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Jul 28, 2020 By Mark Redfern Under the Radar Podcast

We recently launched a new podcast, simply titled Under the Radar, and we’re excited to announce that as well as being available on all podcasting platforms the podcast will now also be airing on WLUR, an NPR affiliate public radio station based in Lexington, VA (the city where Under the Radar is currently based). Our first episode, which features an in-depth story on Black Belt Eagle Scout (aka Katherine Paul), will broadcast this Thursday at 5 p.m. EST. You can listen at the station’s website (www.my.wlu.edu/wlur) or via the TuneIn app and those in the Lexington area can hear it on a good old fashioned radio at 91.5 FM.

Black Belt Eagle Scout released a new album, At the Party With My Brown Friends, last August via Saddle Creek. Paul is an indigenous queer musician who grew up in a small Indian reservation, the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, and is based in Portland. In the podcast she discusses her heritage and cultural identity, and its impact on how she writes her music.

She touches on how Standing Rock, losing her mentor Geneviève Castrée, and the end of a relationship forced her to write an album’s worth of songs that became her acclaimed debut, 2018’s Mother of My Children. Her follow up builds on her identity and relates a vital story on indigenous history—known as the Sixties Scoop—that is not often told or is tainted with the specter of cultural appropriation. Lastly, At the Party With My Brown Friends seeks to lift up others like her.

Paul’s story is prickly and empowering. It is told with an immersive use of sound and features the music of powwows, punk, and her dreamy indie-rock.

Episode two features gender non-conforming artist Ezra Furman and episode three features Caroline Rose, with more episodes to be announced.

Each monthly episode of Under the Radar features an interview with a different musician conducted by host and producer Celine Teo-Blockey. As well as writing features and reviews for Under the Radar, Teo-Blockey is an independent radio producer and Transom Traveling Workshop alumni. She has previously produced radio stories for Sound & Vision, a podcast from the Seattle public radio station KEXP, and a sonic postcard for Sounds LA, from the Los Angeles public radio station KCRW.

Jeremy Franklin is the station manager at WLUR. Follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

Support Under the Radar on Patreon.