ATXplained

By KUT & KUTX Studios

Society & Culture History

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LAST EPISODE

What happened to the Zilker...

01.24.2023

The Zilker Zephyr stopped running almost four years ago, and there’s still no miniature train in Zilker Park.

ATXplained episodes:

01.24.2023 What happened to the Zilker Park minitrain? The Zilker Zephyr stopped running almost four years ago, and there’s still no miniature train in Zilker Park.
01.13.2023 How did H-E-B’s Combo Loco get its name? As an enticement to get tickets to our next ATXplained Live show at the Paramount Theatre on Feb. 22 — here’s a taste of our last live show from back in September 2022.
01.05.2023 What was the grandstand on the shores of Lady Bird Lake in East Austin used for? Decades ago, the public event space was full of life. Now it’s rundown, like an old relic.
12.14.2022 Black houses are so hot right now. But are they hotter? Does it make any sense to live in a dark-colored house in a state like Texas? We ask experts whether these homes are less energy efficient.
12.01.2022 Why are lane lines so hard to see on Austin’s roads? Your grip on the steering wheel tightens as you squint to find the road markings and avoid smashing into another car.
11.17.2022 What’s the deal with that out-of-place 10-story building in southwest Austin? The Pinnacle building in Oak Hill was intended to be an office tower, but then the economy tanked and it was sold to Austin Community College.
11.10.2022 What’s the most valuable thing in a museum in Austin? There’s expensive stuff, and then there are those things that just have value.
09.08.2022 What’s the story behind the Camino Real in Hays County? El Camino Real de los Tejas is a National Historic Trail that traces back to before the start of Texas. The 2,600 miles stretch all the way from the Texas border to Natchitoches, Louisiana. Part of the historic trail runs ...
08.12.2022 Get tickets now for the next edition of ATXplained Live on Sept. 28! We’re bringing our show back to the stage next month at the Paramount Theatre in downtown Austin. Tickets available now at austintheatre.org
06.15.2022 Is there really a buried treasure in Walnut Creek Park? Who doesn’t love a good treasure hunt? But is any of it real? KUT’s Skye Seipp tries to find the X.
06.02.2022 Saying goodbye to Austin’s Godfather of Clubbing We first met Yorkie Louie in 2020. Now, he’s leaving the dance floor — at least in Austin.
04.28.2022 Is Treaty Oak still alive? The bizarre tale of completely made up stories about one of Austin’s oldest trees — and an even more bizarre tale that’s completely true.
04.14.2022 Who maintains and decorates the teeny-tiny traffic median on Enfield Road? A traffic median can be anything you imagine. A field of green grass. A pedestal for a classic statue. Or a vegetable garden.
04.07.2022 Why is there no speed limit on the new 183 tollway in East Austin? You’ll find no signs for now — but that doesn’t mean you can drive as fast as you want.
03.30.2022 Where have Austin’s Indigenous people gone? We spend a lot of time in Austin talking about how many new people move here. But most of us don’t talk much about the people who came before us — way before us. If you’ve ever taken a walk ...
03.24.2022 Was there ever a tug-of-war over Austin’s Congress Avenue Bridge? No. But there is more to it than that.
03.10.2022 Why don’t more Austin restaurants make their own tortillas? Austin thinks it has great food going for it. But does it? We look into the mystery of why more restaurants don’t make this staple from scratch.
03.03.2022 What’s the story behind this weird sculpture next to MoPac? We’re back with a story about a weird sculpture near MoPac and Enfield. But there’s more to it than that.
07.29.2021 Why Is It Legal To Be Topless In Public In Austin? One ATXplained listener wanted to know how women going topless at public pools came to be popular in Austin.
04.21.2021 Why Are There So Many Caterpillars Hanging From The Trees This Spring? Remember the movie Die Hard? It’s kinda like that.
03.25.2021 Who Is Herman the Singing Plumber? A plumber. Who sings? As part of our Hi, Who Are You? spinoff, we get introduced to Herman Bennett.
02.04.2021 Who Is Buried In This Cemetery On 51st Street In Austin? Who will remember you when you die? Family? Friends? We got a question about a cemetery in Central Austin for ATXplained. It got KUT’s Matt Largey thinking about what happens when people are forgotten.
01.29.2021 Why Do Some People Not Develop Cedar Allergies For Years? It’s January, so that means cedar fever is at its peak. Amid a global pandemic, this is the last thing we need. But here we are. KUT’s Nadia Hamdan answers this question about the annual trial in Central Texas.
12.16.2020 Who Has The Ninja Style And Kung Fu Grip To Spray-Paint Austin’s Most Visible Graffiti? The words would appear on the bridge overnight. The artist would come and go like a ninja. But who is it? And why did they do it?
04.02.2020 What’s Story Behind The ‘Will You Marry Me?’ Mural That Was On South Lamar? If you’ve ever been near Lamar and Oltorf, you probably saw it. But what’s the story behind the now-gone mural there?
02.27.2020 What Is The History Behind Polling Locations In Grocery Stores In Austin? Voting should be easy, right? Well, can it get any easier than going to your local supermarket? KUT’s Jimmy Maas has the history behind what’s become an election season tradition in Austin.
02.27.2020 Austin’s Club Scene Has A Godfather. Here’s His Story. Yorkie Louie is known as the Godfather of Clubbing in Austin. But his story is more complicated than that. Someone asked about him for our ATXplained spin-off, Hi, Who Are You?.
02.20.2020 Who Writes The ‘Funny Little Messages’ On Signs Along Austin Roads? Traffic sucks. But every so often a sign in the distance might give you a chuckle. Or a groan. So who writes those electronic road signs with (sometimes) funny rhymes?
01.21.2020 What Happened To The Last Man On Rainey Street? A year ago, we answered a question from an ATXplained listener: Where did all the families that used to live on Rainey Street go? One man was still there. But now, even that has changed. Audrey McGlinchy has this follow-up.
01.10.2020 We’re Doing A Live Show! Last Chance To Get Tickets. Tickets are running out for our Jan. 23 ATXplained Live show at the Hogg Auditorium. Details and tickets here.
12.19.2019 Who Started Austin’s 37th Street Christmas Light Tradition? Austin’s 37th St. lights aren’t the only holiday light display in town, but it did draw this question about its origins.
12.05.2019 Who Is The One Chatty Guy Who Works At The Post Office In East Austin? Christine Hannon wanted to meet this postal worker who seems to know everyone who come into his East Austin post office.
10.03.2019 What’s The Best Way To Get Into The Chilly Waters Of Barton Springs? There are many ways. But what’s the best way? Can medical science tell us?
09.25.2019 How Did Lake Travis’ Sometimes Islands Get Their Name? They usually only appear when there’s and drought and lake levels are low. But who named them?
09.06.2019 Have Ride-Hailing Services Like Uber And Lyft Reduced Drunk Driving In Austin? Uber and Lyft said their services would give other transportation options for people who’ve been drinking in Austin. So — did they?
09.02.2019 Who Is This Texas ‘Ambassador’ Who Works At The Capitol Visitors Center? No matter how jet-lagged, or sweaty, Austin tourists may find themselves when they reach the Texas Capitol Visitors Center, they’ll find a breath of fresh air waiting for them just inside its doors: Mary Jackson.
08.13.2019 Why Do Lifeguards At Austin’s City Pools Blow Their Whistles At Break Time Like That? Madeline Fening heard the break whistle at Austin city pools and just had to know why it was so dramatic.
08.08.2019 Who Is This Woman Who Helps Older Austinites Stay Socially Connected? The aging population is growing fast in Austin. So Becky Rhodes said we should meet a couple trying to keep seniors active in the community.
08.06.2019 Who Cleans Up The Bat Guano Under The Congress Avenue Bridge? Catherine Samuel was curious about where the guano goes and who cleans it up, so she asked about it for our ATXplained project.
07.26.2019 Why Are There No Billboards On MoPac? Billboards are all over I-35 — but not MoPac and a few other freeways in Austin. Why not?
07.12.2019 Why Does The Top Of Austin’s Tallest Building Look ‘Unfinished’? Everyone’s an architecture critic. But why does the crown on “The Independent” look the way it does?
07.10.2019 Who Is That Guy With The ‘Giant Bird’ In South Austin? In our latest, “Hi, Who Are You?” story, we hear the story of a man and his bird — and the family that wanted to meet them.
06.24.2019 Answering the Unanswerable With KUTX’s John Aielli — Episode 1 We get a lot of questions for ATXplained that don’t really have answers. So KUT’s Andrew Weber put some of those to longtime KUT/X host John Aielli.
06.19.2019 Who Is The Man In Southwest Austin Who Fostered Over 100 Babies With His Wife? For the next episode in our Hi, Who Are You? series, KUT’s Nadia Hamdan introduces us to Burrell W. Lankford.
06.18.2019 Why Is Austin’s ‘Official’ Pride Festival In August — And Not June, Like Most Everyone Else’s? June is when many places celebrate LGBTQ Pride Month. So why doesn’t Austin?
06.13.2019 Who Is The Motorcycle Rider Who Does Wheelies Around Town In Pool Floaties? The second in our Hi, Who Are You? series. A low-speed chase. Revving engines. Inflatable flamingoes.
06.12.2019 Who’s That Krispy Kreme Employee Who’s So Positive All The Time? In the first episode of our spin-off series, Hi, Who Are You?, we meet Sylvester Myers. This piece was produced by KUT’s Nathan Bernier.
05.28.2019 What’s The Real Story Behind Dan’s Hamburgers And Fran’s Hamburgers? Their signs looked oddly similar. The names were pretty darn close, too. Is the origin of Dan’s and Fran’s an urban legend?
05.16.2019 People Keep Moving To Austin. But Where Are They Coming From? About 145 people moved to Austin each day last year. Where did they move from?
05.09.2019 How Did Texas Become The Only State With Its Own Toast? It started almost 80 years ago, with a restaurant and some too-thick bread.

Older episodes

ATXplained

What's ATXplained about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

ATXplained episodes:

What happened to the Zilker Park minitrain?

How did H-E-B’s Combo Loco get its name?

What was the grandstand on the shores of Lady Bird Lake in East Austin used for?

Black houses are so hot right now. But are they hotter?

Why are lane lines so hard to see on Austin’s roads?

What’s the deal with that out-of-place 10-story building in southwest Austin?

What’s the most valuable thing in a museum in Austin?

What’s the story behind the Camino Real in Hays County?

Get tickets now for the next edition of ATXplained Live on Sept. 28!

Is there really a buried treasure in Walnut Creek Park?

Saying goodbye to Austin’s Godfather of Clubbing

Is Treaty Oak still alive?

Who maintains and decorates the teeny-tiny traffic median on Enfield Road?

Why is there no speed limit on the new 183 tollway in East Austin?

Where have Austin’s Indigenous people gone?

Was there ever a tug-of-war over Austin’s Congress Avenue Bridge?

Why don’t more Austin restaurants make their own tortillas?

What’s the story behind this weird sculpture next to MoPac?

Why Is It Legal To Be Topless In Public In Austin?

Why Are There So Many Caterpillars Hanging From The Trees This Spring?

Who Is Herman the Singing Plumber?

Who Is Buried In This Cemetery On 51st Street In Austin?

Why Do Some People Not Develop Cedar Allergies For Years?

Who Has The Ninja Style And Kung Fu Grip To Spray-Paint Austin’s Most Visible Graffiti?

What’s Story Behind The ‘Will You Marry Me?’ Mural That Was On South Lamar?

What Is The History Behind Polling Locations In Grocery Stores In Austin?

Austin’s Club Scene Has A Godfather. Here’s His Story.

Who Writes The ‘Funny Little Messages’ On Signs Along Austin Roads?

What Happened To The Last Man On Rainey Street?

We’re Doing A Live Show! Last Chance To Get Tickets.

Who Started Austin’s 37th Street Christmas Light Tradition?

Who Is The One Chatty Guy Who Works At The Post Office In East Austin?

What’s The Best Way To Get Into The Chilly Waters Of Barton Springs?

How Did Lake Travis’ Sometimes Islands Get Their Name?

Have Ride-Hailing Services Like Uber And Lyft Reduced Drunk Driving In Austin?

Who Is This Texas ‘Ambassador’ Who Works At The Capitol Visitors Center?

Why Do Lifeguards At Austin’s City Pools Blow Their Whistles At Break Time Like That?

Who Is This Woman Who Helps Older Austinites Stay Socially Connected?

Who Cleans Up The Bat Guano Under The Congress Avenue Bridge?

Why Are There No Billboards On MoPac?

Why Does The Top Of Austin’s Tallest Building Look ‘Unfinished’?

Who Is That Guy With The ‘Giant Bird’ In South Austin?

Answering the Unanswerable With KUTX’s John Aielli — Episode 1

Who Is The Man In Southwest Austin Who Fostered Over 100 Babies With His Wife?

Why Is Austin’s ‘Official’ Pride Festival In August — And Not June, Like Most Everyone Else’s?

Who Is The Motorcycle Rider Who Does Wheelies Around Town In Pool Floaties?

Who’s That Krispy Kreme Employee Who’s So Positive All The Time?

What’s The Real Story Behind Dan’s Hamburgers And Fran’s Hamburgers?

People Keep Moving To Austin. But Where Are They Coming From?

How Did Texas Become The Only State With Its Own Toast?