![April 17, 2025 - Lance Broeking (UK Transportation Services) [ENCORE] show art](https://assets.libsyn.com/content/187144415?height=50&width=50)
April 17, 2025 - Lance Broeking (UK Transportation Services) [ENCORE]
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 17, 2025) – THIS IS AN ENCORE EPISODE. For those who live and work in urban areas, transportation is often among the top challenges in their daily routines. For Lance Broeking, Director of Transportation Services at the University of Kentucky, addressing these challenges is a constant focus. He leads a department responsible for managing campus parking, transit, and alternative transportation options, working to navigate the complexities of a growing and evolving university environment. In this episode of ‘Behind the Blue’, Broeking delves into the impact of...
info_outline![April 10, 2025 - JJ Weaver, Nicole Breazeale, & Emily Johnson (Perfect Fit Peer Grief Support) [ENCORE] show art](https://assets.libsyn.com/content/186864810?height=50&width=50)
April 10, 2025 - JJ Weaver, Nicole Breazeale, & Emily Johnson (Perfect Fit Peer Grief Support) [ENCORE]
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 10, 2025) – [THIS IS AN ENCORE EPISODE] In the summer of 2020, UK Football player JJ Weaver lost both his father and high school football coach in successive months. Weaver, a graduate who plays outside linebacker, says he channeled his emotions into football until an injury later that fall sidelined him and left him with no outlet. Struggling with anger and grief, JJ began falling behind in class and regressing from his teammates, until the UK coaching staff pulled him aside to try and understand what was happening. From there, Weaver’s path eventually led...
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April 3, 2025 - Natalie Tate & Lenzi Dodgen (Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month)
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 3, 2025) – The following episode deals with sensitive subject material involving sexual assault, rape, stalking, and intimate partner violence. Listener discretion is advised. If you or someone you know needs assistance, contact the VIP Center at 859-257-3574 or email . April is Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, a time dedicated to education, advocacy, and support for survivors. At the University of Kentucky, the Violence Intervention and Prevention (VIP) Center serves as a confidential resource for students, faculty, and staff impacted by interpersonal...
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March 27, 2025 - Laura Stephenson (Dean of Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment)
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 27, 2025) – In December of 2024, long-time agricultural and extension services leader Laura Stephenson was named vice president for land-grant engagement and dean of the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Martin-Gatton CAFE). With a career spanning decades in Cooperative Extension leadership in both Kentucky and Tennessee, Stephenson has worked at every level of the system—from county agent to state director—helping to connect research with real-world solutions for farmers, businesses, and communities. Now, as Dean, she’s leading...
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March 20, 2025 - DanceBlue turns 20
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 20, 2025) – Each year in the spring, hundreds of UK students gather to stand for an entire day to support the patients in the DanceBlue Kentucky Children’s Hospital Hematology/Oncology Clinic. This year, the organization will celebrate its 20th annual marathon. Students work all year to raise funds and share the mission to spread joy. On March 29-30 they will fill the floor of Historic Memorial Coliseum for 24-hours to participate in the no-sitting, no-sleeping marathon. In 2006, the very first DanceBlue Marathon raised $123,323.16. The event has grown...
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March 13, 2025 - Paolo Visonà (Spartacus' first battlefield)
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 13, 2025) – Last summer, University of Kentucky archaeologist Paolo Visonà, Ph.D., an adjunct associate professor in the University of Kentucky’s , announced a major archaeological discovery in Calabria, Italy. Visonà and his team discovered Spartacus’ first battlefield in southern Italy and Roman fortification systems built by Crassus to blockade Spartacus’ army. Through fieldwalking and geophysical and remote sensing techniques, Visonà’s team followed the Roman lines for more than 1.6 miles in a dense forest and collected numerous fragments...
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March 5, 2025 - UK & COVID-19, 5 Years On...
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 5, 2025) — It’s hard to believe it’s been five years since the COVID-19 pandemic officially arrived in the Commonwealth – but on Friday, March 6, 2020, Gov. Andy Beshear confirmed the state’s first COVID-19-positive patient and declared a state of emergency in Kentucky. And that first case was tested and diagnosed right here at the University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Hospital. That day began a grueling, years-long grind for medical professionals across the state, the country, and the world. Hospital systems struggled to keep up with surges of severely ill...
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February 25, 2025 - Deirdre Scaggs (Lexington's 250th and UK's 160th Anniversaries)
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (February 26, 2025) – As Lexington commemorates its 250th anniversary and the University of Kentucky marks its 160th, ’ Deirdre Scaggs helps listeners explore the intertwined history and evolving relationship between the city and its university. Scaggs is associate dean for research and discovery and director of the in UK Libraries’ . She helps navigate UK’s origins in Lexington, the challenges of growing UK and Lexington’s symbiotic relationship, and the importance of the community built between the two. A key part of that is UK’s mission and...
info_outline![February 20, 2025 - Matt Moore & Tarkington Newman (The Psychology of Sports Rivalries) [ENCORE] show art](https://assets.libsyn.com/content/184809020?height=50&width=50)
February 20, 2025 - Matt Moore & Tarkington Newman (The Psychology of Sports Rivalries) [ENCORE]
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (February 20, 2025) – THIS IS AN ENCORE EPISODE. Fans, dressed from head to toe in their team’s colors, swarm the stadium chanting fight songs and waving banners. It’s game day, and the stakes feel monumental. Sports rivalries are a cornerstone of athletic culture — sparking packed bleachers, passionate debates and unforgettable moments. But what drives the fervor that fans feel for their team and the disdain for their rivals? Experts suggest the answer lies not just in the scoreboard, but in the human psyche. According to Matt Moore,...
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February 13, 2025 - Jeff & Marietta Barton-Baxter (10 Dates and 35 Years Later)
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 14, 2025) – It seems like foreshadowing that they met while playing the board game Life. Marietta Barton was 19 years old; Jeff Baxter was 21. Despite both growing up in London, Ky., they never crossed paths until they moved to Lexington for college. But within a few weeks of their chance meeting, they were in love—and engaged. Now, 35 years into their marriage, Jeff has published a book chronicling their whirlwind romance, the life-altering health struggles they faced soon after, and their enduring commitment to one another. He originally wrote...
info_outlineLEXINGTON, Ky. (March 20, 2025) – Each year in the spring, hundreds of UK students gather to stand for an entire day to support the patients in the DanceBlue Kentucky Children’s Hospital Hematology/Oncology Clinic.
This year, the organization will celebrate its 20th annual marathon. Students work all year to raise funds and share the mission to spread joy. On March 29-30 they will fill the floor of Historic Memorial Coliseum for 24-hours to participate in the no-sitting, no-sleeping marathon.
In 2006, the very first DanceBlue Marathon raised $123,323.16. The event has grown larger every year, becoming one of the greatest traditions at the University of Kentucky. In 2024, the organization raised $2.1 million, breaking the record for highest fundraising total.
For 20 years, DanceBlue has strived to spread joy to those fighting, to persevere in memory of the lives lost, and to celebrate every victory until the battle against pediatric cancer is won.
On this episode of Behind the Blue, two UK alumni who were previous members of DanceBlue’s leadership committee share their thoughts and reflections on the program.
Amberlee Isabella, an entrepreneur in New York state, and Alex Wade, a Lexington native and local physician, both talk about the impact DanceBlue had on both their personal lives and professional careers, the importance of community service and support, and the emotional connections that have defined DanceBlue and the unique family it has created.
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 how the University of Kentucky is advancing our Commonwealth, click here.