Podcasts about Texas, United States

On Hello Houston (April 9, 2026), the subject was tax breaks for data centers. A caller named Heather from Southwest Houston did not soften her view: "I think Texas needs to back off of the business friendly and become more Texas citizen friendly." The reply from the studio was that such projects also create jobs. That exchange carries a question that runs under much of what Texas says into microphones: who pays for growth, and who gets to decide. In September 2026, Greg Abbott directed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to stop issuing new data-center permits.

What a listener hears first is football. Talk about the Cowboys recurs here, and Houston has its own stack of Texans, Astros and Rockets shows. Much of it is the same argument about money in different jerseys: who deserves the contract, and who holds the leverage. Around that core sit call-in public radio, community radio, conservative talk, a cold-case investigation, 1950s Texas Rangers radio drama, and fiction that imagines the state haunted or at war.

Most of these shows belong to one city rather than the whole state. The Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio and El Paso pages are the natural next stop.

What Texas is

Texas sits in the south-central United States and covers approximately 268,581 square miles, including water. Its economy produced about $2.9 trillion in nominal GDP in 2025. Oil and gas are important specializations there, alongside substantial restaurant, health-care and computer-services industries.

Houston on the line

Hello Houston, from Houston Public Media, and its shorter edition Hello Houston: The Commuter Cut put a guest in front of a system and let callers test the explanation. On Hello Houston – The Commuter Cut (May 4, 2026), David Frumkin of the University of Houston Law Center discusses the Supreme Court's decision letting Texas' newest congressional map stand. He reads it as telling states there are no federal constraints on political gerrymandering. In the same episode, a water-industry guest notes that Prop 4 sends $20 billion into the state water fund, $1 billion a year for 20 years, and says the need is much greater.

The May 1 edition is lighter and just as local. A caller from College Station calls the Astrodome "the White House of Houston," then asks who has paid for a decade of planning. Phoebe Tudor answers that the Astrodome Conservancy is a nonprofit made up mostly of volunteers.

Indo American News Radio Houston TX hears the same city from inside its South Asian community, with Jawahar Malhotra, Sanchali Basu and Pramod Kulkarni hosting on Saturdays. In IANR 2614 040426 VITA Program by Dr Arpita Shroff, Grand Vaisakhi Night Mela by Jasmeeta Singh, Stricter Visa Rules by Atty George Willy, Shroff describes free tax help offered in Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi and Spanish. In a conversation released in February, former mayor Annise Parker, then running for Harris County judge, says voters approved $2.5 billion in flood bonds but "the projects are languishing." The Houston page goes further.

Who runs the schools, and the statehouse

The most carefully reported politics here comes from Southlake, whose feed now carries its sequel, Grapevine. In Grapevine - Ep. 2: The Seven Mountains, the reporters trace how Patriot Mobile's favored candidates won a four-to-three conservative majority on the Grapevine-Colleyville board. The episode says the company's PAC went 11-0 in the spring 2022 school board elections. Teachers describe cutting lessons for fear of complaints. Nearly 200 people sign up to speak at one board meeting while students outside hold signs reading "Our existence is not a controversy." The series is candid that conservative leaders declined interviews and that Patriot Mobile did not answer repeated requests, and it explains how the reporters tried to document those views anyway. Expect frank material about LGBTQ students and family estrangement.

The Luke Macias Show argues Texas politics from the conservative right, and its value lies in procedure. Texas Disaster Exploited By Libs followed deadly floods, which Macias says hit close to home because he has family in Kerrville. In it he replays a House record vote on Tony Tinderholt's amendment to put a half-billion-dollar radio-and-tower program under the Open Meetings Act. The amendment fails, 53 ayes to 91 nays, and Macias faults Rep. Ken King's handling of the bill.

KROKtalk with Chris Krok is louder. In "Muslims Only" Water Park Event Canceled. Muslim "University" Canceled., Krok argues that a DFW event advertised for Muslims only was illegal and rejects its organizers' claims of discrimination. For a different voice, Texas Impact's Weekly Witness has Rev. Mara Bim naming what gives her hope: people protesting for the first time in their lives.

Football as a second language

The Cowboys shows differ mostly in vantage point. Cowboys Break comes from DallasCowboys.com. In Cowboys Break: Back Into The Third Round, the panel stages a mock trial over whether George Pickens is a cornerstone or a luxury, with Tommy defending, Vach prosecuting and Derek presiding. Near the end, one of them concludes, "There is an argument for everything."

One Star Cowboys Podcast pairs The Athletic's Jon Machota and Saad Yousuf with Kevin "KT" Turner. Jacques Talk is Jean-Jacques Taylor and his friend Big Joe. In Episode 351: Clarence E. Hill wonders if Arch Manning will be a Cowboy, the episode number turns into a debate over who owns jersey 51. Cowboys Raw & Uncut is the fan's-eye version. In Cowboys Chaos?! Arrest, Trades & Draft Decisions, the crew says it is tired of offseason drama around Jerry Jones. The Dallas page has more.

Houston argues the same way. The Drive with Stoerner and Hughley spends an April episode on Will Anderson Jr.'s three-year, $150 million extension, $134 million guaranteed by the hosts' count, then turns the deal into a question about CJ Stroud. On The B-Block, Brandon Scott diagnoses Cristian Javier through pitch data: 82 pitches, 38 four-seamers, and two swinging misses on them. Spurs Digest stops to marvel at a Wemby stat; for San Antonio, see the San Antonio page.

Case files

Paper Ghosts, hosted by M. William Phelps, reopens the 1983 murders of two teenagers, Vincent and Shelly, a case a Weatherford Police Department cold case detective is investigating. In Bump Monkeys, Vincent Tijerina Jr.'s 80-year-old uncle Raymond describes people milling around the crime scene and touching the car. In The Bodies Were Shaking, Phelps reminds listeners that two men his sources keep naming have not been charged: "These men are, as we speak, innocent." The series includes allegations of sexual violence and police misconduct.

Tales of the Texas Rangers survives in several feeds. The most rewarding is Tales of the Texas Rangers Presented by the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio, where Adam Graham adds commentary after each case. Joel McCrea plays Ranger Jace Pearson, and the original credits list a Texas Rangers captain as technical advisor.

Imagined Texases

Fiction series bend the place. Afflicted sets supernatural horror in a small East Texas town. In Chapter 9: Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil, a student calls a university library about an aunt she says was murdered in Gunaway, Texas, in 1995, and the only record found is an obituary. After the Revolution, based on Robert Evans's novel, imagines Texas at civil war fifty years ahead, with an Austin Autonomous Region and a militia called the Heavenly Kingdom. It is graphically violent.

Building and belonging

Austin's shows talk about housing from the ground up. Work in Process's Podcast, from an Austin homebuilder, works through the air-leakage math in Ep. #22: Engineered to Endure with Jordan Smith, comparing Austin's requirement of three air changes per hour with the national four, as the speakers tentatively describe them. The House Nextdoor - Where Real Estate and Real Life Meet is looser. In From BMWs To Boots: Finding Real Estate Rhythm In Texas Small Towns, the hosts say musicians are leaving for smaller towns because Austin is so expensive. The Austin page goes further.

In Dallas, Dallas Metro Podcast follows a children's ministry raising money for a building. In Dallas Metro Podcast Episode 113 ft. Special Guest Ebony Smith, the show explains that construction starts once the first phase's $1.5 million is raised and the city approves a building permit.

Where to start

• For civic radio: Hello Houston: The Commuter Cut, Hello Houston – The Commuter Cut (May 4, 2026), for maps and water money explained with callers joining in.
• For curious citizens: Southlake, Special Preview of Grapevine, which introduces the teacher at the center of the sequel.
• For football arguments: Cowboys Break, Cowboys Break: Back Into The Third Round.
• For mystery fans: Paper Ghosts, Bump Monkeys. Listen for how carefully names are handled.
• For an evening of old radio: Tales of the Texas Rangers Presented by the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio, Tales of the Texas Rangers: Drive In, the series' final radio episode, first aired September 14, 1952.

The Texas feed on this page plays clips from these shows.