Brazos Matters

KAMU Studios

Join host Jay Socol for Brazos Matters, a KAMU original production featuring a variety of guests from the Bryan-College Station and Aggieland community. Discussions focus on healthcare, education, economic development, traffic management, quality of life and other topics important to residents and businesses.

  1. Nov 1

    Reimagining Harvey Road: College Station's 20-Year Makeover Plan for a Tired Gateway

    Longtime residents remember College Station’s Harvey Road area as being a more consistent destination for shopping and dining, a home to a Blinn College location, and when apartment complexes didn’t feel very old. In this episode of “Brazos Matters,” host Jay Socol and student contributor Meredith Carrasco ’27 talk with Heather Wade, a principal planner with the City of College Station, about Reimagine Harvey Road — a long-range effort launched in May 2026 to revitalize this aging commercial and residential corridor stretching from Texas Avenue to Highway 6.Wade addresses the tension between community nostalgia and modern reinvention, the challenge of incentivizing private property owners to reinvest, and the surprising resilience of Post Oak Mall, which still generates significant sales tax revenues for the city.The conversation also covers what residents have said they want (safer streets, more green space, protected local businesses), the city's commitment not to displace residents, and how other corridors like Northgate and the University Drive hospitality corridor are informing the plan.Wade closes with how the community can get involved and stay informed.Brazos Matters is a production of Aggieland Public Media, KAMU-FM and KAMU-TV, a member of Texas A&M University's Division of Community Engagement.

    Reimagining Harvey Road: College Station's 20-Year Makeover Plan for a Tired Gateway

  2. Oct 27

    Texas Monthly Editor Ross McCammon on Pulitzer Journalism, BBQ & his visit to Texas A&M

    In this episode of Brazos Matters, host Jay Socol and Texas A&M journalism professor of practice Paul O'Donnell talk with Ross McCammon, editor-in-chief of Texas Monthly, during his visit to campus to meet with journalism students and faculty. A Texas native who spent two decades editing magazines in New York, including Esquire, GQ, Men's Health and Popular Mechanics, McCammon reflects on what drew him back to lead the magazine he grew up reading on his family's coffee table. McCammon discusses the making of Texas Monthly's Pulitzer Prize-winning story on the 2025 Guadalupe River floods, written by senior editor Aaron Parsley about his family's near-death experience, and how that journalism-through-trauma grew into a podcast and follow-up feature. He also details the magazine's year-plus reporting journey tracing the entire length of the Rio Grande for its "War for the Rio Grande" cover story, the thinking behind viral, tongue-in-cheek covers, including one featuring a Reveille look-alike dog captioned "Bad Dog," and how dedicated beats such as barbecue editor and taco editor allow the magazine to cover Texas food culture in depth. The conversation also explores Texas Monthly's expanding reach beyond the page, including its acquisition of the legacy TV series Texas Country Reporter, and concludes with McCammon's advice to aspiring journalists. Brazos Matters is a production of Aggieland's Public Media (KAMU-FM and KAMU-TV), a member of Texas A&M University's Division of Community Engagement.

    Texas Monthly Editor Ross McCammon on Pulitzer Journalism, BBQ & his visit to Texas A&M

  3. Sep 29

    Preserving Southside: College Station's Oldest Neighborhood Races to Save Its Stories

    In this episode of “Brazos Matters,” host Jay Socol and student contributor Meredith Carrasco explore what happens when a historic neighborhood faces disappearing before its stories are documented. Their guests are Barbara Moore, University and Community Relations Manager for the City of College Station, and Liana Vincent, a longtime resident of College Station's Southside neighborhood — the area across George Bush Drive from campus that turned 100 years old in 2023.Vincent references the generations of families — the Lancasters, Glovers, Wests, Schaefers, and others — who've lived in Southside since the 1920s. She describes organizing a centennial celebration, collecting 25-30 oral histories now being archived in the city's Project HOLD database, and her hope to eventually turn those stories into a published booklet.Moore explains the city's role in supporting preservation, from conservation overlays and code enforcement to parallel oral-history efforts in the McCullough and Eastgate neighborhoods — two of College Station's historically Black communities. The conversation closes with practical advice for the students who increasingly call Southside home: get involved, be considerate neighbors, and help carry the neighborhood's history forward even as development continues to reshape it.Brazos Matters is a production of Aggieland’s Public Media, KAMU-TV and KAMU-FM, a member of Texas A&M University's Division of Community Engagement.

    Preserving Southside: College Station's Oldest Neighborhood Races to Save Its Stories

  4. Sep 6

    Brazos Matters: Inside the White House Situation Room on 9/11 with Dean John Sherman

    On the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America, host Jay Socol sits down with John Sherman, dean of Texas A&M's Bush School of Government and Public Service, for a firsthand account of that day from an extraordinary vantage point: the White House Situation Room. Sherman, a 1992 Texas A&M graduate, former Corps of Cadets commander, Army veteran and CIA duty officer who went on to become chief information officer for the entire U.S. intelligence community, was serving in the White House when the attacks began.Sherman walks through his path from Aggie cadet to Army officer to CIA imagery analyst to a chance rotation in the Situation Room, then narrates the morning of Sept. 11 in vivid, minute-by-minute detail: including witnessing Vice President Dick Cheney and other high-ranking officials being rushed into the White House bunker,  joining his colleagues in signing a "dead list" roster sent to CIA headquarters in case the West Wing itself was destroyed, and the tense, muddled reports following the Pentagon attack and Flight 93's downing in a Pennsylvania field.He also recounts the resolve that defined “Every day is Sept. 12" at the CIA. Sherman closes with reflections on hope for the future, rooted in the students he now sees preparing for public service at the Bush School.  Brazos Matters is a production of Aggieland's Public Radio 90.9 KAMU FM & KAMU-TV, members of Texas A&M University's Division of Community Engagement

    Brazos Matters: Inside the White House Situation Room on 9/11 with Dean John Sherman

  5. Aug 31

    Brazos Matters: KBTX's Rusty Surette (Part 2): The Method to the Rusty’s Social Media Madness

    With a collective following that spans hundreds of thousands of people across multiple social media platforms, KBTX-TV news anchor Rusty Surette reaches far more people online than through his nightly newscasts.In this second half of his conversation with host Jay Socol, Surette breaks down how specific content succeeds (or fails) on each platform and how he’s chosen the exhausting pace of posting on his professional and personal accounts.Surette addresses accusations of being a paid influencer, defends the sometimes trivial nature of his subject matter, and why he views his constant audience-building as career insurance.Brazos Matters is a production of Aggieland's Public Media, 90.9 KAMU FM & KAMU-TV, members of Texas A&M University's Division of Community Engagement.

    Brazos Matters: KBTX's Rusty Surette (Part 2): The Method to the Rusty’s Social Media Madness

  6. Aug 31

    Brazos Matters: KBTX's Rusty Surette (Part 1): Becoming Rusty

    At 15, he began videotaping fires and crime scenes based on police-scanner tips and selling the footage to his hometown TV station. Three decades later, Rusty Surette has built a vast and loyal following. Many know him from KBTX’s evening newscasts, while hundreds of thousands connect with him on social media.In the first of a two-part conversation on "Brazos Matters," Surette tells host Jay Socol about his almost accidental rise to on-air anchor just as the events of Sept. 11, 2001, unfolded; his opinions about the trend of stations doing away with their longtime anchors; and what it's like having a devoted audience that spans teenagers to the elderly and stretches from the Brazos Valley to overseas.In Part 2 of their conversation, Socol asks Surette to explain his compulsive approach to social media. Some of his answers may surprise you.Brazos Matters is a production of Aggieland's Public Media, 90.9 KAMU FM & KAMU-TV, members of Texas A&M University's Division of Community Engagement.

    Brazos Matters: KBTX's Rusty Surette (Part 1): Becoming Rusty

  7. Aug 23

    Brazos Matters: Life Beyond the Dorm Room with Texas A&M Residence Life Director Dr. Kyle McCracken

    More than 11,000 students. Over 64 buildings. A staff of roughly 450 — the second-largest employer in the Division of Student Affairs. In this episode of Brazos Matters, host Jay Socol and student contributor Kaleigh Mazy sit down with Dr. Kyle McCracken, Texas A&M's Director of Residence Life, to explore what it takes to run one of the university's biggest — and most personal — operations.McCracken traces his own path from reluctant RA recruit to residence life leader of nearly 15 years, and explains how his department tries to make an operation this massive feel individual: caring about the "20 rooms" where the experience didn't land as much as the thousands where it did. He talks candidly about competing with Northgate's resort-style, rooftop-pool apartment towers on a very different budget, running a genuinely 24/7 operation where some staff live full-time in the buildings they manage, and how the department leans on student focus groups — down to sitting on prospective furniture — to shape everything from dry-erase study tables to quiet lounges.The conversation also covers practical advice for families navigating the housing application timeline (apply early, stay flexible on preferences, and don't be afraid to call), how common spaces have evolved from century-old barracks-style halls to today's flexible gathering spots, and McCracken's goals for keeping pace with a student body that changes a little more every year. He closes with a few fun facts: A&M's oldest residence hall dates to 1911, its newest opened in 2016, and bed frames — it turns out — outlast almost anything else in inventory.Brazos Matters is a production of Aggieland's Public Radio 90.9 KAMU FM, a member of Texas A&M University's Division of Community Engagement.

    Brazos Matters: Life Beyond the Dorm Room with Texas A&M Residence Life Director Dr. Kyle McCracken

  8. Aug 9

    Brazos Matters: Is Homeownership Still Within Reach? Housing Affordability with the Texas Real Estate Research Center

    Can a 25-year-old graduate student today realistically expect to own a home someday? In this episode of "Brazos Matters," host Jay Socol and student contributor Kaleigh Mazy '26 dig into that very anxious, very common sentiment with two guests from the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University: Research Director Daniel Oney and Research Economist Yanling Mayer.The pair explain what "housing affordability" really measures beyond sticker price — mortgage rates, property taxes, insurance, and maintenance costs — and challenge the assumption that Texas is still the budget-friendly haven it once was; the state's cumulative price appreciation over the past decade has actually outpaced the national average. They also push back on some Gen Z doom-and-gloom narratives: surprisingly, the median age of first-time buyers has held steady at 32-33 for two decades, even as more young buyers lean on financial help from parents and grandparents to get there.The conversation ranges from the shrinking supply of true "starter homes" and the recently signed 21st Century Road to Housing Act's potential to loosen zoning and boost manufactured housing, to what makes the Bryan-College Station market so distinctive — a college town shaped heavily by A&M enrollment, game-day rental housing, and a disproportionate share of small multi-unit housing options. The guests close with grounded advice for aspiring first-time buyers: know your finances, resist the urge to time the market, and think of a home first as a place to live securely rather than purely as an investment."Brazos Matters" is a production of Aggieland's Public Media -- 90.9 KAMU FM & KAMU-TV -- members of Texas A&M University's Division of Community Engagement.

    Brazos Matters: Is Homeownership Still Within Reach? Housing Affordability with the Texas Real Estate Research Center
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About

Join host Jay Socol for Brazos Matters, a KAMU original production featuring a variety of guests from the Bryan-College Station and Aggieland community. Discussions focus on healthcare, education, economic development, traffic management, quality of life and other topics important to residents and businesses.

Information

  • Creator
    KAMU Studios
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    99
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © KAMU-TV/FM
  • Show Website
    Brazos Matters

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