Boomtown

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.

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.

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.

In the Permian Basin, the rewards of roughnecking come with incredible risk. For one Andrews family, that danger became a true nightmare.

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.

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.

Warsaw, Missouri, is a small, rural town of just over 2,000 people in the American Midwest. Locally it’s known as the “quiet end of the Lake of the Ozarks.” Very few realize that it’s the paddlefish capital of the world. But when a new group arrived driving flashy, imported cars and dropping hundreds of dollars on bait and tackle, the town became the setting for an undercover federal sting operation tasked with bringing down a suspected international caviar poaching ring.

Financial Times says Paddlefish is an "intriguing crime caper" and "a Hollywood thriller begging to be made"

The Permian Basin is the birthplace of Friday Night Lights. But the historic oil boom threatens beloved high school football traditions.

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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