On this episode of This Is My Thing, we’re talking with Niki Hansen about her love for kickball. She refers to it as a 'recess sport,' and though she loved it as a kid (and, she says, she was pretty good at it), she put it away for years before moving to Austin a few years ago. Here, she discovered a vibrant kickball scene and decided to jump back into the sport.

We'll talk about her childhood fondness for kickball, how she fell in love with it again, what it's doing for her heart and her soul, and some highlights of her kickball career (including getting out of an epic pickle)!

This is My Thing is a listener-supported production of KUT & KUTX Studios in Austin, Texas. You can support this podcast by making a donation at supportthispodcast.org

On this episode of This Is My Thing, we’re talking with Michael Young about his love of ceramics. That relationship started over 40 years ago, when Michael needed to find a non-science course as an undergrad and took a ceramics class. After a 35 year hiatus, he rediscovered his love of clay and now has a ceramics studio in what used to be his dining room.

We'll talk about how his interest in ceramics got restarted after that long break, how he shares the hobby with his wife, how he struggles with perfection and much much more!

This is My Thing is a listener-supported production of KUT & KUTX Studios in Austin, Texas. You can support this podcast by making a donation at supportthispodcast.org

The 2026 Winter Olympics may be over, but that doesn't mean we have to stop talking about winter sports! This week we're chatting with Heather Cooke about her love of figure skating. She skated a bit as a kid, but never really fell in love with the sport until she discovered team synchronized skating decades later. In this type of figure skating (not an Olympic sport yet but one can hope), between eight and twenty skaters perform together on the ice.

We'll talk about how she discovered the sport and fell in love with it, the community shew's found in the skating world, why she loves skating in a Cookie Monster costume, and what it all means to her.

This is My Thing is a listener-supported production of KUT & KUTX Studios in Austin, Texas. You can support this podcast by making a donation at supportthispodcast.org