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TM Audio subscribers have access to this episode one week early. Visit our FAQ page to learn how to link your subscription to your podcast app. Max Baca, this week’s guest on Viva Tejano, is a true standard-bearer in tejano music. He was just seven years old when he started playing onstage with his dad’s conjunto band. He went on to play in the Texas Tornados, where he replaced his idol, Oscar Tellez, on the bajo sexto and later founded the Grammy Award–winning band Los Texmaniacs.Max is also an expert on the history of the music, and in this episode, he’ll share the fascinating origins of conjunto, from South Texas and Mexico, as well as Indigenous communities in New Mexico and Arizona. And he’ll also tell the…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

At any given time, the soil under Texans’ feet is active with an abundance of ground-dwelling critters, from venomous snakes and plump prairie dogs to redheaded centipedes, surly badgers, snapping turtles, and horror-movie worms that secrete neurotoxins and split into two when chopped. Investigate that weird hole in your backyard at your own peril. Scientists are learning more about the critters below us all the time, and they’ve just uncovered a new one: Andrena androfovea, a reclusive, solitary ground-nesting bee with a blue-tinged body and no fangs or claws or even a stinger, thank heavens. So far, this harmless hoverer has been found only in Texas and Oklahoma, according to a recent study in the journal Ecology and Evolution, which describes a new species and…

The post Scientists Have Discovered a New Bee in Texas. It’s Blue and Lives Underground. appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

The curved blue wave pattern on the floors of the San Antonio State Hospital is meant to symbolize the River Walk, which runs a few miles to the north. A decorative quatrefoil shape on the exterior of the building honors the city’s historic Spanish colonial missions. These nods might feel like commonsense design for a local museum or hotel, but for a facility meant to house Texans in crisis, they’re downright radical. The brand-new structure, designed by HKS and New York–based Architecture+, is bright and cheery. It’s an intentional change meant to improve upon the original San Antonio State Hospital, which hadn’t been majorly updated since 1892.The day after April’s solar eclipse, a mariachi band played inside the lobby as part of the ribbon-cutting ceremony…

The post Inside the Long-Awaited Renovations of Texas’s Psychiatric Hospitals appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

The Texas–Texas A&M football game is back this week, after a thirteen-year hiatus. Texas Monthly, which has long covered the rivalry, rejoices in its return with a full collection of stories about the game’s history, off-the-field antics, major players, and more. Read everything here. After thirteen years, there’s finally a Texas–Texas A&M game. And instead of having to settle for just a couple of games here and there in September—as would have been likely if the Horns and Aggies had ever gotten around to playing as nonconference rivals—the Lone Star Showdown (does anybody actually call it that?) has come back as an SEC game, and on Thanksgiving weekend (if not the day itself) to boot. Not only that, but this year’s matchup is arguably bigger than any Texas–Texas…

The post The Stakes in the Texas–Texas A&M Rivalry Have Never Been Higher appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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You cannot drive through Uvalde without encountering monuments to the tragedy that has become synonymous with its name. In the town square, 21 crosses wreathed in flowers, photos, and remembrances encircle a fountain—one for every life lost in the massacre at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022. Across the city, the victims’ faces, painted several stories tall on the side of buildings, smile down on citizens like guardian angels. Flags bearing the slogan “Uvalde Strong” stand in many yards. In the weeks following the election, they far outnumbered political signs. But Uvalde, like all of us, is more complicated than the worst thing that has happened to it. Before the shooting, Uvalde County—of which the city, population 15,436, is the seat—was mostly rural, blue-collar, and…

The post Why Uvalde—A Rallying Cry for Texas Democrats—Went for Trump appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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