Elon’s Boring town

Today, Explained

Vox

Daily News, Politics, News

4.4 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We're revisiting an episode from earlier this year about the world's richest man and the company town he's developing outside of Austin, Texas. Like the industrialists who came before him, Elon Musk may learn it’s hard to create (and sustain) a utopia. This episode was produced by Victoria Chamberlin, edited by Matt Collette, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Patrick Boyd and Andrea Kristinsdottir, and hosted by Noel King. Photo of Elon Musk's Snailbrook town in Bastrop, Texas by Brandon Bell/Getty Images. Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you open your Maps app and you type in Snailbrook, Texas, you will get nothing but a prompt.
0:09.6	Do you maybe want Scenic Brook, Texas, or Springbrook, Texas?
0:13.9	Snailbrook is not a town just yet.
0:15.9	It is currently under construction outside of Austin.
0:19.7	The builder, one Elon Musk, says Nailbrook will be a company town
0:23.9	for employees of his boring company and X and etc.
0:28.1	He has plans for it to be, quote, utopian, which...
0:32.2	I mean, it's got a long way to go.
0:35.0	It's got a lot of rough edges, and it's definitely nothing that you would call
0:38.6	like a utopia. So far it's just 15 trailers.
0:41.6	Coming up on today explained, Elon Musk takes us back to the days of the company town,
0:46.6	whether we care to go or not. I don't see the draw personally to wanting to go out in the middle
0:53.5	of nowhere and then live in a tiny trailer.
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	...

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