Beginning Jan. 1, KUT will air an additional hour of our most listened-to broadcast, “Morning Edition.” This additional hour will feature more Austin news and interviews with local newsmakers. Local “Morning Edition” associate producer/host Nadia Hamdan, along with the entire KUT News team, has been contributing to this expansion. So let’s take a moment to get to know Nadia.
As associate producer and host on “Morning Edition,” Nadia is in by 5 a.m. weekdays working closely with Jennifer Stayton and Joseph Leahy to produce the morning newscast. Her days consist of finding local stories and prepping them for the air. She’s also the backup “Morning Edition” host when Jennifer is out.
A University of Texas at Austin graduate who studied international relations and global studies with a minor in Middle Eastern studies, Nadia spent her early years in Beirut, Lebanon before moving to Dallas.
Follow Nadia on Twitter @nadzhamz
What are you listening to these days?
I’ve been listening to the album “Hang on Little Tomato” by Pink Martini nonstop lately. It’s made up of a 14-piece band with lead singer (and goddess), China Forbes, at the helm. Every song is totally different so there is no way to pigeonhole the band with a genre. Forbes sings in Spanish, Italian, French, Croatian and English … but you definitely don’t need to understand what she’s saying to fall in love. I sure did.
Also, The Growlers are an almost every day occurrence for me, so there’s that.
When it comes to podcasts, that list is long. I’d say The Read, Stuff You Should Know, Radiolab, The New Yorker Radio Hour and The Mortified Podcast are the ones I frequent the most.
Read anything interesting lately?
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. It’s remarkable storytelling and I devoured it quickly. It was so good that I followed up with her novel The Secret History and also enjoyed that one immensely. Both are a perfect mixture of terror and excitement. That’s all I’ll say about it.
I’m also a huge fan of The Atlantic and Ta-Nehisi Coates had an essay in its October issue titled, “The First White President.” That prompted me to buy his recent book of essays, “We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy.” It’s urgently relevant and smartly written. He also prefaces each essay with personal reflections that attempt to capture why he was writing and where he was in life at that time.
What are you loving about the ATX lately?
Perhaps ironically, my favorite place is Radio Coffee & Beer. It’s right down the street from my house, and I basically live there. In fact, it was the staff there that actually turned me on to Pink Martini!
It’s a super chill spot with a beautiful outside area. They have a great coffee, beer and live music. Plus, there’s really, really, really good tacos. I usually spend my time working on edits or just sitting outside reading.
