• 22 minutes 9 seconds
    Students Who Got a Sidewalk Built in 14 Days

    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

     

    This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

    2 June 2026, 10:00 am
  • 30 minutes 54 seconds
    Listening Your Way Into Local Change

    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

     

    This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

    28 May 2026, 10:00 am
  • 18 minutes 10 seconds
    Spokane, Washington Is Betting on Buses, Benches, and Fourplexes

    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

     

    This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

    26 May 2026, 10:00 am
  • 20 minutes 29 seconds
    When a Tornado Hit Main Street

    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

     

    This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

    19 May 2026, 10:00 am
  • 22 minutes 35 seconds
    The Missing Middle Has a Missing Industry

    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

     

    This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

    12 May 2026, 10:00 am
  • 39 minutes 58 seconds
    Rerun: Breaking Down Barriers to Local Food

    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

     

    This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

    7 May 2026, 10:00 am
  • 17 minutes 15 seconds
    Walk Your Neighborhood Like Jane Jacobs

    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

     

    This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

    5 May 2026, 10:00 am
  • 37 minutes 57 seconds
    Can Safer Streets Start With a Video Game?

    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

     

    This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

    30 April 2026, 10:00 am
  • 19 minutes 9 seconds
    Lancaster’s Locals, Newcomers, and Streets Working Together

    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

     

    This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you!

    28 April 2026, 10:00 am
  • 51 minutes 33 seconds
    Why Public Spaces Fail After the Ribbon Cutting

    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

     

    This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you!

    23 April 2026, 10:00 am
  • 15 minutes 31 seconds
    Ohio’s Traffic Granny Takes On Dangerous Neighborhood Streets

    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

     

    This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you!

    21 April 2026, 10:00 am
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