Podcasts about strong towns

Eli Smith, director of the Faith-Based Housing Initiative, joins the show to talk about churches turning underused land and aging buildings into housing and everyday community spaces. He explains how his team helps congregations understand their property, imagine specific projects, and gain the language and tools they need to work with developers, lenders, and local officials. Eli and Tiffany dig into the tension between commuter churches and a more rooted parish model, and why thoughtful design often leads congregations beyond a standard apartment block toward pocket neighborhoods and shared spaces. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Eli Smith (LinkedIn) Faith-Based Housing Initiative (Site) What I've learned from faith-based housing (Substack) Local Recommendations:‍ The Franklin Inn Scoop Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

With the World Cup coming to North America, millions of visitors will encounter more than stadiums and soccer. They'll also encounter the transportation systems, infrastructure gaps, and car-dependent development patterns that shape daily life in U.S. cities. Norm Van Eeden Petersman talks with Chuck Marohn and Rick Cole about “catastrophic money,” the danger of building for spectacle instead of long-term value, and what major events reveal about the places that host them. These visitors will move on when the games are over, but the systems they struggled with will still be ours to live with. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES "The U.S. campaigned to host the World Cup. Now soccer fans will trade their countries' train system for the U.S.'s ‘D' rated infrastructure" by Catherine Gioino, Fortune.com (May 2026) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Chuck Marohn (LinkedIn) Rick Cole (LinkedIn) Articles Mentioned and Downzone: Just a thought: a Texas based World Cup (Article) The Mission: CIA in the 21st Century by Tim Weiner The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal 1966-1996 and the Search for Peace by Tim Pat Coogan Only Murders in the Building (Site) Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

A car had crashed into the same Madison coffee shop three times. That was enough for Josh Olson and Strong Towns Madison to push for a change on Willie Street — a dense, locally-owned corridor that doubles as a commuter shortcut during rush hour. The intervention they proposed cost a fraction of what the city had budgeted, took two weeks to implement, and ran as a two-month trial. Josh breaks down what made the argument land with city staff and commissioners, and what happened after the results came in. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Strong Towns Madison (Site, Instagram) Josh Olson (LinkedIn) Counting Cranes (Substack) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

This episode features our keynote speaker Charles Marohn, founder and president of Strong Towns, giving a talk called "Escaping the Housing Trap" at our Housing Matters Symposium. Get session descriptions and slides speakers shared at https://www.pchtf.org/post/reflections-on-housing-matters-symposium-2026

Beth Osborne has watched the same story play out five times: a new federal transportation bill arrives with big language about goals and accountability, states adopt the right words, and nothing changes. Osborne, who led Transportation for America and worked inside USDOT, has been through five federal transportation reauthorizations, watched reform language get adopted and neutralized every single time, and arrived at a conclusion that would have surprised her younger self. Recorded at the Strong Towns National Gathering in Fayetteville, Arkansas, this conversation with Chuck Marohn digs into the gap between what the federal transportation program claims to do and what it actually delivers — on safety, on repair, on congestion, on emissions — and whether there's any version of federal involvement worth keeping. Additional Show Notes Beth Osborne (LinkedIn) Transportation for America (Site) Mission Accomplished Report (Site) The Highway Expansion Lightning Lane (Substack) Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

What if the very thing that makes your home a winning investment is also the thing that puts our city beyond reach for the people who live & work here? Chuck Marohn, the Strong Towns founder and co-author of Escaping the Housing Trap, sits down with Adam & Matt this week to explain where we have gone wrong in North American housing: how shelter has become a financial asset, why prices are never allowed to fall, and why this approach can't deliver truly healthy, thriving cities. Do the ways we finance new construction fundamentally have to shift? Are Vancouver's tower-and-podium projects and master-planned communities deepening the problem they were meant to solve? And is the way forward smaller, slower, and built block by block? An outsider's take on Vancouver!

In Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, housing debates are tied to favorite trees, familiar views, flood scars, and whether younger residents can afford to stay. Planning commissioner and neighborhood organizer Taylor Lightman talks about what it's like to rewrite zoning in the same place you grew up. He explains how a housing committee rallied around ADUs, why they rolled back strict parking and owner‑occupancy rules, and how they worked through worries about students, flooding, and change itself. The conversation paints a detailed picture of housing reform in a small town that wants to welcome more neighbors without losing its character. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Taylor Lightman (LinkedIn) Not Just Bikes & Strong Towns Youtube Playlist (Youtube) Local Recommendations:‍ Mondragon Books Lewisburg Farmers Market Campus Theatre Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

On this episode of the Natasha Helfer Podcast, Mike Christensen joines to share his experience at BYU and as a single adult in "Mormon-dom." Mike holds a Bachelor of Science in Geography from Brigham Young University, a Graduate Certificate in Geographic Information Science from Northwest Missouri State University, an Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate in Sustainability from the University of Utah, and a Master of City and Metropolitan Planning from the University of Utah. He is a member of the American Planning Association, the Congress for the New Urbanism, Strong Towns, the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals, and the national Rail Passengers Association, and is certified by the American Institute of Certified Planners and accredited by the Congress for the New Urbanism. He currently serves on the board of the Utah chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanismand on the board of the national Rail Passengers Association. Mike wrapped up a four-year term on Salt Lake City's Planning Commission in September and spent one of those years as vice-chair and another as chair of the commission. Upon finishing grad school in 2018, Mike founded the nonprofit Utah Rail Passengers Association in order to advocate for expanding intercity passenger rail across Utah and into neighboring states and has served as its executive director ever since. He has become an expert on the failed policies propping up the "American Dream" of the 20th century and is trying to devote his life to fixing the damage that has been done to our communities by decades of investing in the wrong infrastructure. Mike ditched his car in 2017 and walks, bikes, and rides transit to get everywhere. But Mike is here for a different reason. He has inside knowledge of how the Church Education System enforces the Honor Code and is here to share.     To help keep this podcast going, please consider donating at natashahelfer.com and share this episode. To watch the video of this podcast, you can subscribe to Natasha's channel on Youtube and follow her professional Facebook page at natashahelfer LCMFT, CST-S. You can find all her cool resources at natashahelfer.com.  The information shared on this program is informational and should not be considered therapy. This podcast addresses many topics around mental health and sexuality and may not be suitable for minors. Some topics may elicit a trigger or emotional response so please care for yourself accordingly. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed by our guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views or feelings of Natasha Helfer or the Natasha Helfer Podcast. We provide a platform for open and diverse discussions, and it is important to recognize that different perspectives may be shared. We encourage our listeners to engage in critical thinking and form their own opinions. The intro and outro music for these episodes is by Otter Creek. Thank you for listening. And remember: Symmetry is now offering Ketamine services. To find out more, go to symcounseling.com/ketamine-services. There are also several upcoming workshops. Visit natashahelfer.com or symcounseling.com to find out more.

Evan Clark and Natalie Eger are college students studying sociology in Lexington, Virginia, and they came back from the 2025 National Gathering in Providence, RI fired up to do something. In the past year they've built a thriving local conversation group, turned a city council member into a regular at their monthly meetings, and had a broken sidewalk fixed fourteen days after they flagged it. They walk through how they started from scratch, made real change at the local level, and kept people showing up month after month. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Strong Towns Lexington Introduces Community Planning Initiative to City Council (Article) Strong Towns Lexington (Site, Instagram) Evan Clark (LinkedIn) Natalie Eger (LinkedIn) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Illinois is short roughly 130,000 homes today and needs about 240,000 more by 2030. The state can't change mortgage rates or material costs, so Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois is targeting something else: the rules that make homes hard to build. He walks through the Build Initiative, a set of bills to legalize more ADUs and small multifamily buildings, relax some parking and stairway requirements, standardize impact fees, and put limits on permit delays. He also talks about local pushback, bipartisan support, and why these modest changes could mean more housing choices without the sense that neighborhoods are being upended. Additional Show Notes Governor JB Pritzker (LinkedIn) Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Mary Kate Norton, Strong Towns' Mobilization Coordinator and Trainer, came to advocacy through other people's stories: campus workers juggling multiple jobs, family members stuck without safe transportation options, and neighbors trying to find housing they could afford. Those experiences shaped how she sees local change now: as something rooted in attention, trust, and the willingness to let a place tell you what it needs. In this episode, Mary Kate reflects on how personal stories become public work, why successful local groups begin by listening, and how advocates can build movements that fit their own communities instead of copying someone else's model. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Mary Kate Norton (LinkedIn) Strong Towns Local Conversations (Site) Local Recommendations:‍ Sisters' Sludge Northern Coffeeworks Fireroast Coffee Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Sam Quinones keynoted the Strong Towns National Gathering last week and closed with a story about a tuba. If that left you wanting more, this conversation with Chuck Marohn is the place to start. This rerun from the Strong Towns Podcast follows Sam's obsession with the “perfect tubas,” the almost-mythic York horns that tuba players have chased for decades. From there, he opens up a wider world of band rooms on the Texas border, long days playing at Disney World, and crowded Tuba Christmas events. Together, he and Chuck connect tubas, band culture, and strict musical standards to addiction, purpose, and how shared work and craft help hold communities together. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Sam Quinones (LinkedIn, Site) Chuck Marohn (LinkedIn) Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Before the car took over, Spokane, Washington ran an extensive streetcar network that shaped its neighborhoods. Sarah Rose and Erik Lowe of Spokane Reimagined are working to recover that spirit through a bus system that has already surpassed pre-pandemic ridership, a zoning reform that opened the city to missing middle housing, and hand-built benches placed in all 29 neighborhoods, each painted by a local artist. Their city motto is "In Spokane, we all belong" and they're putting in the work to prove it. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Erik Lowe (LinkedIn) Sarah Rose (LinkedIn) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

A viral town meeting clip from Marblehead, Massachusetts, raised a question that goes far beyond one zoning debate: What happens when a state says yes to more housing, but the local process still makes it hard to build? Or, as resident David Modica put it, “Are we trying to do nothing?” Carlee Alm-LaBar talks with Strong Towns Technical Advisor Edward Erfurt and Lafayette City Councilman Thomas Hooks about the messy handoff between policy and place. They look at why communities can comply on paper while resisting in practice, and why the next real step may be as small as one block, one lot, or one drawing that helps people see what is possible. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES "The Latest Hero of the ‘Yimby' Movement Is a Massachusetts Man in a Hoodie" by Will Parker, WSJ.com (May 2026) Downzone: The Victory of Greenwood, by Carlos Moreno (Site) Scrubs Reboot (Site) Junior League of Lafayette (Site) Strong Towns National Gathering (Site) Carlee Alm-LaBar (LinkedIn) Thomas Hooks (LinkedIn) Edward Erfurt (LinkedIn) Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

On March 14, 2025, an EF3 tornado hit Cave City, Arkansas, directly, something the town of about 2,000 people had never experienced in more than a century. Mayor Jonas Anderson describes the shock of that night and the neighborly response that followed, but the story does not begin or end with disaster. Cave City had already been investing in its own center, moving City Hall to Main Street and supporting a new wave of local activity downtown. This conversation looks at how a small town's existing relationships shaped its recovery and strengthened the work already underway. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Jonas Anderson (LinkedIn, Site) City of Cave City Arkansas (LinkedIn) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

A trip to Italy left Chuck surprised by how ordinary Catholic life felt in a country filled with churches. A later visit to Hasidic Brooklyn stayed with him for a different reason: families living under intense physical constraints, yet ordering their lives around faith and community. Those memories frame this talk at a Catholic church in Minnesota, where Chuck turns from faraway examples to a more personal question: what would it mean for a parish to care not only for the sanctuary, but for the blocks around it? Additional Show Notes Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Des Moines just approved an $8.4 million first phase for a $54 million park overhaul. The bid came in over estimate, and there's no maintenance plan in sight — meanwhile the city was cutting services 9% across the board just last year. Norm Van Eeden Petersman talks with parks consultant Jamie Sabbach, author of the new book The Bison Principle, and writer Michel Durand-Wood about what cities consistently leave out of these decisions. Construction is only about 20% of what a public asset costs over its lifetime, and most cities aren't planning for the rest. The conversation gets into maintenance backlogs, why capital and operating budgets are really the same money, and what a city would actually decide if the 50-year cost were part of the conversation from the start. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES "Birdland Park's $54M Overhaul Moves into Construction Phase" by Jason Clayworth, Axios.com (April 2026) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Jamie Sabbach (LinkedIn), The Bison Principle (Book) Dear Winnipeg (Site), You'll Pay For This! (Book) Articles Mentioned and Downzone: In Praise of Background Buildings by Gracen Johnson Places and Non-Places by Andrew Price Field of Schemes Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy - Album by The Refreshments Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro The 99% Invisible Breakdown of The Power Broker Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Alkarim Devani has built over 1,000 homes in Calgary — fourplexes, row houses, a 212-unit heritage restoration — and noticed something strange: people kept asking about the small projects. That observation turned into a doctorate, a national education program, and a growing movement to make middle housing a viable career path for a whole new generation of city builders. In this episode, he talks about why the obstacles aren't what most people think, why large developers will never fill this gap, and what it's actually going to take to get more people building. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Alkarim Devani (LinkedIn) Alkarim Devani (Site) mddl (LinkedIn) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Rep. Jake Auchincloss returns to the Strong Towns podcast with a case for localism that takes it seriously without treating it as a cure-all. He explains why localism deserves a bigger role in national politics, not as a slogan, but as a way to rebuild trust and solve problems closer to the ground. That idea gets tested against some of the hardest problems facing cities today: transportation systems that reward expansion over maintenance, a housing market that has lost its entry-level rung, and federal policies that often struggle to match local realities. The conversation closes with a warning about digital life and a defense of face-to-face community. Additional Show Notes Jake Auchincloss (LinkedIn, Substack, Site) "Digital Dopamine is Consuming America. It's Time to Fight for IRL.", (Article) Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

It's farmers market season, so we're revisiting this conversation with Shelby Wild, whose work in Lompoc shows how a weekly neighborhood market can reshape a community's food system. This rerun highlights the deep local relationships, creative partnerships, and small-scale innovations that make markets like Route One a backbone of local resilience and access to good food. Shelby Wild is a mom, lifelong gardener, and executive director of Route One Farmers Market in her hometown of Lompoc, California, which she started in 2018 after her neighborhood farmer's market closed. The market runs every Sunday and is currently the only one within 50 miles on the central coast of California that offers both EBT and Market Match. Wild and her team strive to make the market a place that brings together the diverse communities that call Lompoc home. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, she led the market to be the first in the area to offer produce bags for curbside, contactless pickup, distributing hundreds of bags of local food to those under shelter-in-place restrictions. They've also launched the region's first mobile farmer's market, a next step in making local food part of everyday life in Lompoc. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Route One Farmers Market (Site) Route One Farmers Market (Instagram) Shelby Wild (LinkedIn) Check out Cold Coast Brewing Co., Dare 2 Dream Farms Homestead, and South Side Coffee Co. Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

What if the street itself did most of the work of slowing cars, instead of another sign or speed trap? Drawing on a new Bloomberg CityLab piece, Carlee Alm‑LaBar is joined by Edward Erfurt and Ann Arbor's transportation manager, Malisa McCreedy, to talk about what these deaths say about speed, design, and the values baked into our networks. They explore why Vision Zero efforts struggle, how Ann Arbor is embedding safety into every project, and why planners and engineers often hesitate to talk openly about crashes, using Ann Arbor's crash analysis studio, university partnerships, and quick‑build projects to show how a city can respond more directly to serious crashes. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES "Searching for the ‘Smoking Gun' in US Pedestrian Deaths" by David Zipper, Bloomberg.com (April 2026) Downzone: City of Ann Arbor Hosting Crash Analysis Studio (Site) 2026 APA National Planning Conference (Site) "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens (Site) Strong Towns National Gathering (Site) Carlee Alm-LaBar (LinkedIn) Edward Erfurt (LinkedIn) Malisa McCreedy (LinkedIn) Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

In Portland's Hollywood district, a neighbor-led walk inspired by Jane Jacobs helps people see a familiar street in a new way. Strong Towns PDX organizer Natalie Legras shares how she pulled together a low-key neighborhood walk that feels more like hanging out than hosting an event. Starting with a few map pins and a small group of neighbors, the walk opens up conversations about old houses turned apartments, new infill, and why some corners lost their shops. Natalie explains how donuts, farmers markets, and a welcoming volunteer culture keep people coming back, and how these modest efforts deepen care for Portland. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Natalie Legras (LinkedIn) Strong Towns PDX (Site) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Is a city “dynamic” just because its charts point up and to the right? Chuck uses a week in the UK to question that assumption. In Manchester, a swelling population of 20‑somethings looks like success, until you notice how many smaller places have been drained to supply that energy. In one of those towns, residents speak of decline, crime, and the loss of their pub, even as few can name a moment they truly felt unsafe. Across focus groups, government programs, and carefully planned districts, he traces the same pattern and asks: when growth is easy to measure, what deeper dynamism are we missing? Additional Show Notes Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

On April 30, 2026, the Polk County Housing Trust Fund held our annual Housing Matters Symposium with keynote speaker Charles Marohn of Strong Towns. Soon, we'll be releasing audio from that event as a podcast.

A traffic jam in a video game changed how Bryan Kelly saw his city. He traces the path from playing City Skylines and watching Not Just Bikes to noticing stroads, long waits at traffic lights, and people biking on sidewalks along Sheboygan's Eighth Street. That shift pulled him into a Strong Towns book club in a local coffee shop, Critical Mass rides with neighbors, and quiet committee rooms where he was sometimes the only person at the microphone. When a council seat opened, he carried those lived observations into a campaign centered on safer streets and fiscally careful projects. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Bryan Kelly (LinkedIn) Sheboygan Active Transportation (Site) Local Recommendations:‍ Paradigm Coffee & Music Three Sheeps Brewing Evergreen Park Harry's Diner Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

What happens when the American Dream stops meaning “doing better than your parents” and starts meaning “just not falling behind”? Norm Van Eeden Petersman sits down with Andrew Burleson and Ryan Puzycki to untangle why stability feels so fragile, even in “booming” cities. They trace how zoning turns housing into a rigged game of musical chairs, how some places face strangling exclusion while others slide into rolling blight, and how missing bottom rungs on the housing ladder and remote work push rising costs — and workers — farther out. They connect these pressures to a new American Dream: finding a stable home that won't vanish with the next lease. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES "The American Dream Meant Upward Mobility. Now, it Means Stability." by Rachel Barber and Veronica Bravo, USAToday.com (March 2026) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Andrew Burleson (LinkedIn) Ryan Puzycki (LinkedIn) Articles Mentioned and Downzone: Adaptive Code (Article) Remote Isn't Working (Article)  The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien (Audiobook) The Social House Will Not Reopen (Article) Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast (Site) Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Strong Towns organizer Nick Dennis shares how, once he hosted a simple meetup, he discovered a whole network of already active people in Lancaster, Pennsylvania who just needed a way to connect their efforts. He and Norm talk about a small church turned neighborhood hub that's now a coffee shop, bar, and venue where they even hosted a talk on Escape the Housing Trap. They also dig into Celebrate Lancaster and an open streets event that closes Water Street so people can enjoy the city on foot instead of in cars. Together, they show how these gatherings and small experiments are slowly reshaping how Lancaster experiences its streets and public life. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Nick Dennis (LinkedIn) Strong Towns Lancaster (Site) West Art (Site) Celebrate Lancaster (Site) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you!

When planner Patrick Kennedy started asking why prime land near downtown Dallas was filled with parking lots and boarded‑up buildings, the trail led straight to an elevated freeway: I‑345. He explains how making a hard economic case for removal—showing that taking the highway out could deliver the highest return on investment with minimal traffic impacts—grew into the Atlas of Inner City Highway Impacts, a data‑driven look at 142 U.S. cities. Kennedy details how inner‑city highways consume acres of valuable land, depress nearby property values, and either clog up all day in thriving metros or cut through struggling ones at full speed, while federal funding formulas and induced demand keep pushing us toward more lanes. Additional Show Notes Patrick Kennedy (LinkedIn) The Human Ecosystem (Site) Atlas of Inner-City Highway Impacts (PDF) "Adding Up What Urban Highways Really Cost", by Benjamin Schneider (Article) Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you!

Speaking to planners in New Zealand, Chuck Marohn connects the country's adopted infrastructure plan with a global pattern of cities that have grown themselves into insolvency. He traces the shift from incremental, pre‑Depression neighborhoods to postwar sprawl and explores what it looks like for planners to stop chasing the next expansion and start making better use of what's already built. Additional Show Notes Te Waihanga (Site) Te Waihanga National Infrastructure Plan (Site) Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you!

Well-designed public spaces often look promising at opening, then slowly lose energy and use. Max Musicant explains how that decline comes down to what happens after construction—who maintains the space, how it's programmed, and whether anyone is responsible for making it work day to day. From simple fixes like better seating and things to do, this conversation gets into why so many spaces never become places. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Max Musicant (LinkedIn) Musicant Group (Site) Practice of Place (Substack) "Placemaking is Dead, Long Live Placemaking!" (Article) Local Recommendations:‍ Grand Rounds Scenic Byway System 612 Sauna Cooperative Birchbark Books Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you!

In New York City, a playful bracket about broken hoops and dumping sites turns routine maintenance into a citywide tournament. Carlee Alm-LaBar, Edward Erfurt, and Alexander Lazard explore what that reveals about complaint driven 311 systems, how priorities really get set, and which neighborhoods get left off the board entirely. Their conversation presses on whether mayors can turn one clever contest into lasting trust instead of a one week story. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES "Mayor Mamdani Launches March Madness-style Competition for City Fixes" by Spectrum News Staff, NY1.com (March 2026) "Municipal Madness: Mayor Mamdani Performs Winning City Fix, Cleans Up Illegal Dumping in Soundview on Day 100" (Article) "Mamdani, Leaning Into ‘Sewer Socialism,' Gets His Hands Dirty" (Article) Downzone: "Mary Colter: Builder Upon the Red Earth" by Virginia L. Grattan (Book) "The Image of the City" by Kevin Lynch (Book) "How Big Things Get Done" by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner (Book) Strong Towns National Gathering (Site) Carlee Alm-LaBar (LinkedIn) Edward Erfurt (LinkedIn) Alexander Lazard (LinkedIn) Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Click here to learn more about membership.

Barbara Didrichsen, known locally as “Traffic Granny,” describes how everyday walks filled with close calls in her Pleasant Ridge neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio pushed her to start documenting crashes and traffic problems on her streets. She and Norm talk through simple first steps, like signs and flags, and how they used those results to argue for stronger engineering fixes. Their conversation shows what long-term, resident-led traffic calming looks like on the ground. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Barbara Didrichsen (LinkedIn) Cincinnati Riding Or Walking Network (CROWN) (Site) Cincinnati's Infrastructure (Article) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you!

Good arguments fail when they ignore how people feel. Chuck Marohn and Joshua Bandoch talk through using empathy, ethical persuasion, and values-based stories with everyone from public works directors to concerned residents. Their examples reveal why understanding fears and incentives often matters more than another chart or study. Additional Show Notes Joshua Bandoch (LinkedIn) How to Get What You Want (Book) How to be more persuasive (Tedx Talk) Joshua Bandoch (Site) Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you!

Using Woodbury in Moscow, Idaho as a case study, this conversation digs into how one master-planned neighborhood pursues walkability, mixed use, and everyday community life on the edge of a small town. Builder Levi Wintz unpacks the tradeoffs around density, ADUs, financing, and city regulations, and how the push for a coherent plan meets the Strong Towns ethos of incremental change. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Levi Wintz (LinkedIn) Woodbury Moscow (Site) Townbuilers Podcast (Apple Podcasts) Local Recommendations:‍ Humble Burger Bucer's Pub Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you!

Development cost charges are supposed to make growth pay for itself, but this conversation shows just how far that promise falls short. Norm Van Eeden Petersman, Michel Durand-Wood, and Dan Winer unpack Ontario's deal to halve development charges, British Columbia's per‑unit fee structure that punishes small infill, and Winnipeg's court battle over impact fees. They reveal how these choices ripple into housing prices, municipal deficits, and whether existing neighborhoods ever see the gentle density and local services they've been promised. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES "City Councillors Fear 'Devil in the Details' in Federal-Provincial Housing Fund" by Arthur White-Crummery, CBC.ca (March 2026) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Dan Winer (LinkedIn) Dear Winnipeg (Site) You'll Pay For This! (Book) Articles mentioned and Downzone: Readying B.C. to deliver more homes for people in communities (Article) The Party Analogy (Article) The Master and His Emissary, Ian McGilchrist (Book) Murderland, Caroline Fraser (Book) Shrill Season 1 (Prime Video) An Inside Job, Daniel Silva (Book)   Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Click here to learn more about membership.

In Athens, Ohio, stroller struggles on broken sidewalks and a sea of parking lots pushed Stevie Hunter to become the city's “sidewalk lady.” She joins Norm to talk about mapping every parking lot in town, auditing rebuilt streets with a homegrown SPACE metric, and pushing for curb ramps, benches, and daylighted intersections. Their conversation shows how one resident's daily walks turned into real influence over how a city treats its walkers. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Stevie Hunter (LinkedIn) Strong Towns Athens (Instagram) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you!

Chuck and Kevin Klinkenberg explore why progress comes from people who stop waiting for permission and start doing things locally. They look at incremental developers, neighborhood groups, and the limits of top-down systems in cities like Kansas City. Along the way, they wrestle with incentives, housing, and how much order a city actually needs. Additional Show Notes Kevin Klinkenberg (LinkedIn) The Messy City Podcast (Spotify) The Messy City (Substack) The Messy City (Site) Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you!

A Massachusetts town budgeted $600,000 for snow and ended up spending $6 million clearing its streets. Norm Van Eeden Petersman, Daniel Herriges, and Gracen Johnson trace the links between winter operations, stormwater, supply chains, labor, and land use in cities facing serious snow. Starting with Boston's overrun numbers, they widen the lens to Ottawa's snow storage sites and Minneapolis' potholes, asking what happens when seasonal extremes collide with tight city budgets. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES "‘That comes with a price tag': How snow removal is busting town budgets" by Kate Selig, Bostonglobe.com (March 2026) "The Cost of an Extra Foot" by Chuck Marohn "Transactions of Decline" by Chuck Marohn Downzone: "Cost-Based Social Rental Housing in Europe" (Web PDF) The Ink (Substack) You'll Pay For This! (Site) Criminal Broads (Site) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Daniel Herriges (LinkedIn) Gracen Johnson (LinkedIn) Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Click here to learn more about membership.

In this episode, Uthish Ganesh tells the story of returning to teach in the neighborhood where he grew up and refusing to accept his school's bad reputation. From a boys' group with a perfect graduation rate to a student-run food program serving hundreds of families, he shows what happens when you stop believing deficit narratives and raise the bar instead. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Uthish Ganesh (Instagram) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you!

Chuck Marohn and Tony Dutzik unpack the messy history of the gas tax, cross‑subsidies between states, and the moral story drivers were told about “user fees.” They revisit highway revolts, the rise of federal transit funding, and the long slide into Highway Trust Fund bailouts. Their conversation lays out stark choices for the next chapter of national transportation policy. Additional Show Notes Tony Dutzik (LinkedIn) Call "Time Out" on Highway Boondoggles (Article) Frontier Group (Site) What Comes After the Interstate Era? | New Report  (Youtube) Read the Mission Accomplished White Paper. Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you!

In this moderated panel at the REACH Ideas + Action Summit, Chuck Marohn and California Forever's Jim Wunderman tackle California's housing crisis from two very different angles: maturing existing neighborhoods and building a brand‑new city. Together they wrestle with whether local reforms, new towns, or both can deliver real affordability in places like Santa Barbara and beyond. Additional Show Notes California Forever (Site) REACH (LinkedIn) Jim Wunderman (LinkedIn) Jocelyn Brennan (LinkedIn) Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you!

Emma Durand-Wood never planned on public office. But what began as challenging a pawn shop, planting trees, and pushing for safer speeds in her Winnipeg neighborhood grew into coalitions and, eventually, a successful run for local office. She talks about stepping into the role, facing the information fire hose, and keeping family and community at the center. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Local Recommendations:‍ JC's Tacos Historic Elmwood Cemetery Emma Durand-Wood (Site) Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you!

While Los Angeles gets ready for the Olympics and World Cup, residents watch trash pile up in the places tourists never see. Chuck, Norm, and Carlee trace the links between auto‑oriented growth, a strained city budget, and basic services that can't keep up. Through one neighborhood organizer's Saturday cleanups, they show how garbage exposes which streets are truly cared for. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES "Talking Trash" by Alissa Walker, Torched.la (February 2026) Chuck Marohn (LinkedIn) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Carlee Alm-LaBar (LinkedIn) Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Click here to learn more about membership.

Most crash analysis studios didn't start inside City Hall—they were sparked by local members, neighbors, and conversation leaders who refused to accept dangerous streets as normal. Instead of waiting on the next grant cycle, Strong Towns is helping cities take small, fast steps at their most dangerous intersections through community-led crash analysis studios. Norm and Edward share how this work tests changes on the ground, builds data, and supports local champions both inside and outside city government. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Edward Erfurt (LinkedIn) Crash Analysis Studio (Site) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you!

New Zealand's infrastructure commission added up every sector's project wish‑list—and found a bill voters could never realistically pay. In this conversation, Geoff Cooper and Chuck Marohn unpack the national plan that starts by centering maintenance and renewals, then shows how that shifts the debate over big new projects, growth on the fringe, and the pressure on public budgets. Additional Show Notes Geoff Cooper (LinkedIn) Te Waihanga (Site) Te Waihanga National Infrastructure Plan (Site) Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you!

In this episode, Josh Olson reflects on how he and others helped bring a Strong Towns local conversation group back to life in Madison, and kept it going with simple habits like reserving the same library room each month. It explores the projects that grew out of that effort, including safer street trials, Parking Day, and support for a major housing reform package. As the group took on these projects, members built relationships with city staff, showed up to public meetings, and pushed for small, low-cost changes—like turning a peak-hour traffic lane into parking—that the city implemented within months. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Local Recommendations:‍ Mother Fools Coffeehouse Ahan Restaurant Teasider Lake Loop Strong Towns Madison (Site) Strong Towns Madison(Instagram) Counting Cranes (Substack) Vote for Madison in the Strongest Town Contest! Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you!

The conversation follows Michel Durand-Wood's path from noticing small local cuts—closed pools, rising taxes—to understanding his city as structurally insolvent. Along the way, he and Chuck talk about grants, debt, Canadian and U.S. examples, and why efficiency alone hasn't fixed anything. Additional Show Notes Dear Winnipeg (Site) You'll Pay For This! (Book) Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you!

Chicago organizers Ellen Steinke and Dr. Chloe Groome walk through the fight to re-legalize ADUs, fix single-family zoning, and head off a looming transit fiscal cliff. They recount the campaign to save transit funding, including a sketch-driven show that turned insider debates about the Road Fund into something regular Chicagoans could act on. The episode follows their blend of detailed policy work, neighborhood organizing, and improv-rooted comedy. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Strong Towns Chicago (Site) Strong Towns Chicago (Instagram) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you!

Brian Kelly and Braden Schmidt went from curious residents to leaders helping redesign streets, modernize zoning, and unlock safer, more affordable neighborhoods in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. In this conversation, they share how modest first steps—showing up to meetings, testing a parklet, repurposing old materials—grow into city‑wide change. Their story traces the path from tentative beginnings to a community that's learning, iterating, and steadily becoming stronger. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Sheboygan Active Transportation (Instagram) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you!

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 candid update on recent leadership changes and how Strong Towns has restructured its media work over the past year. Additional Show Notes Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you!