Build Order’s first ever deep dive opens with Columbus, Ohio.

This is a city that is one of the largest in America, and yet is treated like it was recently discovered behind a very large Midwestern curtain.

Columbus has many of the ingredients growing cities want: a major state university, relative affordability, a diversified economy, strong logistics infrastructure, and a state government that is, at minimum, pro-business-ish.

But growth is beginning to test the system. A surge in data center development alongside major investments from Intel and Anduril have residents and investors asking two big questions. First: did we build in Columbus too far ahead of the boom? And second: does Columbus have the energy capacity and execution know-how to support its long-term bets?

By the end of this episode, you’ll have a clearer way to think about Columbus as a growth platform, and understand why an “average” test-market city may have the cleanest industrial growth story in the Midwest… as long as the electrons show up on time.

Chapter descriptions:

00:00:10 – Introducing the Build Order city framework
00:01:48 – Why Columbus feels newly discovered
00:03:04 – Columbus’ history and capital city origins
00:06:14 – People: demographics, migration, and affordability
00:07:44 – People: Columbus as test-market America
00:08:51 – People: Ohio State as a talent engine
00:11:35 – Jobs: Columbus’s diversified industry base
00:13:53 – Jobs: Intel, Anduril, and the new industrial layer
00:16:50 – Buildings: real estate signals by asset class
00:22:14 – Systems: logistics, water, transit, and energy strain
00:28:38 – Rules: tariffs, incentives, taxes, and JobsOhio
00:36:38 – SWOT: what’s working, what’s fragile, and what could derail Columbus
00:45:08 – The “live, build, invest” conclusion

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In this episode, Lauren and Jen, dressed for low Earth orbit if not necessarily broadcast journalism, are joined by Lucy Wu, an Austin-based aerospace professional to trace the geography of the American space industry.

The original space economy formed around four major hubs: Cape Canaveral for launch, Los Angeles for aerospace design and manufacturing, Huntsville for propulsion and engineering, and Houston for mission control. Each place won its role in the American landscape of space for a different reason, from optimal geography to talent concentration and depth, industrial history to pure politics.

The commercial space era is reopening the map. Space is no longer only about getting humans to the Moon (or even to Mars). It now includes satellites, defense, manufacturing, software, data infrastructure, and dual-use technology. As the industry broadens, new cities have a chance to claim parts of the space economy, and those choices have real implications for where companies build, where talent clusters, and where investors should pay attention.

By the end of this episode, you’ll have a clearer way to think about the next generation of space cities: why Los Angeles is still hard to unseat, why Denver may already be investable as a space city, and why Austin is becoming “Sat City.”

This episode is public, so feel free to launch it into someone else’s orbit.

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Chapter descriptions:

00:01:47 – The four legacy space hubs
00:05:16 – How Houston won mission control
00:10:00 – LA’s space density versus Austin’s sprawl
00:14:33 – Austin’s acreage advantage
00:19:30 – Elon Musk and the Texas space map
00:21:17 – Did SpaceX outgrow California?
00:30:39 – Which city will win the next space economy?
00:32:23 – Austin’s dual use, defense tech, and lunar real estate companies
00:36:47 – Austin versus Denver as the next “Space City”
00:43:19 – What real estate investors should consider
00:48:20 – Final takeaways

A private astronaut built a Shakespeare theater near Lake Austin. Now that strange little piece of land raises a bigger question: what does Austin preserve, and what does it let slip away?

The hidden, Elizabethan-style theater that many Austinites have never heard of was built by Richard Garriott — creator of Ultima, private astronaut, medieval enthusiast, and one of the more Austin characters Austin has ever had.

In episode 004 of Build Order's series on Austin, Lauren and Jen talk about founder-led culture, Alamo Drafthouse, Austin’s live music identity, and why some cultural institutions only become precious after they are threatened or gone. They also compare Austin to New York and San Francisco, asking whether density, transit, patronage, zoning, or individual eccentrics matter most in keeping a city culturally alive.

The uncomfortable answer: there may be no silver bullet. Austin can protect land. Culture is harder. It has to be made possible again and again.

Chapter descriptions:

00:00:10 – What Austin preserves and what it lets slip away

00:01:11 – The hidden Shakespeare theatre near Lake Austin

00:02:26 – Richard Garriott and Austin’s founder tradition

00:06:20 – Alamo Drafthouse and the limits of exporting culture

00:17:06 – Whether founders owe their cities anything

00:25:03 – How live music became Austin’s official identity

00:31:10 – Whether Austin’s cultural venues are forever lost or regenerated

00:35:18 – Do the arts need cheap rent to survive?

00:41:25 – How New York and Los Angeles’ cultural engines work

00:48:03 – What cities can and can’t do to preserve culture

… and if you want to see the only science fiction film actually filmed in space, we highly recommend you watch all 7 minutes of Apogee of Fear here.

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