Progress Texas Podcasts

After the wanton and seemingly inexhaustible ugliness directed towards the LGBTQ+ community during this year's legislative session, there's no better time for ALL Texans to express our solidarity than Pride Month, throughout the month of June. We're proud to welcome to the podcast James Poindexter, a public school teacher and board member of Pride San Antonio, for a look inside the pla...

NOTE - We recommend listener discretion for this episode, which contains graphic details of the crime scene at Robb Elementary in Uvalde. As the grim first anniversary of the Robb Elementary massacre arrives, and the closing days of the Texas legislative session creep by, not only have GOP lawmakers stonewalled any opportunity to prevent future mass shootings, but the pace at which those shootings...

Not only has Governor Greg Abbott declared what he calls "school choice" (in reality, the undermining of funding for Texas public schools) a top priority for the current Legislature, he and other Republican schemers have wrapped it an intricate web of deceptive marketing designed to distract Texans - especially rural Republicans - from their true intentions. We set the record straight th...

You may have heard that HB 2744, otherwise known as the Raise The Age Act, has become a true rarity - a measure based on sensible, basic gun ownership regulation in Texas that has been voted out of committee. It would raise the minimum purchasing age of certain semi-automatic firearms from the current age of 18, to 21. We've rushed this episode of the podcast to encourage YOU to do all you can...

After a month of the heightened presence of Texas Department of Public Safety troopers in Austin, centered primarily on parts of the city that are home to a large percentage of Austin's non-white communities, concerns and questions are rising - and in parallel, the violent crackdown on transgender rights activists at the Texas State Capitol this week by DPS troopers may further illuminate the...

A double-header this week! For our first segment, we're joined by famed Texas progressive political commentator and consultant Ed Espinoza - until just recently, president of Progress Texas - for a look into the recent recordings made public of Ted Cruz discussing the Republican plot to overturn the election of Joe Biden and keep Donald Trump in office. Not just the usual Cruz pinata party thi...

NOTE - We recommend listener discretion for this episode, which contains graphic details of the crime scene at Robb Elementary in Uvalde. Senator Roland Gutierrez represents District 19 - a wide swath of South and West Texas, including Uvalde - and has been personally and continually immersed in the tragedy there since mere hours after the shooting began. Almost a year later, he's fighting to...

Efforts by Republican legislators at the Capitol to undermine the authority of local elected officials in our major cities - for the most part, Democrats - is not a new story. But this year, what has commonly been seen as right-wing bluster is threatening very real consequences for the larger municipalities of Texas. State trooper presence alongside local police departments in urban areas, takeove...

Things move fast at the Texas Legislature - meaning, a lot of bad stuff can happen very quickly if advocates against the conservative agenda are not engaged - and environmental issues are certainly no exception. Joining us for a second episode this week is Luke Metzger, Executive Director for Environment Texas, with a rundown of the many issues and concerns at play, including new, nefarious trends...

It's near certain that one of YOUR family members, friends, co-workers or fellow church members is a member of the LGBTQ+ community - and right now, GOP lawmakers in the Texas Legislature are in the middle of a truly historic assault on their rights, with no sign of relent or restraint. What can we do to fight back? It turns out, quite a lot. We're proud to welcome back our friend Ricardo...

We've come a long way, baby! Hard to believe that we've made the 100 episode mark, and as we've said, we're also proud to say that over that time, we've grown the Progress Texas Happy Hour into one of the top 10% of all podcasts globally in listenership - which doesn't happen without YOU. And, we're also proud of the impact our organization has made since its founding -...

We're in the midst of the 30th anniversary of one of the darkest moments in our state's recent history: the standoff at the Branch Davidian compount at Mount Carmel, just outside of Waco, which culminated in the deaths of dozens of men, women and children. This event captured the attention of the militant white supremacist movement then, and has served as a rallying cry for them ever since...

We were proud to be invited to attend and roll tape on the second annual Unified Jam during SXSW in Austin, and this week's podcast includes portions of two of the day's panels. The first will be of interest to listeners who have considered jumping into the fray: "I Ran For Office - AMA", moderated by former Progress Texas Executive Director Ed Espinoza and featuring former Texas...

The horror stories that were predicted by Texas Democrats - and ignored by Texas Republicans - have become reality. A growing number of Texas women have been left at death's doorstep as doctors in our state shy away from the threat of punishment for administering lifesaving medical care related to pregnancy. The first lawsuit representing plaintiffs who have been denied essential care due to Texas...

If you're like us, you may not have believed your eyes when you first read of a new bill that seeks to ban voting locations on college campuses in Texas . HB-2390 was authored by Texas Rep. Carrie Isaac (who herself recently got her clock cleaned via massive turnout at Texas State University) and continues to be considered by the Republican-dominated House. Joining us for a tour of the dozens of r...

We wanted to take a moment to tell our listeners a bit about ourselves as this year's Amplify Austin Day arrives! It's Central Texas' biggest day of giving for a wide variety of worthy charities and nonprofits. On this short bonus episode, we hope you'll take a moment to learn a bit more about what Progress Texas does and what your support helps accomplish (in short, a lot!). We're proud to be joi...

The Republican assault on the reproductive rights of Texans continues, with a lawsuit in Federal court in Amarillo poised to strike a blow against medication abortion access not only here in the Lone Star State, but across the entire country. Meanwhile, the current legislative session, thus far, indicates no relief in sight - but we're joined this week by representatives of two Texas advocacy orga...

The filing deadline for Texas' May elections is coming up at the end of the day this Friday, February 17 - and this episode is directed at Texas progressives who have considered running for local office but have hesitated, thinking the fight in a "red state" will be too difficult. Using as an onramp recent controversies involving the current Mayor of the otherwise-sleepy D/FW suburb of Colleyville...

In the second of two episodes focused on police reform in Texas, we're glad to meet and get to know Jalen McKee-Rodriguez of the San Antonio City Council, who happens to hold the historic distinction of being the first Black and openly-LGBTQ elected official in Texas ! Not only does he share his views on police reforms and police unions, but also his unique take on being an elected official - how...

The nation, once again, reels in the aftermath of an unjustified and tragic young Black death at the hands of law enforcement in the case of Tyre Nichols. Over two episodes, Progress Texas seeks to learn: what's the status of police reform in Texas, and nationwide? What are the factors that lead to what seems to be an ever-escalating epidemic of lethal police violence against unarmed Black citizen...

What will become of the historic surplus currently at the fingertips of the Texas Legislature? Given the state of public education, you'd think a big spend on our schools and students would be a no-brainer - but after all, we're talking about the Texas GOP here. We talk education and more this week with a pair of young Democratic officeholders: Jeff Casper of the Mesquite City Council (a high scho...

Our first episode of the year features two Texans we plan to follow closely as the Texas Legislature begins another session. First, Tarrant County's State Representative Salman Bhojani , who alongside freshman Rep. Suleman Lalani of Fort Bend County is one of the two first Muslim and South Asian lawmakers in state history! And Nicole Golden, Executive Director of Texas Gun Sense joins us with deta...

Our annual holiday party was a blast last night at Antone's in downtown Austin, and as has become tradition, we took the time to interrogate our guests in between sips of sweet beverage. This time: As Texas progressives, what do we most want for the holidays - politically speaking of course? We got a bunch of terrific answers from a bunch of terrific people, with whom we were happy to reconnect af...

It's become an annual exercise of catharsis, renewal and forward strategy for us at Progress Texas: every year, we analyze the last year of the battle and pick out the five best, and five worst, Texans when it came to the arc of politics in the Lone Star State. On the good side, the obvious: Beto O'Rourke and Mothers Against Greg Abbott, along with pleasant surprise heroes like Olivia Julianna and...

At a moment when Elon Musk appears to be doing all he can to destroy his new $44 billion toy, Facebook is largely DOA, the TikTok kids are interested in anything but politics, and one particular orange gorilla has thrown in once again for the top job - how on Earth are candidates and political orgs to navigate the catastrophic mess that is the current scene of social media? As things ramp up (yes,...