The first chili cook took place in a Texas ghost town

Tex-Mex is its own distinct cuisine with roots in the Texas borderlands

The cuisine emerged from Tejano cooking, blending northern Mexican ranch food with ingredients such as yellow cheese, beef, and wheat flour. Dishes now considered staples, including chili con carne and fajitas, were Tex-Mex inventions rather than traditional Mexican dishes.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

A New Mexican town named itself after the quiz show 'Truth or Consequences'

If you've ever driven through southern New Mexico, you might've been struck by one particular town name: Truth or Consequences. Originally called Hot Springs, the town was renamed after the popular game show in 1950, which offered to broadcast from the first town to change its name to match the show's. Although the town originally planned on changing it back, the name stuck.

A deep dive into the man behind ballpark nachos

Nachos were invented in Mexico in 1943, but "ballpark nachos" (featuring liquid cheese and pickled jalapenos) were invented in 1976 for the Texas Rangers, then a relatively new franchise. This Texas Monthly piece digs into the history of Frank Libreto, who realized classic nachos could be a cost-efficient concession with just a few small tweaks.

The coolest ghost towns in every US state

Trying to avoid crowds? This list from Thrillist compiles various ghost towns across the United States, highlighting their unique characteristics and explaining why they were abandoned. Peruse this comprehensive list to learn more about why people left these areas and what's still there. If you're looking for additional creepiness, explore and find out which of these spots are particularly haunted!

Before Chipotle, San Francisco was the epicenter of American burrito obsession

More than just something to eat, burritos were akin to a Bay Area religion in the early 1990s, inspiring performance art, comedy shows, music, philosophizing, and more.

One food writer ranks the best barbecue in Texas every 4 years

Barbecue is so big in Texas that Texas Monthly, one of the state's premier magazines, has its own barbecue editor. That man, Daniel Vaughn, is responsible for ranking the top 50 barbecue restaurants every four years. This short documentary profiles three of them, and shows what Vaughn considers when he's making his picks.

The Chicano movement revived Cinco de Mayo as a symbol of resistance in the 1960s

After decades of little relevance, Chicano civil rights activists on campuses across the Southwest reclaimed the holiday in the late 1960s. Members of the movement described it as a declaration of cultural pride and self-determination

The Texas Ranger turned 'serial killer whisperer'

Texas Ranger James Holland earned a reputation for squeezing confessions from suspected serial killers, including the country's most prolific serial killer, Samuel Little. This reputation led the LA Times to declare him "a serial killer whisperer of sorts." With methods ranging from hypnotism to lies, this award-winning article dives into the question of whether this ranger's legal lasso ever ensnared innocents and diluted witness testimony.

Mark Twain once challenged a rival newspaper editor to a duel

While writing for a newspaper in Virginia City, Nevada, Twain published a story about a local fundraiser, accusing the paper’s rival of rescinding their donation. The problem was that the story was untrue: It was a hoax that he had concocted while drunk. The affair led to a protracted, public back-and-forth, with Twain challenging the editor of the rival paper to a duel; likewise, two other men challenged Twain to a duel. Twain ultimately left town, but wrote about the episode later on in an essay titled “How I Escaped Being Killed in a Duel.”

A biker from Hell's Angels said Hunter S. Thompson's book about the group was mostly 'cheap trash'

Thompson's popular coverage of the motorcycle gang was not necessarily popular with the gang members themselves. In a bizarre and amusing TV interview from 1967, a biker is given the opportunity to confront Thompson about using the gang for profit, misrepresenting them, and failing to buy beer he promised them.

Orson Welles' 1938 broadcast of 'War of the Worlds' invoked real panic

The raconteur's teleplay of HG Wells' 1898 science fiction novel presented the plot as a news broadcast, leading some listeners to believe that New Jersey was being invaded by Martians. This retrospective from the National Endowment for the Humanities unpacks how he made it happen, and the media fallout that ensued.

A town in Peru holds a massive fistfight on Christmas

In Santo Tomás, Peru, Christmas Day features Takanakuy—organized public brawls where residents settle disputes through ritualized fistfights. The tradition, rooted in Andean customs, acts as a communal reset before the new year.

Groundhog was once served as a dish in Punxsutawney, PA

The Pennsylvania town is known for Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog who annually predicts whether spring will arrive early or winter will trudge on for another six weeks. But in the 19th and 20th centuries, the rodent was also a common dish throughout rural America, including Punxsutawney.

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

Texas and Oklahoma have played annually at the State Fair of Texas since 1929

Known as the Red River Showdown, the Texas–Oklahoma game is a centerpiece of the State Fair in Dallas. The neutral-site clash has produced iconic moments and often shapes Big 12 and national championship races.

How Elon Musk's businesses have shaped Texas' Bastrop County

After deadly wildfires in 2011 burned a significant portion of the county, the tech boom in Austin pushed development eastward. Elon Musk has since made the region a key hub of his businesses, including a Tesla gigafactory considered one of the largest factories in the world by volume. Watch this reporter visit the town to hear the pros and cons of the transformation.

The South prefers the term 'cookout'

A 2016 Eater poll showed that folks from the South generally prefer "cookout" to describe a backyard event centered around barbecued meat. In fact, that preference extends to much of the country, with 65% of Americans saying they prefer the term.

The story behind one infamous World Series moment

“The Bartman Incident” during Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS forever changed the life of Cubs fan Steve Bartman, who quickly descended into anonymity. This 2005 ESPN story attempts to find answers behind the notorious Bartman.

Finding the way home through flavor

In the fall of 1996, 9-year-old Alvin Chang rushed into his family's kitchen to find his grandmother making his absolute favorite dish: kimchi. This interactive story follows Chang's yearslong attempt to recreate the flavor from his childhood home.

Were 'Back to the Future' and 'The Goonies' set on the same day?

Two of the most cherished sci-fi movies of all time came out less than a month apart in 1985. Fans theorize that the pivotal events of lead characters Marty McFly and Michael “Mikey” Walsh both took place on Saturday, Oct. 26, 1985. Dive deeper into the theory about the coincidence between two major cinematic universes.

Watch veterans experience psilocybin at a Mexican clinic and discuss the aftermath

This "60 Minutes" episode from 2025 follows nine veterans attending a week-long psychedelic retreat to treat their PTSD. Most of the vets say the experience at the Mexican clinic was life-changing. But results were mixed: One veteran reported he was scared and that the experience worsened his mental health overall.

'The Great Onion Corner:' Hear how short-selling onions ended with a ban on onion futures

In the early 1950s, onion farmer and produce trader Vince Kosuga cornered the onion market, resulting in a 1958 ban on onion futures from Congress. After stockpiling onions and buying onion futures, Kosuga then began shorting them. Then, he released his accumulated surplus of onions, driving the price down to essentially zero, and cashed in his short positions.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Joseph Chapman, the 'Forrest Gump' of Santa Barbara history

Joseph Chapman was born in Boston and began his career as a pirate, once raiding the Ortega estate in Santa Barbara. Nearly sentenced to death, Chapman was spared by the intervention of Maria Ortega. The two would marry years later after Chapman reformed his ways, contributing to the agriculture and architecture of coastal California.

Watch the first-ever footage of a ghost shark

In 2009, the pointy-nosed blue chimaera was filmed swimming in the deep sea. That same year, researchers first observed them off the coast of California and Hawaii, after they had previously been found only in the Southern Hemisphere.

Hear the story of the police crackdown on a Stonehenge festival in 1985

This documentary revisits the 1985 police crackdown on a massive free festival at Stonehenge, when the UK government under Margaret Thatcher blocked access and deployed 1,300 riot police—an event that reshaped public access to the site.

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

The Butterball Turkey Talk-Line fields cooking questions from anxious holiday hosts

In 1981, public relations firm Talbot looked to promote one of its clients, Butterball Turkey, by starting a holiday hotline for customers to ask culinary questions. Forty years later, 50 experts still answer roughly 100,000 questions in November and December from people experiencing "turkey trauma."

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

Abraham Lincoln was almost assassinated weeks before his inauguration as he traveled from Illinois to DC through Baltimore in 1861; it took two independent claims for Lincoln to be convinced the threat was real

The identity of the Tank Man in the iconic photo from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests remains unknown and was possibly killed.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

'Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,' a work by American painter Thomas Moran, inspired Congress to establish Yellowstone National Park.

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

The first image of a black hole was captured by creating an Earth-sized virtual observatory from a network of eight radio telescopes.

How the most famous Ebola book, The Hot Zone, which sold 3.5 million copies and was translated into 30 languages, got aspects of the disease so wrong.

View the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history.

The first robot in literature may have been a 'mechanical man' in 1907's 'Ozma of Oz,' a book in L Frank Baum's 'Wizard of Oz' series.

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

El Niño, Spanish for 'the boy,' was named after Jesus Christ because the phenomenon resembled the weather changes observed around Christmastime.

The rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson centered on federalism—the question of how much power the federal government should hold relative to the states.