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Texas Matters
Fridays at 12:30 p.m. & Sundays at 9:30 p.m.

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.

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Latest Episodes
  • 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, unstable, drug-abusing parents.
  • 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?
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Today on Texas Matters—In 2022, 53 migrants were found dead in the back of a trailer. New details about that deadly journey are emerging. Also—David Leonard Wood is being called the 'Desert Killer.' Now he is facing execution. But there are questions about his guilt.
  • Today on Texas Matters: As measles continues to spread in Texas, will state leaders learn a lesson about the need for vaccine requirements? And there is more evidence that the Texas abortion ban made childbirth more dangerous. But the state doesn’t want you to know that.