On this episode of This Is My Thing, we’re celebrating the spookiest month of the year with what is arguably the spookiest episode of the show – this one’s all about tales of the paranormal!

Our guests – let’s call them ‘Todd’ and ‘Carl’ because they’ve chosen to keep their paranormal hobby separate from their professional lives and prefer not to use their real names on the air – have been friends since high school. A shared fascination for the paranormal and a shared love of old-school community media (think GeoCities websites, AM radio, and community-access cable TV) led them to create the ATX Paranormal Hotline, where anyone can call and anonymously share ghost stories, UFO encounters, cryptid sightings… anything mysterious and/or unexplained.

If you've got a thing you want to talk about on the show, you can tell us all about it and apply to be on the show here!

This is My Thing is a listener-supported production of KUT & KUTX Studios in Austin, Texas. You can support this podcast by making a donation at supportthispodcast.org

On this episode of This Is My Thing, we’re talking with Cecie Suknaic about her love for a pretty specific type of baking – she specializes in gluten-free sourdough, mostly breads and bagels. She started making sourdough during the early days of the pandemic which, yes, is kind of a cliché, but for Cecie it wasn’t about jumping onto everyone’s favorite lockdown bandwagon; she wanted to make gluten-free for her celiac-afflicted husband Mike.

Since then, it’s become a full-fledged hobby and a surprisingly great way for Cecie to connect with her in-laws.

If you've got a thing you want to talk about on the show, you can tell us all about it and apply to be on the show here!

This is My Thing is a listener-supported production of KUT & KUTX Studios in Austin, Texas. You can support this podcast by making a donation at supportthispodcast.org

On this episode of This Is My Thing, we’re talking with Elizabeth Warren (not the senator from Massachusetts – a different one) about her love of trash collecting. We’re talking here about 'trash collecting' in the sense of picking up trash that’s lying around where it doesn’t belong, not about creating a collection of trash to keep at home. Although there is a bit of that involved, too, and we’ll get into that during the show.

Elizabeth has always been the type to pick up a stray piece of litter when she sees it, but in recent years she’s been a bit surprised to discover that trash collecting has actually become her favorite hobby. We’ll talk about how that happened, why she loves to pick up trash, what is trash and what is not, and lots more. Plus we'll go over a big bag of trash-but-maybe-not-trash that she brought with her to the studio.

If you've got a thing you want to talk about on the show, you can tell us all about it and apply to be on the show here!

This is My Thing is a listener-supported production of KUT & KUTX Studios in Austin, Texas. You can support this podcast by making a donation at supportthispodcast.org

On this episode of This Is My Thing, we’re talking with Scott Cohen about his love of Austin’s trail system. He discovered the trails after moving from New York – where wooded hiking and running trails are a little less plentiful – and they became his favorite place. He likes to run on them, walk, on them, and just spend time on them thinking, relaxing, and feeling more grounded.

How does Austin’s wildlife compare with New York’s? What happened that one time Scott got lost on the trail? And what’s up with those three roosters who live near the Onion Creek trail? We'll hear about all of that, and more!

Scott also spent a lot of time on his favorite trail (the Onion Creek trail) with his late and beloved dog Gracie, a French bulldog he affectionately nicknamed ‘the bug.’ We’ll talk about the trails, about Gracie, and about what both of them continue to mean to him.

If you've got a thing you want to talk about on the show, you can tell us all about it and apply to be on the show here!

This is My Thing is a listener-supported production of KUT & KUTX Studios in Austin, Texas. You can support this podcast by making a donation at supportthispodcast.org

On this episode of This Is My Thing, we’re talking with Robin Arnold about her longtime love of clog dancing! It's a centuries-old form of dance that's still a little misunderstood by some folks, Robin says. It doesn't involved wooden shoes (that's a different, unrelated use of the word 'clog') and while it shares some similarities with tap dancing, it's much louder, which Robin says also makes it more fun.

Robin is a longtime member of Austin's Clickety Cloggers dance club (who are always looking for new members if you're interested), and we'll talk all about the club and the dance itself and what it all means to her. What role did Aunt Jean play in Robin's clogging journey? Why aren't the Clickety Cloggers allowed to perform at the Luckenbach Dance Hall anymore? Listen to find out!

If you've got a thing you want to talk about on the show, you can tell us all about it and apply to be on the show here!

This is My Thing is a listener-supported production of KUT & KUTX Studios in Austin, Texas. You can support this podcast by making a donation at supportthispodcast.org

On this episode of This Is My Thing, we’re talking with Kenneth Liechti about his nearly lifelong love for the Great Highland Bagpipes. He took up the instrument as a part of his school's pipe and drums band (roughly the Scottish equivalent of an American school's marching band) and just never really stopped playing.

Even after moving to the states for grad school, Ken found places to play the pipes and has spent the past several decades as a member of Austin's Silver Thistle Pipes and Drums. And at 75, he's still competing in solo competitions.

We'll talk about what the pipes mean to him, why he calls the instrument 'the octopus,' the best ways to practice the pipes indoors (though they're really an 'outdoor instrument,' Ken says), and much more!

If you've got a thing you want to talk about on the show, you can tell us all about it and apply to be on the show here!

This is My Thing is a listener-supported production of KUT & KUTX Studios in Austin, Texas. You can support this podcast by making a donation at supportthispodcast.org

On this episode of This Is My Thing, we’re talking with Sarah Bentley about her love of community singing. It’s a world she entered during the Covid lockdowns, and now it’s become a very large part of her life, helping her find connections and a creative outlet.

We'll talk about where she sings, what she sings, who she sings with, and what it all means to her.

If you've got a thing you want to talk about on the show, you can tell us all about it and apply to be on the show here!

This is My Thing is a listener-supported production of KUT & KUTX Studios in Austin, Texas. You can support this podcast by making a donation at supportthispodcast.org

On this episode of This Is My Thing, we’re talking with Kim Vidrine about Cake Club, which Kim created around seven years ago to celebrate two of her great loves: her friend group and cake. Every month, Kim and five of her friends (Kathy Nicklebur, Rowena Suarez, Yadira McCarter, Rachel Woodall, and Kelly Gin) each bake a cake then meet up to reconnect while eating six pieces of cake.

We'll talk about the club's origins, its rules (and about how closely various members stick to those rules), and what it's really all about (it's not just the cake). Are vegetable-based cakes ever any good? How sweet is too sweet for frosting to be? And does it really matter what the cakes look like? We'll get into all of it in this episode!

You can see some a video of one of Cake Club's monthly gatherings on our website, and you can tell us about your thing and apply to be on the show here!

This is My Thing is a listener-supported production of KUT & KUTX Studios in Austin, Texas. You can support this podcast by making a donation at supportthispodcast.org