Evan Smith
Evan Smith joined the staff of TEXAS MONTHLY as a senior editor in 1992. In 2000, he became the magazine’s editor, a post he held until 2008, when he was promoted to president and editor in chief. In 2009, Smith stepped down from the magazine to become the CEO and editor in chief of the Texas Tribune.
As editor emeritus, he continues to host Texas Monthly Talks, a weekly interview program that airs on PBS stations across the state.
Features
The Walking Deadline
Money Talks
Wealthy Republican donor James Leininger on why he supports school vouchers and opposes apostates in his party.
The World According to Bob Inman
The former national security chief and deputy CIA director on why we're losing the peace in Iraq and where the terrorists could strike next.
One Ticked-off Grandma
You'd be one too if you were Carole Keeton Strayhorn and you thought the governor was messing with you.
Anchor Away
What Walter Cronkite really thinks about cable TV shoutfests, the length of network newscasts, and (ahem) Jayson Blair.
San Diego, California
FLFW Will See You Now
In a rare interview, George H.W. Bush—a.k.a. the Former Leader of the Free World—disses Newt and the Dixie Chicks, muses on the restorative powers of Maine, and (who'd have imagined?) has nice things to say about the current occupant of the Oval Office.
Who's Next?
San Antonio's Marshevet Hooker is not just any old high school sprinter; she's an Olympic gold medalist in the making. Meet her and nine other women we're betting will lead the new Texas—and the world.
My Three Sons
Prudence Mackintosh's sons.
How W. Can Lose
What are George Bush’s weaknesses as he heads into the fall campaign? We asked six Texas Democrats— a former governor, a former lieutenant governor, two wannabes, and two wiseacre pundits—to make the case against him. They pulled no punches.
John O’Quinn Objects
“When a corporation does something that results in the death of people, what prison do you put them in?” asks the plantiffs lawyer Texas business loves to hate, and he’s just getting warmed up.
A Great Day In Austin
Together for the first time: Two Tommys (Hancock and Shannon), two Montes (Montomery and Warden), two Hubbards (Blues Boys and Ray Wylie) and two Clarks (Carrie and W.C.), plus a Butthole Surfer, three Gourds, six Bells of Joy, a Tailgator, and 87 others who give their all, creatively speaking, to the Live Music Capital of the World.
Entrepreneur of the Century—Michael Dell
“Entrepreneurship is the art of the possible. Anyone with money and a good idea has what it takes to write his own ticket. The hitch, of course, is follow-through. You have to execute. You have to do it. And no one has done it as well as Michael Dell.”
George, Washington
His days as a “loyalty thermometer” in the nation’s capital.
Deep Dish
Which Hollywood legend is “the bitch of all time”? Which comedienne’s daughter was a dope addict by age fourteen and came to Houston to get unhooked? Texas’ top gossips tell all.
The Lone Starr State
Independent counsel Kenneth Starr was born in Vernon, and that’s just one of the many Texas connections at the heart of his investigation of Bill Clinton.
Hooray for Hollywood, Texas
The players. The stories. A special report on our booming film business.
How They Do It
How Jim Wright schoozes, George Foreman bruises, ZZ Top trims, and Janet Evans swims, plus the straight skinny on everything else from nearly fifty other Texas celebrities.
Columns | Miscellany
What I’ve Learned
Nine years as editor of this magazine taught me a few things, like failure is always an option, the writers are usually right, and whatever you do, stay far, far away from postcoital astronauts.
Where I’m Of
The case for my Texanness.
This Blog’s Life
The Ben Franklin of McGregor.
AWOL
Are the Texas Democrats deserters?
Nice and Easy
"I have a very comfortable lifestyle as a jazz musician. Every day is a Saturday for me."
The Other War
They dislike us. They really dislike us.
Pro vs. Chron
How the new editor of the Houston Chronicle is trying to turn the page on the paper's past.
Johnny “Lam” Jones
Evan Smith on Johnny “Lam” Jones.
The Ex-Speakers of the House
Robert Strauss
Evan Smith on Robert Strauss.
Beavis and Butt-Head
The Ex-Governors
Polling the ex-governors.
GSD&M Class of 1981
Grand Designs
A new Texas Monthly by design—and necessity.
Great Expectations
Where we go from here.
Laura Miller
“The problem is that there’s nobody who can put their foot down and say, ‘Yep, by God, we’re going to do this …’ It’s a city without leadership.”
Louis Sachar
“Any idea you can think up and plan out isn’t going to be that good. There’s no way I could have thought up all of Holes beforehand.”
Robert Rivard
“People speak nostalgically about family newspapers. For every decent one, there were literally hundreds of embarrassingly bad ones.”
Red McCombs
“I’ve had my failures and my mistakes. I don’t dwell on them. So I don’t have anything dragging me down at any given time.”
Edward E. Whitacre Jr.
“The worry is that we’re going to put the Bell system back together. You hear that a lot. Anybody who says that is just not informed.”
Lance Armstrong
“There are some places where it wouldn’t matter if Pope Benedict XVI was winning the Tour. They would kill him. They would say he cheats, he steals, he has sex with little boys.”
Boone Pickens
“The record’s clean. I’m sure that I haven’t done everything that everyone would like me to do. But I’ve never hurt anybody.”
Liz Smith
“Nobody doing what I’m doing is important anymore. Not in the way Winchell, Kilgallen, Hedda, and Louella were important.”
Thomas Haden Church
“I knew immediately that they’d be serving ice water in hell about the same time I’d be cast in [Sideways].”
Marsha Sharp
“A lot of people are perfect fits for universities. I’m a perfect fit for Texas Tech. I understand West Texas. I am West Texas.”
Gordon Bethune
“It isn’t about cheap. You can make a pizza so cheap nobody will eat it. You can make an airline so cheap nobody will fly it. It’s about the product.”
Kay Bailey Hutchison
“Texas is a huge, growing state on a border. We have some very basic issues that need addressing, and I don’t think they’re being addressed right now.”
Mike Judge
"You can't make all of TV and movies kid-safe. If you do, we're all going to be watching the Care Bears. I think there should be things that are just for adults."
Larry McMurtry
"I like to go out at night. I like to sit in a nice room and look at beautiful women. I don't want to just sit on my back porch drinking scotch, and there isn't much more to do in Archer City."
David Carr
"We're a real NFL football team, and we can go out and make plays. We have talent. We can beat teams. It's not a fluke if we beat the Cowboys."
Susan Combs
"Billy can go to a 7-Eleven and buy a soft drink and must pay sales tax, but Billy goes to school, buys a soft drink, and pays no sales tax."
Bill Moyers
"War is always a great reinforcer of secrecy, but a war on terror is the most insidious threat to openness—you can always claim, without having to explain why, that something can't be public."
Michael Dell
"You get some people who say, 'I really want to know all the things you do when you're not working.' Well, I really don't want to tell you those things. Go away."
STRAIGHT TALK
Women On The Verge
The Latinas in the Democrats’ sights.
The Law Won
Emilio Navaira and Gloria Trevi get their days in court.
Estranged Bedfellows
The politics — and semantics — of the Mosbacher divorce.
Regarding Henry
Henry Kissinger versus UT.
Toney Curtis
Brother, Can You Spare Some Dimes?
Situation Wanted
Paul In The Family
Seeing Stars
Skip, a Beat
Swartz and All
Oil’s Well That Ends Well
Reporter
Jerry Jones
Jerry Jones’s high hopes for his new stadium.
Tanya Tucker
Tanya Tucker on life on the road and her new album.
C. Andrew Doyle
The new Episcopal bishop on politics, faith, and Twitter.
Julián Castro
New mayor Julián Castro on San Antonio’s future.
Cecil Cooper
Astros skipper Cecil Cooper on life in baseball.
Tony Garza
Tony Garza on the situation in Mexico.
Selling Vodka
Tito Beveridge on making vodka.
Catherine Hardwicke
Catherine Hardwicke on growing up in McAllen.
Todd Oldham
Todd Oldham on his life of design.
Dean Fearing
Dean Fearing on menu planning and home cooking.
Lobbying
Sheila Jackson Lee
Sheila Jackson Lee on the Age of Obama.
Mark Seliger
Mark Seliger on how to take a photograph.
Rick Riordan
Rick Riordan is not J. K. Rowling.
Bob Schieffer
Bob Schieffer on Sundays without Tim Russert.
Hakeem Olajuwon
Luci Baines Johnson
Luci Johnson on her father’s legacy.
Ricardo Sanchez
Ricardo Sanchez on what happened at Abu Ghraib.
TM Talks: Herb Kelleher
Southwest Airline's co-founder on the FAA, smoking, and deplaning.
Margaret Spellings
Margaret Spellings defends No Child Left Behind.
Avery Johnson
Avery Johnson on how to be an NBA coach.
Mark McKinnon
Mark McKinnon on John McCain’s comeback.
Diana Natalicio
Diana Natalicio on the future of higher ed in El Paso.
Dan Bartlett
Dan Bartlett is upbeat about Iraq and ’08.
Writing for a Newsweekly
Karen Tumulty on writing for Time.
Kay Bailey Hutchison
Joel Osteen
Can Joel Osteen get an “Amen”?
Ray Benson
Ray Benson on Wills, weed, and the Wheel.
Collecting Art
Jeanne Klein on the art of collecting.
Burton Tansky
Burton Tansky on Neiman’s at one hundred.
Jody Conradt
Jody Conradt at the buzzer.
Lawrence Wright
Lawrence Wright looms and towers.
Bill Paxton
Bill Paxton on JFK and HBO.
Rick Perry
Rick Perry explains himself.
Ted Nugent
Ted Nugent shoots to kill.
At Ease
Four years later, even more of our heroes have fallen in Iraq.
Phyllis George
Phyllis George on life’s rich pageant.
Joe Ely
Joe Ely on the coming death of the CD.
Dick Armey
Dick Armey on where the GOP went wrong.
Forest Whitaker
Forest Whitaker brings Idi Amin to life.
Molly Ivins
Molly Ivins on the death of newspapers.
James Baker
James Baker stays the course.
Betty Buckley
Joe Allbaugh
Joe Allbaugh defends you-know-who.
Eileen Collins
Eileen Collins on what’s ailing NASA.
Betty Flores
Betty Flores on border security—and insecurity.
Meet the Prez
The candidate cattle call begins.
Lyle Lovett
Lyle Lovett on acting, singing, and Calvin Klein.
Pete Laney
… on being a Democrat (but not Speaker).
Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson on growing up in Abbott, playing in public for the first time, what he listens to on the bus, and why he doesn’t hate the music business.
Anita Perry
The 53-year-old first lady of Texas on small-town values, getting burned by the press, what we don’t understand about the governor, and her reaction to “Adiós, mofo.”
John Mackey
“I used to resent the fact that people romanticize Whole Foods. I always wanted to shake them and say, ‘Gosh, we’re just a grocery store!’ ”
Benjamin McKenzie
Benjamin McKenzie kisses.
A Few Words with Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban shoots (from the hip).
Customer Service
Two mayors give their cities the business.
Andy Roddick
Andy Roddick avoids Tracy Austin Syndrome.
Joe Jamail
Joe Jamail rails against tort deform.
Barbara Bush
The former first lady on her new book, how she writes— and why she never liked Alice in Wonderland.
Molly Ivins
Molly Ivins goes nuts for Arnold.
A Few Words With Ron Kirk
Evan Smith talks with former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk about life after politics and, well, politics.
Clifford Antone
Clifford Antone gets back in the club.
David Clyde
His post-phenom life.
John Lee Hancock
The director of the new Alamo movie takes on the storied battle—and the eyes of Texas are upon him.
Jim Lehrer
Jim Lehrer between the covers.
Sheila Jackson Lee
Sheila Jackson Lee can take the heat (but not pulled pork).
Mike Moses
Dallas schools superintendent Mike Moses makes progress—and more money than anyone else.
The Temp
Meet our governor . . . Rodney Ellis?
Pretty, Good
Hooray for Hollywood's All the Pretty Horses.
Weed All About It
The knock on Matthew McConaughey’s arrest.
Gov Story
Ping-Pong balls in our governor’s past.
In Vogue
The tycoon from Texas who’s very much in Vogue.
Evitable?
How George W. could be evitable.
Bad News
Does the Dallas Morning News discriminate? Plus: Bill Clinton between the covers.
Buy George?
The book (make that books) on George W. Bush.
Has Gramm Had His Phil?
Is Phil Gramm out of gas (and oil)?
The Obsession Thing
Heady Lamar
Several Sundays a year, Texans wake to find not one but two GOP presidential hopefuls inside the state’s borders.
Legs
ZZ Top v. Chrysler
This Year’s Remodel
After watching their business districts wither away as companies set up shop in the suburbs, Texas cities and towns are banding together to fight back.
Aftermath
Sympathy for Jerry Hall
Purple Reign
Sandra Cisneros’ colorful victory.
Sexual Congress
Who says there is nothing funny about the Monica Lewinsky matter?
scalpers.gov
Internet profiteers target George W. Bush.
Love and Marriage
How Frank Sinatra, Jr., became a Texan-in-law.
Moody Blues
“Aunt Jimmy” sues Galveston’s first family.
Georgia O’Beef
Fort Worth art patrons fight the Presbyterians over Georgia O’Keefe
War Is Hell
Why the Austin American-Stateman’s film critic is under seige.
The Junior League
The media muff George W. Bush’s name.
Radio Daze
Gary Mauro’s bad spell.
Tax Moncrief
Inside Tex Moncrief’s IRS mess.
Written Off
LeAnn Rimes gets written off.
Anna Nicole Myth
Anna Nicole Smith’s bar mitzvah brouhaha.
Team Player
Red McCombs, still on the sidelines
The D-Files
Signs of intelligent life in Dallas.
We and Mrs. Jones
Paula Jones and Texas.
Mooned
A Houston congresswoman’s space case.
Burning Bridges
For Robert James Waller, life imitates art—and irritates wife.
Bush’s Hit Man
The governor’s media guru is accused of spousal abuse.
The Latest Buzz
Why everyone’s dazed and confused about Richard Linklater’s age.
Affair of State
A Dallas lawyer’s roman à Clinton.
Satisfaction
That’s what Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall got on their recent trip to West Texas. West Texas retailers got it too.
Ghost Story
If you’re a celebrity who wants to pen a book, who you gonna call? Ghostwriters.
Not Much Left
The Texas Observer could be on its last legs (again).
’Saw Loser
Why a great horror movie starring Matthew McConaughey and Renée Zellweger could get buried.
Tex Rated
summary: What’s the best hotel in Texas? (Hint: It’s not the Mansion on Turtle Creek).
Lars Attacks!
Why Texas’ best-known homeless writer is back on the streets.
Morris the Catch
Dick Morris’ other other woman.
CD and Book Reviews
Stella Houston
The University of Houston thinks Frank Stella is frankly stellar.
CD and Book Reviews
Spiel Burg
A Spielberg-backed cyberguide comes to Texas.
Her Little Secret
Gov, American Style
Ann Richards gets ready for prime time.
Dial M for Molly.
Molly Ivins and Bob Wade on TV.
A Winters Tale
Edgar and Johnny Winter sing the blues over a comic book.
Book ’Em!
Texas writers go Hollywood.
Shoot a Basketball
Unreal Estate
Celebrity land deals—not.
Barry Corbin
Tyrannosaurus Ex
Gauging Barney’s Universal appeal.
Powers Boothe
Web Exclusives
And That’s The Way It Is
Straus of Representatives
The likely Speaker of the House promises no retaliation, an end to the acrimony, and tells his fellow Republicans to “wake up!”
Sen. Clinton on Texas Monthly Talks
Texas Monthly Biz
Cliff and Lisa Sharples
The husband-and-wife co-founders of garden.com dish the dirt on their IPO.
Letter from the Editor
Welcome to Texas Monthly Biz.
What ever happened to Robert Sakowitz
Desperately seeking Sakowitz.
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