San Antonio husband-and-wife team talks ‘Pitmasters’ win

0:00In the next Proximal, Backwards of Texas, cooking with Vera Cruz all natural's new cookbook. Join Chef Reyna Vasquez as we dig into her brand new Veggie Forward cookbook. You can find Backwards of Texas on KUT.org or wherever you get your podcasts. Following the money, what are super packed donations telling us about Texas is closely watched you as Senate race? I'm David Brown and this is the Texas Standard. Texas Standard is a production of KUT Austin, K-E-R-A North Texas, Houston Public Media, and Texas Public Radio in Senate. Democrat James Tamariko is out fundraising his Republican rival, Ken Pax, at big time. Who's riding the checks and what the money adds up to at a high stakes midterm race? Also, as the GOP puts finishing touches on next week's national convention in Dallas, a closer look at the Republican dynasty once built in Big D and its resemblance to today's

1:04GOP. On TV's Food Network, a prestigious first place finish for a pair of married pit masters will hear their story. Plus, the weekend politics with the Texas Tribune and more today on the Texas Standard. No matter where you are, it's Texas Standard time on this fourth day of September, happy Friday everybody. You know, if there's one complaint about US politics, it may be nearly as old as US politics itself. It's this. There's too much money in it. And these days we're talking about an awful lot of money too. Superpacks can raise and spend virtually unlimited sums, meaning a single wealthy donor can put millions behind a candidate even if that candidate never sees the check. Follow that money and you begin to see something else, not just who has influence, but where some very rich and powerful people think there's an opportunity. And right now they're placing some very big bets on Texas. At closely watched US Senate race between Republican Ken Paxden and Democrat James Talleriko's

2:08drawing money from an extraordinary cast of characters, a middle and oil man and horse-racing family, a Waco fitness entrepreneur, a Connecticut hedge fund billionaire, unions, political organizations, even a Virginia based group whose donors can remain secret by law. And they're not betting equally either. Looks like Talleriko's out fund raising Paxden two to one. So who are these people and what do these money trails tell us? John Moritz covers Texas politics for the Austin American States when Houston Chronicle, Manantone, you express news and harsh newsrooms across the state, along with reporters Phoebe Quinton and Kason Murray, Kasey Murray. He went digging through the campaign finance records connecting the dots. John, welcome back to the standard. Well, thanks for having me. Okay, so you looked at some of the biggest donors to each campaign. Did you pick up on any broadly speaking patterns? Well, the biggest takeaway is just how much money some people and organizations have at

3:11their disposal to give political candidates. We had one individual, $11.5 million to help Senate candidate James Talleriko. Wow. And is this money this coming from Texans we're talking about or from all over? You know, surprisingly a lot of them are from Texas, but the state's boundaries do not prevent political giving. We've got people from California, we've got people from across the country, and we got entities from across the country. And we have entities that don't have to tell us who is underwriting their efforts here. So there's a lot of money that comes to these candidates blind. Anything surprise you about the names that you were able to pick up on? Well, a lot of people in Texas might recognize the name Thomas J. Henry, his billboards, you know, for his trial or company. Oh, the attorney. Yes. And one of the things that did strike me is that he's giving the Paxen. And so are a number of other trial lawyers.

4:11And trial lawyers used to be like the core of the Democratic donor base. And now they've they've gone bipartisan. That's very interesting. What do you think that is? You have any theories? Well, and this is just a theory. Republicans have the power and and trial lawyers don't want to be left out of the conversation. So as long as Republicans are in charge of Texas, people with that kind of means are going to make sure their voices are heard at the very top level of government. What is it matter? I think some listeners may be asking themselves, what is it matter who these people are? Why should this be a interest to everyday voters? How would you answer them? That's a very good question. In a lot of ways, we judge people on their associates, you know, who they are, who are their friends. In some of these cases, we have recognizable names like the one I just mentioned, Mr. Henry. And in others, we just try to sort of help readers understand where this money is coming

5:11from. And what possible point of view some of these people might have? What sort of an agenda might they be pushing? You know, obviously the stock answered the politicians. I'm not influenced by all of that money, but it's a lot of money. You know, I think the public has the right to know where it's coming from, you know, and why it's coming in. And in the cases where we just don't know where this money is coming from because the law allows secrecy in those cases, it's important for us to point that out as well. And you know, voters can use this information how they best see fit. You have a list of top 10 donors supporting both candidates through their super PACs and campaign committees. I see here. Reid Hoffman is on the list. He's been involved in a lot of political machinations across the United States. Why would Texas be of such interest to someone like Reid Hoffman? Good question. I don't want to get into reading his mind, but he is very generous with his donations to

6:17very well-known Democrats, including former Vice President Kamala Harris. You know, for those who may not recognize the name off the top of their heads, he's the guy who founded LinkedIn. He sold that company to Microsoft for billions of dollars. And his point of view is, you know, left of center and he's going to support candidates and office holders who are, I guess, are in line with those views. Who are the big donors for PACs and he's raised considerably less money here? He has raised considerably less money. And that's sort of counter to the long narrative that the richest folks tend to align themselves with Republicans. But he does have money. One of them, the name might be recognizable, Douglas Schwarbauer. He's a Midland oilman into elite horse racing. He's giving money to the governor, Greg Abbott, the lieutenant governor, Texans for lawsuit

7:17reform, which used to be the sworn enemy of the trial lawyers. So there's a little bit of that overlap. There's some other dark groups that we don't know too much about. There are a couple from Arizona, the male partner in that couple was actually convicted of wire fraud and pardoned by President Trump. Given that he's been pardoned, there are no restrictions on his ability to donate to Super PACs. John, as a political reporter, do you feel encouraged or discouraged about what you are seeing in these numbers and trends? Well, it's quite easy to be cynical. That people with the most money get the most attention. They have the ability to get the ears of those who would seek to lead us. You know, that's got to be in the minds of voters.

8:17On the other hand, the Supreme Court has said money is speech. And if that's the way they choose to invest and spend their money, that's perfectly legal under the law. It is a fascinating inside window into what's happening in the Texas Senate race. You ought to check it out for yourself. We'll have a link to this reporting at texistandard.org. John Maritz is Chief Politics Reporter for the Austin-American Statesman and the other Hurst Papers. John, thanks so much for talking with us. Always a pleasure. Thanks for having me. Well, you probably heard about next week's National Republican Convention that's being staged in Dallas. But next week's midterm convention is happening in a city that helped give rise to one of the most consequential family political dynasties of the past half century. George W. Bush and his family still live in Texas in Preston Hollow.

9:18Southern Methodist University houses presidential center and library, as you likely recall. Still, as KERA's Bill Zebel reports, many policies championed by George Bush, senior and his son, George W. Bush, who are conspicuously missing from today's GOP. Ten years ago, when I first ran for governor, I had my last campaign rally in Dallas. And we won. George W. Bush in this C-SPAN video stopped at Moody Coliseum at Southern Methodist University on election eve November 2004, as he sought a second term as president. Voting was hours away. Tonight, after six other stops, I'm having my last campaign rally in Dallas. And we're going to win. Bush left what SMU political science professor Matthew Wilson calls a tremendous legacy nationally and specifically in Texas and Dallas. He did a lot for the Republican Party in Texas. In many ways, when Bush was president, those were the good old days for the Dallas GOP.

10:23More than 20 years later, it's a very different political landscape and a very different party. Wilson says after George W. Bush's re-election victory, his views define the GOP. Like his father, George Herbert Walker Bush, George W. embraced the so-called Three Legits stool of Reagan conservatism. He used American military power abroad, believed in free global markets with a liberal immigration policy, and held a faith-based social morality. But we have seen since Trump and the MAGA movement seems ambivalent at best about all three of those. George W. Bush ran to lower taxes and reduced government, but he also launched no child left behind administered by the U.S. Department of Education. And he supported humanitarian efforts abroad, like the global distribution of HIV treatments that saved millions of lives. Today, President Donald Trump is trying to dismantle the education department and ended

11:23USAID, which funded global disease prevention and nutrition programs. I think Bush's impact on the party has pretty much vanished. That's Texas historian Michael Phillips. He says one Bush legacy Trump does benefit from is ongoing support from Christian evangelicals. Trump says Bush locked in his GOP leadership because of his faith. He could talk church. He had a conversion story. He was kind of lost about substance abuse and alcohol. That kind of redemption story is a very critical part of evangelical culture, which really made him seem legitimate. Trump retains that evangelical support, about 80% of white evangelicals voted for him in 2024. And SMU professor Matthew Wilson says Bush era politics and George W. himself are still popular with many Republicans, namely Dallas Republicans.

12:24I think he is both socially and politically embraced by them. Bill McKenzie is a longtime Dallas Morning News colonist and senior editorial advisor at the George W. Bush Institute, which is housed within the presidential center. He says he wonders about the place Bush Republicans have in today's party. I still think that there are a number of compassionate conservatives who are there. Are they waiting for somebody to give voice to them? Are they voting someplace else? I don't know. As for Bush, KERA requested an interview for this story, but was told he's retired from politics as he said on many occasions. He skipped the 2024 Republican convention, and when Republicans are in town next week, he'll be busy with events tied to the 25th anniversary of 9-11 on Bill Zebel in Dallas. It's well known for agriculture, but soon may be better known for something else.

13:24We're on route to the RGB as the standard continues. Support for Texas Standard comes from HEB and the MyHGB app, which is available for download and shopping fresh departments like seafood, produce, bakery, and deli, and scheduling curbside pickup or home delivery. More at HEB.com. In the next Proximal, Backwards of Texas, cooking with Vera Cruz All Natural's New Cucbuck, joined Chef Rayna Vasquez as we dig into her brand new Veggie Forward Cucbuck. You can find Backwards of Texas on KUT.org or wherever you get your podcasts. It's the Texas Standard. I'm David Brown. Texas's Rio Grande Valley is known for a lot of things. World class, bird watching, fresh, citrus groves, some of the best tacos you'll eat in all your life. But these days, the valley is becoming known for something different.

14:25Energy production. All different kinds of energy, too. For phases and stages, a podcast from the University of Texas Energy Institute, Andy Yula reports now on how the valleys changing faster than many Texans may realize. If you trust the state historical marker on the side of the road, and why wouldn't you, McCook Texas was named after a local shopkeeper. It was first settled in the late 1920s by Polish immigrants. According to local lore, this town also held the distinction for a time as being home to the only church in the world with a beer license. My kind of town. I stopped into the local mercantile that Eugene Polarcic runs with his sister Kathy, and if you don't know what a mercantile is, no shame. Imagine a classic general store. This one sells cigarettes and lottery tickets like a 7-11. It has a full kitchen and daily lunch specials and also sells nails and screws and other tools like a hardware store.

15:27Perfect for a town like this with a population in the hundreds if that. Polarcic says McCook is a lot different than it was when he was a kid. He's now 76. Well, it used to be like the center of everything around here. If something was going on, it would come here and we'd have a bunch of people out on the porch talking to each other about what's happening. If there was a storm or something, this was sort of like an information center, you know. But all that has now changed. Everybody's got their own cell phone, so they don't have to come and ask. Ask Google or chat GPT when wind turbines started popping up in this part of South Texas. And your phone is probably going to tell you that it was in the middle of the last decade. But why here? Well according to the folks in the Renewable Energy Research Lab at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, prevailing south-easterly winds off the Gulf of Mexico make the region particularly attractive for wind energy, which led to developers setting up meetings with landowners.

16:28Polarcic's nephew, Patrick Bale, grew up coming to the Mercantile and now works here. So like when they were putting up the wind, the windmills here, there were gatherings that were basically trying to make it to where let's all get together and focus on like a price or something like that, you know. So that way, hey, we're not all getting cheated, you know. So if everybody pushes back all at once, then there's leveraging power to what, how much you can get paid for putting the windmills on the land. Vellus says that collective bargaining lasted for a bit, but then everybody just wanted to make sure they were getting in on the action. And there's a lot of action out here. A couple of months ago, wind developer Terrogen filed a tax abatement application to put another 54 to 62 wind turbines in and around Macook in the coming years. When Eugene Polarcic says it's not just wind out this way. Nineteen miles west of here and another two miles to the south, there's a road called

17:28Seguonada Road. The east part of it was farmland and now they're cliquing a big chunk of it and putting up silver panels. He's not necessarily happy about the conversion of that farmland, but says that's far enough from Macook that he's not too bothered about a solar farm going up out there. Twenty miles from town might as well be in Oklahoma. The Rio Grande Valley encompasses a lot of space. The port of Brownsville alone spans 40,000 acres, making it the largest land-owning public port authority in the United States. And down at the port, it's not wind and solar that they're talking about. Just ask Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who was in town just a few weeks ago. Brownsville illustrates exactly what the Trump administration is about. And in the simplest terms, I'd say the Trump administration goal is to build big things in America again.

18:29Wright was here to celebrate a couple of different projects being built at the port. The first is called Rio Grande LNG, RG-LNG. It's an enormous, liquefied natural gas export terminal currently under construction by the next decade corporation. But if you visit the RG-LNG construction project, you'll notice that it's a long way from the city of Brownsville, something gauged Avila once people are recognized. I think a huge point of contention that I've always had with both the media and with the elected officials that talk about these projects in the port of Brownsville, especially with regards to the Rio Grande LNG plant, is the fact that it's in Port Isabel, it is not in Brownsville. Avila grew up in Port Isabel. He's now a reporter at the Texas Observer and says, specifics matter. No matter how many times the mayor of Brownsville or its former city manager said that this would benefit Brownsville, it is something that is in Port Isabel and is going to impact residents in Port Isabel more, just like it already is.

19:30The Port of Brownsville will also reportedly soon be home to the first petrochemical refinery built in the United States in 50 years. It's being built by a group called America First Refining. John Kelsey is chairman and CEO. He started the project in 2014. So we actually started our permitting process in 2015 and it took us basically seven years to get through that. Kelsey says America first picked the Port of Brownsville because the project could actually get a permit from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, TCEQ and the EPA. The reason you couldn't build something like this in Corpus, Orin Houston, Orin Boatman is they're out of air permit space. Too many refineries and other emitters in the area are releasing too many pollutants, specifically nox and sox, nitrogen and sulfur oxides, bad for breathing. Kelsey says the idea behind America First Refining is to process light sweet crude oil from the Permian basin.

20:32Right now, most of the oil we refine on the Gulf Coast is heavy sour crude from places like Canada and Venezuela. The refinery only announced its plans a few months ago and projections have America First only beginning to operate at the earliest in 2029. Not to mention, getting that crude from West Texas to the Rio Grande Valley is an issue in and of itself. A pipeline had been proposed to connect the Permian to the ports of Houston, Corpus Christian Brownsville, but that project was put on indefinite hold as a result of the pandemic. Taken all together, it's starting to look like the Rio Grande Valley could be Texas's next big energy hotspot. Wind and solar, oil and gas, refineries and natural gas export terminals all converging on a region that's long priced its own distinctive way of life. And some of the people who want to preserve that valley way of life may not yet realize just how much change could be coming or how hard they may be willing to fight it when

21:34they realize just that. Watch this space. We'll keep you posted. In Hidalgo County, I'm Andy Euler for the Texas Standard. This story was adapted from the podcast series, Faces and Stages, the Texas Energy Story supported by the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin and hosted by Energy Reporter and Journalism Fellow Andy Euler. We're going to have links to more from the podcast series at TexasStandard.org. We've all heard about schools making sports expansions, but right now there's a certain school in South Texas that looks like it's trying to set a record with sports expansions under a single roof. We're talking about six new sports teams, new sports teams at one university at a time when institutions of higher ed are facing pressure on so many fronts. Well, what's the thinking behind these new additions? We're going to hear more as the Texas Standard continues.

22:36Time enough for a Texas Standard Time Check, don't you think? Coming up on 29 minutes past the hour, Texas News Roundup is just round the corner. You know what we say round here? Stick around. Live from the Texas Newsroom, I'm Shelby Rose. After a high profile extradition fight that kept him out of a Minnesota jail for more ice agent, Christian Castro is in federal custody in Texas. A grand jury and died at Castro on six counts of making false statements tied to a January shooting during an immigration operation in Minneapolis. Prosecutors say he falsely claimed two men attacked officers before the shooting. Castro had been previously released from the Cameron County jail after Governor Gregg Abbott declined to sign a warrant allowing his extradition to Minnesota.

23:40The Texas A&M System Board of Regents approved the removal of over 200 courses from its core curriculum to comply with the new state law. Houston Public Media's Kyle McClannigan reports that courses on LGBTQ studies, race and gender are among those slated for removal. The move comes as Texas A&M aims to comply with Senate Bill 37, mandating state-funded universities conduct audits of their core classes. Leonard Bright is the president of the American Association of University Professors Chapter at Texas A&M's College Station Campus. This is political interference in education. The A&M should no more produce conservative students than liberal students. Our job is not to manufacture a political worldview. Last month, the University of Houston removed over 45% of its core curriculum. I'm Kyle McClannigan in Houston. Texas Comptroller Don Huffines is asking lawmakers to more than double funding for the state's new private school voucher program to more than 2.2 billion for the 2028-29 budget.

24:43The request comes after the program's first year critics say the money would be better spent on public schools. The White House has approved a federal disaster declaration for 19 Texas counties following storms and flooding in July. Texas Public Radio's Brian Kirkpatrick reports. The counties covered by the declaration are located west, northwest, in South of San Antonio, and stretched to the border with Mexico. Some of the larger cities covered include Bernie, Del Rio, Fredrick's Mergen Curville. Over three deaths, the Guadalupe, Nueces, and Frio Rivers all reached flood stage. Some areas like the Tulav were left sitting in water for days. The declaration allows FEMA to step in to begin assistance with public recovery efforts. Texas Governor Greg Abbott says the state will also deliver every available resource to communities in need. I'm Brian Kirkpatrick in San Antonio. Governor Greg Abbott met with first responders in Pula Pinto County who have been battling the Ross Fire for more than a week. It's burned more than 90,000 acres and is 38% contained.

25:44No deaths or injuries have been reported. I'm Shelby Rose in the Texas newsroom. You're listening to statewide news from public radio stations across Texas. This coverage is only possible because of support from listeners like you. You can help sustain and grow Texas news coverage by donating to your local public radio station today. 33 minutes past the hour Texas Standard Time. I'm Angela Cochirga back to school means sports are starting up and this year Texas A&M University San Antonio is adding six new teams to its athletics department. The university opened its doors in 2009 and this is the inaugural season for indoor and outdoor track and field as well as cross country. It's the largest expansion in the young university's athletics history. And Daniel Betis is following it all in real time. She's the higher education reporter for the San Antonio report. Daniel, welcome to the Texas Standard. Thanks for having me.

26:45Well for this story you interviewed athletics director Darnell Smith who started building the A&M San Antonio Athletics program in 2020. Tell us about that process. What did he tell you? Yeah, so the interview with Dr Smith was really interesting. I mean, he came on board in a very tricky time. I mean, the coronavirus pandemic was just, you know, changing the way that we're doing everything. There were some delays to some of the launches of their athletic program. But he talked about, you know, the need to move forward with it, right? I mean, he's one of his priorities with was hiring coaches. They started with some athletic programs like golf and softball that were a little bit easier for them to to launch. I mean, they didn't necessarily have to have, you know, the fields there on campus. They were still like building some of this for golf. They can go outside of a campus, for example. But he talked about just literally hitting the ground running and hiring coaches and planning

27:48ahead. It's a lot of moving pieces as he put it is one big puzzle and he had to figure out what makes sense when as far as what sports were coming online. Well, yeah, it sounds like this is such a young university. It started in 2009, as we said. So how did he tell you or did anyone say how does the development of athletic programs fit into the university's long term goals? I mean, I think it's very important. I mean, like we talked about attracting and retaining students, right? I mean, the last thing they wanted to do was just not put any emphasis on this. And then lose students who were really, really eager to like still compete to still develop themselves as athletes. So it is very much, and I mean, it is Texas, right? I mean, it's very much a way to compete for students in the region. So they wanted to put some emphasis on that. But of course, like he mentioned, there's a lot of competing for such a young university. There's a lot of competing needs. I mean, they are building new buildings for, you know, different programs.

28:53They have like an education building. They have like a business. So they, he knew that it wasn't necessarily the only priority for the young university, but very much an important one if they wanted to attract and retain talented students who wanted to compete. Well, let's talk about some of that funding. The university's track and field space was only possible through a $10 million investment from Bear County. What are those stipulations behind that investment? That's correct. Yes. I mean, this investment was approved by the Commissioner's Court in 2022. And as they put it, one of their main focuses was, yes, let's help develop the Southside of San Antonio, which for the longest time has been one of the highly underserved communities in our region. And they talked about wanting, you know, safe spaces, safe spaces for people to exercise, safe spaces for, you know, students to compete. Looking for the stories that matter most to Central Texas?

29:53I'm Jerry Quijano, host of the Austin Signal, your daily dive into the news, music sports, and culture shaping life in Austin. We bring you reporting from trusted voices at KUT, KUTX, Texas Standard, and more all in one place. Tune in, stay informed, and get connected every day on the Austin Signal. Austin Signal. Take days at one on KUT News or on demand at kut.org or wherever you get your podcasts. It's safe spaces for the community to, you know, come together. And that was a big part of why they agreed to, you know, to this contract, I guess, but the condition was let this be open. Yes, we're going to give you 10 million for this track and field complex, but let this be open to the community. Very interesting. Well, you spoke to some of the athletes on the new track teams for this story.

30:53It must be an exciting time. What did they tell you? Yes, it was honestly great talking to students. I think we could have individual stories about each student. They all have amazing backgrounds. And it was a mix of reasons of why they were here, to be honest. I mean, I spoke to a couple who were very eager to come back to San Antonio. They transfer from other universities or they transfer from two year colleges. And we're looking to maybe come back home, but they didn't want to sacrifice their sport of choice. I mean, most of them had been running since they were in high school or earlier. They were eager to come back, but they were also really energized by the idea of being part of something that could leave a legacy, right? I mean, the founding team, the inaugural team. So all of them seem really, really energized by that. And we spoke to the coach as well, the founding coach in this case for track and field and

31:56cross country. And he was saying he was looking for that in students. I mean, students who he could see, like that spark in their eye when he mentioned the opportunity to be part of something new. Daniel Betis is the higher education reporter for the San Antonio report. Daniel, thank you so much for your time. No, I appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Support for Texas Standard comes from Half Price Books, a Texas bread, new and news bookstore, proudly supporting public media and sustainability by keeping books, music and other media in circulation. Store locations and more information at hpb.com. It's the Texas Standard. I'm David Brown. Texas barbecue has never been short on swagger or people willing to argue about who does it best, right? But San Antonio just picked up some serious new bragging rights. Let me tell you, S.O.L. and Grasia Ramos, the husband and wife team behind the acclaimed

33:012M Smokehouse in San Antonio. Just smoked, grilled and baked their way to the championship of food networks and all-girl pit masters competition. Now, that's really saying something and they didn't play it safe either. Their five-course finale ran from oysters and chorizo to duck carnitas and smoked shrimp capped off with a dessert somehow, perfectly pulled off and a smoker. Eight weeks of competition, $30,000 for the win and a new title too, Whispers of the Smoke. S.O.L. and Grasia Ramos join us now. Big congrats. Welcome to the Texas Standard. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Thank you for having us. Very exciting. Take us back to the moment they called your names. What was going through your heads? S.O.L., do you want to begin? If you watched the show, it's a face of disbelief. Not that I didn't think we had what it takes to win it, right? But just going up against such a skilled other team, right?

34:02Like John and Connie brought it and they had a set of skills that I'm not well versed in, right? But at the end of the day, it was disbelief and just excitement and confirmation that we should have been there and what we were doing was exactly what needed to be done. Grasia, what did you want to do this in the first place? So when S.O.L. first presented the show to me, he was giving me the rundown of what they had told him and it just sounded really awesome. It seemed different. It wasn't your typical food network show and I was very excited to the first thing that I asked him was like, who are you taking? And he's like, you. I'm like, oh, well, then how are you doing it? I would love to do this and especially if I get to do it with you. Heck yeah, let's do it. I was really excited. It seemed like camping on steroids and I love pressure. I work well into pressure. This was a national competition but it has to be said, that final menu sure did feel a

35:02whole lot San Antonio. Tell us about that menu. How important was it that the food represented where you're from? The fact that we made what we made for the finale, we really wanted it to be us, right? We had carried ourselves through the entire season already, you know, showcasing San Antonio flavors, showcasing where we came from and how we grew up and the flavors that we grew up with. And each and every one of those courses really showed our story from our first date to, you know, ending with the Cafacito de la Inca Concha, that's something that we all grew up with here in San Antonio. Grandma, grandpa, your aunties, when you know, hang around and do the little media in that the end of the day. And they would all, you know, talk and, you know, kind of go throughout the week, right? And that really was something that I really wanted to highlight. Gracie, you make this sound so family. So did you feel like it was a family affair? What was your sense of it going in?

36:02Definitely. I mean, our whole life is almost, I feel a family affair. You know, but no. And it's like she said, you know, from the oysters that we made, that was kind of our first date to the caranitas that were made on that show. Like we grew up eating caranitas. It's one of my father's favorite things to make, right? So we grew up eating that. And instead of using pork, which I didn't want to use, I was like, you know, what else is there? And there happened to be duck. So I was like, you know what? Let's make some duck caranitas. But yeah, just showcasing that from the alwaciles, you know, that it's one of mine and my wife's favorite dishes to eat. And then, and then like she said, closing it off with the conchas and the café de oyes, just something we grew up with. Gracie, you talk about those conscious just a bit. Making a conscious and a smoker. Did you done that before? Never. I had never baked any type of bread and a smoker, let alone a dessert. So this was a very, I mean, this was challenging enough already, but just really trying to make something where I don't have my oven. I don't have controlled, you know, seam.

37:03I can't just walk away for a minute and be like, oh, it's final. Come back in 20 minutes. It's like, oh crap. Like I better not mess this up. So I think that the state course that you had in that final, you called it your ribeye redemption if I'm not mistaken, because you had undercooked one earlier in the competition. You know, I'm wondering what eight weeks of being pushed outside of your comfort zone taught you that given all of your experience, you know, 10 years running a barbecue restaurant, you know, hadn't there. Did you pick up new ideas in the course of this of working under that kind of pressure for the show? Definitely, right. It's hard not to come back with new ideas with the fact that you were able to push yourself to a level that you didn't think you could be able to, right? I mean, at the restaurant, it's very easy to just put it on cruise control, because it's almost the same thing. It's almost repetitive every day, right? But here, it's like you have to really pull out what other tricks do you have in the hat, right?

38:03So, yes, coming back, if I could dig a hole in the ground at 2M, I would do that already, right? I'm trying to figure out a way that the city doesn't give me any slack over it, and if we can make it happen, I'm definitely going to start making that happen, right? Spoken like a true entrepreneur, I must say. Yeah. Hey, okay. Well, now step back for a moment. You built businesses together, you raised family together, you've now survived a TV cooking competition together. Let's play a little game. Grésia, what did you learn about your partner or about yourself, or maybe yourselves as a team? What knew did you learn about S.I.O, for example? With S.O., I think I've always known his capabilities when it comes to cooking, to being a pitmaster. You know, I've seen him from opening up to 2M to where we are now, and I've always been in awe of his, how his brain works and how he just, he looks at something, he

39:05looks at the problem and he knows how to solve it. And this really, I feel like highlighted that as we were going through challenges, as you know, things were coming our way, it was just so neat to see him still be able to keep his composure and just look at me and not just keep his composure but treat me with, I don't want to say a delicacy. Hi, I'm Jimmy Moss, and I'm Juan Diego Garcia. We host the podcast Vamos Verde, all about the Austin Football Club. We call it soccer on the side of the pond one. Well Jimmy, where I'm from, we call it football, but our show is not just football. I come here to Tulling. I just remember the first couple months it was like exhausting. A 35, 40 year old grown man yelling at a 15 year old kid over a possible offside, it's called yeah, that happened. You can subscribe to Vamos Verde, wherever you get your podcasts. He just, he was so encouraging with me. And I feel like that's something that really brought us, brought us together. We've always been a very solid team, but this just really highlighted that we are great

40:07together and I loved it. So what did you learn about Garcia? I guess I learned that she's able to learn to believe in herself more, right? Like she was real hesitant going into this, right? And for me, the moment I knew that she wanted to do this show, I knew in the back of my head, okay, I'm taking my wife, like, and this is me judging right off the bat that no one else is going to take a pastry chef, right? No one else is smart enough to take a pastry chef with them, right? To this type of show. Yeah, the smoke and the sugar, man, that's great. And for me, I was like, no, like we can make this happen. I just need the creativity that I know that she possesses because she's a fantastic pastry chef. But for her, it's like I wanted her to be able to know that she can do this in any type of settings no matter what. So that was, that was beautiful. Being able to just have my wife, like, come out and actually start believing more in her skill set than her just thinking, you know, baking is just an, an, an, an controlled environment.

41:09Any plans for that 30K? Maybe take each other out for dinner or something? I don't know. I don't know if you've ever been to a restaurant, but I got a parking lot. I got a fix. Well, you got to have something more romantic. I mean, there's got to be, because you guys, you're just such a great couple. I think that's part of what made, made you such superstars on, on this show. They are San Antonio's whispers of the smoke. S.O. and Grecia Ramos, the husband and wife team behind San Antonio's acclaimed 2M Smokehouse, first place winners in Food Network's new pit masters competition. Congratulations to you both. Very happy for you and I know San Antonio's real proud of you too. Thank you. Thank you guys so much and thank you guys for having us on. It means the world to us.

42:17I'm Sean P.T. I'm with the typewriter rodeo. And the typewriter rodeo, we make up poems on the spot on whatever topic people want. Right. For listener Emily, who asked for a poem that would give her a kick in the pants to help her keep writing. Perhaps you will go out, tie a kite to a string, send it up, and hope it will lead you to the words, to the stories, waiting in the clouds. It's a nice image isn't it? Forget that. To write, you need that kite to go through storms. Hold on. You need that kite to be struck by lightning. Do not let go. Let that energy surge and most of all scare you. Are you still holding on? Now, maybe now you are starting to get there.

43:18The words, the true raw words, that kite coming crashing down. Pick it up. Keep going. This is the beautiful catastrophe that is writing. That will get your words down from the clouds and onto the shelf. Right there beside all the others you love. And who have gone through the same crash course. For the Texas Standard, I'm Sean Petrie with The Typewriter Rodeo. You can hear the Typewriter Rodeo every Friday here on the Standard. Got a suggestion for a custom poem. We'll send it on over. You just might hear it on the radio. But now it's time for the week that was in Texas politics. Jasper Sharer joins us. He's politics editor for the Texas Tribune. Jasper, welcome back. Yeah, thanks for having me. Well, election day, hard to believe that we are just what two months away now. And I was really intrigued to see an interesting deep dive into affordability.

44:22Yeah, I mean, I think it's definitely just this rise in costs across all these different sectors of the economy, energy, gas prices, housing, food, and even healthcare this year. That's kind of robbing the Republicans in charge of the state of this, one of their most reliable arguments for reelection that Texas is this economic miracle. And then you combine it with their real policies that the Trump administration has enacted from the tariffs to Iran war that Democrats can draw a real through line to some of these costs increases at the pump. I know that Republicans must be concerned about how things will go in these midterms. Clearly they're doing something unprecedented by descending upon Dallas for what looks to be a kind of an unconventional convention, I suppose we could say, right?

45:23That's right. Yeah, the Republicans are doing a, you know, what they do every four years during a presidential year, descending on Dallas next week to basically, you know, I see this as kind of a, you know, Trump, I think they're RNC, the Republican National Committee chair has called it Trump a polusa that they're going to be doing, you know, try to get the voters who turn out for, you know, when Trump is on the ballot, but who might be pronestaying home during these low turnout midterms, you know, looking at the polling, it just across the board Republicans are just not as enthusiastic about voting as they usually are as they were, you know, four years ago in the last midterm. I think this is an attempt to do this unconventional thing to try to, you know, use some, some turnout. But you think about, we were just talking about affordability is how central is Trump to GOP prospects in November? Well, you know, I think it, it, one way to look at that is, you know, not sure how many

46:27candidates in these really important battleground districts are, are going to be showing up to the convention next week, but it's, I think it could be sort of a tell in some ways, you know, to answer your question about, you know, the Democrats who those, those Republican candidates are running against are doing everything they can to paint the, the GOP nominees to Trump because he's, you know, underwater popularity wise and a lot of these competitive races, including some of the congressional districts that were just redrawn a year ago at, at the president's request to, to try to become more favorable to Republicans. So I think, you know, Trump is a bit of a, a milestone around Republicans next in these, in these hyper competitive seats right now. If folks want to keep up with what's going on in, in Texas politics, all you got to do is go over to Texas Tribune dot O R G. That's where Jasper share of his politics editor. Jasper, thanks so much. Have a great weekend. Thanks David, you too. And you are listening to the Texas Standard.

47:36Texas has a new type of legal tender. I'm Wells Dunbar with Texas Standard and as of September 1st, certain types of gold and silver can officially be used as money around here. Now before you start digging through the jewelry box, there's some pretty big caveats, like the fact nobody is required to accept it. But the law's author, San Antonio House Republican Mark Dorazio, says precious metals offer something ordinary currency doesn't. The value being tied to gold has given me a hedge against inflation. Financial advisor, Demari Swanagan puts it this way. There's a reason people care about this. Gold and silver have been used as stores of value for thousands of years. And those yields could outpace that half a percent you get on your free checking account. But judging from the responses we got, a lot of Texans are still trying to figure out what spending gold would actually look like. Instagram or T speed had some good advice. But don't be speaking, yo, it has to be able to take a gold ring to McDonald's or Starbucks

48:39or any of that because it's up to the business. The possibilities for comics and areas. That's the real gold. Do you think that if you used to take you a gold necklace up the fuel city, think there'd be some tacos to be clear. Your random necklace is not automatically legal tender. The law applies to gold and silver that meets specific requirements for things like weight, purity and markings and businesses can still say no. Ultimately, the law will allow the state comptroller to establish an electronic payment system backed by Boolean held by the state. But that system isn't here yet. And YouTuber West Texas Stacker, he's already a hard sell. You have to send your silver and gold to the Texas State depository. The depository or suppository. Either way, either way, you're taking it somewhere, right? It's depository for the record. Send your silver and gold off to the depository and they'll issue you a debit card.

49:42I would not do that in a hundred years. Our gold bug friend isn't the only one who's not convinced, although reasons vary. Marilyn Napp Lit says this must be for the legislators because us regular folk don't have gold and silver to use as money. Would you ever actually use gold or silver as money? Or does the whole thing sound wildly impractical? Leave us a voice message at texasstandard.org slash talk. I'm Wells Dunbar and this is the talk of Texas. Our producers and reporters include Sarah Ash, Shelley Brisbane, Michael Marx and Sean Saldanya. Role Alonso is our digital editor, Least our Pellies, our director, technical directors, Jake Pearlman and Caroline Files behind the big board in mission control. Texas standards managing producers Laura Rice, our executive producer is Ron Defanick. I'm Dave Brown, and she knew a wonderful weekend. Phil and Tropic support for Texas Standard comes from Casey and Scott O'Hare, the Wingler Family Foundation. Lynn Dopson and Greg Waldrich, Adrian Killam and the George Huntington Family.

50:46Would your company or organization like to be a sponsor as well? Contact your local station for opportunities within your community. For statewide sponsorships, visit texaspublicmedianetwork.com. If you want to know what's going on in the world, then you need to know what's going on in Texas. Every weekday on the Texas Standard, we bring you stories from across the state that affect what's going on elsewhere. As part of the NPR network and independent coalition of public media podcasters, you can find us wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Michael Marx, talk to you tomorrow.