Jim Atkinson
Jim Atkinson, a contributing editor of TEXAS MONTHLY, has been a working journalist in Texas for over 25 years. He was a courthouse reporter for the Dallas Times Herald and a political correspondent for Dallas’ KERA-TV Channel 13’s newsroom during the 1970’s. In l974, he helped to found D Magazine, the city magazine of Dallas, and worked there as an editor and writer. In l980, he began writing for TEXAS MONTHLY and other publications including Playboy and National Review. He has won numerous awards for reporting and is the author of two books.
For most of this career, Atkinson has written about crime and the criminal justice system. Five years ago, he decided to turn his energies to reporting on health and medical science, primarily in the pages of TEXAS MONTHLY. Since then, he has written about everything from the flu to cardiac surgery to sexual addiction, and has won seven awards for medical reporting.
Atkinson lives in Dallas with his wife, Ann.
Features
The Pedophile Next Door
How do you know when a child molester is cured? Are you willing to take his word for it? David Wayne Jones hopes so. Thirteen years ago he was convicted of preying on little boys at the East Dallas YMCA, but he could soon be out of jail and back on the street. Your street. (March 2004)
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. (February 2003)
Death and the Matrons
(July 2002)
Sober
\More than a decade ago I wrote about the virtues of the drinking life and the comforts of what I called a “bar bar.” Then I hit rock bottom. It’s been eight years now since I took my last drink—and I’m finally ready to tell the rest of the story. (July 2001)
Medicine • Wayne Isom
He's all hearts. (September 2000)
Health • Lance Armstrong
The ride of his life. (September 1999)
A Strike Against You
If your family has a history of cancer, are you doomed? Even though many of his relatives—including his famous father—succumbed to the disease, Mickey Mantle, Jr., didn’t think so. Then he got sick. (February 1999)
Addicted to Sex?
Even if you’re not, many Texans are: Sex Addicts Anonymous has 61 chapters across the state, tending to the tattered psyches of exhibitionists and other tormented souls. (December 1998)
State of the Heart
Bypass surgery with almost no pain, and you get to go home three days later? Don’t have a coronary: It’s happening right now, in Texas. (June 1998)
Health • Eric Moon-shong Tang
Smoking out the truth. (September 1997)
Blowin’ in the Wind
Itchy eyes, sore throat, runny nose: It must be allergy season. But what causes allergies? How do you pick a doctor? And what’s the best treatment? An in-depth look at an affliction that’s nothing to sneeze at. (April 1997)
So Much to Learn, So Little Time
Today students at Southwestern Medical School in Dallas are expected to master more hard-core science than ever before. Yet after graduation, they’ll have to keep studying, and be counselors and business experts too. A hard look at the way we teach our doctors—and why it has had to change. (January 1997)
The Race of His Life
When a world-class athlete like Austin’s Lance Armstrong gets cancer, it’s a shock—for him, and for every man who has ever considered himself invincible. (December 1996)
Thrill Killers
Now that the crack epidemic has leveled off and gang violence is down, urban Texas is being terrorized by a new type of criminal: the superpredator. He murders without motive, feels no remorse, and worst of all, seldom gets caught. (November 1996)
Death and the Matrons
What could drive a suburban housewife to murder? The bizarre cases of Rowlett’s Darlie Routier and Fairview’s Candy Montgomery hint at the answer, and it may be closer to home than we’d like to think. (October 1996)
Texas Primer: The Wishbone Offense
Darrell Royal’s supremely simple invention took Texas teams to the top and kept them there. (October 1985)
The 89 Greatest Texas Bars
No Matter where you are, there’s someplace to be nowhere. (May 1983)
The Bar Bar
It’s a noble institution, especially if you can master all its subtle skills: not being there, the second call, holding forth, and another thing... (May 1983)
Columns | Miscellany
The Infirmation Age
Many Texans are woefully unprepared for what has become our fastest-growing health care problem: taking care of Mom and Dad. (December 2003)
Bad Air Days
Historically, Southeast Texas and cancer have gone together like, well, pollution and disease. I wish I could say things were different today. (August 2003)
Mold Age
Are the toxic fungi that launched a thousand lawsuits really as dangerous as everyone says? Don't believe the hype. (April 2003)
Wrongful Life?
A Houston couple says a hospital is responsible for their daughter's severe disabilities. Should Texas' highest court agree, the case will change health care as we know it. (December 2002)
Burning Questions
What is the safest way to dispose of a diseased cow carcass—and what does it have to do with the Ames strain of anthrax? (August 2002)
Perilously Plump
Texans love to say that everything’s bigger here, but when it comes to the waistlines in one in four of our largest cities, that’s nothing to brag about. (April 2002)
Bioterrified?
If you think your flulike symptoms could be anthrax, don't call your HMO—call your doctor. And other advice the television "experts" should have told you. (February 2002)
Death and Texas
Why does Potter County have the state's highest mortality rate? Poverty is only one answer. (January 2002)
My Grief, and Ours
When I lost my father to cancer this summer, the greatest comfort I found was in understanding how to grieve. That came in handy on September 11. (November 2001)
Battle Plan
A Dallas epidemiologist has made it his mission to learn the truth about Gulf War Syndrome, even if he has to fight the government. (July 2001)
Killer Bugs
I learned a shocking lesson when I visited San Antonio's "hot lab," where some of the world's deadliest microbes are studied. The germs are winning. (June 2001)
Curing the Colonias
The prescription to treat the sickest areas in Texas isn't what you think. (April 2001)
Vocal Heroes
The doctors at Abilene’s Voice Institute of West Texas can treat all manner of problems with the way you talk? Speech, speech! (July 2000)
Saving Face
When a dog chewed off a toddler's nose, cheeks, and lips, the doctors at Dallas' Children's Medical Center sprang into action. (March 2000)
Eyes on the Prize
The noble—and Nobel—efforts of a Houston pharmacology professor could someday help in the treatment of cancer. (December 1999)
Playing for Keeps
The truth—what we can discern, anyway—about Tom Landry’s leukemia. (July 1999)
Bad Blood
You can’t call it a Texas disease, but meningococcemia—a blood-borne form of meningitis—afflicts a fair number of the state’s children. And if the FDA will let him, a Dallas pediatrician thinks he can treat it. (April 1999)
Killer C
If you had a blood transfusion before 1992 or have ever shared a needle, you could have hepatitis C. You may feel fine, but it could be killing you. (December 1998)
The Eyes Have It
An anxious, alcoholic, stressed, and depressed Dallasite. A suicidal San Antonian. For each, a seemingly visionary treatment. (September 1998)
No Show
Cash-poor PBS stations can’t seem to come up with innovative new ideas, so they ought to resurrect an innovative old one: Newsroom, the best local public- affairs program in Texas history. (September 1997)
Food Fright
Eating a peanut shouldn’t be a particularly memorable experience, but for Dallasite Mona Cain and countless other allergic Americans, it’s a matter of life and death. (August 1997)
Making Headway
At the Texas Woman’s University Aphasia Center in Dallas, a promising new treatment is helping stroke victims learn to read, write, and speak again. (March 1997)
Spin Control
Vertigo isn’t just the stuff of Hitchcock thrillers—it’s a debilitating disease, as Dallas radio talk show host Kevin McCarthy found out the hard way. (August 1996)
Pale by Comparison
“Michael Jackson’s disease” sounds like a punch line, but the pigment-robbing skin disorder is no joke. Just ask Dallas County commissioner John Wiley Price. (March 1996)
Smooth Operator
You might say Tarek Souryal is the most important Dallas Maverick: He doesn’t score or rebound, but he reconstructs million-dollar ankles and knees, and that makes him a real team player. (January 1996)
Altered State
A year after a grand mal seizure left me convulsing on the floor, I’m still finding my way back into everyday life. (September 1993)
Reporter
This Is for Wheel
The hybrid of my dreams. (December 2008)
Socket to Me
A plug for new appliances. (October 2008)
Trash Talk
Talking trash (and compost). (August 2008)
So Lawn, Farewell
Lawn of a new day. (June 2008)
This Old House
Jim Atkinson changes out his insulation. (April 2008)
The New Conservative
Can Jim Atkinson change the world? (February 2008)
GI Woe
The esophagus explained. (December 2007)
Take Heart
Let’s have a heart-to-heart. (October 2007)
Do Sweat It
Sweat 101. (August 2007)
Getting Antsy
Fire ants forever. (sigh.) (June 2007)
Hot Shot
The ABCs of HPV. (April 2007)
Eating Myself Alive
Ten foods to gorge on in 2007. (February 2007)
The Big D
The unsweetened truth about diabetes. (December 2006)
Under My Skin
The newest nightmare disease. (October 2006)
The Mosquito Diaries
The buzz on mosquitoes. (August 2006)
Welcome To the 03
Why ozone is indeed a menace. (June 2006)
Bleeding Edge
Blood will tell. (April 2006)
The Eyes of Texas
Oh, say, can you see? (February 2006)
Oh, Lardy
Fat versus Fit. (November 2005)
The Doctor Will Mistreat You Now
What to do if your doctor is a quack. (September 2005)
See Spot. See Spot Grow.
Here comes the sun. (July 2005)
Nothing to Sneeze At
Sneeze play. (May 2005)
Relief Pitchers
Pain, pain, go away (March 2005)
Pick Your Poison
(March 2005)
Funny, You Don’t Look Fluish
Minister of Health Jim Atkinson cures what ails us. (January 2005)
State of Emergency
As more and more children fall off the health-insurance rolls, chaos reigns at Children's Medical Center Dallas, which used to have the best pediatric ER in Texas, and the quality of care for everyone suffers. (October 2004)
Brave New 'Burbs
Why Collin County is the new Dallas. (September 2003)
Miracle Workers
The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center is put under the microscope. (September 2002)
A1, Gored
Can Al Lipscomb survive both the ballot box and the jury box? (May 1999)
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