Jonathan Demme, who directed modern classics like The Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia as well as the Talking Heads' landmark concert film Stop Making Sense, died this week at the age of 73 after over 40 years of filmmaking. David D’Arcy remembers him as a director who moved from the independent scene to Hollywood, and made cinema out of many different elements.

The Greer Garson theater at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design is in the midst of its last production of the academic year. KSFR's Dylan Syverson spoke to Laura Fine Hawkes, SFUAD's performing arts chair, to learn more.

The American Automobile Association has just released its 2017 Green Car ratings. So if you’re thinking about buying a new vehicle and want to be kind to the environment, this guide is for you. KSFR's Mary Lou Cooper spoke to AAA New Mexico spokesperson Doug Shupe to find out more.

When Governor Susana Martinez vetoed all higher education funding earlier this month, $745 million in planned state contributions to the state's colleges and universities was eliminated. Today the New Mexico Legislature and the Governor remain in a standoff. The Legislature has sued the Governor seeking to have the New Mexico Supreme Court overturn her vetoes. A Supreme Court date has been scheduled for May 15th. But the effects on higher education institutions are already being seen. Yesterday Santa Fe Community College president Randy Grissom declared that SFCC is in a state of financial emergency and announced tuition raises, and a possibility of staff furloughs. Ellen Berkovitch interviewed him in the KSFR studios yesterday.

Identifying as transgender illicit a multitude of responses in western society. I wondered what the experience for transgender people are in Northern New Mexico and reached out to the appropriate communities in Santa Fe and Albuquerque to ask if anyone wanted to share their experiences. At first, I received no response. Then, I received quite a few. Now, we listen to the first part of my series chronicling varied experiences of transgender identity in Northern New Mexico.

Today’s story is part one of a two-part focus on Israel-Palestinian relations and the way the conflict about U.S. military aid for Israel plays out in Santa Fe. In the interview that follows this feature, Rob Morlino reaches Rabbi Malka Drucker for additional comment.

Spread 6.0 came off last Friday at the Santa Fe Farmers' Market to a capacity crowd, and delivered a $7705 purse to artist Paula Castillo for a project to retain New Mexico arroyos with salvaged concrete.

The Tribeca Film Festival began April 19th. Film critic David D'Arcy has the story on the documentaries, and a little bit about the celebrities.

The social cost of carbon. The methane rule. How has the new executive changed the work of Western Environmental Law Center? We talk it over.

Project ECHO, or Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes, began in 2003. It’s a program that uses collaborative education to build the expertise of medical providers in rural areas. Project ECHO got a national boost in December 2016 when President Obama signed the ECHO Act to expand and study the model.

Dr. Sanjeev Arora is a distinguished professor at the UNM School of Medicine and director of Project ECHO. KSFR's Hannah Colton spoke with him about his vision for the future of healthcare in America and beyond.

Growing season is just about here! Hannah and Dylan chatted with Bob Pennington of Agua Fria Nursery about the many vegetable choices and planting methods green-thumbed Santa Feans may consider this year.

Rita Daniels, News Director of KNCE True Taos Radio, checks in from Taos with some reporting highlights from her previous week in radio.

Mary Lou Cooper interviews three subject experts.

Katherine Mast reports on the March for Science Santa Fe.

Glenn Silber and Barry Alexander Brown co-produced and co-directed the 1979 anti-Vietnam War documentary, The War at Home. The movie constellates around the antiwar protest movements that became a people's revolt at the University of Wisconsin at Madison in the 1960s and '70s.

Herman Agoyo of Okay Owingeh—the former San Juan Pueblo—was a Northern New Mexico tribal leader who worked to gain national recognition for the leader of the 1680 Pueblo revolt. Agoyo passed away April 11 at the age of 82. Hannah Colton produced this piece about his life and legacy.

"The Fate of the Furious" is volume 8 in the "Fast and the Furious" franchise, a concept that always risks running out of gas. It’s playing at the Violet Crown. That risk is still there, but David D’Arcy says there’s at least one new twist this time.

One year ago today, the pop musician Prince passed away in his Chanhassen, Minnesota home studio, Paisley Park. The superstar’s sudden death at age 57 elicited tributes from musicians and fans all around the globe.

Music writer Michael Gonzales joined me by phone to talk about the Purple One and the music he left the world.

Lou Diamond Phillips has well over a hundred acting credits in film and TV. He's maybe best known for playing Ritchie Valens in La Bamba, and he's also starred in Stand and Deliver, both Young Guns films, and the series Stargate Universe. He now plays Henry Standing Bear in Longmire, which is now shooting its 6th and final season here in the Santa Fe area.

Lou joined us in the studio to talk acting, directing, being seen out and about in Santa Fe, and the vicissitudes of Texas hold'em.

As the sugary drinks tax proposal to fund pre-K education in Santa Fe edges toward a vote on May 2, more and more individual voices on both sides of the issue are weighing in with their concerns.

Dr. Stefanie Beninato and retired 1st District Judge Michael Vigil have both written columns as private citizens addressing the issue: Dr. Beninato's "Support Pre-K; Oppose Sugary Drinks Tax" appeared in the New Mexican April 9, and Judge Vigil's "Soda Tax to Fund Pre-K is a Win-Win Solution" ran in the Journal on March 31.

Dr. Beninato and Judge Vigil joined us in the studio to debate the proposed tax, with Judge Vigil representing the pro side and Dr. Beninato the con side.

Mayor Javier Gonzales is at the helm of efforts to tax sugary beverages in order to fund pre-K education in Santa Fe. Residents will vote on that measure in a special election May 2. Ellen Berkovitch spoke at length to Mayor Gonzales by phone.

Dr David Frisvold of the University of Iowa's Tippie College of Business studies the economic impact of sugary beverage taxes. He joined us for a few minutes to help put Santa Fe's upcoming special election in the context of other taxes and proposals around the US.

NM In Depth's Sandra Fish joins me.

The community dinner that supports artists and creative initiatives in Santa Fe.

The governor has been roadshowing around the state talking about her budget and other vetoes. Rita Daniels caught up with her in Taos.

Today we chart the conversation surrounding a controversial painting that’s being exhibited at this year’s Whitney Biennial. We'll also hear a 2-part poem written by the influential contemporary poet Rachel Eliza Griffiths, who is part of IAIA’s low residency MFA faculty. 

Credit to Rachel Eliza Griffiths's featured poems and the featured work of Frances Madeson writing for Indian Country Media Network.

The Netflix series Longmire​, which has shot five seasons in the Santa Fe area, is now shooting its sixth and final season. As we bid an extended farewell to the mainstay production, we're joined in the studio by Cassidy Freeman, whose many TV credits include Smallville and The Vampire Diaries, and who plays Walt Longmire's daughter, Cady, on Longmire.

Cece Derringer, director of the NMSA Arts Institute, and Beckie Mascolo, the Institute's marketing associate, join us in the studio to discuss the New Mexico School for the Arts's planned move into the Sanbusco Center, funding sources for the shopping center's renovation, and the projected economic impact of the NMSA's expansion.

The Santa Fe Reporter recently took Governor Susana Martinez to court, claiming the Martinez administration withheld information from the Reporter in violation of public records disclosure laws. Andy Lyman of the New Mexico Political Report joins Hannah Colton to discuss the case and its implications.

Spring has sprung, puppy proliferation is on the rise, and animal shelter employees are hard at work trying to find homes for the surplus canine population. But potential pet owners have a lot of questions about their prospective new friends, especially concerning breeds. KSFR's Rob Morlino addresses some of those visitors' concerns, particularly concerning the dubiously-reputed pit bull terrier.

It’s time for Science Monday, with a story about when collective decision-making—formerly thought to be a winning formula for species fitness—leads bison into what’s called an ecological trap. In short: how to have a mortal case of the munchies. Dr. Daniel Fortin of Laval University in Canada explains.

Emily Kaltenbach, New Mexico director of the Drug Policy Alliance, discusses treatment needs for opioid addicts in the state, as well as President Trump's nominee for his administration's "drug czar" office, Rep. Tom Marino (R-PA).

Frantz, a French film that’s opening at the CCA, is set in the years after World War I, which killed a generation of German and French men. Young war widows were forced to start their lives again. Frantz, set in Germany, is one of those stories. David D’Arcy has this review.

It’s Holy Week in the Catholic faith, and today is Good Friday, when Christians believe Jesus Christ was put to death on the cross. It’s also when many thousands of people flock to the famous northern New Mexico chapel called El Santuario de Chimayo. It was built 200 years ago by local villagers, and as we hear from KSFR’s Deborah Martinez, people have been coming ever since for a variety of personal reasons.

As the Netflix series Longmire commences production of its sixth and final season, we begin a series of interviews with crew, cast, and others involved with this mainstay of Santa Fe film production.

Today, Thomas A. Walsh, A.D.G., Longmire's production designer, talks about scouting locations and designing sets to create the atmosphere of Absaroka County, Wyoming, right here in New Mexico.

152 years ago tomorrow, John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC. John Andrews, president of the Shakespeare Guild, tells how Booth modeled himself on the literary-historical Roman figure Brutus, assassin of Julius Caesar.

KSFR's Dylan Syverson and Ellen Berkovitch talk with Matt Grubs of the Santa Fe Reporter about the impending closure of Santa Fe University of Art and Design, which has operated at the former College of Santa Fe campus since 2009. The school will close after a final commencement in June 2018—we discuss what that means for university students, faculty, and the greater St. Michael's corridor.

We've been running Ed Williams's series, Enduring Addiction, this week. He joins me in the studio to discuss how he reported the series and what are some of the other issues that listeners should know about heroin addiction in Espanola and Northern New Mexico.

US Congressman Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) discusses the opioid epidemic in New Mexico and the political issues surrounding funding for treatments.

As part of my exploration of emerging business in Northern New Mexico, I learn about bizMIX, a startup accelerator operated by MIX Santa Fe, in which applicants submit their pitch or idea to be judged alongside those of their peers.

Teacher evaluations in New Mexico saw a handful of tweaks last week issued by Governor Martinez. Changes included reduced emphasis on test scores as evaluation criteria, an increase in penalty-free sick days, and more. These changes were recommended to the Governor's office by teachers' advocacy group Teach Plus. But some educators are skeptical that the changes will improve their situation. KSFR's Hannah Colton spoke to educators on both side of the issue.

Eleanor Power is an Omidyar fellow at Santa Fe Institute and an evolutionary anthropologist. She studies the ways that we infer qualities of good character from watching others enact their religious beliefs.

Marylou Ortega-Shaw of NAMI Santa Fe joins me to discuss supporting families and individuals in crisis, and the work of destigmatizing mental illness in our community.

Tonight and over the weekend, our solar system's largest planet will be in opposition to Earth—meaning it's as close and visible as it will be all year. NASA's Dr. Jennifer Wiseman told me how best to observe Jupiter and what astronomers are learning about it today.

KSFR's Tom Glazner reports on the ubiquitous Siberian elm (a.k.a. Chinese elm), how it came to the Southwest, and the role it plays in our lives and ecosystem.

I Called Him Morgan is a stylish and sad documentary about the life—and mostly the death—of the best jazz musician you probably never heard of. It’s playing at the CCA. David D’Arcy has this review.

Depending on where in America you live, a job hunt can be anything from a breeze to an all-encompassing cloud of frustration. KSFR's Mary Lou Cooper caught up with an analyst from the financial site WalletHub to learn where the jobs are and where they just ain't.

Judy Goldberg's series on the conference at United World College, Montezuma.

They elaborate on what’s in front of McKinley County as a resolution to “pause” uranium mining gets watered down by the County Commission.

Manuela Well Off Man is chief curator at MOCNA in Santa Fe. They have a range of exhibitions from Inside the Forces of Nature by Athena La Tocha, to a mural project by Daniel McCoy, to BFA exhibitions by IAIA graduating students opening April 7.

In today’s feature focused on social justice, we listen to immigration attorney Allegra Love of the Santa Fe Dreamers Project. Allegra focuses on the impact that educators have on immigrant students’ wellbeing in the classroom. She emphasizes that educators can play a critical role in immigrant students’ lives. Allegra delves into the psychological trauma of the most vulnerable students who are immigrants themselves as well as those who identify with immigrant communities. And, as educators it’s important to create a safe environment for the most vulnerable students who may or may not be vocal about their immigration statuses.

f you live in New Mexico the issue of uranium mining is never far out of the news. We’ll look in depth at this today — first with this story on Uranium workers’ Day held at the NM Legislature a few weeks ago.

Workers over 50 are increasingly changing jobs or careers for a couple of reasons:  they’re looking for better, higher-paying occupations. Or they’ve lost the pension. Or they’ve been laid off.  Last week KSFR’s Deborah Martinez shared the first part of her series on older adult workers — and programs that provide them training at Santa Fe Community College.  Today she travels to Española and meets a recent graduate of Northern New Mexico College.

Peter Wittig is German ambassador to the US. He was in Santa Fe April 4th to discuss immigration and his country's policies regarding resettling refugees and immigrants.

Dr. Rick Bailey became president of Northern New Mexico College in October 2016. He describes the environment today.

State auditor Tim Keller described the audit his office conducted on Northern New Mexico College.

We hear from community bank chairman Chip Chippeaux on his questions about public banking.

Tom Singer is senior policy advisor of Western Environmental Law Center. He responds to President Trump's rollback of environmental protections and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's moves the day after the executive order.

Julia Bergen who is state director executive director of Communities in Schools New Mexico.

The city has entered a no-cost partnership with Rubicon Global, a tech developer whose latest project is data-gathering software for municipal trash hauling programs. To learn more, I spoke with the city's Environmental Services Division as well as a Rubicon rep.

A discussion on public banking with Mike Krauss of the advocacy group Public Banking Institute and Paul Gessing of the libertarian Rio Grande Foundation.