Houston Matters

By: Houston Public Media
  • Summary

  • Houston Matters is a radio program airing weekdays at 9 am on Houston Public Media News 88.7 FM in Houston. During each hour, we’ll investigate the issues and ideas, people and places that make Houston…well…Houston! We’ll talk about current events, politics, education, health care, the environment, business, transportation, arts and culture, literature, sports and leisure. But we also hope that what we do each day on Houston Matters serves as the beginning of a conversation — one we hope you’ll continue here, at home, at work, with family, with friends and neighbors. We hope to introduce Houstonians to one another, to celebrate our diversity, and to engage one another through stories and conversations that demonstrate depth and context. Just the sort of thing you count on from public media.

    ℗ & © 2025 Houston Public Media
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Episodes
  • Special education at HISD (Feb. 7, 2025)
    Feb 7 2025

    On Friday's show: Criminal charges against a former staffer of Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo will likely be dropped after Alex Triantaphyllis agreed to a pre-trial intervention deal. He is among three former staffers who were accused of steering an $11 million COVID-19 vaccine outreach contract to a preferred vendor.

    And we learn about the findings from HISD's audit of its special education department, which found thousands of violations of district policy and hundreds of violations of students’ rights, according to reporting from Houston Landing.

    Also this hour: We meet Jackson Sweeney, an aerospace engineer from Pearland whose work is on board the Blue Ghost Lunar Lander, which is set to land on the moon in the coming weeks.

    Then, from HISD students staying home from school to protest Mike Miles, to the City of Houston’s budget deficit growing some more, to Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter Tour coming to Houston for two shows this summer, we discuss The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of the week.

    And ROCO, formerly the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, is in its 20th season, which includes a concert this weekend of world premieres about AI and last year’s solar eclipse.

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    52 mins
  • City budget crisis (Feb. 6, 2025)
    Feb 6 2025

    On Thursday's show: Houston city officials are facing a looming budget crisis and will need to slash spending or dramatically raise revenue over the next year following a Texas Supreme Court decision on the city's infrastructure spending. The city is grappling with a $100 million price tag for required spending on streets and drainage and now faces a $330 million deficit in 2026. We learn how we got here, and City Controller Chris Hollins joins us to explain his proposed emergency task force to address the situation.

    Also this hour: Late last month, Houston-based midstream energy giant Kinder Morgan announced plans to move ahead with a liquefied natural gas pipeline project extending more than 200 miles from Katy to Port Arthur. The company says the Trident Intrastate Pipeline could help power millions of homes and businesses. But not everyone is thrilled about it. We discuss the pipeline, projects like it, and the environmental and legal concerns they often raise.

    Then, we visit the Eternal Gandhi Museum in southwest Houston. It's the first museum in the Americas dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy of nonviolent conflict resolution.

    And we visit a weekly Mexican wrestling event in East Houston.

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    50 mins
  • The week in politics (Feb. 5, 2025)
    Feb 5 2025

    On Wednesday's show: From Gov. Greg Abbott’s emergency items for the state legislature to address, to the debate over tariffs, to Elon Musk at the U.S. Treasury, we discuss the latest developments in politics in our weekly roundup.

    Also this hour: Just in time for the Super Bowl, local food writers offer their suggestions for the best sports bars and pub food in town in this month's installment of The Full Menu.

    And we visit the Lone Star Flight Museum.

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    50 mins

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