Fixer Upper Transformed Waco, Texas Into An Instagram-able Capitalist Nightmare
Eating For Free
Joan Summers and Matthew Lawson
4.8 • 535 Ratings
🗓️ 25 April 2019
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What happens when two reality television stars turn a former cult stronghold and out of the way Texas town into a mecca for the Instagram obsessed, Christian millennial? How have Chip & Joanna Gaines' Fixer Upper empire, rebranded as Magnolia, changed the landscape of the American tourist industry? What does the future hold for the ravaged town of Waco as taxes rise, housing prices skyrocket, and their local industries cater to out of town investment bankers? We investigate!
Eating For Free is a bi-weekly gossip podcast reporting from the edge of the internet! We're a new wave of celebrity reporters at a time when pop culture is increasingly chaotic and media lacks the ability or moral direction to make sense of this capitalist nightmare!
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- Joan Summers: Twitter, Instagram, joaniesucks@gmail.com.
- Matthew Lawson: Twitter, Instagram
Article links:
- My Tortured Relationship With the HGTV Show Fixer Upper (Jezebel)
- "Fixer Upper" Is Over, But Waco's Transformation Is Just Beginning (Anne Helen Petersen, BuzzFeed)
- 'Fixer Upper' shotgun house listed for almost $1 million (Waco Tribune)
- Waco, Reborn (Paige Skinner, NYT)
- I Went to Waco and Stayed in a 'Fixer Upper' House, and I Don't Get the Appeal (Dallas Obverver)
- The Standoff in Waco (Texas Observer)
- Waco council takes aim at racial disparities, gentrification (Waco Tribune)
- HOPING FOR HOMES: Poor priced out of Waco's hot housing market, nonprofit officials say (Waco Tribune)
- What That 'Fixer Upper' Car Crash Says About Waco & Your Favorite HGTV Show (Country Living)
- Waco: Neighborhood meeting on development gets heated (KWTX)
- 'Fixer Upper' effect: Waco's economy benefits from Chip and Joanna Gaines lifestyle empire (USA Today)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So Lawson is like quickly going to dinner after we finished recording this episode. |
| 0:04.3 | But I really wanted to clarify something with you at the top of this before people listen. |
| 0:08.5 | Hi guys. |
| 0:09.2 | Welcome to eating for free. |
| 0:10.5 | We're going to be talking about Chip and Joanna Gaines of Fixer Upper. |
| 0:13.9 | And I just wanted to clarify multiple times throughout this episode. |
| 0:17.4 | We referred to Chip and Joanna as white people when it is mostly Chip that is the |
| 0:23.5 | white person in their relationship. |
| 0:26.3 | Joanna, as she calls herself, Joe has come forward multiple times and talked about how her father |
| 0:31.4 | is Lebanese and German and her mother's Korean. |
| 0:34.6 | So we just wanted to clarify that mostly we are talking about the people brought to Waco by Fixer Upper, |
| 0:42.8 | not specifically Joanna being white. |
| 0:45.1 | I just wanted to clarify because I hate misinformation and confusion. |
| 0:48.5 | Well, I mean, the articles. |
| 0:49.6 | Chaos and drama. |
| 0:50.7 | Well, all the articles talk about are talking about, yeah, again, the tourists that come, |
| 0:53.8 | the people that visit, the people who see on Instagram that relate to this whole story, |
| 0:56.9 | what have you. Yeah. That's what you mean. Definitely don't mean to be directly. Of course. So I just wanted to clarify that. Please finish rolling this joint you are rolling in front of me and get the fuck out of my house. |
| 1:07.9 | JK, JK, JK, enjoy the episode. |
| 1:11.2 | What do I think of her? |
| 1:12.2 | Yes. |
| 1:14.1 | I don't think of her? |
... |
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