Settle in for a by-no-means comprehensive list of some of the most popular stories in our pages this year.
Longform
Treatments for chronic Lyme disease are controversial and expensive. As a last resort, some patients are pursuing this unproven and painful alternative.
Twenty years ago my hometown made national headlines when the local college staged an internationally acclaimed play about gay men and the AIDS crisis. The people I grew up with are still feeling the aftershocks.
Last September, law enforcement officers were confounded by a murderer targeting prostitutes along the border. As the investigation intensified, they discovered that the killer had been hiding in plain sight.
Tony Buzbee knows how to win big in court. In the era of Trump, he might just win the Houston mayoral race.
Can’t afford a lawyer? Don't expect justice.
Put your feet up and settle in for our favorite longform of the year.
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.
How prosecutors tied a brazen murder in an upscale Dallas suburb to one of Mexico’s most violent criminal organizations.
How the trashiest, campiest show on television revolutionized pop culture, rebooted Texas’s reputation, and helped bring down the Romanian government. (Maybe!)
When the Great Depression put Plennie Wingo’s bustling Abilene cafe out of business, he tried to find fame, fortune, and a sense of meaning the only way he knew how: by embarking on an audacious trip around the world on foot. In reverse.
A year after Hurricane Harvey brought Houston to its knees, the city is still wrestling with how to prepare for the next great storm. There’s no shortage of good ideas, but in Houston, that’s never been the problem.
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.
Dismayed by sky-high rents and yearning for a slower-paced lifestyle, a new generation of Texans is ditching the big city and fostering a Rural renaissance across the state.
Jeff Henry often said that his goal in life was to make customers of his family’s legendary water parks happy—“to put a smile on their faces, to give them a thrill or two.” It was a beautiful vision. Until it went horribly wrong.
My mom’s handwritten notes were an abiding feature of my childhood. They offered wisdom, encouragement, and comfort—and they continued to arrive long after her death.
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.
Outside a cookie shop in one of Houston’s most idyllic neighborhoods, a West University Place council member spied Trump’s name on a teenager’s shirt and yelled a few of the president’s worst words at her. Then the internet found out. It's springtime in the age of hysteria.
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.
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.
Port Aransas has always been a place for Texans to relax, play, and make lasting memories. Now, after Harvey, it needs us just as much as we need it.
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.
The country music provocateur and East Texas native talks growing up, ”getting weird” onstage, and taking risks with her new album.
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.
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…
The El Paso congressman is waging a long-shot campaign to prove a Democrat can win in Texas.
As his first term in the U.S. Senate comes to a close, Cruz is already gearing up for the next big election.
Can a 1960s novel with a cult following finally become the blockbuster film its fans believe it should be?
It was $2.2 billion, actually. That’s how much billionaire restaurateur Tilman Fertitta offered to buy his beloved Houston Rockets. This is the inside story of how he pulled off the most expensive deal in American sports history.
Texas is at risk of a measles outbreak, yet few have blamed the state’s anti-vaccine movement. Enter Peter Hotez, an affable scientist who decided he’d had enough.
From live electronic in Austin to reimagined cumbia in Corpus to rap-infused zydeco in Houston, here’s why our music scene is more vibrant than ever.
We sat down with Gary Clark Jr. and Leon Bridges, two of the state’s biggest exports, for a candid discussion on the triumphs and trials of their careers so far.
Meet one of the most dangerous lawmen in town in an exclusive excerpt from James P. McCollom’s 'The Last Sheriff in Texas: A True Tale of Violence and the Vote.'
The story of Hurricane Harvey, as told by 28 Texans who helped their state through its darkest hour.
Why the remarkable heroism displayed by my fellow Houstonians will be required for years to come.
Texas used to be a quarterback wasteland. Now the state turns out more ace QBs than any other state. Here’s how.
In minor league football, the battle is about a lot more than moving the ball downfield.
The Tarahumara of northern Mexico became famous for their ability to run incredibly long distances. Now, they’re running for their lives.
Thirty years ago, Jo Carol Pierce turned her Lubbock upbringing into a sublime musical about sex, suicide, and Jesus. Now 72, she's ready for her third act.
Whole Foods' eccentric founder changed the way Americans consume food. Can he survive the Wall Street forces that now want to consume him?
My son was jobless, directionless, and apartmentless. So when he decided to join the Army, we were just glad he was out of the house. What we didn’t know was just how much the military would change him—and us.
In the turbulent days after a gunman murdered five officers last year, the Dallas police chief was the voice of compassion and unity that the city and country needed. The way he sees it, his entire life had been preparing him for that moment.
One man's quest to fly the length of Texas's perimeter and capture the nature of our boundaries.