KHOL Jackson Hole Community Radio 89.1 FM

Governor Matt Mead recently cut the K-12 education budget by $45 million. Family literacy programs were greatly affected, including Teton Literacy Center here in Jackson. We discussed how they will make up for the 35% of their budget that's been lost, why literacy matters, and what sort of programs are on the horizon.

WyoFile has hired Patrick “Padraig” Sheehy as its executive director, a Laramie resident who has career experience in both journalism and nonprofits. We talked about what it means to be an independent news source in Wyoming, how the landscape of media is changing in the state, and his deep roots in Wyoming dating back to the 1900s.

KHOL checks in with Wyofile every Tuesday at 12noon to get a glimpse of what's happening in the Cowboy State.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, Teton Pass Ambassador Jay Pistono joins us with an update from the top of Teton Pass. Jay let us know how to stay safe and enjoy the 7 new inches of snow in our backyard. Catch it on-air at 10:30am.

Local archaeologists Matt Stirn and Rebecca Sgouros dropped by to talk with us about the plants traditional peoples used from the valley floor to above tree-line in the Greater Yellowstone Region 1000s of year ago and still today. We talked about how they discover this type of information, the super powers of the White Bark Pine nut, and how you know where to look for evidence of ancient civilizations.

They will be giving a talk alongside Dr. Sharon Kahin on Tuesday, March 22nd at 6pm at the Teton County Library.

Social worker and academic Jane Sanders is also a trusted advisor to her husband, Senator Bernie Sanders. She talked with us about education, income disparity, democratic socialism, what Bernie is like outside of politics, and whether they prefer dogs or cats.

We talked with Dusty Nichols and Bo Elledge of Canyon Kids about The Out West Fest, taking place on Friday March 25th at 9pm. It will feature four local bands: Canyon Kids, Sneaky Pete and the Secret Weapons, Benyaro, and Patrick Chadwick. Listen for interviews and live sets from each of the bands on KHOL leading up to the event.

Tonya M. Foster is the author of A Swarm of Bees in High Court (Belladonna* Press, 2015). She is an assistant professor of writing and literature at California College of the Arts.

She was in town as part of a reading and panel discussion called “Trippin’ Over the Racial Divide: Contemporary Controversies in American Literature,” at the Teton County Library.

John Keene is an author, poet, and translator. He most recently published the short fiction collection “Counternarratives,”. He currently serves on the board of the African Poetry Book Fund, and teaches at Rutgers University-Newark.

He’ll be taking part in a panel discussion called “Trippin’ Over the Racial Divide: Contemporary Controversies in American Literature,” at the Teton County Library on March 18th at 6pm.

The Junior Repertory Company of Dancer's Workshop(JRC) is a pre-professional dance company for highly dedicated students who strive to expand their technical and artistic dance ability. On Friday, March 18th at 6pm, the senior dancers featuring Sofie Thompson, Sarah Lemerande, Bean Shindell, Noelle Huser and Catherine Evans will perform their Spring Showcase. Sydney Bryan, whose images inspired the pieces joined us in the studio. The performance is in DW Studio 1 in Center for the Arts.

We caught up with Robert Earl Keen as he was driving across Wyoming, making his way for our home here in The Center for the Arts. Hear about his hopes to collaborate with Sade and his previous Jackson experiences.