If you listened to the previous episode of EarBurner (and you should), you know that Bobby Abtahi was sitting at the table at the Old Monk as Matt and Tim interviewed Mike Rawlings. When they finished the episode with the former mayor, Abtahi, a former president of the Dallas Park Board, having consumed a statistically significant number of beers, …

On your November ballot, there will appear 18 proposed amendments to the Dallas city charter, which is quite something. Three of those props—S, T, and U—if they were to pass, would throw the city into chaos. The 59th mayor of Dallas joined Matt and Tim at the Old Monk to talk about why that's the case. While Rawlings (aka His Worship) refused to sp…

The Oak Cliff Film Fest runs this year from June 20–23. Barak is one of the smartest, funniest dudes in Dallas, so it's always a pleasure to have him on the pod to talk about the film festival he co-founded. Tim struggles with the buttons and levers to play sound from the movies' trailers. Zac and Barak demonstrate their pop-culture literacy. Oh, a…

In another lifetime, Julia was Tim's boss at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Now she's a best-selling author with six novels to her credit. Her latest is Night Will Find You. Zac gives it five stars. Tim confesses he hasn't yet read it, but that doesn't stop him from reading to Julia the worst review of the book he could find on Amazon. Other stuff y…

In the May issue of D Magazine, Matt Goodman wrote a story titled "The Lawyer Who Landlords Don't Want to See in Court." That would be Mark. Sort of by accident, he started the Dallas Eviction Advocacy Center, which now employs 18 people. On a per capita basis, A LOT of people get evicted in Dallas. That's because the justice of the peace courts wh…

James is the artistic director of the Dallas International Film Festival, which runs from April 25 through May 2. We talked about how many movies he had to watch to pick the 145 (so far) that will screen this year. We talked about how much he cries and why his back is giving him so much trouble and whether Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn get back…

Megan spent four years researching and writing her new book, City Limits: Infrastructure, Inequality, and the Future of America's Highways. Here's what Richard Florida said about it: "City Limits is a triumph. Megan Kimble echoes Robert Caro exposing how powerful groups like TxDOT are able to take away people’s homes, destroy their neighborhoods, a…

Mike used to work at D Magazine. Now he doesn't. But he's got a new podcast that dropped April 11 on Audible. It is titled Hold Fast. Over nine episodes, Mike and two other journalists (Sam Eifling and Trevor Aaronson) chronicle the rise and fall of Backpage.com, the Dallas-born classified ad site that a federal prosecutor called "the world’s large…

Greg is an SMU professor who hails from Pumpkin Bend, Arkansas. He's also the lead singer for Beekeeper Spaceman and the editor of the Southwest Review. It is under the auspices of the latter that he is launching a new literary festival. Frontera runs April 12 and 13 in three Oak Cliff venues (Wild Detectives, the Texas Theatre, and the Kessler The…

You probably know Joel from his appearances on the Ticket and his Fox Sports work on college football. Along with Curt Menefee, he'll be calling the first-ever United Football League game, at Choctaw Stadium in Arlington, March 30, at noon. We got the breakdown on the game, but we also talked with him about why specialization in youth sports is lou…

Over the years, starting in 1992, D Magazine has unintentionally caused the man grief. In this episode, Tim and Zac run through the slights—but only to properly apologize. Also to give Zac a moment to humble-brag. For reference, here is what Eric Celeste's 1992 profile of Aikman looked like with the dumb "Troy Aikman Won't Dance" headline. Here's A…

Right here you've got another chat recorded on the shady side of White Rock Lake, at Goodfriend. The boys tackle the goofiness of what one local official said about transportation to World Cup matches in Arlington. E.g.: "[W]e wish to have an aggressive travel demand management program to encourage our residents to participate in FIFA." Also they t…

We're doing a thing. Sometimes we'll have a guest on the pod, sure. But sometimes (if we stick with it), Tim and Zac will simply go to a bar near their houses (Goodfriend) and chop it up as a duo, like Simon and Garfunkel. The hatred for each other will still be there, but they'll make beautiful music together. In this episode, the boys talk about …

Casey is one of the most committed magazine writers working today. When he profiled Leon Bridges for Texas Monthly, he rented a house and bought a crazy-expensive shirt to establish a connection with the recording artist. For his profile of Erykah Badu that ran in the January issue of D Magazine, he hired a team of researchers to help him understan…

Tim is a Lakewood dad with four kids and a wife who runs a restaurant (Lounge Here) to which he is sometimes summoned to do handyman work. He's also a rockstar, making his name first with Tripping Daisy and now serving as frontman for The Polyphonic Spree. The latter is dropping a new album, Salvage Enterprise, on November 17. We talked with Tim ab…

Start here if you don't know who Joshua Ray Walker is. Short version: Rolling Stone said of Josh: "country's most fascinating young songwriter is a baby-faced, 6XL guitar hero with a Dwight Yoakam voice and songs about suicide and boat-show models." We began our conversation at the Old Monk with Josh telling the story about how he wound up in the h…

David McCloskey used to work in the CIA. Now he's a novelist and does most of his writing in coffee shops on Greenville Avenue. Which ones? He wouldn't say. Even after Zac and Tim subjected him to extraordinary rendition, he wouldn't break. He also declined to read a sex scene from his new novel, Moscow X, so Tim did the honors, which was gross. Fo…

This one is a bit of an experiment. When we learned that Catbird, a fancy "Best of Big D" award-winning joint in downtown Dallas' Thompson hotel, was launching a 10-course tasting menu where each course was accompanied by a cocktail and that Catbird would let us preview the experience before the unwashed masses could get their unwashed mouths on it…

OK, first Zac and Tim talked a bit about how to pronounce Lionel Messi's name and whether his recent performance in Frisco (which Zac witnessed in person) is one of the top five sports moments in the history of North Texas. THEN the lads turned their attention to the wonderful Elizabeth Wattley, president and CEO of Forest Forward, the group workin…

Michael Sorrell is the president of Paul Quinn, the oldest historically Black college west of the Mississippi. He died in 2008. True story. The man's heart stopped, and his girlfriend Natalie (now wife) performed CPR until medics could arrive and shock him back to life. So we talked about the fact that he's our first undead guest on EarBurner. And …

Nick is in the pantheon of Dallas chefs. His new(ish) joint, the Brass Ram, in the East Quarter of downtown Dallas, occupies a space that once housed the broadcast studio for KLIF, one of the most important stations in the history of American radio. The space, called the Triangle Point Building, also once housed the Dallas Observer. So we bellied u…

Barak Epstein from the historic Texas Theatre joins us to preview the 2023 edition of the Oak Cliff Film Festival, which runs June 22–25. Movies discussed (some with confusing sound from their trailers!): Going Varsity in Mariachi, The Lost World, Quantum Cowboys, Walker, Stand By for Failure, Don't Fall in Love With Yourself, The Adults, and Earth…

Once upon a time, Tim was a schoolmate at K.B. Polk Elementary with a guy named David Hale Smith. That fellow wound up becoming kind of a big-deal literary agent, even though DHS wouldn't tell us how much he earned last year. Be that as it may, DHS is part of a cabal responsible for the Dallas Noir Film Festival, which runs May 17–20 ("cabal" is a …

Abraham Alexander is buds with Leon Bridges, a connection that helped him get into the studio to record his debut album, SEA/SONS, which dropped April 14. Zac profiled Abraham for the June issue of D Magazine. In this episode, Zac and Tim talk about the profile-writing process, why more than a few musicians have wanted to punch Zac, and how much (o…

Would you spend $500,000 on a bed? The Swedish company Hästens thinks some of you in town will. They just opened a new store in Dallas. Tim and Zac talk about that and about why Tim sleeps on his couch. BUT WAIT. You're more interested in the Stars' chances in the playoffs? StrongSide editor Mike "The Looch" Piellucci joins us at 17:00 to talk hock…

Y'all, get ready. Tim and Zac are about to become proper influencers. For the first time, they are reviewing a product, a Western pearl-snap shirt made by a Dallas outfit called Snaps Clothing. They talk about the 1978 movie that allegedly launched the Western snap shirt, why Zac's parents made fun of him for wearing snap shirts as a kid, and what …

EarBurner is still trying to find its sea legs, even after 157 episodes. In this one, Tim and Zac make a long-distance call to Kirby Warnock, out in Big Bend, to talk about his new documentary on Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan. It screens March 23 at the Texas Theatre. Jimmie will be there. Get your tickets now. THEN the lads talk amongst themselves…

This episode is an experiment we're calling an EarBurner Quickie. No guest. It's just Tim and Zac in the podcast kitchen, cooking up a special dish together. For an amuse-bouche, they discuss monster pickup trucks that don't belong in the Whole Foods parking lot. Then the main course: why the mayor of Dallas approaches Twitter like a fifth-round dr…

Jay started Cane Rosso with his first restaurant in Deep Ellum 12 years ago. Now the dude employs 520 people in his pizza empire. He's got a salty mouth. He loves dogs. And his two daughters force him to spend a lot of time in airports. Fun connection: the EarBurner guest from the previous episode, Frank Campagna, has done some mural work for Jay. …

If you've lived in Dallas for any length of time, chances are you've encoutered Frank's art. He estimates that he has done more than 1,000 murals in Deep Ellum (many of them to promote performances at the old Gypsy Tea Room). On February 11, he'll have his annual "For the Love of Kettle" show at his Deep Ellum gallery, Kettle Art, with works from d…

GNO is a poet who not long ago put out a collection titled "101 Break Up Poems." In this EarBurner, he explains why he nicknamed himself GNO (pronounced "Gino"), what happened when he told his mom Prince wasn't a girl, and how poetry can save young people's lives. Oh, also, he tells the story about how he wound up doing a McDonald's commercial for …

Rev. Peter Johnson came to Dallas in 1969 on a mission: to secure distribution for a documentary about Martin Luther King Jr., the proceeds from which would provide for his widow and family. Of the 800 cities around the world where organizers hoped to show the movie, Dallas was the only place that said no—initially. We started our conversation with…

Victor's bio sounds like a fabrication: he has summitted the seven tallest mountains on earth, and he built his own submersible to dive solo to the bottom of all five oceans. Oh, and he has traveled to space. We talk about why James Cameron has a beef with him, how bumping into the Titanic got him dragged into federal court, and what we possibly ne…

Mark "Hawkeye" Louis has done the morning show on 96.3 KSCS for more than 30 years. He is radio royalty in North Texas. He's also a runner who has been involved with the BMW Dallas Marathon (this year on December 11) for more than a decade, which is how we got to talking about his nipples and the best way to protect them on long runs. We also talke…

Ken is the guitarist for the Old 97's, which is about to celebrate its 30th year together. The man himself is about to turn 60. We talk about his plans for outliving his bandmates, why he owns more than 400 board games, why high school kids don't cruise anymore, and whether Peter Billingsley is actually a gun nut. Oh, and one more thing: we talk ab…

Mark is the architecture critic for the Dallas Morning News and a two-time EarBurner guest. We invited him on to talk about a new plan for Dealey Plaza that he has concocted with some of his smart friends. Mark says the space has become tawdry, and we need to prioritize people over their cars. We also talk about whether Dallas is still a "can do" c…

Julie wrote the young adult novel Dumplin' that became the 2018 Jennifer Aniston movie of the same title. Now she's branching out into some spicy romance with her new book, A Merry Little Meet Cute, about a pornstar who is cast in a wholesome Christmas movie. It's funny. It's raunchy. It's perfect for the season. We talk about whether she is the mo…

Melissa is the new head of the journalism program at SMU, a job she took without telling Tim, despite their 30-year friendship. So that was the first matter that had to be addressed. Then we talked about kids today and how screens are ruining their lives—and ours. And why Zac frequently got lost in the office when he worked for American Airlines. A…

For the October issue of D Magazine, Kathy Wise, our executive editor, wrote a story that's getting national attention. It is titled "The Most Lawless County in Texas." That, friends, would be Collin County. Read the story here, and then listen to how it all came together. We also talk about the time Kathy nearly died in Toledo, and Tim tells a sto…

Creuzot was elected the Dallas County District Attorney in a landslide in 2018, taking 60 percent of the votes from his opponent, Faith Johnson. The two are squaring off again, with Johnson this time peddling what Creuzot calls bogus QAnon numbers about crime in Dallas County. So this episode is about politics. But it's also about Creuzot growing u…

Bonus episode not available on dmagazine.com! For subscribers only! James mentioned in the normal episode that he has been in three car chases in his life. He tells the story of each one, with gratuitous F-bombs from Tim.

James is the artistic director for the Dallas International Film Festival. That means he watches about 600 movies every year. It also means that he has a great story about a wild night with Harry Dean Stanton (R.I.P.). We also talked about what happened to him when, as a kid, he saw E.T. fives times in row and the odd interaction he had one time in…

In 1994, The Ticket launched in Dallas with a lineup largely assembled by Mike Rhyner, thereby creating a radio format—guy sports talk—that would be copied around the country. Mike ended his 40-year radio career with a retirement in January 2020. Except not quite. The Old Grey Wolf is returning to the airwaves on 97.1, which has been rebranded The …

Tim and Zac interview a legend, the man who helped write some of N.W.A and Eazy-E's biggest songs, the man whose solo debut album, 1989's platinum-certified No One Can Do It Better, pretty much says it all. If you're not aware, Doc's voice was permanently changed by the aftermath of a car crash the same year that album came out. The lads discuss th…

Will is the hyperkinetic, mustachioed founder of the publishing house Deep Vellum and its allied bookstore in Deep Ellum. He's responsible for the reissue of Jim Schutze's book "The Accommodation," about the bombing of Black-owned homes in South Dallas in the 1950s and how White leaders in this city did what they could to duck the civil rights move…

After 33 years on FOX 4 in Dallas, 27 of them doing the morning show, Tim is throwing away all his makeup and retiring. He tells us how the job has nearly killed him, why he doesn't have much use for social media, and the secret to surviving 100-mile bicycle rides. Also, he ranks the local Tims.

David "Schoop" Schechter worked at the Dallas ABC affiliate, WFAA Channel 8, for 16 years. This week he quit his gig to go work as a national environmental reporter for CBS. In this episode, we talk about "cheerful nihilism" and David's amazing calf muscles. At least five stars.

Brian has been a freelance dining critic for the Dallas Observer and Dallas Morning News; now he’s the fulltime food dude for D Magazine. Did you know there might be only 20 people in the country who have such a job? He tells us what goes into a formal dining review, what goes into his mouth when he’s not on the clock, and where you can find a secr…

Barak is one of the folks behind the legendary Texas Theatre and a co-founder of the Oak Cliff Film Festival. He breaks down eight of his favorite flicks in this year's shindig, which runs June 23–26. Along the way, he talks about why he won't buy Central Track and what he did to anger the Catholic Church. Also, he and Tim nearly come to blows over…

JZ is the newly chosen, first ever poet laureate of Dallas. We talk about why he loves the word "donkey," how he won the biggest poetry slam competition in the world, where Dallas sits in the literary firmament, why we should print poems on DART buses, and what the Mavericks need to do to beat Golden State. Oh, and he reads a new poem for us titled…