City Cast Houston

Two years after the start of the pandemic, Hermann Park is coming back to life, and Houstonians are there for it! Today, City Cast Houston Host Lisa Gray and Producers Dina Kesbeh and Ferrill Gibbs chat about Hermann Park's latest projects and events, what this 108-year-old urban park means to Houston, and some of their favorite spots. And then, of course, there’s the perennial struggle to find pa...

Let’s just say it: Houston’s art scene is way whiter and more Anglo than the rest of the city. But there’s a proposal that is gaining traction — and money — to build a major Latino arts center. It’d be on par with the Museum District’s Asia Society, or with Latino centers in cities such as Dallas, Albuquerque, and Los Angeles. City Cast’s Cultural Correspondent Olivia Flores Alvarez couldn’t be mo...

Houston's Dr. Peter Hotez is having an extremely busy year. In February, he was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, and last week, his vaccine, Corbevax, began to enter the arms of 300,000 children across India. Now, as he turns his attention to the new subvariant Omicron BA.2, does he expect it to spread dramatically in Houston? And, if so, does he believe it will be mild or severe? What about Hou...

After a two-year hiatus, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo came back in full force at the end of February, and just ended its run yesterday. It was a milestone year for RodeoHouston, already the biggest rodeo and livestock exhibition in the world, as they celebrated their 90th anniversary. But does the rodeo really reflect Houston's roots? In 1932, the Houston Rodeo (known then as The Houston F...

Today we'll dive into the most important stories of the week and the ones that weren't in the headlines enough. Contributor Shiyam Galyon joins City Cast Houston producers Dina Kesbeh and Ferrill Gibbs. Together they discuss the thieves that got away with over a thousand gallons of diesel, a young Ukrainian trying to get his family to safety, and a high schooler who is fighting a book ban by givin...

Blue Bell lovers, today's sweet treat is for you! Blue Bell just dropped a new flavor called Peachy Peach, and people are stoked! But is Blue Bell really all that? Just how special is it? Today, we got Roving Producer and Denverite Lizzie Goldsmith to try Blue Bell and give us her hot take. She joins producers Dina Kesbeh and Ferrill Gibbs for a chat about why everyone loves this creamery.  And on...

They say you can find anything on Harwin Drive: Clothing, party supplies, jewelry, furniture, and the list goes on and on. This bargain shopping strip near near Hillcroft Street in Southwest Houston has been called “Houston’s best-kept secret,” and today we’re cracking it open with long-time shop owner Sam Kesbeh, who happens to be City Cast Houston producer Dina Kesbeh’s dad. He’s owned American...

Would Houstonians ever eat insects, not just as a fear factor kind of dare, but because they are delicious? Chef Hugo Ortega, best known for Hugo's and Xochi, and Dr. Scott Solomon, entomologist at Rice University and City Cast Houston contributor, join us today to tell us the benefits of eating bugs. Today's episode will either leave you salivating for a cricket, or make you run for the hills. Do...

The Houston hustle is real, and knows no bounds as far as age is concerned. At least, that’s been 17-year-old Aaliyah Arnold’s experience. She started BossUpCosmetics at age 14, and, thanks to a TikTok video featuring her grandpa, the business went viral last year. City Cast host Lisa Gray and producer Dina Kesbeh go behind-the-scenes with Aaliyah to talk about the company’s origin story, how it’s...

On Fridays, we discuss the most important stories of the week (and the most under-reported ones, too). Today, author and City Cast Houston business contributor Loren Steffy joins Lisa Gray to cover the incredible rise in oil prices due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Also: The transgender fight simmers in Texas this week, becoming useful as a hot-button issue to opportunistic politicos. Finally,...

Houstonians are passionate about their doughnuts: Is it light and crispy? Is it too heavy? Is it just a chunk of wet fried dough? Or maybe it’s too sweet, too lurid, or gives you thoughts of the “diabeetus” guy? At any rate, the Canadian fast food chain Tim Hortons has dared set up shop here, which prompts a City Cast team discussion of what’s good in the Houston doughnut world: Krispy Kreme vs. S...

This months Harris County primary elections were a wreck, a total disaster. And now, Harris County's Elections Administrator Isabel Longoria has submit her resignation, which will take effect July 1. Today City Cast contributor Evan Mintz joins us to talk about what went wrong – and how, with democracy in the balance, we can fix it. Want the latest Houston news straight to your inbox, subscribe to...

The proposed megaproject to widen I-45 has been controversial for loads of reasons – including that it would displace many people of color, and destroy historic buildings in Independence Heights. But according to Tanya Debose, a fifth-generational Independence Heights resident – as well as founder of Preserving Communities of Color – TXDOT has listened to the concerns. Sealed into the environmenta...

Houston has begun to rethink many of its streets. It's making them friendlier to pedestrians, bicyclists and other people not encased in their cars – but not everybody loves that. Today, Joe Cutrufo, Director of Bike Houston, and City Cast Houston contributor Allyn West, who is car-less, discuss the improvements that Houston has made to some roads, with resistance from others around the city who'v...

Hey City Cast Houston listeners, today we have something different for you. On March first, Texas voters schlepped to their neighborhood polling locations to cast their ballots in our state’s primary election. For today’s City Cast, we’ve teamed up with The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news org that covers politics and policy, to bring you the latest from their show, TribCast, a weekly...

It's Friday! And on Fridays, we talk about all the latest news! Raj Mankad, the op-ed for the Houston Chronicle, and City Cast Houston culture contributor Olivia Flores Alvarez join us this week to kick around the week's biggest and most interesting news. Have you checked our our morning newsletter yet? What are you waiting for! Sign up here. If you ever want to reach us about a topic we should co...

As America tuned in to one of the most momentous State of the Union Addresses in modern time – one that featured a “masks optional” crowd in the House Chamber – the president’s message was clear: Go back to work, open up the schools, and “Fill our downtowns again.” That is exactly what Lisa Gray did: She drove to Discovery Green to experience her first full-fledged dinner out at a restaurant in a...

An hour north of downtown Houston, on I-45, is Huntsville. The home base of Texas' enormous prison system. Keri Blakinger, a corrections reporter for the Marshall Project, recently published a story called "The Rise and Fall of a Prison Town Queen." In it, she tells the story of Melinda Brewer. Along the way, she captures Huntsville and the lives of the people who work in the prison system in a wa...

The day Bravo’s Top Chef asked Evelyn Garcia – the chef behind Kin HTX – to appear on its 19th season, she had to think long and hard about it. Yes, it was a chance to compete for $250,000, and yes, it was great publicity. But was she ready? Evelyn had already turned down Top Chef in 2014 when she felt too young and inexperienced to compete. But this time, she considered all she’s learned in the p...

A few weeks ago, a glowing op-ed appeared in the LA Times: “What Can Houston Teach Los Angeles About Solving Homelessness?” This article referenced the way Houston has more-than-halved its homeless population in the past decade and hailed it as a national model. Now, as Houston seeks to eradicate homelessness entirely, The Beacon – a nonprofit organization serving the Houston homeless community –...

It’s been an eventful week – and not just here in Houston. Our planet felt the tremors of war on Thursday morning and with it, the instant demand for energy as rifts snaked throughout the world. As always, with its vast resources and technologies, Houston remains as internationally relevant as ever. Each Friday, City Cast Houston asks its correspondents to break down the most important Houston sto...

I'm sure you had a lot of epiphanies during the pandemic. That was definitely the case for Ivy Walls, who while working as an infection preventionist learned just how much of a food desert her neighborhood Sunnyside really is. So she did something about it by starting Ivy Leaf Farms. She talks to us about her five-acre farm and how a new grocery store is only the beginning. Check out what new thin...

Some Houston neighborhoods seem to flood every time it rains. So why do people keep rebuilding there? After Hurricane Harvey, sociologist Rachel Kimbro, dean of Rice's school of social science, interviewed 36 women in one of Houston's frequent-flooding neighborhoods. Today she joins host Lisa Gray to talk about her book, In Too Deep, and how it gets into the ways of how families and neighborhoods...

You would not believe why fire ants, who only recently arrived in Houston (probably in the 1930’s when stowaways docked at the bay of Mobile, Alabama) have successfully marched across four states to Texas with little or no resistance: Because they have been conditioned to work together and to never attack neighboring colonies. Which is smart! Because in their world, not only must they dodge pestic...

The day Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale donned a costume mattress and shouted “Gallery Saves You Money!” he became a Houston icon. From his wild wagers on the Super Bowl to his foray into politics - and to the touching moments in the wake of disasters when he opened his doors to help helpless Houstonians - love him or hate him, Jim McIngvale is as Houston as it gets. Today, City Cast Houston's Dina...