Mayborn Lit Conversations

What started out as a two-year project that would chroncle the history of the much-revered Texas Rangers, turned out to be a five-year journey that exposes "a cult of glory" that reveals horrific truths. Doug J. Swanson's book rips of the veneer of that glory, showing how there history is riddled with vile massacres of Native Americans, murdering Mexicans at random and terrorizing Blacks throughout the state. Swanson is the author most recently of Blood Aces: The Wild Ride of Benny Binion, the Texas Gangster Who Created Vegas Poker. He was for many years an investigative reporter and editor at The Dallas Morning News.

Texas Monthly Editor Skip Hollandsworth reveals how he hates to write, loves to report and does as much research as possible to create rich narratives and compelling characters. You might recall that Hollandsworth's 2011 movie Bernie, which Hollandsworth co-wrote with Richard Linklater, is based on his January 1998 story, “Midnight in the Garden of East Texas.” His true crime history, The Midnight Assassin, about a series of murders that took place in Austin in 1885.

In a compelling interview, Dr. Seema Yasmin, an award-winning journalist, author , doctor and professor shares the inside scoop on the Ebola outbreak in Dallas and its eerie comparisons to coronavirus pandemic. She dives into issues about debunking myths about public health crisis, a culture of misinformation and the fragile state of our health systems in the U.S. and around the world.

George Getschow, Mayborn Literary Nonfiction founder, chats with author Hampton Sides take you on journey from the far reaches of Siberia to the South Pacific - and every place in between. As Getschow puts it, "rollicking and far ranging adventure into the soul of one of America's finest historians and literary journalists."

The Mayborn LitConversations is a podcast produced by UNT's Mayborn School of Journalism and the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference, featuring conversations with journalists and authors who offer down to earth advice about reporting, writing and storytelling.