A disciplined true crime opening that turns a murder into a study of privilege and justice.
Dead Certain opens with the Martha Moxley murder in Greenwich, Connecticut, then widens into a story about power, privilege, secrets, and justice.
A suburb under cross-examination.
The gist
Southlake follows the fight over schools in Southlake and Grapevine, where local board meetings become a map of national conflict. Its reporting connects student harassment, backlash against critical race theory, exclusionary zoning, and transgender youth policy to the everyday machinery of suburban power.
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About Southlake
Southlake is a reported podcast about what happens when a suburb’s polished self-image meets the people it has failed to protect. The series begins in Southlake, Texas, a place defined by wealth, schools, and civic confidence. Then a racist student video and accounts of harassment force the town to confront what its reputation has hidden. The proposed response, a cultural competence plan, becomes the spark for a wider political backlash. The show follows that backlash closely. It pays attention to school board meetings, parent organizing, administrative language, and the national campaign against critical race theory. But it is not only about slogans. It is about systems. Episodes trace how zoning, income, race, and school boundaries shape who can live in a community and who is kept at the edge of it. The reporting gives local conflict historical weight, including the legacy of exclusionary zoning and a court decision that limited school desegregation across district lines. Southlake also widens into Grapevine. There, the story turns toward Ren, a transgender student whose home life, school environment, and state politics begin pressing in at once. The series handles that material with gravity. It shows how public policy can arrive inside a teenager’s bedroom, custody dispute, and mental health crisis. The tone is controlled, not detached. Interview tape and narrated context work together, letting personal accounts sit beside documents and political history. Some feed episodes include previews of other NBC and Dateline series, but the core identity here is civic investigation. Southlake is strongest when it shows that suburbia’s conflicts are rarely isolated. A school fight can reveal a housing regime. A board meeting can expose a national strategy. A family argument can become evidence of a state’s priorities.
Made for: For listeners drawn to investigative reporting on schools, race, class, local politics, and the social consequences of policy fights. It suits those who prefer careful context over quick partisan heat.
What sets it apart: Southlake turns a local school conflict into a broader anatomy of suburban power. Its strength is the way it connects intimate family stories to zoning, court history, state policy, and national political organizing.
In their own words
Southlake, Texas, seems to have it all: stately homes, intense civic pride, and above all, terrific schools. So when a video surfaced in 2018 showing Southlake high school students chanting the N-word—and when Black residents came forward to share stories of racist harassment and bullying—the school board vowed to make changes. But the unveiling of the Cultural Competence Action Plan set off a backlash that’s consumed Southlake, fueled by a growing national crusade against critical race theory. Hosted by NBC News national reporter Mike Hixenbaugh (host of the hit podcast Do No Harm) and NBC News correspondent Antonia Hylton...
As heard by us
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Southlake makes school-board power legible through recorded meetings, historical context, and close attention to the people carrying its consequences.
Southlake follows school-board conflict outward, connecting public meetings and classroom policies to housing exclusion, racial discrimination, religious organizing, and national politics.
Why you'd press play
A school-board microphone becomes the crime scene for anyone suspicious of polite policy language.
Press play if you want
- to see how Christian nationalism turns local school governance into a political front
- the human stakes behind fights over books, pronouns, and classroom speech
school board politicsracism in schoolscritical race theory backlashexclusionary zoningsuburban wealth and racetransgender youth policyfamily conflictpublic education
Talks about
Best episodes of Southlake
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
An audio preview that ties Southlake's school conflict to race, zoning, and school access.
This audio preview treats the book as a report from Southlake and Grapevine on one town's fight over race and identity, and on the larger war over America's classrooms.
A Texas school board dispute that turns a classroom conflict into a close look at belonging and authority.
Grapevine - Ep. 1: The Girl And The English Teacher opens in a school board meeting in Grapevine, Texas, where a usually quiet room is packed shoulder to shoulder.
A local book complaint opens into a clear look at Texas school politics.
This episode tracks a school-library fight in Granbury, Texas, and it works best when it stays close to the place itself: the school board room, the local complaint, and the recorded exchange with superintendent Jeremy Glenn.
A local school-board fight becomes a clear map of Christian nationalist power.
Grapevine - Ep. 2: The Seven Mountains follows a once-fringe Christian nationalist worldview as it moves from churches and institutions into politics, Trump-era rhetoric, and school-board fights.
A school board meeting becomes a wider struggle over power and identity.
The episode opens on a crowded school board meeting in Grapevine, Texas, and turns a routine monthly gathering into a clear test of authority.
Podcasts like Southlake
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Hidden BrainHidden Brain, Shankar VedantamShankar Vedantam unpacks the psychology behind relationships, careers, and money through researcher interviews.
You Are Not So SmartYou Are Not So SmartDavid McRaney interviews researchers on cognitive bias, motivated reasoning, and why minds change.
The Daily StoicDaily Stoic | Backyard VenturesRyan Holiday pairs daily Stoic lessons with long-form guest conversations at his Texas bookstore.
Episodes
- 1
Dateline Presents: Trace of Suspicion
This Dateline podcast episode investigates the suspicious death of a Marine, where his widow's lavish lifestyle and arsenic found in his body lead to a murder accusation.
Mar 10, 2026·3m - 2
Dateline Presents: Something About Cari
This true crime episode investigates the mysterious disappearance of Carrie, who terrorized her family and others through relentless text messages, stalking, arson, and murder.
Dec 2, 2025·2m - 3
NBC News Studios Presents Dead Certain: The Martha Moxley Murder
This preview episode introduces the true crime podcast 'Dead Certain: The Martha Moxley Murder,' exploring the 1975 killing of a 15-year-old girl in wealthy Greenwich, Connecticut.
Nov 4, 2025·19m·1 clip - 4
Introducing Dead Certain: The Martha Moxley Murder
This episode introduces the unsolved 1975 murder of Martha Moxley, the subsequent arrest of Kennedy relative Michael Skakel in 2000, and the journalist's deep dive into the case's complexities.
Oct 28, 2025·4m - 5
Introducing: The Last Appeal
This podcast investigates the case of Robert Roberson, a Texas man facing execution for his daughter's death despite claims of innocence based on discredited shaken baby syndrome evidence.
Oct 6, 2025·2m - 6
They Came for the Schools
Hidden gemMike Hicksonball introduces "They Came for the Schools" as a preview built from reporting in Southlake and Grapevine, then opens with Amy Roll's 2006 drive from Los Angeles to Texas for what she thought would be a better school district.
May 14, 2024·41m·2 clips - 7
Special preview of Into America presents: Uncounted Millions
This Black History Month special preview explores the untold story of Gabriel Coakley, one of the few Black Americans compensated for slavery, and examines its implications for the current reparations debate.
Feb 15, 2024·6m - 8
Grapevine - Ep. 1: The Girl And The English Teacher
The story opens in Grapevine, Texas.
Nov 27, 2023·43m·3 clips - 9
Grapevine - Ep. 2: The Seven Mountains
Prayer in schools is the opening frame.
Nov 27, 2023·44m·3 clips - 10
Grapevine - Ep. 5: Open The Floodgates
This episode follows Texas Representative Nate Schatzlein as he leads a Christian worship session inside the Capitol rotunda on the first day of the legislative session, blending faith and government.
Nov 27, 2023·45m - 11
Grapevine - Ep. 4: A Raging Fire
In July 2022, Weston Brown saw his mother in an online video.
Nov 27, 2023·43m·2 clips - 12
Grapevine - Ep. 3: A Harvest Is Coming
This episode follows Ren, a 15-year-old transgender student in Texas, as she navigates family conflict and state policies threatening gender-affirming care while planning to seek custody transfer to her father.
Nov 27, 2023·48m - 13
Grapevine - Ep. 6: A Final Lesson
The hosts attend a large church service in Southlake, Texas, to observe how the pastor might address upcoming school board elections in the area.
Nov 27, 2023·49m - 14
Special Preview of Grapevine
The first episode of Grapevine introduces M.
Oct 4, 2023·21m·1 clip - 15
BONUS: Rachel Maddow Presents: Déjà News
Rachel Maddow introduces a new podcast that explores historical events with uncanny parallels to today's headlines, starting with a 1930s fascist coup plot.
Jun 12, 2023·5m - 16
Introducing Letters from Sing Sing
A preview of the podcast 'Letters from Sing Sing' about a man convicted of murder and the 20-year investigation into his case.
Feb 20, 2023·2m - 17
Special Preview: “The Revolution with Steve Kornacki”
A preview of a podcast about the political and cultural battle in Southlake, Texas, over a school board's anti-racism plan.
Oct 31, 2022·5m - 18
Special preview: “Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra”
A preview of Rachel Maddow's new podcast Ultra, which recounts a mysterious 1940s plane crash involving a U.S.
Oct 10, 2022·5m - 19
Introducing: Internal Affairs
A murder investigation in Colorado reveals a web of police corruption and a woman's deadly obsession.
Sep 20, 2022·2m - 20
Presenting Into America: The Power of the Black Vote
A preview of Into America's series on Black voting power, featuring a discussion at Texas Southern University about the battle over how race and history are taught in schools.
Sep 16, 2022·9m - 21
Introducing Dateline: Missing in America
A promo for Dateline Missing in America, a podcast series focusing on one missing person per episode, seeking public help to solve the mystery.
Jul 26, 2022·2m - 22
Introducing: The Seduction
A preview of a true crime podcast about a young man's involvement in a murder plot driven by lust and obsession.
Jun 14, 2022·3m - 23
Special Preview – Born to Rule: When Charles is King
May 30, 2022·4m - 24
Introducing In Their Court
This episode previews a podcast about racial tensions in Southlake, Texas, sparked by a video of students chanting the N-word and the ensuing backlash against a cultural competence plan.
May 9, 2022·3m - 25
Introducing Tiffany Dover Is Dead*
A preview of a podcast about a nurse who fainted after a COVID vaccine and became the center of a conspiracy theory.
Apr 11, 2022·3m - 26
Books and Backlash
A podcast investigating the controversy over a school diversity plan in Southlake, Texas, amid allegations of racism and a national anti-CRT movement.
Mar 6, 2022·37m - 27
Beyond the Bubble
A school board meeting in Southlake, Texas, erupts in chaos as opponents of a diversity plan clash with supporters, leading to a special election.
Oct 4, 2021·37m - 28
Protect the Tradition
A local election in Southlake, Texas, reveals deep divisions over a school diversity plan amid a national debate on critical race theory.
Sep 27, 2021·39m - 29
The Debate Channel
A podcast investigating the political backlash in Southlake, Texas, after a school board's anti-racism plan sparked a conservative revolt.
Sep 20, 2021·42m - 30
The Circus Comes to Town
The episode examines how a conservative activist's Fox News appearance led to a national backlash against a school diversity plan in Southlake, Texas.
Sep 13, 2021·39m - 31
The Not-So-Silent Majority
This episode examines the controversy in Southlake, Texas, after a video of students using a racial slur led to a school board's cultural action plan and subsequent backlash fueled by anti-critical race theory sentiment.
Sep 6, 2021·39m - 32
Just a Word
This episode examines the racial controversy in Southlake, Texas, after a video of students chanting the N-word led to a school board policy that sparked a community backlash fueled by national debates on critical race theory.
Aug 30, 2021·40m - 33
Home of the Dragons
A documentary series exploring the racial tensions and political backlash in Southlake, Texas, after a video of students chanting the N-word and a subsequent anti-racism plan.
Aug 30, 2021·35m - 34
Trailer
A podcast about a Texas suburb's school system grappling with racism and the ensuing political backlash over critical race theory.
Aug 20, 2021·3m