Hatfield & McCoys.” Time to dust off and spruce up that old guitar you never use. It has a new life waiting: WoodSongs cre...
Mar 13, 2025•43 min
Kentucky Hall of Fame inductees Crystal Wilkinson and Frank X Walker.(Tom Eblen/Tom Eblen) Crystal Wilkinson and Frank X Walker on being named to the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame. The erasure and resurrection of Julia Chinn, the enslaved Civil War era Scott County plantation manager who was the common-law wife of the ninth vice president of the United States, Richard Mentor Johnson. All about a podcast series on the Jessamine County Confederate Statue controversy. And how the art of Lexington s...
Mar 06, 2025•53 min
Some of the most troubled children in the Kentucky foster care system are being housed in state office buildings. We find out why and about a proposed remedy in a conversation with Terry Brooks of Kentucky Youth Advocates. Listen to the arguments for and against a proposal to end state anti-pollution protection of groundwater. Also: the author of a new book about Harlan and Anna Hubbard; Lexington folk-country artist Charlie Overman; Japan's KODO Drums to perform in Lexington. ** WEKU is working...
Feb 27, 2025•53 min
It’s early 2025, but plans are already underway for the 2026 midterm elections and the 2028 presidential election. Joining Josh Douglas, host of this Eastern Standard series to discuss the inner workings of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission is EAC Chair, Ben Hovland. And offering an international perspective on elections and democracy is Dr. Fernanda Buril, the Deputy Director of the Center for Applied Research and Learning at the International Foundation for Electoral Systems. She’s an ex...
Feb 20, 2025•53 min
"Her memoir, <i>Composed</i>, is one of the best accounts of an American life you'll likely ever read." — The Chicago Tribune(Pamela Springsteen. / Pamela Springsteen.) Her memoir, Composed , has been described by the Chicago Tribune as “one of the best accounts of an American life you'll likely ever read.” Rosanne Cash, daughter of Johnny, star in her own right, survivor of brain surgery, on tour and coming to Kentucky. We also feature a promising rising star, Bee Taylor, whose late...
Feb 13, 2025•53 min
As Lexington begins celebrating its 250th anniversary, the story of one of its early movers and shakers: Benjamin Gratz. Also, an account of the Cholera Epidemic of 1833. Reggie Van Stockum is out on the back roads of Kentucky exploring the history of the Fort Knox area and southern Indiana. And, the latest in our dog and cat cognition series asks why cats do that head-butting thing.
Feb 06, 2025•53 min
Immigration employment attorney and Ky. State Representative, Nima Kulkarni(Louisville Public Media) The Kentucky realities and consequences of President Trump’s deportation plan. Students sue the state alleging violation of the educational guarantees of the Kentucky Constitution. And what the data tells us about teacher pay in Kentucky.
Jan 30, 2025•53 min
Report: Annual Kentucky nursing home inspections are falling far behind.(Shutterstock / Shutterstock) When state inspections of nursing homes fall behind, residents suffer. We get the details from John Cheves, Government Accountability Reporter at the Lexington Herald-Leader. How Fleming Co. Schools are benefiting by including parents and the community in decision-making. We hear about a public-private partnership to take mental health care into schools. And a program to help girls of color lear...
Jan 23, 2025•53 min
A Presidential Inauguration on the steps of the nation's Capitol in Washington, D.C.(Shutterstock / Shutterstock) As one portion of the nation celebrates the inauguration of Donald Trump for a second term in the Oval Office on January 20th, another segment of American society will honor the birth of civil rights leader Martin Luther King. Our guest: Reverend David Peoples, President of the Progressive National Baptist Convention. Psychoanalyst Orna Guralnik shares how her couples therapy mirrors...
Jan 16, 2025•53 min
Alex Roe as "Will," a young central Appalachian father battling opioid addiction in the new film "HAZARD"(Eddie Mensore / Eddie Mensore) On this special edition of Eastern Standard: A conversation with Eddie Mensore, Director of “HAZARD," starring Alex Roe and Sosie Bacon as a central Appalachian couple caught up in opioid addiction and fighting to overcome it. Then, from depiction to reality: “On the Rebound: Stories from Recovery Court,” a podcast from the Daily Yonder about an Appalachian tow...
Jan 12, 2025•58 min
Alex Roe as "Will," a young central Appalachian father battling opioid addiction in the new film "HAZARD"(Eddie Mensore / Eddie Mensore) Guest: Eddie Mensore, Director of “HAZARD," starring Alex Roe and Sosie Bacon as a central Appalachian couple caught up in opioid addiction and fighting to overcome it. Guest: Sara June Jo-Sæbo, host of “On the Rebound: Stories from Recovery Court.” A conversation about the inspiration and aims of this compelling podcast from the Daily Yonder, airing in full du...
Jan 09, 2025•53 min
SEC football statues on Monday April 17, 2017. Photo by Mark Cornelison | UKphoto(Mark Cornelison/Mark Cornelison / UKPhoto) Has the social and political polarization we hear about become a self-fulfilling prophecy? Contributing host Carolyn Dupont, in conversation with Rich Harwood, founder of the Harwood Institute for Public Innovation. Also this week: what a legendary UK football star has in common with a pair of sibling scholars from West Liberty, Kentucky.
Jan 02, 2025•53 min
(Shutterstock / Shutterstock) Why Misdee Wrigley Miller is investing in Kentucky film production and talent - and her call on Frankfort to get organized as the best film production incentives in the country attract interest. Also this week: eastern Kentucky storyteller Katherine Stringfield; and a monologue about the story of the Pikeville “Cut Through” project as the city celebrates its bicentennial.
Dec 19, 2024•53 min
(Shutterstock / Shutterstock) Tangle News founder Isaac Saul on his method of maintaining a balanced diet - of news. The co-authors of Kentucky, Y’all on the state's favorite oddities, cultural quirks, traditions, and rites of passage. Booneville native and emerging country music artist Taylor Austin Dye.
Dec 12, 2024•42 min
(Shutterstock / Shutterstock) Accounts of fear and anxiety among LGBTQ youth in the wake of the General Election and vows by President-elect Trump and other politicians to reverse gains in LGBTQ rights. Leadership succession at the Mountain Association: outgoing president Peter Hille with his successor, Robin Gabbard. UK hydrologist Chris Barton on the 4-year study he is leading into the root causes of catastrophic flooding in eastern Kentucky. And, plans to develop a natural disaster recovery a...
Dec 05, 2024•53 min
Can Republicans and Democrats will engage in civil, respectful conversations about the issues?(Shutterstock / Shutterstock) In today’s atmosphere, is it still possible for a Republican and a Democrat to sit down in a room together and have a civil, respectful conversation about the issues? We tried, tape rolling. Also this week: the state legislature authorized support for relatives raising loved ones children, but failed to fund it. How teacher pay raises made a difference in one Kentucky distr...
Nov 21, 2024•53 min
MacArthur Genius Award winner Loka Ashwood(MacArthur Fellows Program/MacArthur Fellows Program) What is it like to learn you won the MacArthur Genius Award? Our first of many questions for Loka Ashwood, a sociologist at the University of Kentucky who concentrates on rural identity, environmental injustice, and corporate power. We hear about an effort to help rural communities change how they impact the environment and of a non-profit’s work to build a strong food economy in Kentucky. Plus, what’...
Nov 14, 2024•53 min
The “Read to Succeed Act” was intended to raise reading proficiency among Kentucky’s children from 29th in the nation. We get a report card. We have information about a symposium on racial violence in Kentucky; a report on protecting the arts when natural disaster strikes; the first installment of a new arts series; and a primer on the Flamenco music heading Lexington’s way.
Nov 07, 2024•53 min
