Reporting Texas
News and features from UT-Austin's School of Journalism
byAdele Doat
A frenzied crowd of supporters met Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico as he emerged from the Whataburger on Guadalupe Street after an October campaign rally at the University of Texas at Austin.
Posts of his visits soon inundated his social media page.
“Whatalegend,” “Whataguy,” “a true Texan,” some commented under one of the six posts about his Whataburger appearance.
Whataburger is not the only emblematic Texas food brand Talarico has featured on his Instagram profile in the final stretch of the 2026 midterm election campaign. Last week, he also stopped by a H-E-B grocery store, a Mr. Taco restaurant and a Buc-ee’s. In contrast, Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton, meanwhile, has centered his social media presence on rallies featuring an abundance of American and Texas flags.
byAlly Bonsall
Following crises like the death of loved ones, IVF struggles and political turmoil, singer Sara Bareilles said she has learned that grief does not need to be fixed; it needs to be witnessed.
The Grammy Award-winning singer, actress and composer shared her ideas surrounding grief with students from the University of Texas School of Social Work at the Cactus Cafe on Tuesday.
“The experience of grief is so universal,” Bareilles said. “People are tethered to this network that we don’t talk about. We don’t realize it’s a deep point of connection always.”
byVikram Sundaram
Twitch streamer and left-wing pundit Hasan Piker called the University of Texas hypocritical in its policing of left-wing speech in his remarks to UT students Wednesday at the William C Powers Jr. Auditorium, his first major public appearance on a southern college campus.
byRachel N. Madison
Years before Judd Frieling was a NASA flight director for the Artemis II mission, he was a University of Texas aerospace engineering student with plans to go into the Navy. The Navy rejected Austin-born, Pflugerville-raised Frieling, however, because of his “droopy eyelids.”
“They told me, ‘You can’t fly planes,’ ” Frieling said.
So, he shifted his sights — to spacecraft.