Two decades ago, a North Texas kid named Brian Sweany walked into the offices of Texas Monthly magazine as an intern. In the August issue that’s just hit newsstands, that kid is listed for the first time as editor-in-chief. Sweany chats with KERA’s vice president of news, Rick Holter, for this week’s Friday Conversation.
Interview Highlights: Brian Sweany…
…On his path to becoming a magazine editor:
“I wanted to play football for the Plano Senior High Wildcats, and then the SMU Mustangs, and then of course the Dallas Cowboys. When I was in high school, I read ‘On the Road’ by Jack Kerouac, after having read that book, I wanted to be the next great American writer."
…On being the fifth editor of Texas Monthly:
“ You don’t work [at Texas Monthly] if you don’t love Texas. What’s fun about this job has always been discovering things about Texas that you didn’t know, and I’ve been here all my life. I’m a native Texan, I was born on Texas Independence Day, but every day, I end up finding something out about this state or its people that I didn’t know before.”
…On the person he would most like to interview (living or dead):
“Everybody who knows me would say that I would sit down for a long barbecue dinner with Lyndon Johnson and I would pepper him with questions until he either shooed me away or threw a shoe at me.”