On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (Jan. 16, 2017) at 9 p.m., Houston Public Media TV 8 will air a special discussion about the relationship between the black and white communities of Houston. It’s called Houston in Black and White, and it asks who we are, how we arrived here and what we can do to move forward into a future of healing, equality and growth.

The program is part of HPM’s year-long DiverseCity initiative. On this edition of Houston Matters, we get a preview of the conversation from its two hosts: Houston Public Media’s Ernie Manouse and Eddie Robinson.

Also this hour…

New Transportation Projects

Traffic is a major part of life in Greater Houston. So what can be done to make your daily commute better?We talk with News 88.7 transportation reporter Gail Delaughter about some of the new and ongoing projects underway to help reduce traffic in the Greater Houston region.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of This Week’s News

A lot can happen in a week. Some of it good. Some of it bad. Some of it downright ugly. When faced with intriguing developments in the week’s news, we turn to our rotating panel of “non-experts” to parse The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of it all.

Our panel of non-experts this week includes: attorney and community education advocate Monica Richart, Vlad Davidiuk, conservative writer and political analyst, and Houston Chronicle writer Lisa Falkenberg.

Houston Marathon

This Sunday (Jan. 15, 2017) is the annual Houston Marathon, which begins and ends at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Each year, it attracts more than 20,000 and some 200,000 spectators.

But what is it about the simple act of watching people run a race that we find so fascinating? We ask Dr. David Walsh, clinical assistant professor at University of Houston’s Department of Health and Human Performance, about the history of marathons and what draws us to foot races.

Houston Matters offers a free daily, downloadable podcast here, on iTunes, Stitcher and various other podcasting apps.