Marfa Public Radio

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The mission of Marfa Public Radio is to unite the community of Far West Texas with a focus on art, education, quality-of-life and the local economy. The KRTS studios - the tallest in Texas - are located in rural highlands of the Chihuahuan Desert. We serve the residents in the ranchlands of the Big Bend and Davis Mountains. We can be heard beyond the Transpecos at www.marfapublicradio.org.

Series

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39 Pieces

Nature Notes explores the natural world of the Chihuahuan Desert.

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1 Piece

The West Texas landscape is vast and remote, and with that comes this sense of freedom, like there’s endless possibilities, adventure down every road. But what you might not realize, looking out on these sweeping vistas or up at the big sky is that this place also comes with some real limitations. In the Big Bend, the idea of reproductive choice was complicated long before Roe v. Wade was overturned. Out here, you can’t legally get an abortion, but as recently as last year, you also might not be able to have a baby in a delivery room. So Far From Care is a podcast about how people decide when, or if to become parents in rural West Texas, where, in spite of the limitations, people find ways of making it work.

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5 Pieces

Marfa Public Radio presents a radio documentary show about the strange things that happen in everyday life.


Latest Pieces

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Winter brings hordes of handsome cedar waxwings to our region, where they’ll throng our junipers and devour every berry they can find. What makes t...

Bought by KENW


  • Added: Jan 04, 2011
  • Length: 04:30
  • Purchases: 1
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Pine trees are much more than symbols of Christmas and sources of timber. They serve up a smorgasbord for many wild animals and insects. Who dines ...

Bought by KENW


  • Added: Jan 04, 2011
  • Length: 04:30
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: A creosote flower., Credit: Megan Wilde
Creosote’s therapeutic applications would make any biotech CEO green with envy. What are this desert shrub’s medicinal properties? And why is it su...

Bought by KENW


  • Added: Dec 21, 2010
  • Length: 04:30
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Horned lizards get water from the ants they eat., Credit: Cathryn Hoyt
Animals have adapted to surviving with little or no water during the Chihuahuan Desert's dry winter and spring. How do they do it?

Bought by KENW and KENW


  • Added: Dec 21, 2010
  • Length: 04:30
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Giant cane dominates the muddy banks of the Rio Grande in many places., Credit: Megan Wilde
Sediment is slowly choking the Rio Grande in the Big Bend region of Texas, causing more frequent floods and making it easier for invasive plants to...

Bought by KENW


  • Added: Nov 19, 2010
  • Length: 04:30
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Maple seeds can fly with their papery propellers. , Credit: Cathryn Hoyt
You might think of plants as immobile, but they've evolved diverse strategies to scatter their offspring far and wide. What are some dispersal tact...

Bought by KENW


  • Added: Nov 11, 2010
  • Length: 04:30
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Quaking aspens in Big Bend National Park, Credit: James Zech
With their towering white trunks and fluttering leaves, quaking aspens are icons of the Rocky Mountains. Yet every fall, aspen stands paint West Te...

Bought by KENW


  • Added: Nov 11, 2010
  • Length: 04:30
  • Purchases: 1
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The real life version of "Field Of Dreams" takes place in Alpine, Texas in the 1940s and 50s. This is a story about a man, his baseball field and ...

Bought by KMXT, WXAV 88.3FM Chicago, WNMU-FM, KMXT, and KUT


  • Added: Nov 08, 2010
  • Length: 28:59
  • Purchases: 5
Caption: An infected little brown bat., Credit: Ryan von Linden/New York Department of Environmental Conservation
A fungal disease has been destroying bat colonies in the northeastern United States and is now spreading south and west across the country. What is...

Bought by KENW


  • Added: Nov 05, 2010
  • Length: 04:30
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: A Rio Grande silvery minnow, Credit: Aimee Roberson/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
These tiny fish disappeared from Texas almost fifty years ago. But today, silvery minnows swim again in the Big Bend reach of the Rio Grande. What ...

Bought by KENW


  • Added: Nov 05, 2010
  • Length: 04:30
  • Purchases: 1