Flyover Country

A knife sculpture in a Tulsa neighborhood has been causing a stir. The owner says it's art, while the city says it's a business sign. This is a story about the knife. 

For more information about the sculpture, check out the Tulsa World.

Lisa Montgomery was the first woman put to death by the United States government since 1953. She went to high school in Sperry, Oklahoma. In this episode, we hear from some high school students in Sperry about what it's like to grow up there. Whatever your thoughts, I urge you to listen to the sound of their young voices.

Garth Brooks is a native Oklahoman. When he sang at Joe Biden's inauguration, some people online joked that Oklahomans would be upset since Oklahoma is conservative. I asked some people in Stillwater (where Garth Brooks went to college) what they thought about Garth Brooks performing at the inauguration. 

Silent movies aren't really my thing, but when I saw an advertisement for a silent movie with live accompaniment I wanted to go and see how a musician would handle the situation. This is a story about going to the show.

Learn more about Rodeo Cinema in Stockyards City:https://www.rodeocinema.org/

Bill Rowland, the organist: http://ragtimebill.com/

We're gonna go ahead and call this the end of season one. This is a story that originally appeared in a different form at Oklahoma Watch for their Coronavirus Storytelling Project.  It's the first thing I made after moving to Oklahoma, and this re-work is a fitting end to the project. Thank you to anyone who listened to even one minute of this podcast. It has been a real adventure. Happy holidays and happy new year.

What is it like to get bitten by a venomous snake? The curator of the Rattlesnake & Venom Museum in Oklahoma City answers.

A few weeks ago I went to a protest against Jim Inhofe who has been one of Oklahoma's senators for 26 years. 

A few weeks ago I went to a protest focused on Jim Inhofe. I met two Oklahomans there who were unhappy about one of Inhofe's recent campaign advertisements. About 100 people RSVP'd to that protest, but we ended up being the only ones to attend. I wanted to talk about what it takes to keep protests and movements going. So I spoke with Stacey Wright who runs Yes All Daughters, a group currently focused on passing legislation to require consent and relationship education in schools in Oklahoma.

This is what happened during a May 30th protest for George Floyd in Oklahoma City. I arrived around 9 after I saw pictures of the protest online. Some people had already been arrested for blocking the intersection at Classen and NW 23rd. After the protest, some people were charged with rioting and terrorism. I searched for news but I don't know what ended up happening to those people. 

A man in Norman has a brush with weather, and a research scientist explains conditions on that night. 

To learn more about the storm on August 31st 2020 in Norman, visit http://lightning.nmt.edu/oklma/ and https://www.nssl.noaa.gov/tools/oklma/

Washington Post article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/09/03/oklahoma-lightning-onslaught/

In this episode: Vanna Chmielewski and Russell Rice

Thank you to Kristin Calhoun and Erin Rice