Podcasts about strong towns

The Highway Trust Fund brings in roughly $45 billion a year and spends closer to $80 billion. Congress keeps the system running by borrowing the difference and moving that money into a program still treated as if road users fully fund it. Rebecca Higgins, vice president of policy at the Eno Center for Transportation, explains how the fund reached this point and why the gap keeps growing. She and Chuck examine the choices lawmakers have avoided for decades, including higher taxes, lower spending, new fees, or a smaller federal role, and what happens when highway funding begins competing with other underfunded national priorities. Additional Show Notes Rebecca Higgins (LinkedIn) The Eno Center for Transportation (Site) The Last Exit: Fixing the Highway Trust Fund while Solvency is still Solvable (Report) Mission Accomplished Report (Site) Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Cities often spend years studying a street before making a change, only to discover that the public is reacting to plans no one has actually experienced. Krista Nightengale, executive director of Better Block, explains another approach: build a temporary version, invite people into it, gather data, and adjust what does not work. She and Chuck talk about winning over skeptical engineers, learning from residents, and making safer streets without waiting for a perfect plan. The goal is not to prove the first idea was correct, but to learn enough, quickly enough, to make the next decision better. Additional Show Notes Krista Nightengale (LinkedIn) Better Block (Site) Wikiblock (Site) Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Modern family life offers mothers an endless supply of services meant to make isolation more manageable, but Lauren Penn began wondering why so much support had to be purchased in the first place. After a violent crash near the crosswalk her children use to get to school pushed her into local activism, she began connecting unsafe streets and missing sidewalks to the exhaustion many mothers experience while coordinating transportation, childcare and social life largely on their own. Lauren shares how books, advocacy and small experiments with her daughters changed what she thought a neighborhood could provide. A place can either force every need into another private transaction or make room for families to help one another. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Lauren Penn (LinkedIn) Stronger Denton (Site) Stronger Neighborhoods (Site) Pop-Up Market Makers How One Front Yard Became a Neighborhood Pop Up (Bottom-Up Short) 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.

Cities regularly ask residents for feedback, especially when budgets tighten or difficult tradeoffs approach. Norm and Mary Kate Norton look at what changes when people respond as an organized group instead of a collection of individual voices. They trace how Local Conversations grow from first meetings and small projects into groups that can communicate clearly, build relationships with public officials and take part in larger policy fights. A good idea may open the door, but organized local support gives it a better chance of surviving the meeting, carrying into the next discussion and becoming something the city can't easily set aside. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Mary Kate Norton (LinkedIn) Strong Towns Local Conversations (Map) 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.

Putting a route near every community sounds fair until the buses only arrive once an hour. Jarrett Walker, author of Human Transit and principal of the firm helping Des Moines rethink its bus network, explains why cities cannot maximize frequency, coverage, and affordability at the same time. In Des Moines, the tradeoff comes with a 10% service cut, long waits, indirect routes, and streets that make some bus stops difficult or dangerous to reach. To understand whether the system is useful enough for people to actually rely on it, Walker asks a more revealing question: how much of the city can someone reach within a reasonable amount of time? Additional Show Notes Jarrett Walker (LinkedIn, Site) Human Transit (Book) Des Moines: Welcome to Your New Transit Network (Article) Final Network Report Reimagine DART (PDF) Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Vacant commercial space can drag down a street, but Evan Snow sees something else: a chance to make room for local artists, small businesses, and community life. As co-founder of Zero Empty Spaces, Snow helps transform empty properties into affordable artist studios and cultural hubs. He explains why closed doors do not help property owners, downtowns, or neighborhoods, and why a temporary use can still give artists a lasting foothold outside the home studio. The model works because it keeps the first step small, giving artists affordable space while helping property owners show what a vacant storefront could become. Evan will also be speaking at the Civic Leader Summit in Pensacola, Florida later this year in October. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Evan Snow (LinkedIn) Zero Empty Spaces (Site) Local Recommendations:‍ Yellow Green Farmer's Market Bike Trail Krakatao Indonesian food 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.

This episode, we abandon our assumptions about how great Batavia is and give ourselves over to objectivity.Ward 4 Alderman Dustin Pieper is back to run through 10 questions that help determine whether a town is truly a strong town. Dustin runs the Strong Towns Batavia Local Conversation and has become well-versed in what makes a thriving, resilient town.Will Batavia pass the test? You'll have to listen to find out.PLUS: We introduce Area Code: Batavia's new co-host, Alexa Swidenbank and a brand new opening segment, Neighborhood Watch!For 630 Members: Alexa and Graham's Batavia FavsMore info on the Cat Cafe!The State of The Tri-CitiesMore about the Strong Towns MovementStrong Towns BataviaSubscribe to our newsletter to be updated about Area Code: Batavia and find out when new episodes are available. Join The 630 to support this podcast and our mission to create a stronger sense of belonging in our community. Members will receive:Free access to quarterly live shows.Off-week episodes of our bonus podcast, “The Batavia Insider”.Influence future Area Code: Batavia content. Your voice will help guide future topics and interviews.Regular opportunities to meet up in person with fellow Batavians who share your passion for our town and want to build stronger bonds.Area Code: Batavia is always looking for sponsors. Click here for more information.Area Code: Batavia is produced by Area Code Audio. It's hosted and produced by Richard Clark. Our associate producer and co-host is Alexa Swidenbank. Edited and mixed by Matt Linder. Additional production help from Jennifer Clark.Mentioned in this episode:212 Construction Group

When Washington state asked which residents had access to frequent transit, it ran into a surprisingly basic problem: that question is hard to answer without knowing where sidewalks, crossings and curb ramps actually are. Dr. Anat Caspi, director of the Taskar Center for Accessible Technology at the University of Washington, joins the show to talk about Open Sidewalks, a project that helps communities map pedestrian infrastructure in a shared, usable format. Her team has mapped hundreds of thousands of sidewalks, and now residents can help add the local details that determine whether a route actually works in daily life. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Dr. Anat Caspi (LinkedIn) Open Sidewalks Connect Map (Map) 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.

Street trees, benches, slower speeds, and beautiful proportions are often treated as extras, added only after the “real” engineering work is done. Victor Dover argues that this gets the whole assignment wrong. In this episode, he talks about the second edition of Street Design: The Secret to Great Cities and Towns and why great streets have to be designed as places, not just routes. Dover makes the case that beauty belongs in the brief from the beginning, because when a street is designed only for traffic flow, that is all it can ever really become: a place for traffic. Additional Show Notes Victor Dover (LinkedIn) Street Design (Book) Dover, Kohl, & Partners (Site) Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Fayetteville, Arkansas, is growing fast, and housing is getting harder to build. Clark Eckels and Nathan McCloskey of Fayetteville Strong talk about Rethink the Lot, a tactical urbanism pop-up that turned downtown parking spaces into small-scale housing people could walk through. The housing and parking debate can easily get stuck in zoning language, council meetings, and abstract trade-offs, but this project gave people a physical way to understand what those rules mean on the ground. Clark and Nathan explain what residents worry about, why parking minimums matter, and what changed when people stood inside a home where a car would usually sit. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Clark Eckels and Nathan McCloskey (LinkedIn) Fayetteville Strong (Site, Instagram, Youtube Video) Local Recommendations:‍ Word Coffee Crisis Brewing Fossil Cove Brewing Hugos Hammontrees Fayetteville Public Library Razorback Greenway 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.

In New York City, the average rent is $4,700 a month and climbing. Over 500,000 housing violations are on file in the city, but the government database where they live is so outdated that most renters never see them. Farid Sofiyev, a sophomore and co-founder of Civic Reset NYC, built an interactive map of 40,000 of those violations and published the names of the 25 worst landlords in the city. This episode gets into how the map works, what the data reveals about NYC's rent crisis, and the zoning choices that got the city there. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Farid Safiyev and Angelo Mazza (LinkedIn) Civic Reset (Site, Instagram, Podcast) Courtyard Urbanism: The Best of Both City and Suburb with Dr. Alicia Pederson (Podcast) 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.

Pedestrian deaths have climbed sharply since 2009, yet transportation agencies often point to small, recent dips as proof that things are getting better. Beth Osborne, president and CEO of Smart Growth America, returns to the Strong Towns Podcast to talk about the latest Dangerous by Design report and the choices that keep making American roads so deadly. She and Chuck dig into why state-owned roads are especially dangerous, how street design shapes driver behavior, and why blaming pedestrians or waiting for automated vehicles keeps the focus away from the roads themselves. The big question is this: when will we stop treating roadway deaths as the cost of getting around and start changing the roads that make them predictable? Additional Show Notes Beth Osborne (LinkedIn) Smart Growth America (Site) Dangerous by Design 2026 Report (PDF) The Deadly Rise of Giant Trucks and S.U.V.s (Article) Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Van Buren, Maine, had a problem no town wants: it owned more than half of its downtown buildings through tax acquisition. When Luke Dyer became town manager after a long career in law enforcement, he was facing vacant storefronts, deteriorating buildings, flood-damaged land, and a downtown that had lost traffic after the port of entry moved away from Main Street. In this episode, Dyer shares how Van Buren began putting buildings back into productive use, turning an underused ice rink into pickleball courts, growing trees for Main Street in a community greenhouse, and converting its old town office into a business incubator. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Luke Dyer (LinkedIn) Local Recommendations:‍ Acadian Village Tasty Food Restaurant Northern Maine Kolache York's Kitchen 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.

When Charlotte and its regional planning body withdrew support for a $4.3 billion widening of Interstate 77, North Carolina lawmakers responded by threatening a $60 million penalty and a funding cutoff. Host Carlee Alm-LaBar is joined by Patrick Kennedy, whose Atlas of Inner-City Highway Impacts documents highway damage across 142 cities, and John Reuter, the newly named Executive Director of Strong Towns, to break down the sunk cost trap, the real math behind highway "assets," and why the local officials who pushed back may have saved far more than they spent. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES "N.C. Lawmakers May Claw Back $60M for Cancelled I-77 Project" by Ray Gronberg, Businessnc.com (June 2026) Downzone: Atlas of Inner-City Highway Impacts (PDF) Mission Accomplished (Site) Dealing with Dragons (Site) Fifa (Site) Carlee Alm-LaBar (LinkedIn) Patrick Kennedy (LinkedIn) John Reuter (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.  

Horry County, South Carolina has grown so fast that the median household can no longer afford the median home. Dylan Thompson has lived there his whole life, and he's running for county council because he thinks the people making decisions about that growth should actually be accountable to the people living through it. He's a former pastor running under the Forward Party, focused on flooding, housing, and development policy, and making the case that those issues don't have to break along party lines; they're the same things his neighbors on both sides of the aisle are worried about. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Dylan Thompson (Facebook, 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.

Strong Towns has always warned cities about the danger of fragile growth. Now, Chuck is applying that same lesson to the movement he helped build. In this episode, Chuck explains why Strong Towns can no longer depend on everything landing on his desk, and introduces the organization's new Executive Director. His guest shares how he found Strong Towns as a Sandpoint city council member, his organizing work in Idaho and at the League of Conservation Voters, and why he finally decided he had to be inside the organization, not just on the board. Together, they talk about culture, management, local conversations, and the kind of leadership Strong Towns needs for its next phase. Additional Show Notes John Reuter (LinkedIn) Strong Towns Team (Site) Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Zoning reform matters, but Eric Kronberg says it is not enough on its own. Cities also need useful building types, realistic development math, better street design, thoughtful tax policy, and a clearer vision for what good neighborhoods can become. He and Tiffany explore why many cities say they want more housing but still make the most useful housing types illegal or impractical. They also talk about compact cottages, missing middle housing, Atlanta's affordability challenges, and the overlooked power of a simple box, a good porch, and a house people can picture on their own block. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Eli Smith (LinkedIn) Kronberg Urbanists & Architects (Site) Housing Catalogue (Site) Local Recommendations:‍ Little Tart Bakery Summerhill Neighborhood 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.

A decade ago, a row of North Park storefronts was cleared for a university housing project that never came. The businesses are gone, the buildings are mostly empty, and neighbors are still pushing Northeastern Illinois University to act. Norm Van Eeden Petersman is joined by Bernice Radle, an incremental developer in Buffalo, and Alex Montero of Strong Towns Chicago to ask why places like this get stuck. What begins as the story of one vacant block turns into a deeper question: once a place has been cleared for a future vision, what happens when that future never arrives? The conversation explores why smaller, incremental approaches can succeed where larger plans stall, and what gets lost when neighborhoods are left waiting. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES "Northeastern University Fought To Take Over A North Park Block. 10 Years Later, It's Still Vacant" by Millie DeVore, Blockclubchicago.com (May 2026) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Bernice Radle (LinkedIn) Alex Montero (LinkedIn) Articles Mentioned and Downzone: The Corner Side Yard (Substack) Cerrone (Spotify) Brittania Mine Museum (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.

Before Strong Towns became a national movement, its ideas spread through conversations, conferences, friendships and people willing to make room for a difficult message. For Member Week, Norm talks with Founders Circle member Paddy Steinschneider about watching Chuck Marohn's work gain traction and why the movement has always depended on more than one voice. Paddy reflects on the role members can play when a community realizes its streets, budgets, infrastructure or public life are not working. He describes Strong Towns members not as a strike force, but as people with a toolkit: ready to help when a community realizes its streets, budgets, infrastructure or public life are not working. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Paddy Steinschneider (LinkedIn) Gotham Design & Community Development (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.

Lars Doucet digs into a problem that shows up in expensive cities, sprawling suburbs, and even countries Americans often point to as models: land. Monopoly, he argues, became frustrating by design because it captured something real about how land markets work. The episode connects that lesson to housing costs, land value tax, Henry George, Norway, Texas, sprawl, and the uncomfortable question every city eventually faces: who gets the value created by a place? Additional Show Notes Lars Doucet (LinkedIn) Land Economics (Site) Land is a Big Deal (Site) Enacting Land Value Return in your hometown (Substack) Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Nate Hood was the first person to donate to Strong Towns, back when the movement was still a blog, an irregular podcast, and a small circle of people asking better questions about cities. Norm Van Eeden Petersman talks with him about the early days of Strong Towns, the ideas that first made the movement feel different, and what has changed as those ideas have spread across North America. This is a story about growth, but also about why the movement's power still comes from people noticing what is broken nearby and doing the next small thing. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Nate Hood (LinkedIn) Suburban Engagement Photos (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.

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.

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!

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!