June 1995 - August 1996

I started with KUAR by hosting a weekly half-hour interview program as part of an independent study class at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. I was soon working part-time for the NPR station doing various things, including being the regular fill-in host for Morning Edition.

Doing the weekly interview show in the summer of 1995 was quite a challenge. For the semester I would find topics for each week's program and line up interviews, most of which were conducted in KUAR's studios on the top floor of Stabler Hall. It was my first taste of any kind of long-form news and I quickly grew to love it. Having that kind of time to delve deep into subjects that interested me was amazing.

In August 1996, I put together a special half-hour program on a pending execution in Arkansas. I had covered many executions over the years for KARN, but this was the first time I actually got to know the person in the weeks before the death sentence was carried out. I first learned about Si-Fu Frankie Parker through an upstairs neighbor of mine who was involved with a Buddhist group that Parker had become a member of while in prison. You can read more about his case in an article I wrote for the Little Rock Free Press. Parker had been sentenced to die for killing his ex-wife's parents. I talked with him at Tucker Prison two weeks before the execution. I also spoke at length with Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who denied Parker clemency and made the execution his first official act after taking office.