A spike in COVID-19 cases combined with the holidays makes for an extraordinary amount of stress. For ways to deal with it, Lisa called Alejandro Chaoul, an expert on the therapeutic effects of meditation and Tibetan yoga. They spoke with Chaou

Hotez: Despite vaccines on the horizon, ‘I think we’re in for it’

Dec 12th, 2020 29m 8s

This episode was available Friday, 12/11, on the Q&A with Lisa Gray feed. Want to get next Friday's episode delivered pronto to your podcast app? Click here to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or search your favorite player.New vaccines ar

How to talk about vaccines so people will listen

Dec 4th, 2020 24m 50s

Forty-two percent of Americans say they're unlikely to get a COVID-19 vaccine. To end the pandemic, how do we persuade them? Tips from Texas A&M researcher Lu Tang.Read stories by Lisa Gray and connect with her on Twitter or Facebook. Have que

Addicks and Barker dams: Still a ticking time bomb?

Nov 20th, 2020 24m 57s

Click to subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.The Army Corps of Engineers’s latest ideas on how to reduce flooding along Buffalo Bayou has riled many Houston residents who were expecting a more modern solution to flooding than the concrete c

"Dr. Ben, does the Biden coronavirus task force give you hope?"

Nov 13th, 2020 27m 55s

UPDATE: Q&A with Lisa Gray is now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all the usual places. If you like the show, please follow and tell a friend.With President-elect Biden pledging a science-based approach to wrangling the pandemic — and with recor

Q&A with Lisa Gray: How to Steal an Election

Nov 6th, 2020 20m 2s

Welcome to this sneak peek episode of Q&A with Lisa Gray. We'll let you know (middle of next week?) when the show is available on Apple Podcasts and all the usual places.As the United States nervously waits for this presidential election to be

Peter Hotez: ‘Winter is going to be a scary and difficult time’

Oct 30th, 2020 24m 59s

With COVID-19 cases surging in the U.S., and what may be signs of a coming spike in Houston, we offer this extra episode of Coronavirus Chronicle.In this interview with Lisa Gray, vaccine researcher Dr. Peter Hotez discusses the coming winter

Why are things the way they are?

Oct 2nd, 2020 39m 3s

Today's guests, Roman Mars, creator and host of the (very) popular 99% Invisible podcast and 99PI colleague Kurt Kohlstedt, want you to ask that question about the mundane — and therefore invisible — things that surround us. Why are stop signs

Y'all stay safe. Y'all stay kind and y'all have a very nice day, Houston.

Oct 1st, 2020 21m 49s

Executive Editor Steve Riley was the first guest Ferrill interviewed for this show and today, six months later, Steve is Ferrill's final guest as Coronavirus Chronicle comes to a close. In March, Steve observed that coronavirus was "like a hurr

"This is so terrible. But, oh my God, what a story."

Sep 30th, 2020 20m 18s

Senior writer, columnist and Coronavirus Chronicle co-host Lisa Gray sits down with Ferrill for a chat as the podcast nears the end of its six-month run. Among the topics they discuss: the state of journalism, the phycological effect of focusin

2020 has been a really horrible year, but things could go so much worse

Sep 29th, 2020 22m 4s

Columnist Chris Tomlinson weighs in on the state of things at the six-month mark of the pandemic. 2020, he says, has been a really horrible year, but there are so many different ways things could go so much worse. "When," he asks, "was the last

Have you stopped asking when we're going to go back to normal?

Sep 28th, 2020 19m 26s

Texas editor Robert Eckhart discusses how we're doing six months into the coronavirus pandemic. He says it's been a year of "upheaval" as political norms have been turned upside down, and as the election approaches Democrats and Republicans ali

It's been a rough week and Peter Hotez is worried

Sep 25th, 2020 23m 42s

Vaccine researcher (and frequent guest) Dr. Peter Hotez is worried. As the COVID case numbers are trending upward again, he's worried about a "third peak" this fall and winter that would start at a higher infection level than the first two peak

Outlook for commercial property? Distressed.

Sep 24th, 2020 21m 22s

Nancy Sarnoff, Chronicle real estate reporter and co-host of the Looped In podcast, commiserates with Ferrill over the outlook for commercial real estate in Houston. She does not see a bright future in the near term for hotels, offices, restaur

How will COVID deaths and newly registered voters affect the election?

Sep 23rd, 2020 20m 51s

Since the pandemic hit in March, 15,000 Texans have died of COVID-19 — and 400,000 Texans have registered to vote. From Austin, politics reporter Jeremy Wallace discusses the effect those two numbers might have on the outcome of the November el

Erica Grieder: RBG's death a "call to arms"

Sep 22nd, 2020 17m 36s

On Saturday, the morning after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, columnist Erica Grieder started calling women to ask how they were processing the news. Those women told her they were shocked, heartbroken, devastated, sad and scared, but that e

New calculations trending in the right direction, for now

Sep 21st, 2020 15m 58s

Last week Texas governor Greg Abbott held a press conference (!) and announced the next phase of reopening for much of the state, allowing most businesses, restaurants, offices, museums and libraries to operate at 75% capacity, up from 50%. He

How fast will COVID-19 spread in the coming weeks?

Sep 18th, 2020 21m 33s

One of the best people in the world to answer that question is Lauren Ancel Meyers. Meyers, a professor of integrative biology at the University of Texas-Austin, leads UT’s COVID-19 modeling consortium. Since the pandemic began, her team has mo

Preservation grant sustains landmark Houston bar

Sep 17th, 2020 15m 24s

Seeking to support LGBTQ businesses threatened during the pandemic, the Human Rights Campaign, through an LGBTQ business preservation initiative, has given five-figure grants to 10 enterprises across the country, including Houston's Pearl Bar.

Texas leads SBA pandemic relief loan fraud in national prosecutions

Sep 16th, 2020 12m 45s

A handful of Texans have been accused of trying to defraud the Paycheck Protection Program of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES, according to the Department of Justice — and a recent story by reporter Olivia Talle

A cone of uncertainty inside a larger cone of uncertainty

Sep 15th, 2020 12m 7s

With five named storms in the Atlantic for the first time since 1971 — and with one of those storms seemingly taking aim at the host's home town of Mobile, Alabama — today Coronavirus Chronicle forgoes its customary journalist interview to give

Doctors Without Borders sees the need in Houston

Sep 14th, 2020 17m 59s

Fresh off her coverage of Hurricane Laura in Louisiana reporter Emily Foxhall, the Chronicle's the Texas Storyteller, caught up with a group from Doctors Without Borders here in Houston where they come here to assist nursing homes. The organiza

Peter Hotez: Yes, there will be a COVID vaccine by October (2021)

Sep 11th, 2020 34m 38s

As a frequent guest on cable news vaccine researcher Dr. Peter Hotez has aimed to interpret scientific findings for as broad an audience as possible. He was one of the rare experts who appeared frequently on both Fox News and MSNBC. Recently, h

Alison Cook: thoughts while finding comfort in peanut butter on a Ritz

Sep 10th, 2020 18m 14s

The isolation of the pandemic has been an opportunity to reset and discover what she misses says restaurant critic Alison Cook. She has found coronavirus comfort in the food of her youth — peanut butter on crackers and spoonfuls of jarred spagh

Sidelined lawmakers challenge Abbott's absolute authority to manage pandemic

Sep 9th, 2020 11m 58s

Drawing his authority from the Texas Disaster Act of 1975, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has used those emergency powers to make decisions regulating virtually every facet of life during the pandemic. And, well, people such as the five conservati