New Podcast Explores How One Texas Town's Anti-Trans Movement Became a Template for Cities Across the U.S.

NBC News' Mike Hixenbaugh and Antonia Hylton — who co-host the new podcast "Grapevine" — tell PEOPLE that their investigative series is, at its core, about "kids' lives and safety and security"

Reporter Mike Hixenbaugh was hundreds of miles away from Grapevine, Texas, when he first determined that it would be central to his journalistic work. Standing in his Houston kitchen, cleaning dishes and putting his child to bed, Hixenbaugh had been listening to a Grapevine-Colleyville school board meeting via his AirPods when he heard something shocking.

A mother from the city of Grapevine took the microphone before the crowded meeting to tell attendees that she had "lost her son" because of a queer teacher. Her son, she suggested, had become transgender due to school.

"When that mother said, essentially, 'This teacher convinced my child to change genders ... I was laying in bed with my 3-year-old kid, trying to get them to sleep. That moment stuck to me, like, what book or classroom lesson could lead to this split between a mom and a child?" Hixenbaugh tells PEOPLE.

Hixenbaugh had been listening to the meeting as part of his research into policies being approved by the school board that targeted gender identity in schools. As he learned from his earlier work on the Peabody Award-winning, Pulitzer-finalist series Southlake — which delved into the battle over critical race theory in Southlake, Texas — small towns in the Lone Star State often served as templates for social and political fights that would eventually become part of the national conversation.

After listening to the mother speaking to the school board in Grapevine, Hixenbaugh immediately reached out to his Southlake reporting partner, Antonia Hylton, about starting a new project.

"As a dad and a reporter, I was like, 'Antonia, we need to figure out what’s going on here,'" he says.

Hylton tells PEOPLE her response was swift. "He sent me a text message and I was like, 'We’ve got to dig into this now.'"

Soon, cursory Google searches turned into door-knocking in Grapevine, which unveiled a tangled web of wealthy donors, political operatives and a cell phone company that had been pouring immense resources into school board elections and wielding enormous power in Texas politics.

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Hixenbaugh and Hylton's investigation is now the subject of a new NBC News Studios podcast — Grapevine — premiering Oct. 4. The six-episode series investigates the anti-trans movement in Texas, and how the approach in Grapevine has been more or less copied-and-pasted elsewhere.

The podcast features exclusive interviews with students, teachers, school board candidates, parents and politicians, as well as secretly recorded audio of school administrators grappling with growing political pressure from conservative groups.

Related: Why One Texas Family Is Moving to Escape the State's Anti-Trans Bills: 'A Terrible Way to Live'

Noting that many social and political issues are often reduced to soundbites, Hylton says she and Hixenbaugh made strides to ensure all voices were included — especially the kids at the center of it all, including the child of the mom who sparked the investigation.

"To feel like your identity, or a story about your identity, has been told but no one asked you. ... Mike and I felt as reporters it was so important to tell this story. We’re talking about kids' lives and safety and security and you’ve got to have their voices at the center," Hylton says.

She continues: "In recent years, someone tells their side of a story or a politician re-tells a story at a banquet and it's politicized and it's only a half-truth. We knew if we focused on one family and if we got it right … we could explain how this is reshaping American politics."

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Over the course of their reporting, the duo has seen how the conversation surrounding trans issues has evolved.

"Back when the North Carolina bathroom bill happened, athletes and businesses were constantly speaking out against it," Hylton notes, referring to House Bill 2, which thrust the state into the national spotlight in 2016 by preventing transgender people from using bathrooms that aligned with their gender identity.

The immediate backlash against North Carolina's bathroom bill echoed nationwide, wreaking economic damage on the state.

Related: 'They're Hurting My Grandchildren': N.C. Lawmaker's Emotional Opposition to Anti-Trans Bills

By 2023, the landscape looks different. The American Civil Liberties Union is currently tracking nearly 500 anti-LGBTQ bills in the U.S.

"The conversation has changed and it's because these groups [behind the anti-trans movement] are slowly and surely committed to this cause — which they believe is protecting families. They are well-organized, well-funded, and this is part of a longer-term goal for them," Hylton says.

As Hylton and Hixenbaugh explain, many of the characters and companies detailed in Grapevine haven't strictly focused their efforts on small-town Texas.

Dig into anti-trans measures across the country, Hylton says, and "you'll notice the same organizations, the same sources of funding ... you'll start to see these patterns of how they built a movement, really."

Related: Montana Governor's Nonbinary Child Asks Him to Reject State's Anti-LGBTQ Legislation

And beyond getting acquainted with the organizations attempting to pass anti-trans measures, Hylton and Hixenbaugh say listeners of Grapevine will get to know the kids who will most be impacted.

"When people listen to our series, they’ll get a sense of how this is really affecting teachers and students. They’ll also meet a lot of really wonderful, smart children who may not even be old enough to vote … but who care really deeply about their communities. Who love school. Love books," Hylton says.

She continues: "There are the hard and the sad and the heartbreaking moments. But there are also a lot of people who are funny and joyful and love their communities and want to see the best in everyone around them and really care about their school community. That's why they’re fighting."

The first two episodes of NBC News Studios' Grapevine are now available wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are released on Wednesdays and Fridays.

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