Megan Kamerick

Let's Talk New Mexico 4/08 8am: Last week in a special session of the New Mexico Legislature lawmakers moved to legalize recreational cannabis and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is expected to sign the legislation. The changes allows individuals to grow for personal use or to sell with a micro-business license and they create a structure that will gradually increase taxes over time. A separate bill allows for the expungement of criminal records for some past marijuana offenses.

On the next Let’s Talk New Mexico, we’ll look at what the legislation contains, how it structures legalization and the timeline.

  On March 30, the New Mexico Legislature convenes for a special session to focus on legalizing cannabis. A bill made it past the House in the regular session but stalled in the Senate. Reporter Natalie Fertig with Politico covers cannabis policy around the country and has been closely watching the process in New Mexico. She spoke with KUNM's Megan Kamerick her along with my co-host Andy Lyman from New Mexico Political Report for the podcast “Growing Forward: Cannabis and New Mexico.”

The New Mexico Legislature failed to pass a bill legalizing recreational cannabis before the 2021 session ended on March 20. Now Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has called a special session for March 30 to take up the issue. But advocates for traditional and rural communities say despite the equity provisions in the bill that died, there was not enough consideration of impacts on rural communities.

What is the sound of a river in crisis? That’s what a group of artists explore in an installation opening online at the University of New Mexico Art Museum on World Water Day, March 22nd.

  A total of five bills have been introduced in this year's legislative session to legalize recreational cannabis. Despite this being a legislative priority, the New Mexico Senate only began debate on bills on February 27. Meanwhile, House Bill 12 passed the full House and has moved to the Senate.

But the clock is ticking for legalization to happen this year, with the session ending on March 20. KUNM's Megan Kamerick spoke with Andy Lyman with New Mexico Political Report, her co-host on the New Mexico PBS podcast “Growing Forward: Cannabis in New Mexico” to get an update on where things stand and why this push is happening so late in the 60-day session. The Senate Tax, Business and Transportation Committee was slated to take up debate on Saturday, March 6, on recreational cannabis legalization bills. They have since rescheduled that for Tuesday, March 9.

University Showcase, 2/19, 8a: On this episode we explore the concept or reparations with Kathy Powers, who has been studying transitional justice and reparations around the world for years. She’s an associate professor of political science at the University of New Mexico.

The pandemic has been disastrous for many small business owners, but especially for those who opened in the middle of public health orders and lockdowns. Diego Diaz and his family opened Tio David’s Peruvian Flavor last May in Albuquerque’s Nob Hill. But because they didn’t open before February 2020, they were not eligible for any of the COVID-related federal loans or grants for businesses. He has started a crowdfunding campaign for the restaurant.

Let’s Talk New Mexico, Thursday, 2/11, 8a: New Mexico has had a successful medical cannabis program for years, but full legalization for recreational use has proven elusive, even as neighboring states move ahead. This year, however, with the support of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, the state could finally see lawmakers pass a recreational cannabis bill. If the bill passes, what will this mean for New Mexico’s economy? What are the different versions of legalization under consideration in the legislature? And how will legalization impact patients already enrolled in the state’s medical cannabis program?

University Showcase, Friday, 01/15, 8a:On this episode we talk with the group Running Medicine, which recently won a national award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that recognizes and honors those in sport who display an innovative and collaborative approach to making their communities healthier places to live. 

Let's Talk New Mexico 1/7, 8a: The coronavirus pandemic has shut down performance venues and music festivals around the country. That's left many musicians with cancelled shows and tours, and struggling to connect with fans and make money.

  The coronavirus pandemic has taken a terrible toll on mental well-being as people cope with isolation, fear and uncertainty. KUNM’s Megan Kamerick talked with Ryan Williamson about his decision to seek therapy for the first time, and clinical psychologist Dr. Gerald Chavez for a segment that originally aired on our media partner New Mexico PBS.

University Showcase, Friday, 12/18 8a: New Mexico and the Southwest are grappling with profound impacts brought by climate change and those will only get worse, so how are we preparing? Journalist Laura Paskus has covered New Mexico’s environment for years and in her new book from University of New Mexico Press, “At The Precipice: New Mexico’s Changing Climate,” she explores the realities of climate change and the havoc it has been wreaking for years in the state.

Tuesday, 12/08, 8a: New Mexico's medical cannabis program has spurred the creation of numerous companies in the state, from growers to dispensaries to production facilities. Advocates for recreational cannabis tout its potential to bring an even bigger economic boom, but there are also unique challenges to running a cannabis-based business.

Tuesday, 12/01, 8a: New Mexico's medical cannabis industry has already produced a number of successful entrepreneurs and companies who could see even more benefits from legal recreational cannabis in New Mexico. On this episode we look at some of the major players in the state. We also explore the barriers to entry to the cannabis industry, a point of contention for those who want legalization to also include mechanisms that help communities most damaged by the war on drugs to share in the largesse of a legal, and lucrative, cannabis industry.

Tuesday, 11/24, 8a: The push for the legalization of recreational cannabis has really picked up in recent years in the New Mexico legislature. In this week's episode, we look back at those efforts to date, and the strategy behind the legislation proposed in past sessions.

University Showcase Friday, 11/20, 8a: On this episode we meet Dr. Tracie Collins, the women selected this month by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to be the new secretary for the New Mexico Department of Health. Collins has served as Dean of the UNM College of Population Health since 2019.

Tuesday, 11/10, 8a:  The New Mexico Legislature will almost certainly take up legalizing recreational cannabis in January. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has made it is a priority, and lawmakers are debating the merits and downsides of legalization.

This is why NM Political Report and New Mexico PBS, with the help of a grant from the New Mexico Local News Fund, launched “Growing Forward” a 10-episode podcast examining cannabis. 

This week, New Mexico voters blew past turnout records of years past, and pushed the state Senate further to the left. That means that in the next legislative session, some policies and plans might be on the table that weren’t before. KUNM's Megan Kamerick spoke with Marjorie Childress, who wrote about the progressive shift for New Mexico In Depth.

  University Showcase Friday, 10/16, 8a: Young people who are caught up early in the justice system often face an array of challenges even before they get into trouble. Those can include untreated mental health problems, substance abuse and dysfunctional or violent home lives.

  Friday, 9/18, 8a: On this episode we talk about the history of Art1 with art historian and author Patrick Frank. In the late 1960s, the University of New Mexico played a key role in bringing together creativity and technology in what was then the nascent field of computer art. Now a new book from Museum of New Mexico Press offers the first in depth account of this early digital creativity -- “Sharing Code: Art1, Frederick Hammersley, and the Dawn of Computer Art.” 

  Tuesday 8/25, 8a: It's been 100 years since the ratification of the 19th Amendment assured women the right to vote in New Mexico and the rest of the United States, and it's been more 70 years since a lawsuit ensured the franchise for Native Americans. But what is the work left undone?

University Showcase, Friday 8/21 8a: COVID-19 has had a huge impact on the Navajo Nation, which only this week began a cautious re-opening. Not long ago, the vast reservation had one of the highest infection rates per capita in the United States. 

  Tuesday 8/18, 8a: August 2020 marks 100 years since the ratification of the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote in the United States. But there was another part of the population that would have to wait decades to earn that same right to participate in the democratic process: Native Americans. Host Megan Kamerick explores this part of the state's history in this episode, including why so many Native Americans were actually skeptical of voting in general.

Millions of Americans face losing their homes after the federal moratorium on evictions expired last month, and Congress adjourned this week without passing a new one. President Trump signed an executive order this week addressing evictions, but housing experts say it provides no real protection for most tenants. New Mexico’s moratorium on evictions is still in effect, but as University of New Mexico law professor Serge Martinez tells KUNM’s Megan Kamerick, it doesn’t apply to every situation.

  Tuesday 8/11, 8a: We continue our look at the history of women's suffrage in New Mexico and the ultimate ratification of the 19th Amendment, including an intriguing corrido about women and the vote.

Tuesday, 8/4, 8a: The American Southwest played a key role in the woman suffrage battle, as Western states led the charge to ratify the 19th Amendment. New Mexico’s fight to ensure women the right to vote, however, had a much different trajectory. 

Let’s Talk New Mexico 7/30, 8a: The Trump administration announced last week that it’s sending 35 federal agents to Albuquerque, saying they’ll fight violent crime as part of Operation Legend. But exactly what that means is unclear, and many people fear the agents will crack down on protestors, or target immigrants or low-income, largely Brown and Black communities that have borne the brunt of some past police operations. This week on Let’s Talk New Mexico we’ll talk with elected officials and community organizers about this deployment of federal agents, and we want to hear from you.

University Showcase 7/17 8a: On this episode we talk with Associate Professor Finnie Coleman about the origins and the goals of the Black Lives Matter movement and how Afrofuturism can inform the creation of a more just society. 

  Two years after he defeated the so-called “Great White Hope,” legendary boxer Jack Johnson fought another white challenger determined to topple him as heavyweight champion of the world. It took place on July 4, 1912 in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and is the subject of the book “Crazy Fourth: How Jack Johnson Kept His Title and Put Las Vegas New Mexico on the Map,”  just published by University of New Mexico Press.

With thousands of people in the streets for Black Lives Matter demonstrations in recent weeks, there’s been a movement across the country for theaters shuttered by the pandemic to open their lobby areas to support protestors. One space in downtown Albuquerque has answered that call.