Here are the stories on Texas Standard for Monday, Jan. 5, 2026.
The Trump administration took their president. What’s next for Venezuela?
The Trump administration seized sitting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro over the weekend, transporting him to the U.S. to face criminal charges related to drug trafficking and firearms.
Jeremi Suri, historian and Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs, History and Public Policy at the University of Texas at Austin, joins Texas Standard to discuss the geopolitical upheaval and what comes next.
What the Venezuela strike could mean for Texas oil
As Texas is one of the world’s energy hubs, what’s happening in Venezuela right now could have huge ripple effects closer to home.
Matt Smith, lead energy analyst at Kepler, joins the Standard with a look at the potential impacts.
This week in Texas music history
Jason Mellard with The Center for Texas Music History at Texas State University consults the calendar.
How oil refineries continue to change the Texas coast
Along the Texas gulf coast, there’s just one area that’s avoided the oil refineries and gas processing plants that dominate the area from Port Arthur to Corpus Christi: the southern section known as Laguna Madre, around the South Padre and Port Isabel areas.
But that’s changing quickly as Gaige Davila reports for the Texas Observer. He joins us with the story.
Uncovering an abandoned Texas mission
300 years ago, Spanish missionaries abandoned a site in what’s now Jackson County, in the middle of Texas’ Coastal Bend. Mission Nuestra Señora del Espiritu Santo was part of a struggle between the French and Spanish for control of the region, as well as the hearts and minds of native peoples. But no one could pinpoint its exact location – until now.
Tamra Walter, assistant professor of archeology at Texas Tech University, joins the show with more.
More young adults are having strokes. The medical field is playing catch-up.
Doctors have long viewed strokes as a condition of the elderly, but a growing number of younger adults are having strokes. Researchers aren’t certain why, but it’s forcing the medical field to adapt.
Houston Public Media’s Michael Adkison reports.
How a jersey signed by cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar ended up in a North Texas home
In Preston Hollow, Arun Agarwal has a vast cricket collection, including a jersey signed by legendary player Sachin Tendulkar. KERA’s Elizabeth Myong has been asking North Texans to share the meaning behind their most treasured objects.
For the next story in their series “Home is Where the Art Is,” Agarwal shares how his signed jersey brings back childhood memories.
In the mountains of far West Texas, a new public park starts to take shape
The holiday season is one of the busiest times of the year in the Big Bend region of West Texas, beloved for its cool desert temperatures and wide-open state and national parks. Coincidentally, a new stretch of public land is being developed in the remote Chinati Mountains south of Marfa. And while it’s not set to formally open until 2032, park officials are now working on ways to let people in sooner.
Marfa Public Radio’s Mary Cantrell reports.
