Stormin' Bob Swanson

Blogging Bob

It’s Gonna Be a Blast

While my official summer tour (“Stormin’ Bob’s Rockin’ Roadshow“) won’t launch for a couple of more weeks, I will be educating and entertaining in Columbus, MS this week. Thanks to a grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission and coordination with Columbus Parks & Rec (Greg Lewis) as well as the Columbus Arts Council (Quan Walker), […]

Read More

Sunday Funday

Those who know me know that I’m a big fan of Robert G. Ingersoll, a 19th century orator. I won’t go into a biographical sketch, but suffice it to say that Ingersoll proposed that Sunday should be a day for intellectual growth, scientific inquiry, art, and family. I think we checked all of Ingersoll’s boxes […]

Read More

Two years running

I’m nothing if not persistent. Seems to me that two of the things that set human beings apart are our cognitive abilities as well as our endurance. Time will tell how long the species endures, but while we are here a distinguishing characteristic appears to be our ability to run long distances. Our ability to […]

Read More

6-7

[Editor’s note – May 19, 2026:I’m leaving the following post intact as originally published. However, some of the conclusions included are in error. In the interest of transparency and my desire to avoid meteorological misinformation, understand that Matt Laubhan was in fact correct, and I was mistaken regarding the severe weather photo at the heart […]

Read More

Now boo-king for 2026

It seems that the Summer 2025 tour (“Stormin’ Bob’s Rockin’ Rainbow”) is barely in the rear-view mirror, and I’m already thinking about Summer 2026. Part of the reason is because I’m a member of the MAC (Mississippi Arts Commission) artist roster. As such, organizations (such as libraries) who want to book me can get up […]

Read More

The Family That Plays Together

If all my luck ran out tomorrowI do believe that I have had my share — John Gorka, Gravyland I’m a lucky guy, no doubt in my mind. I live with some creative, cool folks that I am happy to call my family. We had a blast on Saturday morning playing music together at the […]

Read More

Power Pop-tics

One of the fun creative challenges in planning my summer tours is to try to make my show match the theme for each year’s Summer Reading Program (SRP) theme. This year’s theme has been “Color Our World” so my show (“Stormin’ Bob’s Rockin’ Rainbow”) has focused on light/optics/human vision. In addition to some new demos […]

Read More

Don’t take it for grant-ed

I’m nearing the end of my Summer Tour for 2025. While my Stormin’ Bob persona originated in 2000 when I was doing television weather (KHBS-KHOG 40/29 in Fort Smith, AR), my summer touring has been a more recent development — I’ve toured most summers (except when COVID shut things down) each year since 2018. I […]

Read More

I’m Giving Up Certainty for Lent

Audio version of the post [Note – I wrote this post 8 years ago, and it was published on the “Street Epistemology” blog. Admittedly, it is a bit far afield from my typical topics, but the ability to have cordial and productive conversations with others about sensitive topics is needed now more than ever. Thank […]

Read More

Sorta like the Sun

In a recent blog post, I referenced the Frostbite 5K, a race I’ll be running in less than two weeks. Yesterday, after a training run, I was stretching my old body out and asked my son, Henry, to take a picture of me. I just so happened to be stretching close to a picture of […]

Read More
1 2 3 7