About Us

Podcasting Team from the University of Texas at Austin

Orlando Kelm

Orlando Kelm

Orlando was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada but raised in Salt Lake City, Utah (his German father never could get used to the cold weather, so he moved further south).  He earned his Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley in 1989 and then went straight to the University of Texas at Austin, where he has been ever since.

Have you ever seen the Mormon missionaries with the white shirts and ties?  That’s where Orlando got his start with Portuguese, serving in São Paulo from 1977 – 1979.  Since then he’s picked up quite a bit of Spanish, and a little bit of Italian, Catalan, German, Japanese, and he’s now taking a crack at some Chinese.  Those are more of a hobby, but then a little stargazing and a little guitar make for good hobbies too.

Professionally, you’ll find him working a lot with business schools, focusing on language for professional purposes.

Home page: http://orlandokelm.wordpress.com
Personal blog: http://orkelm.wordpress.com/
Netvibes page: http://www.netvibes.com/orkelm
Email: orkelm@austin.utexas.edu

Vivian Flanzer

Vivian Flanzer

Vivian Flanzer is the author of ClicaBrasil, a website that derives from her experience of teaching Portuguese as a Foreign Language since 1995. Vivian teaches Portuguese at the University of Texas at Austin, where she also has been coordinating its Portuguese Language Program since 2001. She holds a Master’s in Anthropology from Museu Nacional of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and is currently working on a graduate degree in Foreign Language Education at UT-Austin.

Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, a cidade maravilhosa, this carioca da gema goes home whenever she can to visit her family and friends and to drink água de coco in Copacabana.

Email: vflanzer@austin.utexas.edu

Michelle Schreiner Lima

Michelle Schreiner Lima

Michelle is Brazilian.  She was born in Limeira, a city in the interior of the State of São Paulo.  However she was raised in Americana, another city very close to Limeira.  She worked as a teacher from 1996 to 2005 at a technical high school in Americana.

In 2005 she completed her Ph.D. in History at UNICAMP (State University of Campinas), and then she came to the U.S. where her husband is working on his Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin.  While in Austin she has participated in a number of courses, and she plans to complete a Post-Doctorate in Literature.  She’s also been working on some Internet materials development projects, under the direction of Professor Orlando R. Kelm.  All of this experience has helped her to improve her English, and her Spanish as well.

Since she studied the History of France in the 19th century during her M.A. and Ph.D programs, she’s picked up a little French along the way too.  Studying, taking walks, going to the movies and restaurants, inviting friends over for dinner are what she likes to do most.

Denise Palmiere

Denise Palmiere

Denise T. L. Palmiere was born and raised in Brazil (State of São Paulo) but now she lives in Texas, where she is a Visiting Scholar at the University of Texas at Austin. She earned her Ph.D. in Linguistics at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP). She has been teaching Portuguese and Linguistics for 20 years and her research focuses on the area of language acquisition. She loves reading, traveling and having a good churrasco brasileiro with friends and family.

 

João Valentino Alfredo

João Valentino Alfredo

João Valentino Alfredo was born in Conchas, a small city in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Valentino is a journalist, having worked for 15 years as a reporter and editor for Brazilian newspapers and magazines. Among his most important contributions, Valentino wrote the Brazil Guide (“Folha de S. Paulo”, 1995) and Olympic Games Guide (“Isto É” magazine, 2000), including the coverage of the games in Sydney in 2000. He earned a Master’s Degree in Journalism from the University of São Paulo (USP) and in 2006 was admitted into the Ph.D. program in Brazilian Literature at the University of Texas at Austin.

 

Daniel Heron

Daniel Heron

Daniel was born and raised in Lancaster, California until his early twenties when he moved to Texas. There he received an associates degree in Spanish at Tarrant Community College before being accepted into the University of Texas at Austin as a Spanish & Portuguese major. Spanish and Portuguese motivated him to travel abroad and double major in Latin American Studies. His first contact with Brazil was in 2009 when he fell in love with Salvador da Bahia. Later in 2011 he returned to get another regional taste of Brazil in Minas Gerais. Currently, he is finishing up his final year at Austin with a focus in Food Studies. He likes to cook, dance forró and swing pagode baiano (axé). Even though he is American, he considers himself now a Baiano at soul.

 

Michael Heidenreich

Michael Heidenreich

Michael Heidenreich has been recording audio since his days in middle school when he found a four-track tape recorder at a garage sale for $20.  He used this four track for many purposes, but the biggest one was annoying his family members.  To this day, no one in his family knows for sure if this was his original goal or just an odd side effect.

He continued his audio training at the University of Texas at Austin where he found a bigger crowd to annoy with his recordings.  He has produced a number of albums for various local bands and has spent time blabbering away on local radio stations.

He lives in downtown Austin with his wife and two cats.  When he is not busy ‘listening to the world’ he spends his time running through it.