To address the low priority given to university-level outreach, the authors created an outreach program that makes it easy for scientists to connect with the public, while at the same time providing effective transfer of scientific research results to the public and the K-12 community. The result is a program called the Hot Science--Cool Talks Outreach Lecture Series, a regular event at the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) overseen by the university's Environmental Science Institute (ESI). The program combines lectures by scientists with hands-on activities, webcasts, and workshops for teachers, students, and the public. This paper describes the concept for this lecture series, its operation, and its unique outcomes for K-12 outreach. (Contains 4 tables and 2 figures.)