Despite the fact that he recently retired from 23 years in state government (or maybe because of it), Andy Smith and I take a break from politics in our recent conversation. Instead Andy tells stories of his years reporting on and later working for SXSW, starting as a reporter for the Austin American Statesman in the early 90s and later as editor of SXSW magazine from 2006-2020. From Big Freedia to a determined band from Uzbekistan, he recalls some of his favorite personalities, musicians and a giant nacho cheese chip brand activation. He also shares his thoughts about the evolution of SXSW from a scrappy music festival, to its many iterations, to what the future may hold for it.

Andy is the coauthor of SXSW Scrapbook: People and Things That Went Before (2011) documenting 25 years of SX, a great pickup if you'd like to take a deeper dive into the subject matter. He also a musician, so take a wonderful trip down the Daylight Titans (his band) rabbit hole on Bandcamp or YouTube.

In this episode I talk to Luke Metzger of Environment Texas about the work he and his organization does on the state and federal level. We discussed specific bills that he is advocating for - HB 4028 - on regulating plastics getting into the environment, and that he is opposing - SB 819 - creating more restriction on renewable energy. We talked about what inspired him to follow a career in environmental advocacy and his family's quest to visit every Texas state park!

In this episode, I speak with Rekha Lakshmanan, chief strategy officer at the Immunization Partnership (Tip) a Houston-based non-profit that "works to significantly increase state immunization rates by being a source of leading research, industry expertise and specialist knowledge; keeping communities informed of vaccination benefits and advising them on how they can use that knowledge to promote change; and advocating at the Texas Legislature for public policy that improves access to vaccination and permits healthcare professionals to build healthy communities." We speak on all these things and she shares how conversations about vaccinations can be difficult and surprisingly rewarding, fighting disinformation and building trust, the state of immunization (pro and anti) bills in Texas legislature (54 filed at the time of this recording) and what drives her passion for this work.