Boomtown
In a rugged corner of West Texas, billionaire wildcatters and roughnecks are fueling an oil boom so big it’s reshaping our climate, our economy, and our geopolitics. This modern-day gold rush has sent both big oil companies and scrappy start-ups scrambling to secure a piece of the action. Texas Monthly’s Christian Wallace follows characters along every rung of the oil field ladder, from the executive cutting billion-dollar deals to the itinerant pipeline worker risking life and limb, and from the traveling exotic dancer following the trail of money to those who worry that our planet is on a path to destruction. Meet the people cashing in and those just trying to get by as the world around them is turned upside down.
Episodes
July 21, 2020 • 3 min
Between the years of 1967 and 1972 over 300 commercial airplanes were hijacked worldwide, with over 130 of those happening in the United States alone. This period would become known as "The Golden Age of Hijacking." American Skyjacker is the tale of a small-time crook named Martin 'Mac' McNally, who dreamed of the ultimate mile-high score: hijacking a plane and getting away with $500,000 in cash; but Mac's hijac...
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April 30, 2020 • 42 min
Christian Wallace talks to some familiar faces from the Boomtown series in an attempt to understand what happened on April 20, 2020—when oil prices went negative for the first time in history.
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March 18, 2020 • 4 min
Fertility doctor Jan Karbaat was renowned for getting amazing results. Women who were desperate for children would visit him at his Rotterdam clinic and always leave pregnant. But when the clinic closed, rumors began about the methods Karbaat used to achieve his success. The children conceived at the clinic – the Karbaat Kids – began asking difficult questions about what happened to their mothers. What happened in Dr. Karbaat’s cli...
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February 18, 2020 • 55 min
Record-breaking oil production in the Permian Basin has brought the boom to the doorstep of the Big Bend for the first time. Is it too late to save this pristine landscape?
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February 11, 2020 • 48 min
No oil and gas baron since John D. Rockefeller has made more of an impact on society than George P. Mitchell. But this son of poor Greek immigrants who died a billionaire wanted to leave a legacy beyond oil and gas.
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February 4, 2020 • 40 min
Christian talks with renowned business writer Bethany McLean about how the finances of fracking aren't what they're cracked up to be.
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January 28, 2020 • 57 min
The uneasy alliance between ranchers and the oil industry goes all the way back to the early wildcatting days in West Texas. But today, that relationship is more fraught than ever.
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January 21, 2020 • 43 min
The Permian Basin is the birthplace of Friday Night Lights. But the historic oil boom threatens beloved high school football traditions.
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January 14, 2020 • 34 min
During booms, the Permian Basin sees a rise in prostitution charges. But misperceptions and stereotypes about sex work have led to policies that may actually harm the women involved.
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January 7, 2020 • 36 min
We explore a different kind of boom in the Permian Basin. Meet the women working at a lingerie coffee shop, a “breastaurant,” and two area strip clubs.
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December 31, 2019 • 34 min
In the Permian Basin, the rewards of roughnecking come with incredible risk. For one Andrews family, that danger became a true nightmare.
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December 24, 2019 • 41 min
A devastating bust transforms the Permian from a promised land into a wasteland. Then, thanks to a quiet, unassuming Texas oilman named George Mitchell, the region comes roaring back.
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December 17, 2019 • 39 min
We go back to 1923, and the Santa Rita No. 1, the well that put West Texas oil on the map. We recount the beginnings of rowdy boomtowns and the swaggering wildcatters whose influence would eventually lead all the way to the White House.
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December 10, 2019 • 47 min
Host Christian Wallace takes us back to his hometown in the Permian Basin, which is nearly unrecognizable to him today. We meet a few of the people whose lives have been upended by the biggest oil boom in U.S. history.
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December 2, 2019 • 3 min
In a rugged corner of West Texas, billionaire wildcatters and roughnecks are fueling an oil boom so big it’s reshaping our climate, our economy, and our geopolitics.
Boomtown is a 10-part podcast series, with new episodes publishing every Tuesday starting December 10, 2019.
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