For the first post on The Liquid Moment substack, I took a look at Kentucky jazz king Les McCann and his synth-led record Layers, as well as the late musician’s love of basketball. Check it out and subscribe if you like deep dives on culture, film, music, art, and history happenings.

Sharing is caring and, when it comes to telling stories about interesting art, film, music, and history, I care very deeply. I've often written about these subjects as a reporter, but this week I'm launching what will hopefully be a monthly newsletter form of The Liquid Moment.

🎉 Congratulations to @kentuckypublicradio.org Capitol Reporter @sylviaruthg.lpm.org on being selected as the 2026 New Voices Award winner from the Public Media Journalists Association! 🎉

Well spotted by @hannahsaad.bsky.social today: A Paducah cryptocurrency mine is being considered for the siting of a small modular nuclear reactor after a partnership was announced today between Terrestrial Energy and Riot Platforms. Read up on it ➡️ @wkmsfm.bsky.social. www.wkms.org/business-eco...

"openai.com" was once the personal homepage of a guy named glenn (2001), and "tiktok.com" was the quaint shared homepage of a couple as their relationship progressed from dating to married with a baby (2000). THREAD!!!

For @wkmsfm.bsky.social: It was a packed house at WKCTC in Paducah last night for a PSC meeting to gather opinions on nuclear power in Kentucky. Many cited environmental concerns, corporate interests, and a perceived lack of transparency when it comes to nuclear projects already in the works.

Reservoirs of geologic hydrogen – an untapped, clean energy source – might be pooling underground in parts of Kentucky, according to research published last year by the U.S. Geological Survey. From @doperle.bsky.social at @wkmsfm.bsky.social

My latest on @wkmsfm.bsky.social: Geologists say an untapped, carbon-free energy source could be just sitting underneath parts of Kentucky, particularly the far western and southcentral parts of the Bluegrass State. So ... why isn’t anyone trying to use it? www.wkms.org/science/2026...

As more musicians talk about using AI in their songwriting, how is the music-making process changing in the industry and for everyone else? We dive into it on our podcast. Listen now: buff.ly/5c85X7l

feeling good and chill about things

I was a journalist once and writing stories I didn’t feel passionate about is how I got good at it

Important Kentucky elections story right here 👇 #kyga26

saturday morning media diet

new year, new monthly film “discoveries” thread. a running tab of new-to-me movies that are at least a couple years old.

A small anti-ICE demonstration — no more than two dozen people — took place in front of the McCracken County courthouse in Paducah on Friday, as many across the country protest against actions taken by ICE agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and in other places.

In Kentucky, just two dedicated art house cinemas are still in operation, following the recent closure of Louisville’s Baxter Avenue Theatres. From @doperle.bsky.social at @wkmsfm.bsky.social

friday vibing. one of the great music videos from spike jonze. youtu.be/wqVsfGQ_1SU?...

Due to a bomb threat on Murray State campus, classes in several buildings have been cancelled for the remainder of Monday.

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $900 million to a Paducah company building a uranium enrichment facility. General Matters' CEO said the funds would allow it to accelerate its timeline and open before 2030. From @doperle.bsky.social at @wkmsfm.bsky.social #kyga26

this is how i learn we have ways in paducah??

my 2025 in books (aside from sonya lea’s american bloodlines and kyle chayka’s filterworld, both on loan)

recent cassette finds

Our student reporter Shelby Bloomer spent weeks reseaching, interviewing and traveling out to different hemp businesses in western Kentucky to put this piece together, and I think she did a pretty dang good job exploring this issue. Check out the results of her labor:

big rec: watch Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc with the score recorded a few years ago by Joan of Arc (Tim Kinsella’s post Cap’n Jazz project)

It’s been more than 25 years since 18-year-old Jessica Currin was found dead and burned behind a Mayfield middle school, but the man convicted for her murder still maintains his innocence. An evidentiary hearing for the case began this week and is expected to conclude in mid-December.

This week on Transmissions: Steve Von Till of Neurosis joins us to discuss his art, teaching, philosophy & work with the indigenous suicide prevention campaign Firekeeper Alliance. Listen wherever you get podcasts & direct at reader-supported @aquariumdrunkard.com. @talkhouse.bsky.social

Massively underrated documentary. Funny and insightful.

Chris Thile was on @npr.org's All Things Considered to talk with @doperle.bsky.social from @wkmsfm.bsky.social in Murray, KY, about his new album, 'Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 2,' which he recorded in multiple locations of personal significance including Murray: www.nonesuch.com/journal/list...

Stop Making Sense Aliens Back to the Future Bull Durham

Thousands of rare American recordings — some 100 years old — go online for all to enjoy A collaboration between UC Santa Barbara and the nonprofit Dust-to-Digital Foundation laist.com/news/arts-an...

Out there UK folkie John Martyn got obsessed with dub and befriended Lee Scratch Perry … who inspired him to record One World on guitar amps floating a 1/2 mile offshore in a lake. Lapping water and late night goose honks can be heard throughout but maybe to best effect on the magical “Small Hours.”

The Kentucky General Assembly's artificial intelligence task force made recommendations heading into the 2026 legislative session that begins in January. From @doperle.bsky.social at @wkmsfm.bsky.social #kyga26

See photos from “No Kings” protestors around the state from @kentuckypublicradio.org reporters. www.lpm.org/no-kings-pro...

@davidlsims.bsky.social this could come up in the ep, but have you watched the blu-ray extra for True Grit (called Re-creating Fort Smith) where they spend like five minutes talking about the trains in the film and interviewing the train CONSULTANT and the conductors? feels like your kinda content

bill brown’s life on the mississippi starts as an attempt to retrace mark twain’s journeys as a steam boat pilot and winds up grappling with how much a person can “know” a river and how its shores have changed with time because of all the things that people do. a real fun lil doc.

new phone who dis

The first time I saw this image, I knew I had to write about this piece of Kentucky history. Sonya Lea’s new book is a bracing, deep look into a troubling case and an invitation to think deeply about the justice system in our country.

spooky season in full effect

ICYMI it on @npr.org's Morning Edition, WKMS news director @doperle.bsky.social's feature takes a look at California-based General Matter's privately developed uranium enrichment plant in western Kentucky and what it means in the grand scheme of things when it comes to nuclear energy in the U.S.

So happy for @rylandky.bsky.social! NPR is so lucky to have in him not only a top-tier journalist, an editor who always makes people’s writing sing, and a Kentuckian with a calm voice in a storm, but also just a damn good person. Here’s to many years in our ears! www.npr.org/2025/09/03/g...

The annual Battle of the Birds football game between Mayfield High School and Graves County High School ended in tragedy Friday, after a shooting in a parking lot near War Memorial Stadium left one adult injured. www.wkms.org/criminal-jus...

For Kentucky’s next biennial budget, the state budget director says it will need to set aside over $115 million more than in previous years to keep giving residents in need food stamps and – because of the federal reconciliation bill – potentially hundreds of millions of dollars on top of that.

Today in 1974, Richard Nixon resigned. Four years later, his first public appearance was in Leslie Co, KY. See footage of his visit—plus local politics, family debates, and more—in our 1982 film "The Big Lever: Party Politics in Leslie County, KY" by Frances Morton. https://loom.ly/YNSpum0

Sign my petition to re-edit I Still Know What You Did Last Summer so that when Jennifer Love Hewitt thinks she sees the killer at the club it’s then revealed to be actually a silhouette of the dude from Jamiroquai in his “Virtual Insanity” get-up.

Pork and politics. A classic western Kentucky combo. Read @sylviaruthg.lpm.org + @hannahsaad.bsky.social’s report from the ground in Fancy Farm, where GOP candidates jockeyed yesterday at the St. Jerome Picnic for the opportunity to replace U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell. www.wkms.org/government-p...

For @wkmsfm.bsky.social: A company with ties to billionaire investor Peter Thiel is backing the first privately developed, US-owned uranium enrichment facility — and it’s happening in Paducah, Kentucky. More details are expected to come at an Aug. 5 event hosted by the company.

What a stellar summer of Kentucky albums. Just today, Tyler Childers put out Snipe Hunter and Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band put out New Threats From The Soul. Plus, S.G. Goodman’s Planting By The Signs, Kelsey Waldon’s Every Ghost, and Grace Rogers’s Mad Dogs. The Bluegrass State is eating good.

WKMS has $215K (annually!) in funding to make up in the wake of the cuts to public media nationwide. Help us preserve our programming and our (already quite small) staff the way they are now by calling in or giving online tomorrow. We need every penny you can give. It all makes a difference.

Anyone who wants to learn a bit about John Scopes, the Paducah native and central figure of the “Monkey Trial” over teaching evolution in schools, has multiple opportunities in west KY tomorrow on the 100th anniversary of the start of the trial!

West Kentucky Film Commission aims to get region cast in starring role of movie, TV productions. From @doperle.bsky.social of @wkmsfm.bsky.social