We bring you this podcast from Texas Tech University, hosted by Roger Landes and Chris Smith, musicians and directors of the VMC. We explore vernacular art forms: musics and dance which are learned, taught, and passed on by ear and in the memory. In Series #1, produced with funding from the TTU Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation, we talk about how the VMC engages with music and dance from around the world, and about the connections, histories, and community meanings of these art forms. We hear from players, scholars, dancers, builders, and listeners; we hear about times and places and people, and together with our audience we seek to discover and celebrate the webs of human meaning which connect all of them.