John Coogan

Meanwhile, its technology and finance ecosystems have been deepening.

This summer, it will ring its first standalone burst, the Texas Stock Exchange, joining outposts of the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ already operating in the state.

Donald Trump has called the New York Stock Exchange's new branch an unbelievably bad thing for his hometown of New York, even if his social media venture

was the first business to list on it.

So that's a very funny thing, but he was obviously giving that in the context of New York is defined by its exchanges and in the context of just New York, the city, losing out to Texas or New York state losing out to Texas in any way is bad for that state, I suppose.

The state's appeal is to yuppies.

To yuppies is growing with every stream of a country song.

I've been listening to a lot of country songs.

Joe Weisenthal plays in a country band, blues band.

Oh, yeah.

We got to get Roger from Condé Nast.

He can jam.

And an SM7B podcast microphone on the guitar.

That might be the trick.

Might be the trick.

To understand its ascendancy, start in Houston, part of the Texan energy industry.

Its oil and gas barons have been raking in profits as a result of the Iran war.

But over the past years, the state has also become a hub for green energy.

This year, it's expected to build 250

fifths of all utility scale solar in America, a technology for which its wide open flatlands are ideal.