Any list of a magazine’s most-read stories is an imperfect measure of a year. The list of Texas Monthly‘s top stories in 2025, for example, is just a small snapshot of all of the ways our writers, editors, and photographers have explored the most significant issues facing Texans; it doesn’t include our investigations into the rise of AI data centers in the state, federal-government job cuts, impending water shortages, and the crises hitting public schools. It doesn’t include all of our profiles of remarkable Texas characters, like Arch Manning, James Talarico, and Opal Lee, nor does it cover all of the adventures we’ve had: hunting lionfish, visiting soon-to-be spas, and attending Cybertruck rodeos.
Most significantly, the list of most-read stories includes several but not nearly all of the stories we published after disaster hit the Hill Country in July. In the wake of catastrophic flooding, we fanned out across the region to report on the extent of the devastation, chronicle rescue and recovery efforts, and investigate what went wrong. We’re still telling that story.
But this list does show us something. It shows us how these stories made you feel, and what you love so much about our beautiful, complicated, wonderful state: barbecue, great yarns, Texas artists, the best places to take a weekend trip, and complex crime stories. As we close out 2025, we hope you take some time to visit with them again.
“ ‘The River House Broke. We Rushed in the River.’ ”
Senior editor Aaron Parsley’s deeply affecting story of his family’s experience during the July 4 Guadalupe River flood was by far the most-read Texas Monthly story in 2025—and, as far as we can tell, in the 52-year history of the magazine. Parsley’s clear-eyed account of loss and survival, written and published just days after the flood, appeared on the cover of our August issue. It is an unforgettable personal account of one of the most deadly disasters in state history.
“The 50 Best BBQ Joints in Texas”
Compiling the seventh edition of our quadrennial list of Texas’s top fifty barbecue joints was a herculean effort, requiring 26 tasters to visit 319 joints across the state, followed by visits to the most promising locales by our barbecue editor, Daniel Vaughn. Published online in late May, the list immediately shot to the top of our most-read articles and continues to be a reference for barbecue aficionados nationwide. Don’t miss the companion lists: honorable mentions, some of the best barbecue sauces, and a few of the greatest barbecue-joint breads in the state.
“It Was Already One of Texas’s Strangest Cold Cases. Then a Secretive Figure Appeared.”
It’s been more than five years since Texas State University student Jason Landry vanished—with almost no trace—while driving from San Marcos to Missouri City. As senior writer Peter Holley discovered while investigating the disappearance, the mystery surrounding what happened to Landry only seems to have grown bigger, as has the online community of conspiracy-minded sleuths who are looking for answers—a group Holley found himself drawn into. “Was I simply doing my job,” he writes, “or had I become yet another Jason Landry obsessive, susceptible to the same conspiratorial monomania I’d been exploring?”
“The Texanist: Where Did the Phrase ‘I Gotta Talk to a Man About a Horse’ Come From?”
At least once a month, and sometimes more often, our resident Texanist fields a burning question from one of the state’s most curious minds. In 2025, those questions ranged from the professional (Can I use “y’all” in work emails?) to the personal (Why is Abilene so weird?), but the query that most captured our readers’ attention was this one: Where did the phrase “I gotta talk to a man about a horse” come from? Read the column to find the answer.
Though the Texanist has questioned its claim to be the oldest town in the state, Nacogdoches’s tourism industry still has something for everyone, from the annual blueberry festival to the historic buildings to the five Stephen F. Austin State University gardens. As the director of those gardens told contributor Anna Mazurek, “Never underestimate the tourism power of a very large collection of azaleas, camellias, and Japanese maples grown well in the Piney Woods.”
“The R&B Singer Who Recorded the Greatest Country Album You’ve Never Heard”
The singer in question: Galveston-born R&B artist Esther Phillips. Distinguished writer Michael Hall explores why her album of country covers has remained so under the radar in his moving look at Phillips’s life and career. Though Hall had long been a listener to some of her better-known works, he writes of The Country Side of Esther Phillips, “Somehow this album, which belongs in the sixties pantheon alongside the likes of Johnny Cash’s At Folsom Prison and Tammy Wynette’s Stand By Your Man, escaped my attention, and that of nearly every other music fan I’ve asked about it.”
“The ‘Tesla Takedown’ Movement Hits Differently in Austin”
In a year of great ups and downs for Elon Musk, senior writer Dan Solomon visited a protest against Tesla in Austin—the city where the company is headquartered and sells many of its vehicles, but also where the politics of quite a few residents clash with those of the CEO. As for the Tesla drivers passing by—they just want to survive the traffic.
“They Created a Peaceful Retreat on the San Marcos River. Then Came the Tubers.”
A legend among river rats, Tom Goynes, along with his wife, Paula, enjoyed a peaceful life along the San Marcos River for decades. Now, fed by a tubing-company boom in the 2010s, the river has become a hot spot for partying tubers, who often leave litter and disruption in their wake. Contributing writer Tom Foster writes about what happens when two different river cultures collide.
“Glen Powell Plays the Long Game”
Glen Powell is “nearly too good at being a celebrity,” senior writer Lauren Larson states in this profile of the beloved and extremely symmetrical Austin-born actor. That could be in part because it’s not just Glen behind the helm—the actor discussed with Texas Monthly how crucial the support and presence of his family has been in his decades-long career and steady rise to fame. Come for Larson’s writing; stay for the delightful photos.
“Amanda Shires Tells Her Side of the Story After Divorce From Jason Isbell: ‘I’m Not Scared’ ”
Amanda Shires knows at least one thing about her divorce from fellow Americana singer Jason Isbell: Her voice is less shaky when she sings, so “something positive has happened.” The Grammy-winning fiddler spoke with Texas Monthly contributor Natalie Weiner about her new album, Nobody’s Girl, and reclaiming her own space as an artist postdivorce.
Five Bonus Stories Too Good Not to Share
A top-10 list can’t come close to covering all of the slices of Texas our writers, editors, photographers, fact-checkers, copy editors, and more worked to bring you this year, so as a bonus, here are 5 more stories from our 25-most-read list that we’re proud of.
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