D Magazine's EarBurner

Melissa is the new head of the journalism program at SMU, a job she took without telling Tim, despite their 30-year friendship. So that was the first matter that had to be addressed. Then we talked about kids today and how screens are ruining their lives—and ours. And why Zac frequently got lost in the office when he worked for American Airlines. And the downside to driving a Ford Maverick. And Bob Costas' teeth.

For the October issue of D Magazine, Kathy Wise, our executive editor, wrote a story that's getting national attention. It is titled "The Most Lawless County in Texas." That, friends, would be Collin County. Read the story here, and then listen to how it all came together. We also talk about the time Kathy nearly died in Toledo, and Tim tells a story about his wife that will probably get him in trouble.

Creuzot was elected the Dallas County District Attorney in a landslide in 2018, taking 60 percent of the votes from his opponent, Faith Johnson. The two are squaring off again, with Johnson this time peddling what Creuzot calls bogus QAnon numbers about crime in Dallas County. So this episode is about politics. But it's also about Creuzot growing up in Houston, toiling in the kitchen of his family's restaurant, Frenchy's Chicken, and his memories of his first job out of SMU law school, working for the cigar-chewing Henry Wade. Also, we talk about weed.

Bonus episode not available on dmagazine.com! For subscribers only! James mentioned in the normal episode that he has been in three car chases in his life. He tells the story of each one, with gratuitous F-bombs from Tim.

James is the artistic director for the Dallas International Film Festival. That means he watches about 600 movies every year. It also means that he has a great story about a wild night with Harry Dean Stanton (R.I.P.). We also talked about what happened to him when, as a kid, he saw E.T. fives times in row and the odd interaction he had one time in a hotel room with Joan Jett when they were both working on a episode of Walker, Texas Ranger. Oh, and we talked about some of his favorite films that will screen at DIFF 2022.

In 1994, The Ticket launched in Dallas with a lineup largely assembled by Mike Rhyner, thereby creating a radio format—guy sports talk—that would be copied around the country. Mike ended his 40-year radio career with a retirement in January 2020. Except not quite. The Old Grey Wolf is returning to the airwaves on 97.1, which has been rebranded The Freak. We talk about who convinced him to come out of retirement, how to fix the Cowboys, what made him move out of downtown Dallas after living there for a decade, and why you're never too old to wing it.

Tim and Zac interview a legend, the man who helped write some of N.W.A and Eazy-E's biggest songs, the man whose solo debut album, 1989's platinum-certified No One Can Do It Better, pretty much says it all. If you're not aware, Doc's voice was permanently changed by the aftermath of a car crash the same year that album came out. The lads discuss the wreck, Doc's quest to end gun violence in Dallas, and a new Snoop Dogg-produced documentary about his life.

Will is the hyperkinetic, mustachioed founder of the publishing house Deep Vellum and its allied bookstore in Deep Ellum. He's responsible for the reissue of Jim Schutze's book "The Accommodation," about the bombing of Black-owned homes in South Dallas in the 1950s and how White leaders in this city did what they could to duck the civil rights movement. When it was first published, in 1986, it wasn't exactly a bestseller. Now, as part of Big D Reads, 30,000 copies of the book are being distributed in Dallas for free. The entire month of September is filled with events that enrich what is essentially the city's biggest book club. So we talked about all that. And we talked about why Will thinks Tim is like an aggressively onanistic baboon he once saw at the Dallas Zoo.

After 33 years on FOX 4 in Dallas, 27 of them doing the morning show, Tim is throwing away all his makeup and retiring. He tells us how the job has nearly killed him, why he doesn't have much use for social media, and the secret to surviving 100-mile bicycle rides. Also, he ranks the local Tims.

David "Schoop" Schechter worked at the Dallas ABC affiliate, WFAA Channel 8, for 16 years. This week he quit his gig to go work as a national environmental reporter for CBS. In this episode, we talk about "cheerful nihilism" and David's amazing calf muscles. At least five stars.