Growth Machine

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Latest Episodes:

Introducing Season 3 of The Disconnect: Power, Politics and the Texas Blackout Feb 14, 2025

The Disconnect: Power, Politics and the Texas Blackout is back for a third season, and Growth Machine host Audrey McGlinchy will be co-hosting some of the episodes with Mose Buschele.
In this season of The Disconnect: Power, Politics and the Texas Blackout, the podcast explores the history of oil and gas regulation, how the industry became essentially self-regulating — with the help of compliant state regulators — and how some Texas officials continue to see natural gas as the future of electricity production, despite the rapid rise of renewable sources like solar and wind.
In the first episode, you’ll hear the story of a con man and a group of hardscrabble East Texas farmers who uncovered the biggest oilfield in U.S. history — and how that discovery forced an obscure state agency to confront the destructive forces of unrestrained oil drilling.
Listen and Subscribe to The Disconnect: Power, Politics and the Texas Blackout

The post Introducing Season 3 of The Disconnect: Power, Politics and the Texas Blackout appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

Introducing: 24 Hours in Austin Nov 18, 2024

The Growth Machine podcast would like to introduce you to the new podcast 24 Hours in Austin tries to answer the question: What does a day in the life of Austin, Texas sound like? A team of audio producers from KUT spent the last several months documenting a handful of days in the life of Austin. They spent 24 hours straight in one location, talking to anyone who’d talk to them. They found that as big as Austin has gotten, standing still, it gets a little smaller.

Subscribe to 24 Hours in Austin

The first episode is 24 hours on 6th Street during SXSW: Part 1. Sixth Street in downtown Austin is wild enough on a regular night. But for two weeks every March, it gets even crazier when South by Southwest brings thousands of people to town. We spent 24 hours straight on 6th Street, between Congress and I-35 on March 14-15, 2024. Hear the first half of the day in this episode.

The post Introducing: 24 Hours in Austin appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

Grow or Die Aug 18, 2023

(Episode 7) Now that the machine has done its job, what now? We explore some of the existential questions that Austin’s housing market has wrought.

The full transcript of this episode of Growth Machine is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.

The post Grow or Die appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

Pigs in a Parlor Aug 10, 2023

(BONUS — Deleted scene!) We go back 100 years to tell the origin story of modern zoning.

The post Pigs in a Parlor appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

There Go The Neighborhoods Aug 04, 2023

(Episode 6) Austin last re-wrote its land development code in 1984. Sounds boring, right? Well, that rewrite made it harder to build denser forms of housing. We explore the history of zoning in Austin and the opposition to changing the rules today, which could make the biggest difference in fixing Austin’s affordability crisis.

The full transcript of this episode of Growth Machine is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.

The post There Go The Neighborhoods appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

Welcome to Silicon Gulch Jul 27, 2023

(Episode 5) Not that long ago, Austin’s economy was sleepy, to put it mildly. People came here for UT, to work for the state or for the military.

A little more than 50 years ago, a bedsheet changed everything — including the housing market.

The full transcript of this episode of Growth Machine is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.

The post Welcome to Silicon Gulch appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

Fertility Drugs for Cars Jul 20, 2023

(BONUS) We talked in episode 2 about cars and roads — and how they affect where we live. We didn’t talk about one other way that cars affect housing: making places to put all the cars.

The post Fertility Drugs for Cars appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

Smart Growth or Dumb Growth? Jul 13, 2023

(Episode 4) When a new mayor came to power, he found what he thought would be a compromise — a way to bring new businesses and build housing for all the people coming to Austin without threatening the city’s ecological gems. It turned out to be more complicated than that.

The full transcript of this episode of Growth Machine is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.

The post Smart Growth or Dumb Growth? appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

Listen to This Podcast or We’ll Poison Barton Springs Jul 06, 2023

(Episode 3) In the 1990s, Austin voters passed landmark protections for parts of southwest Austin that sit on top of the aquifer that feeds Barton Springs. That set off a chain of events that had a profound effect on how the city would grow in the coming decades.

The full transcript of this episode of Growth Machine is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.

The post Listen to This Podcast or We’ll Poison Barton Springs appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

Roads to Everywhere Jun 29, 2023

(Episode 2) I-35 is more than a road. It’s been sculpting Austin’s housing scene for more than 60 years, encouraging endless sprawl and making gridlock a lifestyle. Take a drive with us through the highway’s history.

The full transcript of this episode of Growth Machine is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.

The post Roads to Everywhere appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

We Planned This Jun 22, 2023

(Episode 1) Austin has grown a lot in recent years — and the East Side has been impacted the most. To understand the city’s pattern of displacement, we have to go back to 1928.

The full transcript of this episode of Growth Machine is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.

The post We Planned This appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

COMING JUNE 22 | Growth Machine: How Austin Engineered Its Housing Market May 08, 2023

Housing prices in Austin have exploded in the past decade, leading to a city that’s not just unaffordable, but also highly segregated. It’s the result of decades of decisions about what — if anything — gets built in Austin and where. Hosted by Audrey McGlinchy.

The post COMING JUNE 22 | Growth Machine: How Austin Engineered Its Housing Market appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

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