StudioTulsa

What's it like to live on one-tenth of the fossil-fuel consumption of the average American? Alarmed by the drastic changes now occurring in the Earth's climate systems, our guest on today's ST -- who is a climate scientist and father of two -- decided to find out. And he's very glad he did. Peter Kalmus is our guest; he is an atmospheric scientist at Caltech / Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and he has a new book out. As he announces in this book, he eventually made a decision to change both his life

On this edition of ST, we speak with Joseph Opala, an American historian who's known for his research on the so-called "Gullah Connection," i.e., the long historical thread linking the West African nation of Sierra Leone to the Gullah people of coastal South Carolina and Georgia. Opala, an Oklahoma native, first learned of the Gullah people while serving in the Peace Corps, just after college; by now, he has spent more than four decades making historical discoveries about these people, their

On this edition of ST, we chat with the New York-based author and journalist Jennifer Egan, whose newest novel, the much-praised "Manhattan Beach," is just out. As was noted of this book in a starred review in Kirkus: "After stretching the boundaries of fiction in myriad ways...Egan does perhaps the only thing left that could surprise: she writes a thoroughly traditional novel. Realistically detailed, poetically charged, and utterly satisfying: apparently there's nothing Egan can't do." And

The 2017 Tulsa American Film Festival, or TAFF, showcasing indie features and shorts from across the United States -- with a focus on local, classic, student, Native American, and Okie-rooted films -- continues here in T-Town at several different venues. Tonight, the 13th, the TAFF will present the Oklahoma Premiere of a new documentary film about the life and work of Wilma Mankiller, who in 1985 was the first woman elected as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Our guests are Valerie Red

On this edition of ST Medical Monday, we learn about the remarkable life and work of Dr. John Sarno, who died earlier this year at 93. As was noted in his New York Times obituary , Dr. Sarno was "a doctor at New York University whose controversial books on the psychological origins of chronic pain sold over a million copies, even while he was largely ignored or maligned by many of his medical peers.... Revered by some as a saint and dismissed by others as a quack, Dr. Sarno maintained that most

On this edition of ST, we chat with Jimmy Webb, who grew up in rural Oklahoma before going out to Hollywood, while still a teen, to break into the songwriting biz...and who eventually created such classic pop tunes as "Wichita Lineman," "By The Time I Get To Phoenix," "Up, Up and Away," and "MacArthur Park." Webb will soon perform (on the 14th) with the Bartlesville Symphony, singing and playing his wonderful songs while also telling plenty of stories. He shares a few of those stories with us

On this installment of StudioTulsa, we learn about the work of Kay WalkingStick, a widely celebrated American landscape artist who once referred to herself as "a New York painter and a Cherokee woman." Now 82, and equally (and impressively) adept in both abstract and representational styles, WalkingStick is the subject of a newly opened retrospective exhibition at the Gilcrease Museum here in Tulsa. ( This show will be on view until early January.) With her works appearing in the collections of,

Our guest on this edition of ST is Sophia Pappas, who formerly led the pioneering initiative to bring "universal pre-K" to the New York City Public Schools. Pappas now resides in Tulsa, as she was recently hired by the Tulsa-based George Kaiser Family Foundation, the nonprofit social-justice and civic-enhancement organization funded by local billionaire and philanthropist George Kaiser. Pappas will now be in charge of introducing and implementing the GKFF's Birth through Eight Strategy, which

On this edition of our program, we speak with the California-based physician and writer Lucy Kalanithi. Her late husband Paul, also a physician, wrote the bestselling memoir, "When Breath Becomes Air," in the final months of his life. (He died of lung cancer before his 40th birthday.) As was noted of this short yet powerful book by The Boston Globe: "Paul Kalanithi's posthumous memoir...possesses the gravity and wisdom of an ancient Greek tragedy.... [Kalanithi] delivers his chronicle in austere

What's a "typical day at the office" like for a reporter who's been assigned to cover the White House? How often do presidents traveling on Air Force One actually stroll to the back of the plane and chat with journalists? How much prep work goes (or doesn't go) into the annual White House Turkey Pardon, just before Thanksgiving? On this edition of ST, we listen to a "Public Radio Tulsa Give and Take" conversation that was recorded recently, on Saturday the 30th. At this event, which took place