America's once-vibrant small-to-midsize cities--Syracuse, Worcester, Akron, Flint, Rockford, and others--increasingly resemble urban wastelands. Gutted by deindustrialization, outsourcing, and middle-class flight, disproportionately devastated by metro freeway systems that laid waste to the urban fabric and displaced the working poor, small industrial cities ... Show More
Today
Stephen D. Hopper, "Eucalyptus" (Reaktion, 2025)
Eucalypts, iconic to Australia, have shaped art, science and landscapes worldwide. With around nine hundred species, from towering giants to compact mallees, these trees inspire awe and curiosity. Their hardwood has driven industries, sparked protests and even toppled governments ... Show More
49 m
Yesterday
Heather Davis, "Plastic Matter" (Duke UP, 2022)
Plastic is ubiquitous. It is in the Arctic, in the depths of the Mariana Trench, and in the high mountaintops of the Pyrenees. It is in the air we breathe and the water we drink. Nanoplastics penetrate our cell walls. Plastic is not just any material—it is emblematic of life in t ... Show More
1h 1m
Yesterday
Ilan Kelman, "Antarcticness: Inspirations and Imaginaries" (UCL Press, 2022)
Antarcticness: Inspirations and Imaginaries (UCL Press, 2022)
edited by Ilan Kelman
Antarcticness joins disciplines, communication approaches, and ideas to explore meanings and depictions of Antarctica. Personal and professional words in poetry and prose, plus images, present and ... Show More
42m 16s
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
Jan 2020
Ben Green, "The Smart Enough City: Putting Technology in its Place to Reclaim Our Urban Future" (MIT Press, 2019)
The “smart city,” presented as the ideal, efficient, and effective for meting out services, has capture the imaginations of policymakers, scholars, and urban-dweller. But what are the possible drawbacks of living in an environment that is constantly collecting data? What importan ... Show More
33m 51s
Dec 2023
Chhaya Kolavalli, "Well-Intentioned Whiteness: Green Urban Development and Black Resistance in Kansas City" (U Georgia Press, 2023)
Chhaya Kolavalli's book Well-Intentioned Whiteness: Green Urban Development and Black Resistance in Kansas City (U Georgia Press, 2023) documents how whiteness can take up space in U.S. cities and policies through well-intentioned progressive policy agendas that support green urb ... Show More
29m 29s
Sep 2022
How is your city tackling the climate crisis? | Marvin Rees
<p>"If we can unlock the full potential of our cities, we can minimize the price the planet pays for hosting us in our growing numbers," says Marvin Rees, the Mayor of Bristol, UK. Rees notes that while sustainable infrastructure already exists in many parts of the world -- like ... Show More
20m 9s
Dec 2023
Daniel Campo, "Postindustrial DIY: Recovering American Rust Belt Icons" (Fordham UP, 2023)
A pioneering Detroit automobile factory. A legendary iron mill at the edge of Pittsburgh. A campus of concrete grain elevators in Buffalo. Two monumental train stations, one in Buffalo, the other in Detroit. These once noble sites have since fallen from their towering grace. As l ... Show More
37m 31s
May 2024
Cathy Stanton, "Food Margins: Lessons from an Unlikely Grocer" (U Massachusetts Press, 2024)
An anthropologist walks into a grocery store—no that’s not the start of a joke, that’s the true story of how Cathy Stanton came to be involved with Quabbin Harvest, a food co-op in the former mill town of Orange, Massachusetts.
Part memoir and part history, Stanton’s new book Fo ... Show More
44m 31s
May 2023
Colin Hoag, "The Fluvial Imagination: On Lesotho’s Water-Export Economy" (U California Press, 2022)
Landlocked and surrounded by South Africa on all sides, the mountain kingdom of Lesotho became the world's first "water-exporting country" when it signed a 1986 treaty with its powerful neighbor. An elaborate network of dams and tunnels now carries water to Johannesburg, the subc ... Show More
59m 23s
Oct 2022
Innovation and Cities – Talking Transformations with Rogier Vandenberg (WRI Ross Centre for Sustainable Cities)
Medals at the Olympics, the Oscars in Hollywood, Nobel Prizes for scientists – but what about an award for cities working with sustainability? In this episode, we discuss the ‘Prize for Cities’ recognising transformative projects in cities around the world that are igniting innov ... Show More
7m 19s
Sep 2023
Katie J. Wells et al., "Disrupting D.C.: The Rise of Uber and the Fall of the City" (Princeton UP, 2023)
The first city to fight back against Uber, Washington, D.C., was also the first city where such resistance was defeated. It was here that the company created a playbook for how to deal with intransigent regulators and to win in the realm of local politics. The city already serves ... Show More
52m 38s