Two and a half millennia of innovation, from Archytas’s wooden pigeon to Neil Armstrong’s giant leap to Jeff Bezos’s Blue Moon.
Articles
Nearly sixty years ago, Funk and twelve other women proved that they could be astronauts too. But they never got to walk on the moon.
The West Texas border town of Presidio is one of the poorest places in the state. So why does it have one of the best high school rocketry clubs in the country?
Though some will reap serious profits, the region's dealing with skyrocketing rents, overcrowded schools, and potholes as big as VW Beetles.
After Josefina De León’s daughter went missing in the Mexican State of Tamaulipas in 2012, she was determined to find her. Seven years later, she hasn’t given up.
He called himself the Tiger King and plastered his face on highway billboards in Texas and Oklahoma. He bred big cats, bears, baboons, and more. He lived, with a parade of partners, on the grounds of his private zoo. He threatened a rival with murder—repeatedly, on YouTube—and tried to hire a hit man to do the deed.
Sabika Sheikh, a Muslim exchange student from Pakistan with dreams of changing the world, struck up an unlikely friendship with an evangelical Christian girl. The two became inseparable—until the day a fellow student opened fire.
My father always pampered his pets. So when he fell ill and moved in with us, it was no surprise that his corgi came to rule our home. What I didn’t expect was for Trilby to care for me after Dad was gone.
In the tug-of-war over groundwater between two Central Texas counties, he who pumps the most, wins. At least until everyone loses.
Driving through a dangerous curve in Tyler, James Fulton crossed into oncoming traffic and killed a young woman. He wasn’t drunk, and the cops said the crash was an accident. But the Smith County DA saw it differently.
Beaver Aplin built the quirky convenience chain into a Texas empire. Will his tactics translate outside the state?
Texas Monthly has been giving Texans, both new and old, insights into this exceptional state for nearly half a century. Our February 2019 collector’s issue curates stories from our archives that celebrate the Texas icons and oddities that so many of us treasure, and reflect our love of the state’s land, traditions, and characters.
Appreciations by current and former staffers who know them all too well.
Over the years, Texas Monthly’s most celebrated voices have written about the places that shaped them, from the Panhandle to the border. We revisit some of the classics.
Icons and archetypes that reveal what it means to be Texan.
Welcome to the Permian Basin, home of the hottest oil play in the world.
Put your feet up and settle in for our favorite longform of the year.
America’s wealthiest black person is a tech investor with an eye for value.
The president and CEO of Houston’s Episcopal Health Foundation has some bold ideas for retooling our medical system.
From gymnast Simone Biles and Houston mayor Sylvester Turner to political megadonor Tim Dunn, here are 31 Texans who are changing the way we think about politics, education, food, philanthropy, and, well, pretty much everything else.
The Rackspace founder is turning his attention to civic development—with very fast results.
The CEO of Austin’s WP Engine says her company doesn’t look like most tech outfits—and that’s one reason it’s so successful.
A young city councilman’s Grindr photos were leaked, and he now faces a recall election. Was there a conspiracy to oust him, and did it come from inside City Hall?
One year ago, after Stephen Willeford disrupted the mass murder at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, he was hailed as the ultimate good guy with a gun, but he's still reckoning with what happened that day—and what his life has become.
Is Thomas J. Henry an unrepentant huckster, or is he a righteous warrior for the little guy? Can he be both?
In 1967, a 56-year-old lawyer met a young inmate with a brilliant mind and horrifying stories about life inside. Their complicated alliance—and even more complicated romance—would shed light on a nationwide scandal, disrupt a system of abuse and virtual slavery across the state, and change incarceration in Texas forever.
How prosecutors tied a brazen murder in an upscale Dallas suburb to one of Mexico’s most violent criminal organizations.
In this exclusive excerpt from 'Ticker: The Quest to Create an Artificial Heart,' world-renowned Houston surgeon Bud Frazier races to help an ailing patient by implanting a revolutionary device that may one day save millions of lives.
Five decades ago, Myrtis Dightman broke the color barrier in professional rodeo and became one of the best bull riders who ever lived. But his imprint on the sport was only just beginning.
When Given Kachepa first arrived from Zambia as a young boy, he expected to sing in a choir and gain an education. Instead he was forced into servitude.
The rock star’s most essential music, from his earliest influences through his biggest hits to the artists he’s influenced himself.
After Aliah Hernandez was brutally beaten in a New Braunfels motel room, her attacker walked away free.
Eleven years ago, the man who topped the charts with ‘The Joker’ and ‘Rock’n Me’ took a thirteen-year-old guitarist and would-be songwriter under his wing. Eleven years later, he’s still teaching me lessons on how to be an adult.
A harrowing journey through Houston’s health care system offers an inside look at why so many women are dying after giving birth.
Beginning in 2015, Houston was plagued by a series of brutal armored car robberies that bewildered FBI agents for nearly two years. To finally bring down the unassuming mastermind behind it all, the agents had to stage an elaborate trap—and catch him in the act.
In 2014, Russell Bonner Bentley was a middle-aged arborist living in Austin. Now he’s a local celebrity in a war-torn region of Ukraine. His journey reveals a troubling development in Putin’s information war.
A quarter century after 82 Branch Davidians and 4 federal officers died outside Waco, retired FBI agent Byron Sage still can't stop thinking—and arguing—about what happened.
A decade ago, Gabby Sones accused her parents and five others of running the most depraved child sex ring in Texas history. Now she’s ready to clear their names.
This month, we have reimagined Texas Monthly’s design, both in the magazine and online.
Today’s wildcatters find rich veins of opportunity in everything from tortillas to interplanetary travel. Meet the dreamers and risk-takers shaping our future.
As an eighteen-year-old immigrant to the U.S., Franklin Chang Díaz dreamed of becoming an astronaut. Now, decades after tying the record for most spaceflights, he might be the best bet to get us to Mars.
When the early Texas rancher Charles Goodnight invented the chuck wagon, in 1866, he didn’t just presage today’s food trucks; he solved an immediate problem, which was how to keep cowboys on the remote parts of the range well-fed. During the rough-and-tumble frontier days, Texas demanded such…
The first time I heard about Bumble, I was complaining about dating apps, a favorite pastime of those of us consigned to them. This was December 2015, and I’d spent four months swiping right (but mostly left) on Tinder. It had yielded three good dates, one of which turned…
From our forty-third governor to the unofficial fishing guide for Caddo Lake, we lost a lot of great Texans this year. Here are the people we’ll miss.
Everyone from the novice to the aficionado can get something out of the city's festival of drink (just pace yourselves, please).