Growth Machine

KUT & KUTX Studios
  • 5.0 (102)
  • BUSINESS NEWS
  • SERIES

Housing prices in Austin have exploded in the past decade, leading to a city that’s not just unaffordable — but also highly segregated. None of this happened by accident. It’s the result of decades of decisions about what — if anything — gets built in Austin and where. From a master plan to move Black and brown residents to one part of town, to fights over how to protect the environment, to an outdated land development code — all of these are pieces in a machine that’s engineered Austin’s housing market.

  1. EPISODE 1

    We Planned This

    (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 […] The post We Planned This appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

    44 min

  2. EPISODE 2

    Roads to Everywhere

    (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 […] The post Roads to Everywhere appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

    37 min

  3. EPISODE 3

    Listen to This Podcast or We'll Poison Barton Springs

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

    39 min

  4. EPISODE 4

    Smart Growth or Dumb Growth?

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

    37 min

  5. EPISODE 5

    Welcome to Silicon Gulch

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

    39 min

  6. EPISODE 6

    There Go The Neighborhoods

    (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 […] The post There Go The Neighborhoods appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

    44 min

  7. EPISODE 7

    Grow or Die

    (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 […] The post Grow or Die appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

    45 min

  8. BONUS

    Fertility Drugs for Cars

    (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.

    10 min

  9. BONUS

    Pigs in a Parlor

    (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.

    8 min

  10. BONUS

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

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

    33 min
See All Season 1 (10)

Trailer

5
out of 5
102 Ratings

About

Housing prices in Austin have exploded in the past decade, leading to a city that’s not just unaffordable — but also highly segregated. None of this happened by accident. It’s the result of decades of decisions about what — if anything — gets built in Austin and where. From a master plan to move Black and brown residents to one part of town, to fights over how to protect the environment, to an outdated land development code — all of these are pieces in a machine that’s engineered Austin’s housing market.

Information

  • Channel
    KUT & KUTX Studios
  • Creator
    KUT & KUTX Studios, Audrey McGlinchy
  • Episodes
    12
  • Seasons
    1
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025 KUT & KUTX Studios | Moody College of Communication
  • Show Website
    Growth Machine

More From KUT & KUTX Studios