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Can’t get enough local news? With our Behind The Scenes podcasts, you’ll gain access to the full length versions of all the interviews that inform our weekly reporting. That means hours and hours of in-depth conversations with local community leaders, politicians, activists, and Austinites doing super rad stuff. 

 

With our Behind The Scenes podcast, we take the mystery out of our reporting, honor our commitment to openness and transparency with our readers, and you give you the opportunity to take a deep dive into the issues you’re passionate about by…

We Actually Explain The News

We conduct interviews with the assumption that our audience is not an expert on the topic we’re discussing. That’s why we always prompt our guests to avoid acronyms, ditch the fancy-sounding jargon-y language, and be as clear as possible.

We keep it nonpartisan.

 

You’ve got enough stress in your life. That’s why we don’t spend our entire interview yelling over our guests and blurting out our own opinions. Sure, we ask them important questions, but we also honor their intelligence and let them speak for longer than 30 seconds at a time.

We Keep It Brief

For any of our podcasts, you can read a short synopsis (if you don’t have time to listen to a full episode) or you can listen to the entire interview (which can be 30 – 60 minutes long). It’s all part of our commitment to honoring your busy schedule and your intelligence, all at the same time. Read a little, or listen to a lot. We’ll make sure you’re informed either way.

Nowhere To Go
Essays
Amy Stansbury

Nowhere To Go: Homelessness In Austin

Our podcast mini-series on homelessness continues with a focus on emergency shelter, which is meant to provide people with a safe place to sleep (temporarily), while they work to get connected to more permanent housing. But in Austin, we don’t have enough emergency shelter beds,

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HOME Podcast
Essays
Amy Stansbury

The HOME Initiative: What It Is & Why It Matters

On December 7th, Austin City Council will vote on the HOME Initiative, a proposal to allow up to three housing units to be built on single-family lots. The idea is to increase the city’s supply of “missing middle” housing, but like so many debates related

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State Parks Podcast
Essays
Amy Stansbury

Explaining Your Ballot: State Propositions

The are 14 proposed state constitutional amendments on the ballot this year. In this episode we take a deep into several of them, including Prop 4 (property taxes), Prop 6 (water), and Prop 8 (broadband internet).   Our guests include state Rep. Vikki Goodwin, Jennifer

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Prop 14
Essays
Amy Stansbury

$1 Billion For State Parks? Explaining Prop 14

There  are 14 proposed state constitutional amendments on the ballot this year. One of them, Prop 14, would create a $1 billion centennial parks conservation fund to grow our state parks system.   To tell us all about it, host Amy Stansbury sat down with

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Explaining Your Ballot Podcast
Essays
Amy Stansbury

Explaining Your Ballot: Travis County Props A & B

If you live in Travis County, you have two very important propositions on your ballot this year – Prop A (which is all about roads, bike lanes, and sidewalks) and Prop B (which is about parks).   To help you understand exactly what you’ll be

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Episode 46
Essays
Amy Stansbury

Mental Health & Our Criminal Justice System

On, March 21st, the Travis County Commissioners Court voted to take the first steps toward creating a mental health diversion center right here in Travis County.   And what is a mental health diversion center? We discuss it all with Travis County Judge Andy Brown.

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Future of I-35
Essays
Amy Stansbury

The Future of I-35

By now, you’ve probably heard there are plans to expand I-35 through downtown Austin… but what does that mean exactly? And what will the impact be for our community? And the climate?   We cover it all in this episode of The Austin Common Radio

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Runoff Podcast - District 3 and mayor
Essays
Amy Stansbury

Elections 101 Runoff Edition: Mayor + District 3

Several local races are headed to a runoff! To make it easier for you to do your ballot research, we’re re-publishing some of our election episodes to feature only the candidates who made it to the runoff.   In this episode, you’ll hear interviews with

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District 1 Podcast
Essays
Amy Stansbury

Elections 101: Austin City Council District 1

In this episode of The Austin Common Radio Hour, host Amy Stansbury sits down with the candidates running for City Council in District 1 (east Austin).    You’ll hear interviews with: Misael D. Ramos Clinton Rarey Melonie House-Dixon Natasha Harper-Madison   You can hear this

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