New associate producers are hard at work
Interviews are the lifeblood of podcasts. In the past month, Lawson and Grace Ann have conducted interviews with a variety of sources to help our podcast, 35, flourish.
Lawson is still spending all of her time on the third episode of the podcast that surrounds the small, country town of Cotulla, Texas. As this episode is focused largely on the town’s transition to become more of a tourist center, Lawson first reached out to Leslie Aboumrad, the project coordinator for Able City, the company that has created a master plan for Cotulla’s new updates. Leslie was the perfect source for a podcast interview, as she was very lively and had a story to tell with every question she was asked. This interview gave Lawson a few new avenues to follow in her reporting, including researching the impact of the railroad on the town and the historic buildings that are being preserved.
This led her to reach out to Terri Meyers, who has created the preservation guidelines for this plan. Terri and Lawson spoke over Zoom about Cotulla’s historic sites including Plaza Florita and the Welhausen Elementary School, where former president Lyndon B. Johnson taught seventh graders. Terri also had a lot to say about the authentic character of the town, describing it as a place that looked like it was plucked right from a Western film. In addition to interviewing Terri, Lawson also spoke to Larry Dovalina, Cotulla’s city administrator, about financial hardships the town has experienced and how it plans to move forward.
Grace Ann is working primarily on episode three of the podcast about Chisholm Trail and the history of black cowboys in America. She reached out to many different sources in hopes of finding various perspectives about the topic. Finding an actual professional cowboy was a priority, but Grace Ann was also interested in finding an outside perspective on the topic such as a historian.
Grace Ann’s first interview was with Mytris Dightman Jr. Grace Ann was initially seeking to speak with Myrtis Dightman, Junior’s father who is considered the Jakie Robinson of Rodeo, but Myrtis Dightman Jr. followed in the footsteps of his father and is a professional cowboy in his own right. Their interview revealed many personal stories about Myrtis’s life growing up in the country and in the rodeo scene. He told stories about the first time he rode a bull, how he was treated in school for being black and country,and also about the inclusive family-like culture of the rodeo scene.
Next, Grace Ann interviewed John Ferguson, a photographer who did a photojournalism project about black cowboys in America. His project was called The Forgotten Cowboys: Photographs that celebrate the history of black cowboys in America. He made his project to raise awareness about the culture of black cowboys because it is commonly unknown. During their interview he provided a great outside perspective on the topic of black cowboys.
Grace Ann and Lawson have loved working with Sara on her podcast over the last few months, and they can’t wait to hear their work come to life!
