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# Best of The Barbed Wire 2024: Video Games, Peyote Gardens, and Millennial Revolutions
- URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/best-of-the-barbed-wire-2024-video-games-peyote-gardens-and-millennial-revolutions/
- Published: 2024-12-30T10:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2024-12-30T10:00:00.000Z
- Author: Olivia Messer
- Tags: Perspectives, Austin, Texas

In the four months since we launched, we have (hopefully!) made you laugh and think with clever and hard stories.

In 2024, over 123 working days, our small team of three full-time editors published approximately 252 stories under 29 bylines — short and long; silly and serious; essays, features, and exclusives. The majesty, absurdity, diversity, and ferocity of Texas has been in everything we’ve done — from headline-worthy scoops and cultural analysis to in-depth reporting and explainers.

Here’s a glimpse of what we covered this year: News about [gigantic alligator gars, hitmen, and booby-trapped toilets](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/2024s-weirdest-texas-stories-booby-trapped-toilets-an-enron-reboot-and-bitcoin-hitmen/). Essays about [Black joy](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/beyonce-bowl-nfl-halftime-performance-was-a-master-class-in-black-joy-authenticity/), [Christianity in schools](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/im-a-muslim-high-school-student-i-fear-the-new-bible-infused-curriculum/), [varmints](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/tarantulas-coyotes-and-rattlesnakes-put-some-respect-on-their-names/), and [Dr Pepper](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-most-delicious-winter-beverage-is-actually-hot-dr-pepper-lemon/). The [Nintendo](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-best-christmas-ever-and-the-gift-of-a-lifetime/). Zoo [animals](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/a-christmas-miracle-baby-capybara-tupi-born-at-san-antonio-zoo/). Sports [feuds](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-disdain-is-palpable-longhorn-aggie-game-reignites-an-ancient-feud/). Houston Texans’ [quarterback C.J. Stroud](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/houston-quarterback-c-j-stroud-may-be-texass-new-favorite-adopted-son/) and likely [Dallas Wings draft pick Paige Bueckers](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/paige-bueckers-could-make-texas-the-center-of-the-womens-basketball-universe/). Features about [men doing good things](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/meet-the-men-helping-texans-with-disabilities-reconnect-to-nature/), [refugee farmsteads](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/this-texas-farm-gives-refugees-a-new-beginning/), [drag queens](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/an-austin-drag-brunch-received-a-bomb-threat-did-cops-do-enough-to-help/), and [gaming projects](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/an-unreleased-700-million-video-game-keeps-raking-in-cash/). [Reproductive rights](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/think-abortion-isnt-on-the-ballot-in-texas-think-again/), [voting rights](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/at-18-he-had-to-pay-a-poll-tax-paxtons-illegal-raids-dont-scare-him/), and [racism](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/after-racist-comment-judges-office-blames-jokester-wife/). Kamala Harris’ [visit to Houston](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/i-see-you-and-i-am-with-you-texas-women-needed-that-harris-rally/) with Beyoncé. [Sen. Ted Cruz](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/we-live-in-hell-ted-cruz-wins-again/)’s [weirdest and most terrible](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-weirdest-worst-things-ted-cruz-has-ever-done/) moments. Profiles on the Texas-based [ghost-writers of your favorite rappers](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/creating-a-savage/), [professional wrestlers](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-next-big-pro-wrestling-sensation-is-a-russian-from-austin/), and Texas Rangers [baseball organists](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-texas-rangers-helped-kill-the-baseball-organist/).

In 2025, we will expand into areas like food, beauty, investigations, love stories, history, memes, crime, and of course some politics.

So far, our antics, reporting, and writing have been mentioned in [*MSNBC*](https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/ted-cruz-colin-allred-debate-texas-election-rcna175703?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [*Gizmodo*](https://gizmodo.com/liberal-watchdog-group-is-considering-buying-alex-joness-infowars-2000505434?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [*Long Lead*](https://depthperceptionbyll.substack.com/p/barbed-wire-texas-journalism-olivia-messer?fbclid=IwY2xjawF-HwxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHSdfGi14H9I0R7Ub2dAZ3oRNKnhJA1PZi5tYrl7I1VE%5FioVoUe1uQ6keaA%5Faem%5FHgntRSCq6ZLO7k0%5FBei6NA), [*Semafor*](https://www.semafor.com/article/09/29/2024/infowars-victims-and-enemies-consider-buying-it?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Harvard’s [Nieman Lab](https://www.niemanlab.org/reading/progressive-news-site-the-barbed-wire-launches-in-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [*Yahoo*](https://www.yahoo.com/news/progressive-news-barbed-wire-launches-000422276.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), multiple *Axios* newsletters, [*D Magazine*](https://www.dmagazine.com/micropost/this-new-online-media-outfit-has-some-familiar-faces/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [*NPR*](https://www.npr.org/2024/10/09/g-s1-27222/alex-jones-infowars-sandy-hook-bankruptcy-auction-free-speech-systems?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [*Texas Standard*](https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/college-high-school-students-young-voters-texas-challenges-registering/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [*TechDirt*](https://www.techdirt.com/2024/09/23/ken-paxtons-anti-trans-hotline-trolled-to-death-following-ban-on-drivers-license-gender-changes/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Brian Stelter’s *Reliable Sources* newsletter for CNN, [*City Cast Austin*](https://austin.citycast.fm/podcasts/ut-football-season-begins-addressing-austins-food-insecurity-and-about-that-drag-brunch-bomb-threat?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the [*Austin American-Statesman*](https://www.statesman.com/story/business/2024/10/14/alex-jones-infowars-free-speech-systems-media-empire-auction-sale-big-names/75613156007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and many more.

These past few months, our stories have been thoughtful, funny, deeply reported, and written by a diversity of voices across intersections of race, gender, sexuality, age, religion, and geography. But please don’t take my word for it. Read for yourselves.