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 as the nation’s capital. Now, D.C. is also the blueprint for how Uber conquered ... Show More
Feb 25
Jamila Michener and Mallory E. Sorelle, "Uncivil Democracy: How Access to Justice Shapes Political Power" (Princeton UP, 2026)
Each year, as many as 250 million Americans face civil legal problems like eviction, debt collection, and substandard housing. These problems are disproportionately shouldered by racially and economically marginalized people, particularly women of color. Civil courts and legal ai ... Show More
55m 15s
Feb 24
Josh Seim, "The Welfare Assembly Line: Public Servants in the Suffering City" (U California Press, 2026)
Despite claims that we live in a "post-welfare society," welfare offices remain vital not only for those who depend on them for benefits but also for those who depend on them for a paycheck. The Welfare Assembly Line: Public Servants in the Suffering City (U California Press, 20 ... Show More
40m 9s
Feb 21
Wendy Wolford, "The Plantation Ideal: Landscapes of Extraction in Mozambique" (U California Press, 2025)
Plantations have been the privileged tool of colonial rule and extraction in Mozambique for more than one hundred years despite never having delivered sustained economic or social benefits. Drawing on extensive archival and qualitative contemporary research, The Plantation Ideal: ... Show More
1h 6m
Mar 2019
Recode Decode: Richard Walker
Historian and urbanist Richard Walker, a professor emeritus at UC Berkeley, talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about his latest book, Pictures of a Gone City: Tech and the Dark Side of Prosperity in the San Francisco Bay Area.
In this episode: How California has historically been a ... Show More
55m 6s
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
Aug 2023
Small, Gritty, and Green: The Promise of America's Smaller Industrial Cities in a Low-Carbon World
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 w ... Show More
12m 43s
May 2021
Nathan D. Grawe, "The Agile College: How Institutions Successfully Navigate Demographic Changes" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2021)
In his highly influential book, Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education, Carleton College Professor of Economics, Nathan Grawe, alerted college and university leaders to the challenges they would be facing with the accelerating decline in the number of U.S. high school g ... Show More
1h 4m
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
Mar 2022
Why Uber Is Hailing New York City Cabs
When Uber first started over a decade ago, the company had one huge competitor: The taxi industry. But after both businesses began to stall, the two former enemies began making nice. WSJ's Preetika Rana explains what caused Uber to team up with New York City's yellow cabs, and th ... Show More
17m 39s