Our show starts with a week-to-week increase in Arkansans fully immunized and new cases, a downtick in Arkansas unemployment numbers, and a first-ever trip to the Elite Eight for Arkansas soccer.

This Thanksgiving a new nonprofit, Cocoon Collective NWA , is teaming up with the Museum of Native American History for a Queer Friendsgiving event.

An early 20 th century Ozarks masonry techinique using split native sandstone as an inexpensive and durable method to side houses came to be known as "giraffe houses." Common in northern Arkansas, southern Missouri and eastern Oklahoma the architectural style is starting to be adapted in new buildings. University of Arkansas architecture professor Greg Herman — who resides in a historic giraffe house in Fayetteville — provides an illuminating tour.

Andrea Allen is the co-founder of Onyx Coffee Lab and recently came in second place in the 2021 World Barista Championship. She shares how she's grown as a barista, what it takes to compete, and what competition she's like to be mediocre at.

Airship Coffee, a Bentonville-based coffee roaster and distributor, is partnering with Selva Coffee producers in Costa Rica to develop specialty products. Lab manager for Sleva, Maria Paula Rojas, visited northwest Arkansas earlier this month to tour the Airship headquarters and discuss sustainable collaboration between roasters and farmers.

Bonnie Montgomery , Chris Acker and Willi Carlisle will perform Wednesday, Nov. 24 at George's Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville. We catch up with Willi, hear more about the show, and get a sampling of the music that can be heard next week.

Jennifer Jolley, composer and an assistant professor of composition at Texas Tech University, will be on the University of Arkansas campus to work with students. She'll also hear her work performed by the U of A Wind Ensemble and Wind Symphony Monday night at 7:30 in the Faulkner Performing Arts Center on campus. Lia Uribe and Kyle Kellams asked her, and Christopher Knighten...the director of bands at the U of A...about the relationship between composer and performer.

A film shot in Italy, during the pandemic and before vaccines, is hard to understand. Courtney Lanning, a film critic with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette , is still trying to make sense of it all.

At the top of our show today: Arkansas’ battle with COVID-19 continues at a steady pace, Fort Smith sets date for special election to decide on continuing sales tax, and Arkansas universities recognized by U.S. News & World Report guides.

In 2017, Fayetteville City Council adopted a new Solid Waste Reduction, Diversion and Recycing Master Plan , which aims to achieve a goal of 40% waste diversion by 2027. One step in that plan is implenting a commercial food waste composting program that diverts biodegradable food waste away from trash in landfills.