📩 In Today’s Email

• TL; DR - A year in, A Texas Nomad isn’t recapping anything. It’s moving forward with intention.

• The Deep Dive - There Is a There There. What ATN is, how it works, and why we don’t wrap the year.

• The Stream - The Bear. A kitchen-driven drama about cooking under pressure and what happens when people are finally given standards that matter.

• The Squeeze: Midnight. ATN New Year’s Eve mocktail: Dark and sparkling. A clean way to cross the year without static.

🤿 The Deep Dive

It’s New Year’s Eve, which means two things in my family.

One, a new calendar, as it means to most everyone.

Two, we are singing a nonsense song, followed by a song that does make sense.

Everyone knows Auld Lang Syne; nobody knows what it means. Ok, maybe someone who can quote Beowulf knows what it means.

Yet everyone sings it anyway. Happily dismissing old acquaintances in one of those music lyric mistakes everyone makes (“‘scuze me while I kiss this guy” style).

Then we sing Happy Birthday to my mom, who was born on New Year’s Eve (Happy Birthday, Mom!), so after the nonsense comes something everyone actually understands.

There is something grounding about that. About marking time with a ritual that doesn’t need to be optimized, summarized, or explained. You don’t analyze it; you participate.

You let the year turn. What choice you got?

That’s where I want to start.

Because this is not a “wrapped” issue.

Nothing here is being bundled, ranked, reduced to highlights. We’ve had enough of that, and as all these wrapped emails land in your inbox, I doubt you want to read another one.

Not everything needs to be wrapped; not everything needs a bow.

A Texas Nomad wasn’t designed for recap culture. Or hustle culture.

I started this magazine in 2025 as a personal experiment. A place to think clearly about travel and taste and conditions that make a life more intentional rather than reactive.

That’s why the slogan is “Don’t Escape. Design” And it’s giving intention, agency, and a location-optional life.

I didn’t even know who it was for. I just wanted to build something calmer than the internet around it.

Less than a year later, readership has grown from one (me) to two (my mom) to close to 4,000.

There’s a there there now.
It’s a thing thing.

It’s a burger.

This year, A Texas Nomad has one goal: to become more itself.

Travel remains the entry point. You’ll see deeper attention to places that support long stays, focused work, and physical well-being. Fewer destinations. More depth. Less novelty, more sustainability.

You’ll see cultural threads develop.

And you will see the magazine extend beyond the page.

In 2026, I’m ramping up my YouTube channel, The Edward Effect. Long-form, writing-first videos about reinvention, travel, creativity, and designing a life with intention. It’s early. About 135 subscribers as I write this. Which means this is still a ground floor. A great place to onboard.

Join now, and you’ll watch it find its voice in real time.

The channel isn’t separate from A Texas Nomad. It’s another arrow in the quiver.

And, expect a layout update, more color, and more digestible. (Once I can figure out how to do that!)

For now, ATN remains a one-person operation. One editor. One point of view. That’s not a limitation. It’s the reason the thing holds its shape. Every issue passes the same test before it goes out:

Does this help someone choose better conditions for their life?

Tonight, we’ll sing a song whose words most of us couldn’t translate if asked. Tomorrow, the year will turn, whether we are ready or not.

No wrapping.
No recap.
Just forward motion (with intention).

— Edward

📣 Newsletter News

1. Subscriber Counter: 3,860

🌎 VisaWatch*

🏴‍☠️ ATN is quietly building something to make tracking and comparing this kind of information much easier in 2026.

🇵🇹 Portugal’s Digital Nomad (D8) visa remains one of Europe’s most popular long-stay options, with steady demand despite tighter tax and residency scrutiny.

🇧🇬 Bulgaria has officially launched a digital nomad residence pathway, adding a lower-cost, Schengen-zone option for remote workers in 2025.

🇮🇩 Indonesia continues refining its long-term remote-work and second-home visa frameworks, signaling a push toward attracting higher-quality, longer-staying foreigners.

🇪🇸 Spain’s digital nomad visa applications continue climbing, with ongoing clarification around tax residency thresholds for remote workers staying beyond 183 days.

🇬🇷 Greece’s Golden Visa is increasingly driven by renovation projects, with older buildings being restored to qualify, while higher price thresholds now apply in prime areas like Athens and the islands:

*Check your target country’s official immigration page for exact income thresholds and application windows. They move quickly.

🍿 The Stream - The Bear (Hulu)

The Bear feels less like a show and more like a sustained nervous system shock, a mental version of sauna to cold-plunge and back.

It lives in tension. Grinding, unrelenting tension. Not the polished kind built on plot twists, but the claustrophobic kind. Tight kitchens. Too many bodies. Too many words. Shouting, profanity, cigarettes, broken gas lines, more profanity, grease, grief. The noise is constant, almost punishing, until you realize the show isn’t exaggerating. This is what it feels in this middle class, gentrifying part of Chicago and has been called realistic by local line cooks “Overwhelmingly” realistic.

What makes it work is the balance. For every eruption, there’s a moment of tenderness. For every broken stove, a glimpse of elegance. Food as aspiration. Craft as a way out. People with real ability trapped inside systems that don’t reward it, carrying lofty dreams while scraping by shift to shift.

The tension regularly borders on unbearable. Scenes stretch past comfort. And then, unexpectedly, comes release. A shared laugh. A pause long enough to breathe.

There’s a scene where a woman, Tina, is tasked with making mashed potatoes. Given responsibility. Trust. Space. Suddenly, the work matters. Not because it’s glamorous, but because it’s done well. You can feel dignity return to her hands.

That’s the show’s real argument. The conditions to create motivation. People need Someone who believes they’re capable.

The Bear is loud, stressful, and deeply human. Beneath all the shouting is a precise meditation on craft, pride, and what happens when broken systems collide with people who still care.

🍊The Squeeze - Midnight

The Midnight is dark and sparkling. It smells fresh as the future and tastes like a kiss.

It’s easy to make anywhere. Hotel room. Airbnb kitchen. Your parents’ house, while everyone else is arguing about resolutions.

You don’t need special tools. You just need to decide you’re paying attention.

The color lands deep red, almost black in low light. The bubbles catch just enough light to remind you of stars. It tastes dry, slightly bitter, and grown-up.

Like the moment itself.

Recipe

You’ll need:
– Pomegranate juice
– Sparkling water (ATN recommends Topo Chico)
– Fresh lime
– 2–3 drops non-alcoholic black cherry bitters
– Fresh rosemary sprig, clipped from the herb garden

Commandeer a champagne flute or two.
Pour in pomegranate juice
Add a squeeze of lime.
Top with sparkling water.
Add bitters.
Stir once, gently.

Express your rosemary sprig over the glass and drop it in.

Drink it at midnight if you want your wish to come true.

🛤️ Outtro

Reinvention begins not with where you land, but with what you make.

Every place is a blank page. What you write there? That’s your legacy.

If this newsletter sparked something, pass it on to a friend, a fellow explorer, or anyone rewriting their life.

This community grows through real connection. One story, one share at a time.

If you enjoyed this, share it.

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See you next week. Don’t Escape. Design.