Conversations with Writers, Artists, Thinkers.
Hosted by two professors from the Department of Creative Writing at UTEP, Words on a Wire has become one of the most established and influential radio shows on writing and creativity.
Twelve years ago, it was hosted by Benjamin Alire Sáenz and Daniel Chacón. After Sáenz retired, Tim Z. Hernandez joined the team, and we have been going strong ever since. Our shows are available on Spotify, Apple Podcast, and YouTube.
Airing locally Sundays at noon, each week Tim or Daniel have a conversation with someone whose work they admire, poets, fiction writers, philosophers, scientists, musicians. Because they are writers themselves, the main focus for the hosts is books, and if there’s a new one that they love, they welcome that writer on the show.
We have had guests from first-time writers with new books to the world’s most established thinkers, such as former and current US Poet Laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, and great thinkers who have dedicate their lives to making the world a better place.
Words on a Wire is Co-produced by Creative Writing MFA candidates Claudia Flores Ramirez and Iliana Pichardo Urrutia.
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In this episode, host Will Rose speaks with author Stephanie Austin about her debut novel, Burn, which will be released on February 3, 2026, from Cowboy Jamboree Press. -
In this episode of Words on a Wire, host Will Rose speaks with historian Jeff Roche, author of The Conservative Frontier: Texas and the Origins of the New Right, about how West Texas became one of the most reliably conservative regions in American political life. -
In this episode of Words on a Wire, host Will Rose speaks with El Paso–based photographer and videographer Christian Iglesias, widely known on social media as @ChristianChurches. Iglesias has built a devoted following by documenting the landscapes, people, and everyday moments of the borderlands. -
In this New Year’s episode of Words on a Wire, host Will Rose sits down with longtime co-host Daniel Chacón for a reflective conversation about artificial intelligence: how rapidly it has entered everyday life, how it is reshaping creativity, education, labor, and culture, and why it generates both excitement and unease. -
In this episode of Words on a Wire, host Daniel Chacón speaks with writer, editor, and cultural critic Scótt Russell Dúncan about identity, futurity, and the politics of who gets to imagine the future. -
In this episode of Words on a Wire, host Daniel Chacón sits down with Dr. Roberto Avant-Mier, Chair of the Communication Department at the University of Texas at El Paso and a leading scholar of Chicano film. -
In this episode of Words on a Wire, host Will Rose speaks with historian Max Perry Mueller about his groundbreaking new book, Wakara’s America: The Life and Legacy of a Native Founder of the American West. -
Part 2 of Tim Z. Hernandez’s conversation with activist Olga Talamante, revisits her harrowing arrest and imprisonment during Argentina’s Dirty War. Olga reflects on the brutality she endured—torture, isolation, and the constant threat of death—and the grassroots freedom campaign that blossomed thousands of miles away. -
In this episode of The Storykeeper from Words on a Wire, host Tim Z. Hernandez sits down with activist and community leader Olga Talamante to explore the extraordinary journey behind her life’s work.
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In this episode of Words on a Wire, host Daniel Chacón speaks with writer and journalist Michelle Morgante about her journey from a small agricultural town in California’s San Joaquin Valley to a globe-spanning career in journalism, and ultimately, to fiction writing.
