The Texas Exes Podcast Reaches Its Third Season

BY Eliza Pillsbury in Nov | Dec 2026 TXEX on October 26, 2026

Sara Light, BS ’02, Life Member, has had a busy few years. From helping to launch the Longhorn Business Network in 2023, to hosting and producing more than 70 episodes of the Hello Longhorn podcast, she’s spoken with innumerable Texas Exes about their journeys from the Forty Acres to the boardrooms of businesses, big and small.

With new episodes every Monday, listeners can learn what their favorite Longhorns were like in college, what they do now, and why it matters. And they’re sure to find a new answer to Light’s favorite question: Did you know a Longhorn did that?

A woman in a denim long-sleeve button down, jeans, and black pumps sits at a table with a red "On Air" sign. — Your host, Sara Light.

How did you come up with the idea for a podcast?

My background is in morning radio. The joke is that I got into radio because I wanted to meet NSYNC. I’ll get into radio, and I’ll meet NSYNC, and then I’ll marry Lance Bass. That was my thought process.

I started in radio in my sophomore year of college in Austin. I was waking up every morning at 4:30 a.m. When I lived in a loft bed with roommates, I would have to crawl down very quietly not to wake them. I would work at the radio station in the morning and then go to my classes.

After graduation, I went to New York to do the NBCUniversal Page program, which I got with the help of a UT professor. And then I did radio up there, so I was in morning radio for more than 20 years. I got to work on all the big shows and have lots of fun and be really silly. And then while I was back in Austin doing radio, I really wanted to do a podcast highlighting Longhorn alumni, even before I was at the Exes. I just felt like there were so many cool stories to tell. The Alcalde does an awesome job telling it on paper, and this would just be a different way.

And I found my way into the Texas Exes! The Longhorn Business Network has been a great way to meet a lot of really cool Longhorns.

What has been your favorite episode so far, and where should people start?

I hope everybody listens to every episode, but even if you just go and look at all the episode titles, you’ll find somebody and think, I didn’t know a Longhorn did that. If you have a newborn, and you’re buying all of your products from Lovevery, you might not know a Longhorn founded it. If you go to your Pilates class, and they have Bala weights, you might not know a Longhorn did that.

I still think it’s crazy that people don’t know Vonlane was started by a Longhorn—Alex Danza, BBA, MPA ’96, Life Member, was the very first episode we did. The P. Terry’s episode [with Patrick Terry, BS ’80, and Kathy Terry, BS ’92, Life Member,] is really great.

Then there’s a woman who got a degree at McCombs named Bianca Rhodes, BBA ’81, and she’s running a company out of San Antonio called Knight Aerospace, and they build what is essentially a shipping container to put onto a cargo plane to turn it into a working hospital for the military. I think that’s the fun part, realizing how many people did one major and now do something completely different.

What is the most common thread you see among these successful Longhorns?

I think resilience is probably the biggest word. The stories of how nothing is ever exactly how you think it’s going to be—and also just how many people don’t get into UT right away, but find themselves getting into UT through the Coordinated Admission Program, a provisional program, or transferring in.

What is your favorite thing to talk about with your guests?

Whenever I find out somebody is from where I’m from, and then they go on to do something cool, it’s always shown me this pathway. I like asking where they lived freshman year, if that applies, and where they liked to grab food. I love knowing that Michael Hsu, BArch ’93, who makes beautiful buildings and restaurants, also lived on the most terrible bed in Jester.

I also like to ask what the small moments were, at the time, that are now the big moments—the things that didn’t really seem like a big deal when you were in college but are now, when you look back. Just any weird, specific story of their time at UT to show that they were once students figuring it out, too.

A man sits in front of a microphone recording a podcast and gesturing with his hands. — Host of *Texas Country Reporter* J.B. Sauceda, ’07, records a recent episode of *Hello Longhorn*.

Is there something you weren’t expecting that gets brought up a lot by guests?

The thing that surprises me most is how many people actually got to know their professors, because I did not! I never went and got a burger with a professor, but there are people who still email with their professors. The people who are successful, time and time again, still bring up advice their professors gave them.

Tell us about your new set. What’s in store for Season 3?

You can see it on YouTube—our videographer, Christopher Yates, BS ’19, helps with the filming. The set is on the second floor of the Etter-Harbin Alumni Center, and it’s filled with lots of fun relics from The University of Texas. There’s a Longhorn named Amy Erben, ’87, Life Member, who owns the Vintage Longhorn store [on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard]. I procure a lot of things from her store. I have a 1980s plastic football purse from eBay, which is really great.

We asked [our audience] which Alcalde cover we should feature, and obviously Matthew McConaughey, BS ’93, Life Member, Distinguished Alumnus, was suggested, so we have that.

One of my favorite things we have goes back to when I was in New York City and worked at The Early Show at CBS. We had a bunch of football players come on the show, and I was producing the segment. At the time, Roy Williams, ’03, was coming up for the draft. I reached out to the Texas Exes to let them know that alumni should come and support him on the plaza. Word got back, so I have a letter signed by Mack Brown, Life Member, that says thanks for taking care of Roy for us.

Hopefully, as people bring things, the set will continue to grow, and it will be a place full of weird knickknacks.

Who are your dream guests?

I have a sheet of paper on the door that’s become a real talking point. The number one goal is obvious: It’s Glen Powell, ’11, Outstanding Young Texas Ex, and Matthew McConaughey in a room together at the same time, because I never see them together! Even when they’re on the football field, they never take pictures together.

I also have Jenna Bush Hager, BA ’04; Andrew Dismukes, BS ’17, of Saturday Night Live; and the Duplass brothers. Obviously, I lean toward celebrities, but I only know what I know. I want to highlight every single major, every college, and all phases of companies, big and small. We only do so many episodes a year, but I love getting suggestions.

Email sara.light@texasexes.org or reach out to her via LinkedIn to get involved with the Longhorn Business Network or pitch a business for Hello Longhorn.

This interview has been edited and condensed.