If you’re even a casual listener of the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast*, you’ll know that Joe’s been promoting Austin, Texas, pretty hard; with many guests also talking about how amazing the city is, even going so far as to move there themselves (most notably, Elon Musk with his new Tesla Gigafactory).

With so much acclaim, my sister and I decided to check out this budding new ‘tech-hot spot’ and growing American attraction for ourselves. 

Before heading out here, all I really knew about Austin was their annual SXSW music festival because of the bands that I listened to growing up—though, hearing that it was now becoming the ‘new silicon valley’, the intrigue was so strong it was hard for us to resist visiting. However, having now gone and seen it first-hand, I’m really left wondering if: (a) it’s still “in-progress”, (b) it was “over-hyped”, or (c) if “America’s best kept secret” is more telling of America as a whole.

With mostly empty streets (allegedly, because it was a holiday weekend) and a walking-dead series of homeless people occupying the majority of the cityscape (though, at night the city seemed to get a little more lively), perhaps the real draw of moving to Austin for Americans is the cheap cost of living.

As one Lyft driver told us, it was really cheap to live in Austin at first, but now that big tech companies and celebrities are flocking to this new epicentre, the cost of living is getting so high that regular Austinites are now having a hard time making ends meet.

I suppose it’s the natural order of things, and since cities are built around economic advantage, perhaps in the next 10-20 years Austin will look completely different from what it looks like today; but, for now, it’s still a work in progress—you have been warned.

-it’s always just a story in our minds until we go and see things for ourselves; travel far, travel often.

Note: all images and video where shot using an iPhone 14 Pro Max. I did bring my DSLR, but it was a little tough to find anything aesthetically pleasing composition-wise.