logo
episode-header-image
Feb 2023
1h 6m

Jeff Speck on the 10th-Anniversary Editi...

Strong Towns
About this episode
Today on the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck Marohn welcomes back Jeff Speck, city planner and author, to talk about a brand-new version of his book, Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time. It’s the 10th anniversary for the book, and a lot has changed in the U.S. since the original was published. While the content from the first edition ... Show More
Up next
Mar 16
Beyond Supply and Demand to Housing’s Unseen Financial Forces
Chuck walks through three ways of seeing the housing crisis: supply, demand, and the Strong Towns view that grapples with “dark finance” and capital flows. He explains why campaign-style wins and single-variable fixes rarely deliver real affordability. The episode closes with a c ... Show More
1h 7m
Feb 26
What Comes After the Interstate Era? | New Report
For years, the dominant explanation for America’s infrastructure problems has been that we haven’t invested enough. Yet federal spending on transportation is at historic highs, and frustration with the results continues to grow. This report offers a different interpretation. The ... Show More
49m 47s
Feb 16
Humility Versus Hubris in American Urbanism
Why 95% of planners get it wrong, how monetary policy killed Main Street, and why Chuck Marohn is optimistic about Gen Z. This wide-ranging conversation, first featured on the Yeoman podcast with Geoff Graham, explores the difference between Jane Jacobs's humble incrementalism an ... Show More
1h 34m
Recommended Episodes
Jun 2018
Part 3, Chapter 5: What Happened to Hank Thompson
The bad is as human as the good. Pre-order the Alice Isn’t Dead novel today. On sale October 30, 2018. Signed editions now available for pre-order in the U.S. and Canada. Don’t forget to check out our 17 city book tour this fall. New on the store: an Alice Isn’t Dead road map, fe ... Show More
25m 37s
Mar 2023
The problem with unequal cities (with Richard McGahey)
We've released dozens of episodes exploring how to improve the lives of Americans that live in rural areas, but we don’t often discuss how cities (and the folks that live in them) are being left behind by state lawmakers and federal policies. This is a problem because cities are ... Show More
39m 32s
Dec 2020
Author Connor Towne O’Neill On the Battle to Shape History
<p>On today’s episode, Ryan talks to a fellow Southern transplant, writer Conor Towne O’Neill. They nerd out over their mutual fascination with the ghosts of American history that linger in the South, and how their presence looms in the Confederate monuments that even now, uncons ... Show More
1h 12m
Jun 2023
America’s Big City Brain Drain
<p>In recent years, well-paid and college-educated Americans have shed major cities like New York, San Francisco and Washington for places like Philadelphia or Birmingham, Ala.</p><p>Emily Badger, who writes about cities and urban policy for The Upshot at The New York Times, expl ... Show More
29m 50s
Dec 2022
The Wheels On The Omnibus
Lawmakers introduced a bipartisan agreement on a spending bill to keep the government funded — but it’s bringing out the claws among Republicans. Rep. Kevin McCarthy went after Sen. Mitch McConnell for supporting the spending package, in what may be a move to muster support for h ... Show More
16m 27s
Aug 2021
Cover Story: Target's Cozy Police Legacy
This week's Cover Story for Bloomberg Businessweek:"Target’s Cozy Police Legacy Leaves Black Americans Wary" written by Peter Waldman and Lauren Etter.Read by Bloomberg's Mark Leydorf.For years, America’s most upbeat retailer funded surveillance to make inner cities safe—for some ... Show More
32m 52s
Jan 2024
Episode 465: The San Francisco Ferry Building with John King
<p class="MsoNormal">This week we're joined by John King, Urban Design Critic at the SF Chronicle, to talk about his book <a href= "https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324020325">Portal: San Francisco's Ferry Building and the Reinvention of American Cities</a>. We chat about the histo ... Show More
53m 32s