Fire & Smoke

The original Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders squad burst onto the field back in 1972—the same year Title IX passed, the same year Deep Throat came out, and a year before Roe v. Wade. Sarah Hepola digs into the untold stories behind the global pop culture phenomenon, from the stripper who allegedly inspired the squad’s creation, to a scandalous Playboy cover shoot that was partly a battle over fair wages, to the ongoing debate about sexuality and women’s bodies in a post-#MeToo world. The result is a vibrant mix of history, cultural criticism, and storytelling, featuring interviews with New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino, award-winning novelist Ben Fountain, Oscar-nominated director Dana Adam Shapiro, local television sports legend Dale Hansen, folk-writing hero Joe Nick Patoski, and a whole bunch of cheerleaders whose names you don’t know yet—but should.

How LeAnn Mueller and Ali Clem - the only wife-and-wife team in Texas - finally brought Austin's la Barbecue indoors, and why Los Angeles doesn't know what it's missing.

The East Texas chain of Bodacious Bar-B-Q joints lost its founder, Roland Lindsey, in September. His son-in-law Jordan Jackson looks to not only carry on the brand's barbecue legacy, but improve it one location at a time.

Sam Greenberg's family has been smoking turkeys the old-fashioned way since 1939 in Tyler, Texas, and he sees no reason to change things at Greenberg Smoked Turkeys.

Miguel Vidal of Valentina's Tex-Mex BBQ in Austin provides a preview of his dish at the Texas Monthly BBQ Fest, and we discuss how his San Antonio upbringing informs his current Tex-Mex BBQ menu.

At Houston's Rice University, there's a little less meat in the dining halls because the chefs have embraced plant-based meat substitutes, including their own version of vegan barbecue brisket.

Tired of used cars and small town bureaucracy, James Jackson closed his food truck in the barbecue capital of Texas and took his barbecue out of state.

At Momma Jean's BBQ in Lampasas, owner and pitmaster Johnny Walker carries on his family's barbecue legacy.

Austin American Statesman food critic, Matthew Odam, defends his recent article questioning the quality of the smoked brisket in Lockhart.

In 1926 Etta Randall, a young black woman from deep East Texas, set off for a lawless boomtown in the Panhandle, where she found unexpected success not in the oil fields but in an old concrete pit.