August 21, 2025 - UK President Eli Capilouto (2025 Fall Semester)
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (August 21, 2025) – Now in his 15th academic year leading the University of Kentucky, President Eli Capilouto prepares for the start of the fall 2025 semester — a moment he often describes as among his favorite of the year. On this episode of Behind the Blue, Capilouto reflects on the renewed energy and momentum across campus as students, faculty, and staff begin a new year. He shares how UK continues to fulfill its mission of advancing Kentucky through education, research, service, and care; discusses key challenges and opportunities on the horizon for 2025–26; and...
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August 14, 2025 - Dr. Larry Goldstein (60 Years of Neurology at UK)
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (August 14, 2025) – The University of Kentucky College of Medicine’s Department of Neurology is marking its 60th anniversary, celebrating a legacy that began in 1965 with a single faculty member and has grown into a nationally respected center for neurological care, research, and education. The department, led by chair Larry Goldstein, M.D., has expanded to more than 70 faculty and built a reputation for advancing clinical care across numerous subspecialties — from general neurology, stroke, epilepsy, and movement disorders to neuromuscular diseases, multiple...
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August 7, 2025 - Hannah Pittard ('If You Love It, Let It Kill You')
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (August 7, 2025) – Fiction has long offered writers a veil—an opportunity to tell deeply personal stories while maintaining a layer of narrative distance. But what happens when that veil is intentionally thin? When the boundaries between memory and imagination, fact and fiction, are not just blurred but teased and twisted? That’s the space explored in If You Love It, Let It Kill You, the latest novel from Hannah Pittard, acclaimed author and professor in the University of Kentucky’s Department of English. Drawing from autobiographical threads, Pittard uses fiction to...
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July 31, 2025 - Sahar Alameh (2025 Great Teacher)
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 31, 2025) – The University of Kentucky Alumni Association started the Great Teacher Award program in 1961 to honor excellent teaching at the university. There have been more than 300 teachers honored since that first year. Nominations may only be submitted by current students. To receive the award, a candidate must: Hold the rank of full-time lecturer or above and have been a member of the faculty for the past three years at UK. Have superior knowledge of the subject matter. Have original and innovative classroom presentations. Demonstrate concern for students,...
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July 17, 2025 - Dr. Shaun Mohan (Project ADAM & AEDs)
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 18, 2025) – Each year in the U.S., more than 350,000 people experience sudden cardiac arrest outside of a hospital. Survival in these moments depends on two critical factors: immediate bystander response and access to life-saving technology. Yet in many communities—especially in rural or under-resourced areas—those tools remain out of reach. At the heart of the solution is the automated external defibrillator, or AED. Small, portable, and easy to use, AEDs can drastically increase the odds of surviving cardiac arrest when paired with prompt CPR. But despite their...
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July 1, 2025 - Matthew Kim (2025 Great Teacher)
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 1, 2025) – The University of Kentucky Alumni Association started the Great Teacher Award program in 1961 to honor excellent teaching at the university. There have been more than 300 teachers honored since that first year. Nominations may only be submitted by current students. To receive the award, a candidate must: Hold the rank of full-time lecturer or above and have been a member of the faculty for the past three years at UK. Have superior knowledge of the subject matter. Have original and innovative classroom presentations. Demonstrate concern for...
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June 26, 2025 - Dr. Scottie Day & Dr. Bethany Hodge (Kentucky Children's Hospital)
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 26, 2025) – When we think about children's health, we often picture check-ups, vaccinations, and the day-to-day care families receive from their pediatricians. But in Kentucky, the conversation goes much deeper. From rural access to care, to systemic poverty, to the lingering effects of the opioid epidemic, children across the Commonwealth face challenges that begin long before they step into a doctor’s office. At the same time, Kentucky Children's Hospital and the University of Kentucky are stepping up with bold strategies aimed not just at treating illness, but at...
info_outline![June 19, 2025 - Anastasia Curwood (Juneteenth) [ENCORE] show art](https://assets.libsyn.com/content/189782425?height=50&width=50)
June 19, 2025 - Anastasia Curwood (Juneteenth) [ENCORE]
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 19, 2025) – THIS IS AN ENCORE EPISODE. On January 1st, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the ‘Emancipation Proclamation’, but it wasn’t until June 19th, 1865 that the last remaining enslaved African Americans – men and women in Galveston, Texas – learned they were free. Since that time, June 19th, or “Juneteenth”, has been celebrated annually in various parts of the United States to commemorate emancipation as well as celebrate African-American culture. Still, it took until June 17th of 2021 for the day to be recognized as a federal holiday, after...
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June 12, 2025 - Lance Broeking (Transportation & Parking Updates)
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 12, 2025) – As the University of Kentucky continues to evolve – whether through expanding student housing, major medical center construction, or increased sustainability initiatives – so too must the systems that help people navigate it all. With summer offering a brief window for more intensive work, University of Kentucky Transportation Services is executing projects ranging from garage expansions and surface lot renovations to shuttle route adjustments. “The worst thing to do is wait until [something] hits you and then be reactive. [We] always try to...
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June 4, 2025 - Gosia Chwatko (2025 Great Teacher)
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 4, 2025) – The University of Kentucky Alumni Association started the Great Teacher Award program in 1961 to honor excellent teaching at the university. There have been more than 300 teachers honored since that first year. Nominations may only be submitted by current students. To receive the award, a candidate must: Hold the rank of full-time lecturer or above and have been a member of the faculty for the past three years at UK. Have superior knowledge of the subject matter. Have original and innovative classroom presentations. Demonstrate concern for students,...
info_outlineLEXINGTON, Ky. (January 9, 2025) – As the new year begins, the University of Kentucky is welcoming back students for the spring 2025 semester—a time to reflect on the strides made in the past year and to look forward to the opportunities ahead.
On this episode of Behind the Blue, UK President Eli Capilouto reflects on 2024, highlighting the achievements of a campus community deeply committed to care—care for students, for discovery, and for the Commonwealth. “The most important question we should ask ourselves every day,” he notes, “is, did we care? And then, how we care. That makes me most proud of our faculty, because resoundingly, you can say they care. They care about our students—not just their educational experience,” but also how they’re prepared to serve the future.
President Capilouto also discusses the Board of Trustees’ directive for UK to strengthen partnerships across Kentucky to advance health and prosperity. With a mission to make the state “healthier, wealthier, and wiser,” the university is tackling challenges like cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease through groundbreaking research while preparing students and communities for opportunities in energy, advanced manufacturing, and the arts.
From its growing network of partnerships with hospitals and clinics across the state to a campus transformed by $6.5 billion in investments, UK continues to pull the levers of change, fulfilling its land-grant mission to serve and uplift the people of Kentucky.
Behind the Blue is available via a variety of podcast providers, including iTunes and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.
Behind the Blue is a joint production of the University of Kentucky and UK HealthCare. Transcripts for this or other episodes of Behind the Blue can be downloaded from the show’s blog page.
To discover what’s wildly possible at the University of Kentucky, click here.