Kathy Blackwell

Bob and Kelli Phillips, the hosts of Texas Country Reporter, have traveled all across our state telling the stories of Texas. Time and time again in these stories, food plays a large part. A thoughtfully prepared meal brings folks together, and knowing that a community member played a part in bringing your meal from the farm to the table makes it taste so much better. Bob and Kelli recently visited a Texas elementary school with the Texas Department of Agriculture to spread the word about the de…

We spend all year writing about talented Texans, from artisans and designers to entrepreneurs of businesses both large and small. The annual gift guide is a natural extension of that coverage. You might see a few familiar names here (Willie who?), but hopefully you’ll make a few new discoveries, such as the Amarillo ceramicists who came up with an ingenious way to cook bacon or the Austin audio company that some techies predict will vastly improve how we listen to music. The only hard part on ou…

Texas boasts more varieties of native ferns and lycophytes (“ferny plants” for nonbotanists) than any other state in the continental U.S. As you might expect, you can find them in wetter regions such as the Gulf Coast and the Piney Woods, but they also live in places that seem too harsh for such lush organisms, including the edge of the semiarid Llano Estacado in the Panhandle. There, tucked away in the upper western corner of Caprock Canyons State Park, in Quitaque (about 95 miles northeast of…

Over the past few years, Fort Worth has two-stepped into the national spotlight with polished boots. One of our fastest-growing cities—not just in Texas but in the U.S.—has become an “it” destination, thanks to multimillion-dollar investments in historic areas and museums, new hotels and restaurants, Taylor Sheridan, Bella Hadid, and locals committed to celebrating the area’s diversity and traditions. One of the Cultural District’s newest gems, the five-star Bowie House, Auberge Resorts Collecti…

You never knew what John Aielli was going to say. Or play. For more than fifty years, the idiosyncratic radio host on the Austin NPR affiliate KUT, and later KUTX, welcomed us into our mornings from the University of Texas campus. He could be poetic; he could be prickly. He took long pauses. He would most certainly go off on tangents that made sense only to him. He would mispronounce name of famous singers and get even the most basic facts about a song wrong. And Austinites loved him, even if th…

Texas ob-gyn Mary Claire Haver offers readers her top tips for navigating menopause—and the medical system.

Dr. Mary Claire Haver was finishing her obstetrics and gynecology residency at the University of Texas Medical Branch, in Galveston, when she overheard some professors whispering about a new study that appeared to link hormone replacement therapy (HRT) with an increased risk of adverse outcomes, including breast cancer. She remembers that day in 2002 vividly. Almost overnight, most doctors stopped prescribing HRT, blocking millions of women from access to one of the few medical treatments for me…

As the evening’s first customers stroll into Wink Wine Bar on a Saturday, my friend and I notice that they head straight for the leather-backed seats at the bar. The bartender warmly greets one with a “Well, there you are!” as if she’s been waiting for him all night. It’s not even five o’clock. Every Tuesday through Saturday, loyal locals come here for one of the best happy hour deals in Austin: almost the entire bar-food menu is half off from 4:30 to 6 p.m. For less than $12 per dish, diners…

The Austin Film Festival honoree talks about collaborating on FX’s record-breaking historical drama with her husband Justin Marks.

American Dirt coffee, Waco Surf lessons, and other holiday offerings from our state’s artisans, designers, and small retailers.