i asked andrea long chu about that ocean vuong review and the desire to self-orientalize ... but you'll have to sign up for the CRITICS newsletter to get the goods

Along the Texas Gulf Coast, solar farms are displacing an increasingly untenable crop. Some residents don't have a sunny attitude about it Texas Monthly USA Rice USA Rice texasmonthly.com/news-politics/…

"Measles shows up first because it’s the most contagious. But with these lower vaccine rates, do you start seeing more mumps cases and more rubella? Do you get polio again?" For Texas Monthly I spoke with Lubbock's top health official about measles texasmonthly.com/news-politics/…

We’re seeing the largest de-legalization campaign in U.S. history. I spoke to immigrants affected. They were vetted. They gave the govt their fingerprints, their addresses; ICE knows where they live. Read more about Trump’s attack on legal immigrants: newyorker.com/news/the-lede/…

At Dave Asprey's biohacking conference, held in Austin this May, I had one question for the man who has aspirations to live to 180: "Why would you ever want to live that long?" Texas Monthly texasmonthly.com/news-politics/…

Trust in the medical establishment is at an all-time low. Alternative health movements (raw milk, MAHA) are culturally ascendant. I tried to make sense of it all at the place with all the answers: Dave Asprey's biohacking conference Texas Monthly texasmonthly.com/news-politics/…

Happy Father's Day to all the weird dads, especially mine, who keeps a family of mannequins in his bedroom 😘 nytimes.com/2019/06/14/sty…

NEW from me: A deep dive into why casino gambling and sports betting isn't coming to Texas any time soon. The short answer is that Miriam Adelson's attempts to strong-arm her way into Texas are backfiring spectacularly. texasmonthly.com/news-politics/… #txlege

Just a reminder that the West destroyed Iran’s progressive democracy in 1953, deposing a leader beloved of the people, and installed a dictatorship in his place. The US and UK have been terrorising that country for as long as any of us have been alive. It’s sick.

"Though I didn’t know it at the time, I would soon learn that there was something about Jason’s case that transcended the lurid intrigue that tends to drive interest in viral crimes." #longreads Texas Monthly Peter Holley texasmonthly.com/true-crime/jas…

June 9 was supposed to be a turning point. After 15 years, Iranian-born Alireza Zolghadri had his U.S. visa interview, only to find it landed on day one of Trump's new travel ban. Texas Monthly texasmonthly.com/news-politics/…

"That's why this ban is so unfair," said Reinecke. "You are punishing the people for the acts of their government." Texas Monthly texasmonthly.com/news-politics/…

The devastating lede of Sasha von Oldershausen's reporting from a ride-along with folks saving pets after the Guadalupe flood, for Texas Monthly (link threaded)

“One of the hard parts is that almost every one of these animals that I’m working on, their people are all missing or deceased,” said O’Gan. For Texas Monthly I rode along with the volunteers rescuing pets from the Texas floods texasmonthly.com/news-politics/…

It’s said that humans don’t deserve dogs. It’s also true that dogs (or humans for that matter) don’t deserve to go through the destruction they endured on July 4th. My colleague Sasha von Oldershausen rode w/ rescuers reuniting pets and owners around flooded areas. texasmonthly.com/news-politics/…

I spent the last few days trying to make sense of the failures that may have contributed to the TX flood disaster. This isn't comprehensive but it's an attempt at offering a panoramic view of what went wrong in the hopes of grasping toward "never again." texasmonthly.com/news-politics/…

Many Texans can't remember a Hill Country summer without Crider's. I'm so grateful to the Moores for taking the time to speak with Texas Monthly while they were grieving, and I hope to see you all back there when they open their doors again ❤️texasmonthly.com/news-politics/…

The most haunting story you will read abt the flood. "If I or anyone else had been closer to them, we would have helped her. We would have grabbed one of the kids. But we didn’t know that we were about to be plunged into the water. We simply didn’t know." texasmonthly.com/news-politics/…

On Earth We Briefly Dated

Cloud seeding isn’t new. It dates back to the Dust Bowl era, when Texans desperate for rain took to the skies with silver iodide. Today, it’s still used to "nudge" clouds, but decades later, it’s caught in a storm of conspiracy theories. Texas Monthly texasmonthly.com/news-politics/…