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Talking Texas History

Gene Preuss & Scott Sosebee

Talking Texas History explores Texas history before and beyond the Alamo. Hosted by Scott Sosebee and Gene Preuss, we talk with folks with a passion for Texas history, teach it, write it, support it, and with some who’ve made it. Our guests will include people who make Texas history accessible to the public (including academic historians, public historians, archivists, living history practitioners, and history enthusiasts) and will discuss new work, research, and our passion for local history.

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S4 · E11
Saturday · 32 min
Tex-Mex: Texas On A Plate
People love to argue about “Mexican food” in Texas, but the real story is that Texans are usually talking about Tex-Mex, a distinct cuisine with its own ingredients, history, and logic. We dig into what separates Tex-Mex from regional Mexican cooking and why those differences are more than just taste. Along the way, we swap stories about trying “Tex-Mex” far from home, where nachos can look familiar and still miss the point. From San Antonio’s Market Square and the chili queens to the Texas Mexican Railway and the rise of chili powder through William Gebhardt, we trace how Tex-Mex spreads beyond South Texas and becomes a statewide identity. If Tex-Mex is your comfort food, your weekend ritual, or your best clue to understanding Texas culture, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share the show with a fellow Tex-Mex loyalist, and leave us a review, then tell us what belongs on the perfect Tex-Mex plate.
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S4 · E10
July 5 · 31 min
Reflections on America's 250th Brithday
As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the US, July 4th gets marketed as a party, but the history underneath it is sharper, stranger, and more relevant than the fireworks. What are we celebrating on Independence Day, and why is it the Fourth that gets the spotlight? Gene and Scott reflect on the meaning of the US in this episode. Our nation's anniversary should be about more than food and fireworks, but what it means to be an American.
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S4 · E9
June 18 · 32 min
Juneteenth In Texas
In this episode, we trace the Texas origins of Juneteenth from Galveston to a holiday now recognized across the United States and beyond. Juneteenth didn’t become powerful because the paperwork was poetic. It became powerful because people made it a public declaration that freedom had to mean something real. We walk through the moment General Gordon Granger issues General Order No. 3 on June 19, 1865 and we read it the way historians do, line by line. We look at how history opens the door to the bigger story: the uncertain early days of Reconstruction, the delayed enforcement of freedom, and why emancipation on paper is not the same thing as full citizenship in practice. Subscribe for more Texas history beyond the Alamo, share this with a friend who’s curious about Juneteenth, and leave a review if the episode helps you see the holiday differently. How are you choosing to recognize June 19 this year? Read Gen. Granger's General Order #3
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S4 · E8
June 9 · 34 min
Best Texas History Books To Dig Deeper
If you listened to our six-part series on turning-point documents in Texas history, Gene and Scott now lay out a listener-friendly reading list with suggestions on what to pick up when you’re ready for deeper analysis and debate. If you're looking to build your Texas history bookshelf, this episode is for you. We have a list of the books we discuss in the links below, but this is just the starting place. Other books by these authors are also worth reading, and exploring. Subscribe, share the show with a friend who loves history, and leave a review so more people can find us. Books: Donald E. Chipman and Harriet Denise Joseph, Spanish Texas, 1519 - 1821, Revised Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca, Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition Alex Krieger, We Came Barefoot, Naked and Barefoot, The Journey of Cabeza Devaca across North America Andrés Reséndez, A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca Stephen L. Hardin, Texian Iliad: A Military History of the Texas Revolution Paul D. Lack, The Texas Revolutionary Experience: A Political and Social History, 1835-1836 Sam W. Haynes, Unsettled Land: From Revolution to Republic, the Struggle for Texas H. W. Brands, Lone Star Nation: How a Ragged Army of Volunteers Won the Battle for Texas Andrew Torget's Seeds of Empire, Cotton Slavery and the Transformation of the Texas Borderlands Greg Cantrell, Stephen F. Austin: Empresario of Texas James Crisp, Sleuthing the Alamo: Davy Crockett's Last Stand and Other Mysteries of the Texas Revolution Carl Moneyhon, Texas After the Civil War: The Struggle of Reconstruction Randolph B. Campbell, Grass Roots Reconstruction in Texas, 1865 to 1880. James Smallwood, The Feud That Wasn't: The Taylor Ring, Bill Sutton, John Wesley Hardin, and Violence in Texas Barry Crouch, The Freedmen's Bureau in Black Texas Greg Cantrell, Feeding The Wolf: John B. Rayner and the Politics of Race, 1850 - 1918 Lewis Gould, Progressives and Prohibitionists: Texas Democrats in the Wilson Era Alwwn Barr, Reconstruction to Reform: Texas Politics, 1876 to 1906
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S4 · E7
May 13 · 36 min
Texas Documents, Part 6: Keeping the American Promise
We complete our series on documents that made Texas history by looking a president who was full of contradictions and still could tell the truth at exactly the right moment. Lyndon B. Johnson’s March 15, 1965 address to Congress, “The American Promise,” delivered in the shadow of Selma and months before the Voting Rights Act of 1965 becomes law. If you’ve never read “The American Promise,” click the link below to read the text and watch the video. If you enjoy deep dives into Texas history, civil rights history, and the craft of historical interpretation, subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave us a review. LBJ's "The American Promise" at The American Presidency Project: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/special-message-the-congress-the-american-promise#docmedia
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S4 · E6
April 17 · 35 min
Texas Documents, Part 5: The Cleburne Demands II
In this episode Scott and Gene wrap up their conversation on the Farmer's Demands. Farmers wanted company workers to get paid in real money instead of company scrip, stop railroad rebates that favored the rich and powerful of their day, end convict leasing, and force the country to look honestly at wages and living conditions. That sounds like a modern platform, but it’s Texas history and it’s rooted in the 1886 Cleburne meeting of the Farmers Alliances. We pick up the last demands from the Cleburne platform and unpack what they were really aiming at: making American politics answer to working people when corporations and concentrated wealth feel untouchable. Many of these ideas we associate with Progressivism, New Deal liberalism, and a stronger federal role in the economy grow out of this Populist revolt. If you enjoy smart, grounded conversations about Texas history before and beyond the Alamo, subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review so more listeners can find us.
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S4 · E5
March 24 · 30 min
Texas Documents, Part 4: The Cleburne Demands
In this episode, we look at an 1886 newspaper article that captures a moment when Texas farmers stop grumbling and start drafting demands. From the small town of Cleburne, the Farmers Alliance lays out an early blueprint for American populism, and we use that document to follow rural life in the late nineteenth century. If you like primary sources, Texas political history, or the roots of the People’s Party and the Populist movement, hit play, share the episode with a history friend, and leave a review. What part of the Cleburne platform feels most familiar today?
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S4 · E4
March 3 · 38 min
Texas Documents, Part 3: John H. Reagan and The Future Texas Refused
As we continue our look at important documents in Texas' past, John H. Reagan's letter of 1865: the Civil War was lost, secession was finished, slavery was over, and survival meant embracing a new order. We unpack John H. Reagan’s prison letter—its stark realism, its calls for legal protections for freedpeople, and its blueprint for rebuilding Texas through reconciliation, immigration, and industry—and place it against the charged backdrop of early Reconstruction. If you value history grounded in documents rather than myths, this conversation opens a sharper lens on Reconstruction, Texas history, and the choices made—and refused—after 1865. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves Texas history, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway or question.
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S4 · E3
February 14 · 35 min
Texas Documents, Part 2: The Travis Letter
Continuing with our series on important documents in Texas history, we take listeners inside the Travis letter and explore how a brief plea from a besieged commander helped turn the Alamo into a powerful legend that still shapes Texas identity and American memory. If you care about Texas history, public memory, or how documents shape nations, this conversation delivers depth without the dust. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves the Alamo—or loves to argue about it—and leave a review telling us what the letter means to you.
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S4 · E2
January 20 · 37 min
Texas Documents, Part I: Cabeza De Vaca
A shipwreck on a hostile shore. A handful of survivors. And a narrative that forced an empire to look again. We kick off a new series through the eyes of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, the first European to leave a detailed account of life among indigenous peoples along the Texas Gulf Coast. This conversation isn’t about polishing heroes or condemning villains; it’s about evidence. We trace how a survivor’s testimony pushed some Spaniards toward empathy and accommodation without erasing conquest, and how contact changed both sides in subtle, enduring ways. If your last Texas history class stopped at seventh grade, this is your invitation to revisit the beginning with sources that restore nuance and humanity. We mention Documents of Texas History. The citation and link are below: Ernest Wallace, David Vigness, & George B. Ward, Documents of Texas History (Austin, TX: Texas State Historical Association) (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth296840/: accessed January 19, 2026), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu. For more information, see Donald Chipman's Spanish Texas, 1519–1821 (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2010) Enjoyed the start of this series? Follow the show, share it with a friend who loves history, and leave a review with the one moment that challenged what you thought you knew.
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S4 · E1
Oct 7, 2025 · 34 min
Weird Texas
Season four opens with a road trip through the strange side of Texas—equal parts folklore, architecture, and outsized personality. We start where rumor meets headline. If you love Texas history with edge, folklore with purpose, and characters who complicate the line between rumor and record, this one’s for you. Tap play, subscribe for part two of our Texas weird tour, and share your favorite legend or oddity with us—what story does your corner of Texas refuse to let go?
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S3 · E13
Jul 25, 2025 · 34 min
Sun Breaks, Mary Speaks: The Forgotten Texas Miracle
During the Feast of the Assumption on August 15, 1988, thousands gathered for an outdoor Mass in Lubbock where many reported seeing miraculous signs when the clouds parted and sunlight broke through. The apparition of the Virgin Mary drew 15,000 people to this West Texas church, yet it's a largely forgotten moment in Texas religious history. In this episode, we discuss how the Catholic Church responds to claims of apparitions, establishing investigative commissions that examined the Lubbock event, and our conversation expands into why religious history matters for historians, "You can't understand American history if you don't understand Americans' religiosity." Whether you're fascinated by religious phenomena, Texas cultural history, or the methods historians use to understand seemingly supernatural events, this episode offers a window into how faith and skepticism coexist in both religious institutions and historical inquiry.
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S3 · E12
Jul 9, 2025 · 33 min
The Battle of San Jacinto and Manifest Destiny
The Battle of San Jacinto might be the most consequential 18 minutes in Texas history that hardly anyone talks about. While the Alamo casts a long shadow over Texas history, it's San Jacinto that actually secured Texas independence and set in motion events that would reshape North America forever. Join Gene and Scott as they examine why this pivotal battle deserves to take its rightful place in our understanding of how modern Texas emerged from the battle we call "the first armed action of Manifest Destiny." The ripple effects of San Jacinto would ultimately help reshape the course of not just Texas, but American history itself.
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S3 · E11
Jun 4, 2025 · 34 min
The Texas New Deal Symposium
In this episode, we talk with George Cooper, who founded the Texas New Deal Symposium. George explains how a small historical gathering has evolved into a vital 12-year tradition examining one of America's most transformative periods bringing together diverse scholars exploring everything from banking reforms to infrastructure projects that still shape Texas communities today. The engine of modern American government was built during the 1930s, and Texans were holding the wrenches. This year's Texas New Deal Symposium will be held at Tarleton State University in Stephenville on Saturday, June 14, 2025. The Symposium will take place at the Joe W. Autry Agriculture Building in Room 113. This year's event at Tarleton State University features presentations on contemporary preservation efforts for New Deal infrastructure, healthcare for freedmen as documented in WPA slave narratives, and Nazi hunting during the later New Deal years—demonstrating the era's remarkable breadth of influence. The event is free of charge and lunch will be provided; however, registration is required. For registration information, click on the East Texas Historical Association events page: https://etha.wildapricot.org/event-6164675
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S3 · E10
May 22, 2025 · 31 min
In Conclave, Part 2: Texas Ties, Hollywood Takes, and Vatican Stakes
Ever wondered what really happens when Catholic cardinals gather to elect a new pope? In this episode, we continue our conversation with canon lawyer Benedict Nguyen of the University of St. Thomas in Houston. The timing couldn't be more perfect—recorded during the recent papal conclave, our conversation explores the fascinating tension between Hollywood portrayals (like the trending film "Conclave") and the authentic spiritual process. Nguyen distinguishes between procedural accuracy and the deeper theological substance that drives papal succession, offering insights into what happens behind those famous locked doors. Of course, we tackle the burning question many Americans wonder: Could a cardinal with Texas ties like Kevin Farrell or Daniel DiNardo ever become pope? The answer proves more complex than you might expect, as we discuss the geopolitical considerations, historical precedents, and surprising unpredictability of conclaves throughout history. Whether you're fascinated by religious history, political processes, or simply curious about one of the world's oldest continuing institutions, this episode offers intellectual stimulation and surprising insights. Subscribe now and join our exploration of where Texas connects to pivotal moments in world history. For more information, see Papal Death & Conclave Presented by Benedict Nguyen on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/xvKdoO867W0?si=RCvS_kwycUi--LhS
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S3 · E9
May 8, 2025 · 29 min
In Conclave: A Texas Canon Lawyer's Guide to Papal Transition
The passing of Pope Francis on April 21, 2023 set in motion ancient protocols refined over two millennia of Catholic Church history. For the 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide—including approximately 40% of Texans—this moment represents a pivotal transition guided by traditions few outside the faith fully understand. Religion is an important part of culture and history for many Texans, yet often overlooked by historians. We're joined by Benedict Nguyen, a canon lawyer and Associate Vice President at St. Thomas University in Houston, who expertly guides us through the intricate process of papal succession. Whether you're Catholic, belong to another faith tradition, or simply appreciate the historical significance of religious institutions, this episode offers valuable insights into the governance structures that have profoundly shaped Western civilization and continue to influence our cultural landscape today. For more information, see Papal Death & Conclave Presented by Benedict Nguyen on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/xvKdoO867W0?si=RCvS_kwycUi--LhS
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S3 · E8
Apr 15, 2025 · 34 min
Jews on the Texas Frontier
From department stores to frontier towns, the Jewish experience in Texas reveals a fascinating but often overlooked dimension of the state's cultural landscape. In this conversation with Dr. Bryan E. Stone, professor at Del Mar College and author of The Chosen Folks: Jews on the Frontiers of Texas, we'll learn about Jewish Texans as an often overlooked story. Despite their small numbers, Jewish Texans wielded remarkable influence, Stone's explains that Jews are a "quintessential frontier people". His observations offers a fresh perspective on their experience as cultural navigators who defined themselves against majority cultures while building bridges between different worlds. This conversation fills a crucial gap in Texas historiography while reminding us that history isn't merely an academic subject but the living context that shapes our everyday lives. Listen now to discover this hidden dimension of Texas heritage that challenges conventional understandings of the Lone Star State.
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S3 · E7
Feb 11, 2025 · 31 min
East Texas Literary Journeys, Pt. 2
Part 2 of our conversation with Joe Lansdale, an award-winning author and screenwriter, as he unpacks the influences of East Texas history on his storytelling. Lansdale shares insights on writing for screen adaptations and reflects on the evolution of characters across various mediums, all while urging listeners to remember past lessons as they weave their personal narratives.
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S3 · E6
Dec 31, 2024 · 31 min
East Texas Literary Journeys, Pt. 1
Award-winning author and storyteller Joe Lansdale -- screenwriter (Bubba Ho-Tep) and novelist (Hap and Leonard series), discusses his East Texas roots and eclectic influences in our latest episode. Joe discuss growing up, and his life and literary influences. This episode offers a rich tapestry of narratives that are both personal and universal. Tune in to hear Joe reflect the art of storytelling, and how his Texas roots have helped shape Joe's distinctive voice in the literary world.
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S3 · E5
Dec 18, 2024 · 30 min
Talking Podcasts 2
We hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! As we recover, we're continuing our discussion on podcasting. Our podcast platform AI suggested the topic for this episode be "Overcoming Perfectionism in Podcasting." That's not an inaccurate description! Join us as we share our own podcasting mishaps and triumphs and the lessons we learned that underscore the importance of progress over perfection.
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