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Voters in Georgetown will decide this weekend whether to sell off parts of their water system. The parts up for consideration lay outside the city limits, and the election comes as Georgetown is looking to manage rising costs.
Construction at the Austin Surf Club near the airport has come to a stop, and now contractors have filed millions in liens against the developers.
Its may first, but before we leave April too far behind, we’re chatting with Ryan Wen of our sister station KUTX about his top song picks of the month for April. New Austin Music You Need To Know: April 2026
Austin actor Ben McKenzie’s new documentary, “Everyone is Lying to You for Your Money,” takes a hard look at the world of cryptocurrency. We chat about his film and his appearance this weekend at the KUT Festival.
Austin Signal is made possible by listeners like you. You can support our work by making a donation at supportthispodcast.org
The full transcript of this episode of Austin Signal is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:08] It is Election Day tomorrow in Central Texas, and while not everyone is voting this go-round, voters in Georgetown will decide whether to sell off parts of their water system. The parts up for consideration lay outside the city limits, and the election comes as Georgetown is looking to manage rising costs. And the construction that had been ongoing at the Austin Surf Club near the airport has come to a stop, and now the developers behind the rejuvenation reportedly owe millions in liens. We’ve got more about these stories coming up on today’s show.
KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:00:39] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Quijano.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:44] And actor and Austinite Ben McKenzie’s new documentary takes a hard look at the world of cryptocurrency. The title is Everyone is Lying to You for Money. We’re gonna chat about his film and his appearance this weekend at the KUT Festival. That’s next on Austin Signal. Howdy out there, you are listening to Austin Signal. I’m your host Jerry Quijano. It is the first Friday of the month, May 1st. We are already one-third of the way through 2026. Thanks for spending plenty of those days here with community-powered public radio. This is KUT News. Voters in Georgetown are deciding this weekend whether or not to sell parts of its water system to a private provider, specifically parts of the system that fall outside Georgetown city limits. It comes as the city is looking to manage rising costs amid rapid development in the area. KUT’s Williamson County reporter Kaylee Hunt is with us now for a preview of the election. Kaylee, welcome to the show.
Kailey Hunt [00:01:51] Hey, Jerry.
Jerry Quijano [00:01:52] So can you tell us exactly what is on the ballot that voters are gonna be deciding on?
Kailey Hunt [00:01:56] Yeah, so voters who live in Georgetown, they will have the opportunity to let the city know if they want it to sell a portion of its public water system to a new private water provider.
Jerry Quijano [00:02:08] And if this does indeed passes, who would be operating that new system?
Kailey Hunt [00:02:13] Yeah. So the city has selected national utility infrastructure as its preferred buyer. So that means if they do get permission and that they could go ahead and move forward with the sale and yeah, national utility, infrastructure is the city says their top choice because any new owner is just getting the infrastructure like pipes, right? They’re not actually getting the water. So, they said that they have been impressed by… National Utility Infrastructure’s plan for finding water for the future.
Jerry Quijano [00:02:48] Well, speaking of finding water for the future, that’s something that lots of Central Texans are worried about, lots of Texans in general. What is the impetus for this particular possible selling off of this water system?
Kailey Hunt [00:03:00] Yeah, I mean, Georgetown is one of those cities that’s been struggling to find enough water and keep up with its residents’ demands over time just due to the population growth. But the big important thing that led up to this is that right now, currently, about 40% of Georgetown’s water utility customers currently live outside the city. And that dates back to 2014 when the city decided to acquire the Chisholm Trail Special Utility District. That means that they provide water to nearby towns like Florence and Gerald. And so basically what the city leaders are saying is that they think these areas are gonna rapidly develop in the coming years. And although they don’t have any control over that growth, they still have to legally provide water. And so they’re saying that’s becoming too much. So they’re looking to sell it off.
Jerry Quijano [00:03:57] What would happen next if this measure is approved by Georgetown voters?
Kailey Hunt [00:04:01] Yeah, so if the sale is approved by voters, then the city would go ahead, go forward with their agreement with national utility infrastructure. But then they would also need additional approval from the Texas Public Utility Commission. And that process, they say, could take up to two years.
Jerry Quijano [00:04:19] Well that is one thing that you’ll be watching with this election again election day is tomorrow. What else are you keeping your eyes on in Williamson County.
Kailey Hunt [00:04:27] Yeah, obviously the, the election in Georgetown is kind of the big, big ticket item this time around for me, but I will also be keeping an eye on mayoral elections throughout the county and also proposition B and Round Rock.
Jerry Quijano [00:04:41] All right, well we will be following that and Kaylee Hunt will bring you the latest when she has it. She is KUT’s Williamson County reporter. Kaylee, thanks for your reporting. Well, it’s raining on this Friday, but the sun will be out soon enough. And if you’re hoping to catch some waves near Austin any time soon, well, you may have to keep your surfboard in storage for the time being. A proposed inland surf park, Austin Surf Club, has halted construction and reportedly owes millions to various companies involved in the project. Justin Sayers is covering the story for the Austin Business Journal. Justin, welcome back to Austin Signal. Yeah, thanks again for having us of course. So, uh, can you give us a little bit of backstory on this surf park? I understand it’s being built at the site of an existing surf park. How big is this space and and who’s behind this project?
Justin Sayers [00:05:36] Yeah, so for those long-time Austinites, they might remember this as the En Lin Surf Park. I believe it closed in 2018 or 2019, but that was open to the public. A few years ago, Kelly Slater, the famous surfer and entities connected to him, purchased the site to turn it into a private surf club and luxury houses and other amenities like that, catering more toward the wealthy. We’ve reported that some of the people that have bought into this include Drew Brees and Matthew McConaughey, so that’s kind of the clientele that it’s aim indicator to.
Jerry Quijano [00:06:10] Okay, so give us a sense of the timeline here. When did work start on this new construction, and when was the project originally expected to be completed?
Justin Sayers [00:06:18] Yeah, so they’ve never given an exact timeline on when it was going to be completed, but they’ve been working on construction as far as we can tell and flying our drone and sending photographers and reporters for at least a year. What we had been hearing is that this construction had halted over the last couple months, and we did the same, went out there to look and then found those liens and talked to the company who acknowledged it. They have not given a timeline on when it’s gonna restart and based on the statements that they’ve given, it really does feel like it’s in a little bit of a holding pattern until they kind of reassess what they plan for that site.
Jerry Quijano [00:06:55] And they have said that this kind of halting construction, the Austin Serv Club representatives have said this sort of thing is normal, right?
Justin Sayers [00:07:02] It really depends on the project. I mean, at least for these very high scale, you know, high capital investment projects, I don’t think that’s out of the ordinary. I mean I’ll give you the example of Samsung up in Taylor. It initially was supposed to open in 2022, and the first chips are expected to roll off the line this year. So, you know, that’s four years of market factors and construction slowing and geopolitical issues and everything like that. So I don t think it’s out the ordinary, you know. When it restarts, that’s the question that we would still love an answer to as well.
Jerry Quijano [00:07:37] As we read in your reporting, Austin Surf Club now owes millions in liens. How much do they owe and how did that happen?
Justin Sayers [00:07:44] Yeah, so they owe, based on our totaling of what’s available in public records, $4.6 million, and that is to contractors that do concrete or provide, you know, items for the surf park and mechanics and other stuff like that. Pipes and things like that, yeah. Pipes, yeah, that was one of the things that was in there, but they basically, If a company files this lien, they do so because they haven’t been paid. As far as we can tell, those have not been paid back, and the companies that they were using were all Austin area-based, so they have not received those payments, and we reached out to every single one of them, and none of them wanted to talk about it, so.
Jerry Quijano [00:08:23] Okay, well, you reached out to Austin’s Surf Club, what did they have to say?
Justin Sayers [00:08:27] Yeah, just going back to that statement again, they said that they’re taking a step back and reassessing the project and making sure that it is high quality and caters to that clientele that they’re trying to hit. What they had planned, you know, there are some things like a brewery that did exist on the site that they are repurposing, but it included a couple other surf basins and other stuff like that and custom built homes. So this is a complicated project. The company that they’re working with, Discovery Landco, is very much known for doing very high-end projects. They have another golf course and luxury home development out in Driftwood. They actually have a downtown club that’s exclusive and invite-only and member-only in downtown Austin. So if they’re taking that pause, you know, it’s something that they want to make sure that they adhere to the quality that they are accustomed to.
Jerry Quijano [00:09:21] All right, we’ve been speaking with Justin Sayers. He’s a senior staff writer with the Austin Business Journal. Great to talk to you again, Justin.
Justin Sayers [00:09:28] Yeah, thanks again for having us.
Jerry Quijano [00:09:30] And into the Texas newsroom today, or the KUT newsroom, I should say, Texas hemp businesses can keep selling their cannabis flower and concentrate products while a lawsuit on the state’s new hemp regulations plays out. Travis County Judge granted today a temporary injunction stopping Texas health officials from enforcing a new total Delta 9 THC standard. We have more coming up after this break. This is Austin Signal. Welcome back, this is Austin Signal. Well, today is May 1st, but it has been a busy news weekend. Before we leave April too far behind, we wanna share the best songs from April. Here to help us out is Ryan Wen from our sister station, KUTX. Ryan, welcome back to the show. Thanks for having me, Jerry. So KUT Fest is coming up this weekend. It’s a really great opportunity for people to engage with Austin and to engage within the Austin music experience. One of the artists who is featured and your list of best songs of April is gonna be playing at the KUT Fest.
Ryan Wen [00:10:33] Who is that it’s none other than shaky graves and what other what better musician to you know Represent what it is to be an awesome musician to be at the KT festival. It’s honor for him to be with us It’s also a free show to see shaky graves, which is you know, quite a rare experience these days to be honest You know, he’s a he’s it’s been about 15 years since he released his debut record LP roll the bones and since then I mean he is become one of the and I think has and will endure to be one of the most iconic, you know, emblematic of Austin music musicians in, you now, he just, he represents Austin, it’s the sound of Austin. And you know Shaggy Graves, he kind of took the DIY approach a little further than most have, you know, like he started as kind of this busker who created his own homemade tambourine bass drum. Which he played, he’s using like every appendage available to him to make his music. And he still is like that, you know? It’s this like resolute commitment to DIY, doing things his own way. And that shows in his latest single, When the Love is New as well, which is kind of a dusky mood, which is not necessarily typical of him. And I think this is a really interesting turn for him and I highly recommend checking that out.
Jerry Quijano [00:11:50] That’s very cool. We got to chat with Shaky Graves at South by Southwest this year. You can check that out at KUT.org slash signal and you can find more information about the fest at KUTFestival.org. Okay, Ryan, tell me about Magna Carta. Tell us about their new song.
Ryan Wen [00:12:07] So their new song slide is a, I mean, it’s been a while since we’ve heard, um, from Magna Carta and, you know, they’ve proved once again why they have been, you know one of the greatest Austin hip hop groups, you know, in the last 10, 20 years. And, uh, it it’s kind of a return to, I mean, if you haven’t heard Magna Carta, they, they have been here since 2014. They were one of the first, um hip hop groups in Austin. And like, since then, you know, it a kind of combination fusion with live jazz music that has kind of proliferated since they had been doing in 2014. So they sound better than ever. And Megs Kelly, who is the MC of Magna Carta has proven once again why she was voted best rapper in Austin five years in a row by the Austin Music Awards. And she has a flow that is similar to that like laid back groove, that Ladybug Mecca, the female MC from Digible Planet’s ass. And then she, you know, has this like force and confidence of other like 90s boom bap style rappers as well. So if you’re into that kind of stuff and also like really laid back jazz and like vibraphones, electric pianos, you know the Rhodes electric piano sound, this is definitely something you’d love.
Jerry Quijano [00:13:20] Alright, well let’s close it out with the KUTX Artists of the Month. We got to chat with them here on the signal. That is Gran Moreno. What’s the song?
Ryan Wen [00:13:28] It’s called Temple of Fire. It’s the centerpiece single of their first EP, El Sol. It kind of reminds me of this, I would call forsaken style of psych rock. They used to be big in Austin, in the early era of Austin Psych Fest, which is also coming up soon. But it reminds me the sword a little bit. I wouldn’t call the music metal per se. I would have called it more like psychedelic rock. But it has that kind of you know, uh, those like pummeling doom chords of bands like Black Sabbath, but also like very introspective lyrics. So it’s this interesting fusion of those sounds and it’s a two piece too, which is really impressive. Like they make a huge sound for that. And really they’re one of the best heavy bands in Austin right now, for sure. Recently moved here from Mexico city and something that I don’t think is talked about enough in the world of heavy music and heavy metal generally. Is that all of the major developments of heavy metal music, a lot of it, almost all of it has been, you know, begun with people who have roots in Central America. Bands like Slayer, Metallica, have a huge Latin American presence and I think Gran Moreno came from a place that like still cultivates that sound and you can really hear it in their music. It’s like, they understand it better than a lot of Americans do these days, at least.
Jerry Quijano [00:14:49] All right, well, that is three song recommendations right there. We have even more for you in the podcast Show Notes and at KUTX.org. We’ve been chatting with Ryan Wen. He’s a producer and host for our sister station, KUTx. Ryan, thanks for the recommendations. Thanks, Jerry. Austin is a hub for the tech industry, with many folks making the city their home for precisely that kind of work, so it’s likely that you have heard about cryptocurrency. Perhaps you heard about investing in it from someone you know, like our next guest actor and homegrown Austinite Ben McKenzie. Ben took that conversation along with his degree in economics and did some digging into crypto. The result? A New York Times bestseller and the new documentary Everyone is Lying to You for Money, showing through at least next week out at Austin Film Society. Ben is here with us on Austin Signal. Thanks for taking the time. Oh, thank you for having me. Well, you really enjoyed your movie and so we want to dive right in. In the movie, you call yourself an undercover econ dork. How did your experience in the economics field help you out in this endeavor? Well, yeah, I had a…
Ben Mackenzie [00:16:02] I received an economics degree from the University of Virginia and then promptly went into showbiz. And so nobody, I haven’t, I didn’t really use it, right? Nobody wants to talk about the dismal science around the craft service table, but it was the pandemic and I was extremely bored. Showbiz was on ice and a buddy of mine came to me and said I should buy Bitcoin and it was everywhere, right. The celebrities were selling it. There was so much speculation. And I think a lot of people had this experience of having someone try to sell it to them. But my buddy had given me bad financial advice before. He’d encouraged me to invest in a penny stock and we both lost some money. And so when Dave came to me, I said, Dave, I’m not gonna buy it, but what is it? And he couldn’t really describe it to me. And so I dusted off this econ degree and the more I looked at it, the more just I became obsessed with it. I’ve always loved Behavioral economics, which is the study of how people actually behave. We are not rational. It’s a shocker And which leads to manias and speculation and all sorts of frauds and schemes and I also love true crime I’ve always loved true crime. I like a particular sub genre that I call stupid crime where People are sort of obviously committing crimes Sometimes via tweets and then they turn on each other sort of cohen brothers as crime and crypto had a lot of that
Jerry Quijano [00:17:26] Did you ever envision yourself as a journalist? Because you kind of become a journalist in this film, talking to people who are leading companies, but as well as people who have been swindled out of their hard-earned money. How did you, what was your approach from a journalistic view in this documentary?
Ben Mackenzie [00:17:41] Yeah, I did not consider myself a journalist because I hadn’t ever practiced the profession, but I did team up with the journalist, Jacob Silverman. I reached out to him in the summer of 2021 and said, I’ve got this crazy idea, but I think crypto is gonna crash and I really wanna write a book about it. I don’t know why I started with book rather than film. Maybe it was because of the pandemic, but.
Jerry Quijano [00:18:03] Maybe that’s because you expect that’s how it should go, right? You start with the book, and then the book becomes the movie.
Ben Mackenzie [00:18:07] Yeah, something like that. Anyway, Jacob was fantastic. And Jacob and I wrote several articles for Slate and the Washington Post, the Intercept. And so I learned from him how to be a journalist. And I have to say I’m really, you know, journalism, particularly independent journalism, is so crucial to look at these manias and, quite frankly, frauds, as I would describe cryptocurrency, In order to to get around what unfortunately happens with a lot of corporate media, which is they just sort of swallow the talking points of whoever is selling them on this, and I mean that selling, without really going underneath the surface. So I’m proud that Jacob and I were able to do some good reporting and also write a book that I’m very proud of as well.
Jerry Quijano [00:18:55] I wanted to ask how you approach the filmmaking for this particular documentary. There is obviously the aspect of the story that you’re following cryptocurrency, but to you and your wife are actors as well. And so there’s sort of this meta aspect to the documentary. Our KUT Festival, one of the panels that’s happening is how you tell stories in this day and age. How did you, you know, the world of cryptocurrency is so confusing. There’s so much to kind of take in and figure out with these crap coins and all these other things. How did you approach, how am I gonna tell this story through film?
Ben Mackenzie [00:19:26] Yeah, I wanted to go against what most people would think if you said, I’m making a documentary about cryptocurrency. They probably fall asleep as you’re delivering the line. And so let’s make this fun. Let’s make. This fast. It’s a 90 minute comedy about how stupid this whole thing is and really lean into the sort of strengths of crypto, which is that most of it is sort of patently absurd. Right, you’ve got coins like, can I curse on? Not right now, but yeah. That’s why I said crap coins, you know? Yeah, okay, exactly. There’s things like that that abound, right? Even though we’re supposed to take this industry extremely seriously and it’s supposed to be the future of money, there’s crap coins everywhere. So yeah, once we picked a genre, a comedy, then it was about sort of telling a story that the audience could follow. Who’s your protagonist? I chose myself because I figured people might have a relationship to me via TV. And so I make fun of myself relentlessly as Ryan Atwood from the OC, which is how people probably know me. But in fact, I’m a secret econ dork and I’m very, very proud of the movie. I think it really came together well.
Jerry Quijano [00:20:32] You mentioned that this was kind of birthed out of the pandemic, the movie also features South by Southwest 2022. So it’s been a few years since you started this project and have been continuing to work on the project. How have you seen the conversation around crypto and the industry itself change since you sought to kind of explore it more and as you’re of presenting the work now.
Ben Mackenzie [00:20:52] Yeah, I mean, I think I’ve seen the boom bust boom again, right. In twenty twenty two, when we came to South by crypto was still very much in the cultural conversation, but was starting to go down. And then over the summer, it started to fall apart. And by the fall, Sam Beckman Fried, who I interviewed for the documentary, was arrested and was ultimately convicted of running a fraud. And so the industry was on, you know, down and out. But then. I would say in 2024 when Donald Trump embraced cryptocurrency, it has had this incredible resurgence. And I think that’s worth thinking about why that is. I mean, it’s sort of obvious probably to many of your listeners that if this thing is mainly speculation for the retail public, then it’s basically in economics what you call greater fool theory. The price of a speculative asset rises far beyond its real-world value. And so the price is really dictated by, can you sell it to a greater fool than yourself? Which is a fun game until you end up at the top and you’re the last idiot holding the bag. So we’ve seen the boom bust here in crypto again, and now it’s sort of meandering around. But at the same time, unfortunately, because of the Trump administration’s embrace of crypto, they have really managed to get crypto further into our regulated financial system. Which is something that really does concern me on a serious note in the documentary I show how when I testified to Congress in 2022 I said, you know if we get crypto further into our banking system There will be hell to pay and sure enough three months later Three banks failed in the US all tied to crypto. I’m worried that as it gets further into a system if it were to crash again We could be even worse and we could end up basically recreating the subprime crisis and bailing all these guys out
Jerry Quijano [00:22:49] There were lots of regular people who lost money on crypto that you interviewed for your story and they talk about their loss but they also talk about still believing in the industry. What did you think about that when you spoke to them?
Ben Mackenzie [00:23:03] I was deeply affected by that. When I was speaking to the victims of a particular scam called Celsius, I asked them, well first I wanted to understand why they invested. And some of their stories were so heartbreakingly sincere. One guy who lived in Fort Worth was talking about how he just wanted to have a little extra money so he could spend time with his daughter. Sorry, getting emotional. And he felt like he let her down. And I’m a father. I can relate to that And so it was really touching and then at the end though I came back to these guys and asked do you still believe in cryptocurrency having lost sometimes their life savings? They all to a man and it was all men said yes So I didn’t really make the movie for that five to six percent of the population. That’s really into crypto Unfortunately, there’s nothing I can say or anyone else can say that’s going to convince them that they may be wrong I made it for the 84% of the country that basically has heard about crypto but doesn’t really know anything about it. And so I wanted to demystify it and quite frankly make fun of it.
Jerry Quijano [00:24:05] Yeah, and last question before you get out of here. You do make fun of yourself a lot and as a way of getting your point across for the folks on the other side of the argument. So the people who continue to argue for crypto. What would you say to them. I would say there’s a great movie in the.
Ben Mackenzie [00:24:20] Theaters called Everyone is Lying to You for Money. It’s a 90-minute comedy. Go see it, and if you still believe in crypto, well, I think you know, well, you might be part of a cult.
Jerry Quijano [00:24:32] Well, everyone is lying to you for money is still showing at Austin Film Society. And in fact, Ben will be at tonight’s eight o’clock screening and we’ll stick around for a Q&A. And if you want to hear even more about this topic, Ben is joining us tomorrow at the KUT Festival to chat with Texas standards David Brown. The whole fest is a free event. You only need to RSVP. We’re going to have a link to sign up in today’s show notes. Again, we’ve been speaking with Ben McKenzie. He is the director of Everyone is Lying to You for Your Money. For money, that’s tonight at eight o’clock. At Austin Film Society. Ben, congrats on your film. Thank you for your time. Thank you. And thank you for tuning in out there to Austin Signal. We’ve had a lot going on here in Austin this week so check out everything we reported on at kut.org Have a great weekend!
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
