Ozarks at Large

The number of homeschools in Arkansas has more than tripled over the past 20 years, while state regulatory oversight has decreased. On today's program, we hear from an Arkansas Department of Education expert and from the state's largest homeschool advocacy group about the trend. Also, the Broadway musical "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder" won a 2014 Tony Award for Best Musical. We hear from two of the actors in the production that opened last night at Walton Arts Center.

On today's program, we learn about a documentary being made about a former amusement park in the Ozarks that's fallen on hard times for the past few decades. We also learn about proposed legislation that would ban Arkansas public school students from using cell phones while in school, and we get a roundup of other legislative happenings from the first few days of the 91st Arkansas General Assembly.

On today's program, details on how Ozark Regional Transit plans to move forward following an early morning bus fire that destroyed a large portion of its bus fleet. Also, we hear from a Ponca Tribal activist who took part in the protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota, and we hear from some of the organizers of this year's Prison Stories Project, which brings to life words of some of the state's inmates on death row.

On today's program, we learn more about proposed legislation filed by an Arkansas lawmaker that would limit junk food purchases with USDA Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program debit cards. Plus Pastor Clint Schnekloth returns for the new year for a conversation about new beginnings

On today's program, how Facebook is creating a new partnership with Arkansas. Also, the band The Toos return to the Firmin-Garner Performance Studio for our first in-studio music performance of 2017.

On today's program, we speak with The Crude Mechanicals about Shakespeare on the Mountain: King Lear, which begins tonight. Also, after yesterday’s conversation with Richard Cahan about his non-fiction book about the Japanese internment camps opened 75 years ago this winter, our Thursday archive centers on a fictional account of one of the camps in Arkansas. We’ll hear again Vivienne Schiffer discuss her novel Camp Nine.

On today's program, a conversation with Richard Cahan about his new book, Un-American, the Incarceration of Japanese Americans During World War II. Next month will mark the 75th anniversary of President Franklin Roosevelt’s Executive Order responsible for the eventual internment of more than 100-thousand Japanese Americans. Also, a peer into the very near future and one last glance backward at 2016. Roby Brock with our partner Talk Business and Politics recently discussed the past year with Rex

On today's program, an eyewitness to one of the most dangerous days in Arkansas history. In the fall of 1980 a nuclear warhead stationed near Damascus, Arkansas was in danger of exploding. A new PBS documentary about the incident and others during the Cold War throughout the U.S. premieres next week. Also, we get a look back at politics in 2016 and a look ahead at what to expect in 2017 from Arkansas political observers Rex Nelson and Skip Rutherford.

For the first show of 2017, one final look back at 2016 with our interviews with a noted 1st Amendment scholar, local luthier Bayard Blain, urban farmer Don Bennett of Tri-Cycle Farms, and former Google executive chef Charlie Ayers.

Almost every week, we have musicians in our studios to play for us. A couple of times a year, we take an hour to listen again to some of the performances. This hour, Antoinette Grajeda and Timothy Dennis select just a few of their favorite songs played for us during the second half of 2016. Artists included: Brother Moses Jasper Logan Fret & Worry Mother Merey & the Black Dirt The Crumbs The Boss Tweeds Hubby Jenkins Brandon Luedtke Escape Tones. There were more they wanted to get it but