Podcasts about El Paso, Texas

A bullet hole in a restroom door, patched and painted over and still there: that is how a conversation about the Elbo Room remembers a fatal shooting, told by someone who had worked with the shooter. Much of El Paso's listening on this page runs on firsthand telling like that. A narrator sits in the witness room at an execution, a chef names the dishes behind a Chopped win, and supporters talk through their club's best start. The shows spread across true crime, soccer, nightlife, music and art, and nonprofit public affairs, and they rarely overlap.

What El Paso is

El Paso sits at the far western tip of Texas on the Rio Grande. It faces Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, across the border, and its western edge runs up against New Mexico. One of the largest cities in Texas, it is home to the University of Texas at El Paso and Fort Bliss, and the region around it is widely called the Borderland.

Crime and the wait for court

Stephanie Valle, an ABC-7 anchor, makes Borderland Crimes. The show's description calls El Paso one of the country's safest cities, but not immune to crime. One clip follows an execution. David Renteria asks Alexandra Flores's family for peace and forgiveness, and the narration takes in the single drug in the IV, a spiritual advisor's hands on his shoulders, a prayer trailing into slurred words, and a walk back to the vans through low mist. The show's titles keep returning to delay, as in "Justice Delayed: El Paso Girl Waits 8 Years to Face Accused Rapist" and "5 Years Later: Trial for Aug. 3, 2019 Walmart shooter still pending".

Guests, venues and after-parties

Two shows cover the city's social life from different ends. EP Culture Beat Podcast: Music, Art & You treats culture as something made in gigs, auditions and venues. Its titles name a guest and a scene, as in "Episode 136: David Saucedo, Actor (El Paso, TX Art Scene)". Its Elbo Room conversation with Samuel and Blanca Marinelarena covers both the shooting and the place's one-flip burger method and 99-cent Tuesday special.

Aaron Scene's After Party takes the nightlife end, with DJs, influencers and local celebrities. DJ Snack lays out plans for a record label, The Vending Machine, to release El Paso talent. Ryan Matthew recounts spending Super Bowl night in jail while deputies paused booking to watch Bad Bunny's halftime show. Enrique Lozano lists the choripan, mole with fish and Tex-Mex buñuelos that won Chopped. The language is uncensored.

Nonprofits on the record

Service groups get their say on El Paso Public Forum, a public-affairs presentation of iHeartRadio El Paso. Its titles read like a calendar of galas and fundraisers. In its clips, Victoria describes Common Threads as a national nonprofit that teaches children and families cooking and nutrition, and says El Paso still faces a very large food access problem. She also tells of a student who had never tried raisins and came away loving them. Krista explains why reaching out for mental health support does not always end with being linked to a service.

Supporters of Locomotive

The soccer on this page comes from the stands. Seriously Loco Soccer Pod says in its description that it is made entirely by supporters of El Paso Locomotive FC in the USL Championship. Its clips catch a good run: six wins and a draw, the club's best start across all competitions, with Junior Gonzalez rotating the squad without losing its pressing identity. One voice is happiest that the club seems better placed operationally than it historically has been, and then the talk slides into April Fool's jokes. Another clip stays on Rubio Rubin turning Alex Mendez's cross into a chest-controlled volley after sprinting nearly half the field.

Where to start

• True crime: Borderland Crimes, for the execution account.
• City life: Aaron Scene's After Party for nightlife, or EP Culture Beat Podcast: Music, Art & You for the Elbo Room.
• Soccer: Seriously Loco Soccer Pod.
• Civic life: El Paso Public Forum, on Common Threads and food access.

The El Paso feed on this page plays clips from these shows.