Flyover Country

A knife sculpture in a Tulsa neighborhood has been causing a stir. The owner says it's art, while the city says it's a business sign. This is a story about the knife. For more information about the sculpture, check out the Tulsa World.

Garth Brooks is a native Oklahoman. When he sang at Joe Biden's inauguration, some people online joked that Oklahomans would be upset since Oklahoma is conservative. I asked some people in Stillwater (where Garth Brooks went to college) what they thought about Garth Brooks performing at the inauguration.

Silent movies aren't really my thing, but when I saw an advertisement for a silent movie with live accompaniment I wanted to go and see how a musician would handle the situation. This is a story about going to the show. Learn more about Rodeo Cinema in Stockyards City:https://www.rodeocinema.org/ Bill Rowland, the organist: http://ragtimebill.com/

We're gonna go ahead and call this the end of season one. This is a story that originally appeared in a different form at Oklahoma Watch for their Coronavirus Storytelling Project. It's the first thing I made after moving to Oklahoma, and this re-work is a fitting end to the project. Thank you to anyone who listened to even one minute of this podcast. It has been a real adventure. Happy holidays and happy new year.

What is it like to get bitten by a venomous snake? The curator of the Rattlesnake & Venom Museum in Oklahoma City answers.

A few weeks ago I went to a protest against Jim Inhofe who has been one of Oklahoma's senators for 26 years.

This is what happened during a May 30th protest for George Floyd in Oklahoma City. I arrived around 9 after I saw pictures of the protest online. Some people had already been arrested for blocking the intersection at Classen and NW 23rd. After the protest, some people were charged with rioting and terrorism. I searched for news but I don't know what ended up happening to those people.

A man in Norman has a brush with weather, and a research scientist explains conditions on that night. To learn more about the storm on August 31st 2020 in Norman, visit http://lightning.nmt.edu/oklma/ and https://www.nssl.noaa.gov/tools/oklma/ Washington Post article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/09/03/oklahoma-lightning-onslaught/ In this episode: Vanna Chmielewski and Russell Rice Thank you to Kristin Calhoun and Erin Rice

I've got a lot of ideas and raw material this week, but nothing finished. So I'm posting this story that originally aired on CBC Radio One's "The World this Weekend." It's about a young ally in Norman who planned a protest for George Floyd and other victims of police violence. Thousands of people attended.

The first game of the Oklahoma University football season was much different than usual because of coronavirus restrictions. I talked to a longtime Normanite about it.

In a social media poll The Center of the Universe in Tulsa was recently ranked as the worst attraction in Oklahoma. I checked it out. Social media poll by Matt Shirley (who creates a chart a day): https://www.instagram.com/mattsurelee/

The pandemic has made a lot of people feel lonely, and it has made a lot of people get dogs. This is a story about how I found a dog & tried to help it.

Oklahoman Wilson Rawls wrote "Where the Red Fern Grows" and "Summer of the Monkeys." Millions of his books are in print. But he spent his early adult life wandering & going in and out of prison. How did he manage to write the books we're still reading today? Thanks to: Tahlequah Public Library (especially Tony), Cherokee Heritage Center (especially Callie), Beth Herrington, Jim Trelease (full Wilson Rawls speech available https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IieGtEFexOc&t=1s), Jim Granger, Tony George, Mary Wedig, Jane Zwiefelhofer, @okstatepencollection on Instagram.

Flyover Country is a podcast that tells interesting stories out of Oklahoma.