Latest Stateimpact Podcast Episodes
'I’m talking about what’s best for the Greenwood area': What the removal of a highway could do for Black Wall Street
StateImpact Oklahoma - August 24, 2023 13:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsTulsa’s North Peoria Church of Christ used to call Greenwood home. That was before I-244 displaced it and cut through historic Black Wall Street. StateImpact’s Britny Cordera talked with State Rep. Regina Goodwin, who represents the area and attends the church, about its legacy and a planning ...
What you need to know as Oklahoma’s state board of education weighs Tulsa Public Schools’ accreditation
StateImpact Oklahoma - August 17, 2023 09:00 - 5 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsNext Thursday, the State Board of Education will consider changing the accreditation status of the state’s largest school district, Tulsa Public Schools. This comes after over a year of remarks from State Superintendent Ryan Walters targeting the district. StateImpact’s Beth Wallis and Public Ra...
Private landowners in Oklahoma are stepping up to preserve habitat for prairie chickens
StateImpact Oklahoma - August 10, 2023 13:00 - 5 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsRebecca Jim owns a mile and a half acreage just north of Vinita, Oklahoma, at the northern edge of the Cherokee Nation. She inherited this land from her family who used to ranch cattle here. She said her land is longer than it is wide, perfect for bringing back prairie chickens. She is turning t...
Big Bonuses, Bigger Risks: Oklahoma’s New Teacher Sign-On Bonus Program Raises Concern
StateImpact Oklahoma - June 22, 2023 09:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsSigning bonuses of as much as $50,000 are what Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters said is needed to attract new and retired teachers to the classroom.That’s also what makes his new bonus plan a risky policy. StateImpact's Beth Wallis teamed up with Oklahoma Watch education reporte...
StateImpact breaks down Oklahoma's 2023 education budget
StateImpact Oklahoma - June 01, 2023 09:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsStateImpact’s Logan Layden sat down with education reporter Beth Wallis for a breakdown of what education measures Oklahomans are going to get for their money after a contentious 2023 legislative session.
‘We will strive to survive the Ryan Walters time’: Oklahoma superintendents respond to Walters’ claims, rhetoric
StateImpact Oklahoma - May 25, 2023 09:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsWalters repeatedly emphasized his focus on open communication with superintendents around the state. But when StateImpact sent out a survey to those superintendents, a much more complex picture emerged.
The battle for Oklahoma education funding
StateImpact Oklahoma - May 11, 2023 09:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsThe Oklahoma legislature has been deadlocked for weeks as it hashes out a plan for education funding. StateImpact’s Beth Wallis sat down with Oklahoman newspaper education reporter Nuria Martinez-Keel to talk about the events at the Capitol that led up to this moment.
Health secretary's ouster gives a look into "frustration" between the Senate and Gov. Stitt
StateImpact Oklahoma - May 04, 2023 13:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsThe governor and the Legislature have been at odds over the state’s Medicaid agency, the Oklahoma Health Care Authority. That fight came to a head last week, when the Senate booted the agency director from his Secretary of Health position. StateImpact’s Catherine Sweeney talks with Tres Savage, ...
OU’s swatting event was a hoax, but the trauma it caused was real
StateImpact Oklahoma - April 27, 2023 10:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsRun. Hide. Fight. Those were the words that ended the first of several text updates from OU’s emergency alert system on the night of April 7. The Norman Police Department had received calls that appeared to be coming from OU’s campus. The caller told police there was a shooting at the Bizzell...
Oklahoma nursing schools ramp up admissions amid worker shortage
StateImpact Oklahoma - April 19, 2023 13:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsThe state ranks 46th in the nation for nurses per capita, and of course, the pandemic has only made that worse. But all along, one of the major contributing factors to that shortage has been nursing school. There are a finite number of slots offered, and Oklahoma hasn’t had enough. Why? It’s c...
Five years after the Oklahoma Teacher Walkout, the stakes are higher than ever
StateImpact Oklahoma - April 06, 2023 09:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsEven though funding measures advocated for by 2018 Oklahoma Teacher Walkout participants were stymied largely by Republican lawmakers, Oklahoma’s GOP is now authoring record-level education funding measures that include teacher raises, along with a slew of labor rights bills for educators. But t...
StateImpact Oklahoma discusses the state's newly extended postpartum Medicaid benefits
StateImpact Oklahoma - March 30, 2023 13:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsOklahoma offers pregnant residents special Medicaid coverage. That coverage used to last only 60 days after delivery, but under a new policy, that coverage will run for a full year instead. StateImpact’s Logan Layden and Catherine Sweeney discuss how the policy will affect thousands of new paren...
A proposed ban on gender-affirming care for minors would affect Oklahoma adults too
StateImpact Oklahoma - March 23, 2023 13:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsHouse Bill 2177 is making its way through the statehouse. It purports to ban gender-affirming care for children and teens in Oklahoma. Supporters say children and teens aren’t equipped to make life-altering health decisions for themselves. One provision says no health facility receiving state fu...
Trans Oklahomans find community through music amid heightened anti-queer rhetoric in legislature
StateImpact Oklahoma - March 16, 2023 09:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsRecent pushes from the Oklahoma legislature to target queer issues in schools and medicine have mobilized some Oklahomans to fight back. The Transgender Action Choir is one group lifting their voices to speak up.
Oklahoma legislation would require insurance companies to cover high-tech medical screenings called biomarker tests
StateImpact Oklahoma - March 08, 2023 13:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsBiomarker testing is a tool that doctors use to get a clearer picture of a medical problem — often cancer. Providers and patients say it can be difficult to get insurance companies to cover it. Oklahoma lawmakers are working to change that.
Will Oklahomans vote to be the 22nd state to legalize recreational marijuana?
StateImpact Oklahoma - March 02, 2023 10:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsVoters are just days away from deciding whether Oklahoma will legalize recreational marijuana. But results of similar ballot initiatives in Arkansas and Missouri could help predict the fate of State Question 820. KOSU's Xcaret Nuñez reports for StateImpact Oklahoma.
How Oklahoma's mismanagement of federal education funds could leave $18 million on the table
StateImpact Oklahoma - February 23, 2023 09:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsAt the end of January, Oklahoma's new Attorney General, Gentner Drummond, announced he would change course on a high profile debacle involving Secretary of Education and now State Superintendent Ryan Walters — and lots of federal money. Due to the state’s handling of its previous round of fund...
Another pandemic relief policy is ending, making groceries even more expensive for low-income Oklahomans
StateImpact Oklahoma - February 16, 2023 13:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsDuring the pandemic, the federal government started giving extra help to families who use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — often called SNAP or food stamps. Officials were trying to make sure families could still put food on the table during the sudden economic downturn. But when ...
‘Never took a sick day in seven years’: Oklahoma teacher moms and the realities of no paid maternity leave
StateImpact Oklahoma - February 09, 2023 09:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsKarli Myers is a first-time parent and an English teacher at Sapulpa High School. And without any sick leave left to take, Myers had to return to her classroom the previous day, cutting short her time at home with Luke. That’s because public schools in Oklahoma aren’t mandated by the state to ...
StateImpact talks with Secretary of Health Kevin Corbett about Oklahoma's pivot to managed Medicaid
StateImpact Oklahoma - February 02, 2023 13:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsOklahoma’s Medicaid program, SoonerCare, is on its way to profound change. StateImpact’s Catherine Sweeney talked with its director, Secretary of Health Kevin Corbett, this week about the transition to managed care.
A decade of scandal at Epic Charter Schools
StateImpact Oklahoma - January 26, 2023 09:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsAs more news emerges about embezzlement schemes at Epic Charter Schools, it might be difficult to keep up with the saga. That’s why StateImpact’s Beth Wallis asked Oklahoman newspaper reporter Nuria Martinez-Keel to get us up-to-speed on the last decade of Epic’s scandals. Martinez-Keel covers e...
Methamphetamine is killing more Oklahomans than any illicit drug. A collaborative in Tulsa models how the communities can fight the epidemic.
StateImpact Oklahoma - January 19, 2023 05:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsIn 2013, Tulsans accounted for only about 13 percent of the state’s methamphetamine treatment admissions. In 2020, that figure climbed to one-third of the state’s admissions. That year, local nonprofits, treatment centers, law enforcement and government officials announced a collaborative, commu...
'A learner of learners': Staving off the "deprofessionalization' of Oklahoma's teachers
StateImpact Oklahoma - January 12, 2023 09:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsOklahoma’s teacher shortage led to a record-breaking 3,780 emergency teaching certifications issued in 2022. From 2001-2018, Oklahoma’s enrollment in university education programs dropped by 80%. As the state's schools struggle to fill classrooms with teachers holding standard teaching certifi...
State data paints a dire picture of Oklahoma teenagers' mental health
StateImpact Oklahoma - December 22, 2022 21:22 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsState data released this year showed half of the teens who participated in an annual survey checked yes on the traditional depression symptom of feeling so sad or hopeless for two weeks in a row that they lost interest in usual activities. It found that in 2021, nearly one in four respondents h...
Methamphetamine may not be the center of attention, but it's killing more Oklahomans than any other drug.
StateImpact Oklahoma - December 15, 2022 16:09 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsBillion-dollar lawsuits and prestige television shows have made the opioid epidemic impossible to overlook. But it is far from the only drug epidemic the country — and Oklahoma — are facing. Overdose deaths from opioids, including prescription drugs as well as illicit forms of fentanyl, have inc...
Pt. 2: ‘Disasters that define us’: Examining Northeast Oklahoma’s patchwork of flood protections
StateImpact Oklahoma - December 09, 2022 10:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsHeavy rains in May 2019 revealed major disparities in flood protections across Oklahoma. While residents in Tulsa benefitted from decades of flood preparations, smaller communities lack the infrastructure and resources to keep the waters at bay. In the second of a two-part series with OPMX’s Gra...
Pt. 1: ‘Disasters that define us’: Examining Northeast Oklahoma’s patchwork of flood protections
StateImpact Oklahoma - December 08, 2022 10:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsAs climate change continues to raise the stakes of severe flooding events, some Oklahoma communities are prepared to weather the storm, and some aren’t. During the extreme flooding of May 2019, communities were put to the test. In the first of a two-part series in partnership with StateImpact’s ...
How social media affects the ways two Tulsa teenagers get their news
StateImpact Oklahoma - December 01, 2022 10:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsNathalie Valero and Elodie Musungayi are Tulsa teenagers who spoke about how social media is amplifying youth voices and how it impacts mental health for them and their peers. KOSU reporter Kateleigh Mills went to Tulsa to speak with them.
'It had to be more than just teachers and their families voting': Oklahoma educator responds to election outcome
StateImpact Oklahoma - November 17, 2022 09:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsLeading up to the midterms, throngs of teachers and education advocates rallied around democratic candidates for governor and superintendent. But after the ticket went to Gov. Kevin Stitt and Education Secretary Ryan Walters, some of those teachers are thinking about leaving the state altogether...
StateImpact Oklahoma reporters react to midterm election results
StateImpact Oklahoma - November 10, 2022 10:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsUnlike some other states, Oklahoma’s midterm election results are in the books. The results have big implications for education, health, and the environment in our state. Managing editor Logan Layden discussed what the outcome means with the StateImpact Oklahoma reporters.
Related Stateimpact Topics