Big Ideas for Better Places

Sunil Yapa is the author of Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist, which was a finalist for the 2017 PEN/Faulkner award and was named one of the best books of 2016 by Amazon, Time Magazine, The Washington Post, Bustle, and others. The book focuses on several perspectives from the 1999 protests of the WTO in Seattle. […]

Doug Jackson works with the Virginia Department of Housing & Community Development to help communities across the state revitalize their economies and become stronger places. He has a fascinating perspective on how communities seize the opportunities that are available for them. Enjoy learning from his expertise!

Gov. Parris N. Glendening is President of Smart Growth America’s Leadership Institute and the Governor’s Institute on Community Design. He was the Governor of Maryland from 1995-2003 and instituted the first state-level smart growth policy package. His work has played a massive role in the growth of the concept across the country. He continues to look […]

Chuck Wolfe is the Author of Seeing the Better City and Founder and Principal Advisor at the Seeing Better Cities Group. He has done some fascinating work in showcasing how urban diaries and photography can be used as a tool to improve cities. This work has been used to good effect across the globe and in communities […]

Alexandra Lange is an architecture critic and author of several books, including The Design of Childhood. Her background in architecture gives her a unique perspective on understanding how design plays out it our everyday lives. Recently, she has become interested in questions about how we can use design to help foster independent and creative children. […]

Nadia Owusu is Associate Director for Learning and Equity at Living Cities. Through her work at Living Cities, she has been working to figure out how to best address issues of racial and economic equity for communities across the country. She has done this work both in communities and in her own organization. By adding […]

Sam Gill is the Vice President for Communities and Impact and Senior Adviser to the President at the Knight Foundation. The Knight Foundation supports some of the most interesting community work in the entire country. Gill leads much of this work and is always looking for new ways to improve communities and build stronger systems. He […]

Candi CdeBaca is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Project VOYCE. She has been able to build a powerful organization focused on empowering young people and trusting them to create change. Her work as an organizer shows the power to be found in bringing people together. Further, it goes to show what can happen when […]

Virginia Hanusik is a photographer and the manager of climate change initiatives at the Architectural League of New York. Her work showcases communities threatened by climate change. She partners with others to provide a reference point for the impending threat of climate change. The results are very revealing. On this podcast, we talk about the power […]

Nick Tilsen is the founding Executive Director of the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation and is now helping build the NDN Collective. During his tenure, Thunder Valley CDC has done some of the most interesting and innovative community building work ever seen. They have been able to remain primarily community activists and organizers even while […]