Houston in Story
Bringing the Greater Houston area's vibrant, complex, and often forgotten history to life. We tell engaging, true stories of the people, places, and events that shaped our home and what makes Greater Houston unlike any other metro in the world. Join us to connect with the past and understand the Houston you live in today like never before.
Houston in Story is made possible by the generous support of Rothberg Realty Group w/Keller Williams Preferred. For a team of trusted real estate experts who truly get Houston, text Grant and his team at (281) 688-6551.
- Update frequency
- every day
- Average duration
- 18 minutes
- Episodes
- 16
- Years Active
- 2025
Spindletop: The Oil Strike that Fueled Houston
In 1900, as the city of Galveston was being washed from the earth by a monster hurricane, a one-armed prophet named Pattillo Higgins was chasing a fool's dream on a stinking mound of dirt near Beaumo…
Galveston: The Queen and the Great Storm (4/4)
The sun rose on Sunday, September 9th, to a clear sky and a city that was gone. In its place was a graveyard, a three-mile-long mountain of debris, and the sickening smell of death that hung over the…
Galveston: The Queen and the Great Storm (3/4)
On Saturday, September 8, 1900, the show began. What started as a "grand sight" for curious onlookers quickly turned into a fight for survival as the bridges to the mainland were destroyed, trapping …
Galveston: The Queen and the Great Storm (2/4)
In a city that had dismantled its own natural defenses for the sake of progress, there was one man whose words sealed its fate. Isaac Monroe Cline, the chief of the local U.S. Weather Bureau, declare…
Galveston: The Queen and the Great Storm (1/4)
Before the storm, there was the Queen. In the final years of the 19th century, Galveston wasn't just a city; it was the "Wall Street of the Southwest," a beacon of wealth, culture, and unstoppable pr…
Houston's Smoke Ring - The Feud, the Fire, and the Birth of the World's Biggest Barbecue Contest
It was February 1974 in Houston, a city on a rocket ride of oil-fueled ambition. Inside the Astrodome, Elvis Presley was commanding the stage of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, creating a cultu…
The Skin of a King: How a Patch of Stone in the Montana Dirt Sparked a Revolution in a Houston Museum
The chance discovery of a Tyrannosaurus rex with its skin miraculously preserved, unearthed not by a paleontologist but by a Montana rancher, ignites a Houston museum president's audacious dream. Thi…
Be Someone: The Rise of a Bayou City Icon
You’re one of millions, a single drop in a river of steel and glass, heading into the heart of the city. You look up at the familiar, grimy railroad bridge you pass under every single day. But this t…
The Final Straw: The Unlikely Birth of the Houston Rodeo
A dismissive glance across a dusty arena that told a group of proud Houston area cattlemen everything they needed to know: they weren't welcome. And that insult ignited a flame that grew into the lar…
The Texas City Disaster: The Reckoning (part 3)
How did a cargo of peace become a weapon of mass destruction? The search for that answer would pit a group of grieving citizens against the full power of the United States government. Join us for the…
The Texas City Disaster: The Day the Sky Fell (part 2)
They stood on the deck of a burning ship, heroes facing a fire. They had no way of knowing their fight was already lost...that beneath their feet, 2,300 tons of fertilizer were turning into a bomb. T…
The Texas City Disaster: The Gathering Storm (part 1)
The story of how a ship on a mission of peace, carrying a cargo meant to heal the scars of war, became the instrument of the deadliest industrial disaster in American history...this is part one of ou…
The Paper City: How a Swampy Dream and a Will of Iron Forged a Metropolis
Before the skyscrapers, before the traffic, before the very idea of Houston existed, there was a lie. In today's episode, how the Allen Brothers and the unsung "Mother of Houston" birthed a city.
The Gun that Won the Game: How the Colt .45s Brought the Big Leagues to Houston
In business, science, and industry, Houston was already playing in the major leagues. But in the one arena that often defined a great American city, the world of professional sports, Houston was stil…
The Field of Dreams: How a Patch of Prairie Became Houston's Gateway to the World
Before the roar of jet engines, there was just the lowing of cattle and the whisper of prairie grass. The story of Hobby Airport begins not with a grand design, but with a muddy field, a handful of b…