The Barbed Wire

Brian is founding member of The Barbed Wire team. A longtime Texas journalist, he has written for the Austin American-Statesman, the Waco Tribune-Herald, Texas Monthly, and more. He was also a writer and producer at Rooster Teeth.

Leslie Rangel, a first generation daughter of Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants, is former deputy managing editor for The Barbed Wire. Her award-winning journalism is focused on issues of health, mental wellness, race, gender and social justice.

TBW would not exist without Olivia, our founding editor-in-chief and the visionary behind our coverage. Her investigations exposed abuse and drove reform; her commentary changed hearts and minds; her leadership makes Texas a better place.

Angela Lim is a General Assignment Features Reporter at The Seattle Times and a previous news fellow of The Barbed Wire. Her work can be seen in Texas Monthly and Austin Chronicle. Lim was born in Houston and lived in the Philippines for 16 years.

Kit O'Connell is a correspondent for The Barbed Wire. They are the former Digital Editor of the Texas Observer, with bylines in Teen Vogue, The Advocate, Truthout, LGBTQ Nation, and the Austin Free Press, among others.

Riya Misra just graduated from Rice University, where she spent two years as editor-in-chief of its student-run newspaper, The Rice Thresher. She spent a summer in Washington, D.C. fine-tuning her investigative reporting skills.

Juliana Lightsey is a recent political science, social policy analysis, and English graduate of Rice University. She worked as managing editor of the Rice student newspaper, the Rice Thresher, and previously interned at the Houston Chronicle.

Cat Cardenas is based in Austin, covering entertainment, politics, and Latinx culture. Her work has appeared on the covers of Rolling Stone and Dazed, as well as in Vogue, W Magazine, Variety, GQ, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, and others.

Steven Monacelli works as the Special Investigative Correspondent for the Texas Observer and is the publisher of Protean, a nonprofit literary publication. His work has been featured in Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, WIRED, Nieman Lab, and more.

H. Drew Blackburn is a columnist who has written for Wildsam, Bloomberg, the New York Times’s T Brand Studio, Netflix’s Tudum, Level, Texas Monthly, GQ, Okayplayer and Eater. He is now based in Austin.