Sasha von Oldershausen

Nov 1, 2024 | texasmonthly.com | Sasha von Oldershausen

In the chaotic months following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 reversal of its Roe v. Wade abortion-rights decision, state legislatures across the country passed tight restrictions on abortion, and Texas filmmakers Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault understood that they needed to document what was happening in their home state.

Oct 7, 2024 | texasmonthly.com | Sasha von Oldershausen

Lauren Miller’s story has become a familiar tale in Texas: A woman, facing complications that put her life at risk during pregnancy, was forced to seek reproductive care out of state because of extreme abortion laws. In Miller’s case, she was pregnant with twins. When it became clear that one would not survive, the nonviable fetus also became a threat to the other, healthy baby. Miller later became one of 22 women to sue the state in Zurawski v.

Sep 10, 2024 | texasmonthly.com | Sasha von Oldershausen

If Sam Stavinoha were a religious man, you might say the decision to buy a small-town grocery was his come-to-Jesus moment. He cried a lot, as if mourning a loss, though he couldn’t name it. This was in 2019, when the 29-year-old software engineer had a cushy job working remotely out of a San Antonio suburb for a New York cloud computing firm. He made good money. Yet something felt amiss.

Aug 27, 2024 | texasmonthly.com | Sasha von Oldershausen

Last week, Razavi, who asked to be identified by his last name only, went to the Houston DPS office to change the name and sex on his Texas driver’s license. After transitioning to female a few years ago—and changing all legal documents accordingly—he said he’d realized he “would always be viewed as a second-class citizen.” So he detransitioned, and in March he obtained a court order from a district court in Travis County to change his license back.

Aug 20, 2024 | texasmonthly.com | Sasha von Oldershausen

In the Wild West of ecocapitalism, where billions of dollars are invested yearly into companies that invoke some measure of sustainability, the ideas spawned by start-ups can feel like elements of the sort of dystopian future dreamed up in a sci-fi movie from the sixties: vodka made from carbon captured out of the atmosphere; sneakers made out of recycled chewing gum; a solar geoengineering project that would’ve sent sunlight-reflecting particles into the atmosphere to cool the planet.