West Texas Wonders: Recent Episodes
Marfa Public Radio
West Texas Wonders is a podcast driven by YOUR questions. Here's how it works: you, our listeners, tell us what you're curious about in West Texas -- silly or serious, big or small, from our people to our geography to our oddities and entities -- and with your help, Marfa Public Radio embarks on a journey to investigate and answer. Come along for the ride! Submit your question online at marfapublicradio.org/curious.
As part of our West Texas Wonders journalism initiative, we're asking you to tell us how you and your loved ones have been affected by the pandemic.
As part of our West Texas Wonders journalism initiative, we’re asking you to tell us how you and your loved ones have been affected by the pandemic. One of the first people to respond to our callout was Lawrence Rivera, … Continue reading → Hosted by for KRTS
By Sally Beauvais As we approach the end of monsoon season in West Texas, now’s a good time to step outside and take a moment to appreciate the dramatic summer storm clouds that bring the majority of our region’s annual … Continue reading → Hosted by for KRTS
By Mitch Borden If you’re in West Texas and have turned on your TV over the last few decades you have probably seen this on your screen: Boots flying at a spry middle-aged man, who is catching them, all while … Continue reading → Hosted by for KRTS
By Sally Beauvais If you’ve spent any time waiting for the train to arrive at the Amtrak station in Alpine, you may have noticed it, too: a telephone pole, sticking clear through the pitched roof of a warehouse on the … Continue reading → Hosted by for KRTS
By Sally Beauvais Deana Haggag — who visited Marfa from Chicago with a group of friends late last year — has almost always lived in big cities. And the night sky in West Texas left a big impression on her. … Continue reading → Hosted by for KRTS
By Sally Beauvais You may know the iconic species of cactus by its towering physical stature — its crooked arms, many ribs, and spiny flesh. Or, you may be more intimately familiar with its cartoonish likeness, appearing on countless postcards, … Continue reading → Hosted by for KRTS
If you do much highway driving in Texas, it’s a familiar sight: old, rusted trucks packed to the gills with toys, motor oil, textiles, and building materials traveling down the interstate. Sometimes, they’re hauling an additional truck — “IN TOW” … Continue reading → Hosted by for KRTS
Listener Josh Knight asked West Texas Wonders whether the meteor crater in Odessa was actually produced by a crash, and, if so, what ecological impact that collision might have had. Marfa Public Radio looked to Nature Notes for the answer. … Continue reading → Hosted by for KRTS
The Rambling Boy teams up with Marfa Public Radio’s Sally Beauvais in an attempt to answer some of the tough history questions that have been submitted to West Texas Wonders. Hosted by for KRTS
By Mitch Borden It doesn’t take much to see the Permian Basin’s economy is doing pretty well right now. Just look at Midland and Odessa, the two cities’ unemployment rate is around two percent, wages are high and property values … Continue reading → Hosted by for KRTS
Rachel Maxwell of Alpine wants to know what the highest level of education the Burro Lady achieved was. Harry Hudson of Dallas wants to know how Mrs. Kerr of Fort Stockton’s marriage proposal related to rainfall. Gretchen Coles of Marfa wonders … Continue reading → Hosted by for KRTS
Listeners Linda Beranek, Guadalupe Espinoza, and Josh Knight are among many Marfa Public Radio listeners who have submitted questions about esoteric local history to West Texas Wonders. So we turned to resident historian Lonn Taylor, also known as The Rambling … Continue reading → Hosted by for KRTS
Listener Ken Richards has always noticed the unique fragments and features of the Big Bend. “I assume some of that, a lot of that, moved around by earthquake,” says Richards. “But I’m wondering if it’s seismically active now.” West Texas Wonders … Continue reading → Hosted by for KRTS
By Mitch Borden Today we’re diving into a question from our West Texas Wonders series and this one is taking us to the Permian Basin. Sarah Ross Kelliher, a librarian at the Midland Centennial Library, asked us to get to … Continue reading → Hosted by for KRTS
By Sally Beauvais More than a fifth of the people who call the vast Big Bend region of West Texas home are 65 or older, according to census data from 2016. And many of them, at one point or another, … Continue reading → Hosted by for KRTS
What kinds of turtles live around Marfa? The question comes from Nathan Stueve. The answer we found surprised us. For this episode, West Texas Wonders is teaming up with Nature Notes – our weekly look at the natural world of the … Continue reading → Hosted by for KRTS
Listener Rachel Monroe was preparing recently for a Big Bend river trip. It was summer, and she thought she and her companion, a park ranger, could sleep in the open air, under the stars. But the ranger rejected that idea … Continue reading → Hosted by for KRTS
By Carlos Morales You might associate Marfa for a lot of things, the mysterious lights in the desert, the concrete, minimal art. But you might not hear a lot about Marfa’s military history. In the early 1900s, Camp Marfa was set … Continue reading → Hosted by for KRTS
There’s no denying it — Classical Midday host and longtime Fort Davis resident Roseland Klein is in great shape. Roseland, lovingly known as the matriarch of Marfa Public Radio, is celebrating her 90th birthday on Saturday, December 8th. And like many of us … Continue reading → Hosted by for KRTS
JD DiFabbio isn’t the only listener who’s asked Marfa Public Radio about the status of horny toads in West Texas. She wants to know the current population; another listener is curious if they’re endangered yet; another wonders if she’s seen … Continue reading → Hosted by for KRTS
By Diana Nguyen In Texas, 95 percent of the land is privately owned, much of it by ranchers. And if you drive out West, the swaths of private land holdings get even bigger. But how did these parcels of land … Continue reading → Hosted by for KRTS
In rural West Texas, it doesn’t take much for your internet connection to go down. A pounding rainstorm, heavy winds, construction workers accidentally cutting a crucial cable — all very real scenarios that can leave you without internet for hours. That’s why … Continue reading → Hosted by for KRTS
Marfa’s Adele Powers asked West Texas Wonders about a natural phenomenon that touches the lives of everyone and everything in the region, literally — wind. “Windy season is the bane of my existence,” Powers said, “and I think for a … Continue reading → Hosted by for KRTS
When it comes to one plant found in abundance across West Texas, Big Spring native Alan Cox wants to get the story straight. He asked Marfa Public Radio: “How much truth is there to the old story that mesquite trees aren’t … Continue reading → Hosted by for KRTS
As we approach peak summer festival season, one Marfa resident is out to learn the real rules of the busiest intersection in town — the 4-way stop on San Antonio and Highland. And they’re not as simple as you might … Continue reading → Hosted by for KRTS
An anonymous listener asked Marfa Public Radio: What’s the deal with the abandoned skyscrapers in downtown Midland? “Most of these buildings downtown were built for the Texacos, the Mobils, all those major oil companies.” It’s a question that stirred a … Continue reading → Hosted by for KRTS
This Summer, we asked you to start sending us your questions about our region — big or small, silly or serious. It’s all part of a new journalism project we’re calling West Texas Wonders. High school teacher Ella Lujan posed … Continue reading → Hosted by for KRTS