Texas Matters

Texas Matters

Texas is a big state with a growing, diverse population and as the population grows, the issues and challenges facing its residents multiply. Texas Matters is a statewide news program that spends half an hour each week looking at the issues and culture of Texas.

Episodes

Texas Matters: The battlelines in GOP redistricting

July 18, 2025 • 28 mins
Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered lawmakers back to Austin for a special session. They will take on issues like funding for flooding, THC regulation and cutting property taxes but also for a controversial snap redistricting plan.
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Texas Matters: After the flood —The search for answers

July 11, 2025 • 28 mins
Over one hundred dead and many more missing— the July 4th flash flood is the deadliest weather disaster in modern Texas history. But did this catastrophe have to happen? It’s called "flash flood alley," but could any steps have been taken to protect the lives of locals and visitors?
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Texas Matters: Psychedelics and The Texas Trip

July 4, 2025 • 28 mins
In a special Texas Public Radio podcast series medical reporter Bonnie Petrie and reporter Robin Berghaus explore how Texas is, somewhat ironically, leading the way in the therapeutic application of psychedelics.
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Texas Matters: Terry Virts jumps into race for U.S. Senate

June 27, 2025 • 28 mins
The upcoming race for the Texas U.S. Senate seat is shaping up to be one of the nation's more interesting contests. Incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn is being eclipsed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for the GOP nomination. Former NASA Astronaut Terry Virts is running for the Democratic nomination while other Dems ready their own campaign launches.
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Texas Matters: How a GOP congressional redistricting could backfire

June 20, 2025 • 28 mins
Today on Texas Matters—How Texas could see a reshuffle of congressional maps to keep Republican Control of Congress. When is a Hood not a Hood? When President Trump puts names of Confederate figures back on military bases. And why you could see tomato prices jump at the grocery store.
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Texas Matters: 50 years of Ray Benson wide awake at the wheel

June 13, 2025 • 28 mins
This week on Texas Matters—50 years of Asleep at the Wheel. How did Ray Benson become the carrier of the flame for Western Swing? For half a century, Asleep at the Wheel made it on the rocky road that is the music biz.
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Texas Matters: Why Conan The Barbarian is a Texan

June 6, 2025 • 28 mins
He dreamed up Conan the Barbarian from his lonely town of Cross Plains, Texas. But where did Robert E. Howard find his inspiration for the sword-and- sorcery, weird tales that still resonate today? Howard dipped his pen in the inkwell of Texas history, tall tales and the boom and bust of the oil fields. How Conan is really a Texan.
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Texas Matters: Banning THC; Commanding the Ten Commandments; Billions for water

May 30, 2025 • 28 mins
Kiss your gummies goodbye. Texas is on the verge of a total ban on hemp-derived THC. Lawsuits are coming after the GOP commanded putting the ten commandments in all classrooms. And lawmakers promised they would do something about water scarcity in Texas. Did they deliver?
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Texas Matters: Belle Starr — Queen of Western Outlaws

May 23, 2025 • 29 mins
She was queen of the Wild West outlaws. She rode with Jesse James and other desperados. Belle Starr was a one-of-a-kind, dangerous woman who stole horses, robbed stagecoaches and lived a life of crime on the open plains. Her mysterious violent death still baffles investigators. Should Starr be considered a different kind of feminist icon?
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Texas Matters: Gene Autry — The New Deal cowboy crooner

May 9, 2025 • 28 mins
The first singing cowboy of the movies—Gene Autry —was one of America’s most popular stars. As the Texas native sang "Back in the Saddle Again" he was also promoting ideas that supported the New Deal and friendly relations with Mexico. His messages rang true with his fans during the Great Depression. On this episode, we unpack the ways this western folk hero, Gene Autry, used his talents to support a positive pro-America agenda.
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Texas Matters: The state of measles

May 2, 2025 • 28 mins
As measles cases continue to spread across Texas, we consider how Texas dealt with massive measles outbreaks in the past. New research shows that measles could soon be common in the United States if vaccination rates don't increase.
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Texas Matters: 'When Home is the Danger'

April 24, 2025 • 28 mins
Texas Public Radio spent more than a year analyzing more than 1,200 deaths from abuse and neglect between 2018 and 2023. The project, funded by the Pulitzer Center, brings stories of children who died when the state of Texas failed to intervene. TPR Accountability reporter Paul Flahive uncovered a child welfare system so intent on reducing its contact with troubled families that children have routinely been left with violent, unsta...
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Texas Matters: Why Texas highway flyovers are so high

April 18, 2025 • 28 mins
We drive over them often, maybe everyday, and they still manage to take our breath away. The highway flyover interchanges that climb up into the sky. But why are they so high? And why does Texas make them higher than any other state? What does that say about us?
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Texas Matters: RFK Jr: Measles and the cost of an outbreak

April 11, 2025 • 29 mins
Today on Texas Matters: The Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says measles is not a deadly disease. Last week he attended a funeral for a measles victim in West Texas.And what does a measles outbreak cost? Why supporting vaccination programs saves money for taxpayers.
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Texas Matters: 'Fumed'-Battle Cry

April 3, 2025 • 29 mins
This week on Texas Matters— The conclusion of the special podcast series "Fumed." Produced in partnership with Public Health Watch, it’s a cautionary tale of what happens when the powerful petrochemical industry takes over an unincorporated community in Harris County and how the residents try to fight back.
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Texas Matters: 'Fumed'-A Texas stand-off

March 28, 2025 • 28 mins
Texas Matters: Part 4 of 'Fumed' - A Texas stand-off. 'Fumed' is an investigative podcast about the people who live in Channelview, the shadows of America’s chemical plants and oil refineries.
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Texas Matters: 'Fumed'-Activating the unlikely activists

March 21, 2025 • 28 mins
In partnership with Public Health Watch, TPR is airing "Fumed," an investigative podcast series. It's about Channelview, an unincorporated community outside Houston and in the heart of America’s petrochemical industry.
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Texas Matters: 'Fumed'- The Channelview Nightmare

March 14, 2025 • 28 mins
Texas Public Radio’s Texas Matters is bringing you part two of an investigative podcast series about Channelview, an unincorporated community outside Houston and in the heart of America’s petrochemical industry. The series is from our partners at Public Health Watch – a nonprofit newsroom, is called Fumed.
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Texas Matters: 'Fumed'

March 7, 2025 • 28 mins
This week on Texas Matters—We are partnering with Public Health Watch to air a special presentation of their podcast “Fumed.” We will hear the stories of people who live in the shadows of America’s chemical plants and oil refineries. We'll also hear about the tale of two stubborn Texans as they try to salvage what’s left of their working-class community in East Harris County.
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