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.
Reading the feed…
This week on Texas Matters: Why are so many Texas public school campuses closing? We hear about the impact of vouchers, charter schools and the underfunding of the public school system. Also, a new law in Texas goes into effect in Texas on Sept. 1 — the right to repair your smart phone and other personal electronic devices. We hear what the new law covers and what it doesn't.
This week on Texas Matters: Is the Republican nominee for Senate, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, exceptionally corrupt? One group is calling out Paxton’s alleged history of abusing his office. And the fight in Texas over transmission powerlines cutting through rural areas.
Texas home insurance costs are skyrocketing and becoming a barrier for housing affordability. Rising insurance costs disproportionately burden low- and moderate-income families, erode homeownership stability and weaken communities. And how the Texas Juvenile Justice Department’s five state secure facilities continue to fall short.
This week on Texas Matters— How data centers have become a hot-button issue this political cycle and how that controversy could tip the rural vote in the 2026 midterm election. Quorum Report's Scott Braddock breaks down the Texas political landscape.
During his time as mayor of Austin from 2015 through 2023, the capital city grew by 20%, saw homelessness become a crisis and faced off against a Republican state government that threatened to take over the city. In Adler's new book, "Hot Seat — Hot City," he reflects on his days at city hall and warns about coming threats to democracy in Texas.
Nearly a year after the July 4, 2025, floods in the Texas Hill Country, the families of children and counselors killed at Camp Mystic are still seeking accountability and pushing for stronger safety standards.
It has been one year since the tragic flash flood on the upper Guadalupe River that took over 117 lives. Why were local officials caught off guard when the rains came and the flooding hit? The region is called "flash flood alley," and there is a long history of tragic floods on the river. We hear the second episode of the Texas Newsroom podcast, “After the Flood.”
The Texas Newsroom and FRONTLINE (PBS) are collaborating on a new five-part podcast series, After the Flood, an intimate and deeply reported look at the catastrophic Central Texas flooding that killed more than 130 people over the Fourth of July weekend in 2025.
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller says the screwworm will continue to spread unless officials adopt a more aggressive response. Also, energy economist Ed Hirs says Texas oil producers are not significantly increasing production despite higher oil prices.
The ICE detention center in Dilley, Texas, is again at the center of a national fight over the detention of migrant families and children. But for Tania Warner, the controversy is not abstract. It is something she says she lived through with her 7-year-old daughter.
This week on Texas Matters we hear from the Democratic nominee for Senate — James Talarico. We also hear from Scott Braddock about the race between Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton.
This week on Texas Matters: Sections of SB4 are blocked — which would have allowed local police to arrest suspected illegal border crossers. And Despite outcry in West Texas the efforts to build the border wall in Big Bend Country continues.
“Pass the Politics Pappy” explores the remarkable political rise of W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel, a flour salesman who used his popular radio show and catchy slogans to rocket into becoming Texas Governor and then U.S. Senator in the late 1930s and 1940s. Part 2 of the series focuses on O'Daniel's time as governor and delivered very little on his grand promises. Ultimately O’Daniel’s story serves as a cautionary tale of media-driven political populism.
This week on Texas Matters: How the Trump administration is watering down FEMA. The prison system's compassionate release program is called a "failure." The threat to mail access to the abortion pill. And Texas is preparing to go all in on ocean desal.
This week on Texas Matters: Why “Sharia law” has become a flashpoint in Texas politics. How the state’s abortion ban is tied to new scrutiny after three doctors were disciplined. And why a Texas death row case still hinges on hypnosis, despite the practice being banned in criminal investigations in the state.
This week on Texas Matters — The story of Texas that we typically hear is one with a conservative bias.But there are parts of Texas history that reflect a more progressive vein of the state’s identity. Stories of the fence cutters, the great cowboy strike and the struggle against the power of big business. The new book "The Myth of Red Texas: Cowboys, Populism, and Class War in the Radical South" challenges the common view of Texas history.
This week on "Texas Matters," the life and writing of Larry McMurtry and how he refined the myths of being a Texan. David Streitfeld has written a biography of Texas writer Larry McMurtry — “Western Star: The Life and Legends of Larry McMurtry.”
This week on Texas Matters — forgotten songs from Texas prisons. Heartfelt tracks written, performed, and recorded by incarcerated men. The resurrected recordings from the '60s, ’70s, and ’80s tell us about crime and punishment, rehabilitation, and the humanity of the men locked inside.
Millions of Texans tell pollsters religion is very important in their lives. Every Sunday hundreds of megachurches fill up and celebrate their faith – which also shapes their politics. The result , elections are won and lost based on performances of righteousness. The State Board of Education bends the nation’s textbooks to a conservative Lone Star gospel, and laws are passed based on Christian values. How did Texas become “one state under God"?
Today on Texas Matters: The old Spanish missions of San Antonio — 300 years of history, community memory and meaning. Joel Daniel Kitchens is the author of “San Antonio and Its Missions: Three Centuries of History, Memory and Heritage.”
