The Gulf Podcast is a nonfiction audio storytelling podcast that shares stories of people and nature along the Texas Gulf Coast. The podcast is sponsored by the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Since 2000, the Harte Research Institute has integrated its science with economic, policy and sociological expertise in an effort to fulfill its mission of seeking science-driven solutions for Gulf of Mexico problems in order to advance its long-term sustainable use and conservation. Learn more at their website.
Disclaimer: the views expressed on The Gulf Podcast do not reflect those of the Harte Research Institute or Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
Season One came out in 2020-2021. Episodes covered a range of topics, from the history of Kemp’s ridley sea turtle recovery efforts and a woman who spent twenty years patrolling endangered brown pelican nesting grounds in Corpus Christi Bay to the Billy Sandifer Big Shell Beach Cleanup and the history and future of oysters of the Gulf Coast.
Season Two (“Watersheds”) is currently in production and scheduled to release in 2023. Episodes will explore Texas coastal water issues and the importance of freshwater inflow by highlighting the people and places that make the Gulf Coast special.
The Gulf Podcast is written, narrated, and produced by its creator, Dr. Jen Brown, Associate Professor of History at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Multiple students have helped with this project. Season One production assistant Maxwell McClure (M.A. in History, 2023) transcribed oral histories and produced two of his own episodes for Season One. Kenya Zarate (B.A. in History, 2022) transcribed oral histories during the 2021–2022 academic year. Alyssa Lucas (B.A. in History, 2024) started in Spring 2022. She has been transcribing and maintaining digital archives as well as helping with media. She is also currenly working on her own episode for future seasons.
In addition to sharing stories, another goal of this project is to collect and preserve oral histories in the TAMU-CC Bell Library Special Collections as well as share them on this site. In addition to oral history recordings, you can find the oral history transcripts as well as podcast episodes and scripts on this site. You can also listen to podcast episodes on all the major podcasting platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher. Some related oral histories covering the environmental history of the Texas Coastal Bend can be found at the South Texas Stories digital archive.