Granite and Grace at Llano’s World Championship of Rock Stacking
The festival celebrates Earth, community, and the primal urge to build the tallest rock pile ever.
Patrick Michels has been a reporter and podcast producer at Texas Monthly since 2021. His work at the magazine includes the true crime series Stephenville, about a murder case that went unsolved for decades, White Hats, about the complicated legacy of the Texas Rangers law enforcement agency, and America’s Girls, about the history and cultural impact of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. Previously, he was a reporter on immigration and climate disaster for the national investigative public radio show Reveal, a features and education reporter for the Texas Observer, and a staff writer at the Dallas Observer. He is the recipient of a 2020 RTDNA Edward R. Murrow Award in investigative reporting and a 2019 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Communication Award in online journalism, and he was a 2013 Livingston Award finalist.
The festival celebrates Earth, community, and the primal urge to build the tallest rock pile ever.
How a San Antonio restaurant manager pioneered the art of taco diplomacy.
Pandemic relief funds provided a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” for homeless support programs. But what happens when the money dries up?
The boozy winter pastime that Senator John Cornyn once deemed “the most obscure Olympic sport” is on the rise—even in Texas.
Platon, who photographed the former president for the cover, discusses portraiture and creating the perfect image.
Editor Evan Smith talks about interviewing George H. W. Bush.
Three South Padre Island artists work on the beach, but don't call them bums.
Executive editor S. C. Gwynne talks about Al Gonzales, getting access, and Washington politics.
Writer-at-large Cecilia Ballí describes what it is like to be in Juárez, where hundreds of women have been murdered in the past ten years.
Dan Winters, who shot this month's photo essay, "Cuts Above," discusses finding the right piece of meat.