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?
The unlikely rise (and rise, and rise) of the most powerful man in country music.
He built an oil empire, revitalized the state’s Republican party, gave rise to a political dynasty, and forever changed the Lone Star State. Yet the question dogged him his entire life: Was he a real Texan or merely a Yankee transplant?
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.
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.
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.
He was a highlight of Austin’s creative community and, in death, a spotlight on the city’s problems with race.
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.
Remembering "The Alamo" through souvenir shot glasses, John Wayne toilet paper, and the family that brought the 1960 classic to Texas.
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.
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
We recommend this gripping piece on the boom-and-bust cycle for your weekend longread.
From flying the length of Texas's perimeter to Hurricane Harvey to a tragic fire on the Panhandle plains, read our favorite longform from this year.
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?
Pedro Villalobos is a star prosecutor. Gerardo De Loera is a musician. Joseph Ramirez is a tech entrepreneur. They’re young, they’re smart, they make America great. They’re also undocumented. And now, they face being sent back to a place they’ve never called home.
When Alberto Mendiola returned to El Paso from the war in Afghanistan, he was suffering from severe, untreated PTSD. But is that a viable defense for murder?
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.
Tania Joya had been married to a jihadist from Texas for ten years—but she was unnerved by his increasingly extreme ideology and wanted out.
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 passers than any other state. Here’s how.
