The Strong Towns Podcast

Strong Towns

We advocate for a model of development that allows our cities, towns and neighborhoods to grow financially strong and resilient.

  • 59 minutes 41 seconds
    From the Bottom Up: How Members Built the Strong Towns Movement

    It’s Member Week here at Strong Towns. As a special treat, we’re publishing three new episodes of the Strong Towns Podcast this week. In this episode, Chuck is joined by Norm Van Eeden Petersman, Strong Towns’ director of membership and development. They discuss the history of the Strong Towns movement and how members have brought it to heights Chuck never could’ve imagined — including spreading Strong Towns ideas not only across North America but across the world.

    The movement’s grown so much, but we’re not done yet. We need your help to spread the Strong Towns approach even further, until every town is a strong one. Join us by becoming a member today.

    ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES
    13 November 2024, 10:00 am
  • 28 minutes 8 seconds
    To Build Strong Towns, We Need To Change the Cultural Conversation

    Today, we’re kicking off Member Week at Strong Towns. As a special treat, we’ll be publishing three new episodes of the Strong Towns Podcast this week. In this first episode, Chuck discusses the cultural shift that the Strong Towns movement is striving to create and why that shift is so essential to building more prosperous and resilient communities.

    This is a bottom-up movement, and it needs your help to succeed. Join the ranks of people building a stronger tomorrow by becoming a member today.

    ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES
    11 November 2024, 10:00 am
  • 1 hour 12 seconds
    5 Things the Next President Should Do To Build a Stronger America

    Strong Towns is a nonpartisan organization that’s focused on starting change from the local level, not the federal one. However, Chuck was recently challenged to come up with five things that the next president, whoever they end up being, should do once they’re in office. In today’s episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, he shares that list and explains why each item is important to building a stronger America.

    ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES
    4 November 2024, 10:00 am
  • 52 minutes 31 seconds
    Prioritizing Safety in Street Design: A Conversation with Melany Alliston

    On this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck discusses street safety with Melany Alliston, a project manager and civil engineer with Toole Design. They cover the role of engineers in creating safe streets, Alliston’s work with Toole Design and her experience participating in a number of Crash Analysis Studio sessions.

    To hear more about street safety, join us on Tuesday, October 15 for a virtual press conference where we will release the report “Beyond Blame: How Cities Can Learn From Crashes To Create Safer Streets Today.” Representatives from Toole Design will also be speaking at the press conference.

    ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES
    14 October 2024, 10:00 am
  • 47 minutes 45 seconds
    Rethinking the “Moonshot” Approach to Complex Problems Like Street Safety

    In this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck talks about V2X (vehicle-to-everything) technology and how it’s an example of a moonshot — a big, risky gamble that promises an equally big reward. He explains why these big gambles often fail when applied to complex problems like street safety and how the Strong Towns approach differs.

    ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES
    7 October 2024, 10:00 am
  • 53 minutes 21 seconds
    Has the Highway Trust Fund Outlived Its Usefulness? A Conversation With Beth Osborne.

    On this week’s episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck is joined by Beth Osborne, the director of Transportation for America, to discuss the Highway Trust Fund. They cover its history, how it affects federal and state transportation policies, and its potential future.

    Before joining Transportation for America, Osborne served as a deputy assistant secretary and acting assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Transportation. She also worked in multiple congressional offices, served as the policy director for Smart Growth America, and served as the legislative director for environmental policy at the Southern Governors’ Association.

    ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES
    30 September 2024, 10:00 am
  • 1 hour 57 seconds
    What’s the Best Career for Someone Who Wants To Build Strong Towns?

    In this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck addresses a question he frequently gets from young people: "What educational or career path should I take if I want to build strong towns?"

    ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES
    23 September 2024, 10:00 am
  • 1 hour 4 minutes
    Exploring the Role of Religious Institutions in Community Development

    At the Table is a podcast that discusses how community-based ministries can contribute to the common good via mutual relationships, spiritual practice, simplicity and an awareness of God’s activity in communities. They recently invited Strong Towns President Charles Marohn to appear on an episode. It was a great conversation, so we’re sharing that audio with you here on the Strong Towns Podcast, too. Up for discussion today, the Suburban Experiment, the role of religious institutions in community development and what it means for those institutions to be good neighbors.

    ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES
    16 September 2024, 10:00 am
  • 1 hour 2 minutes
    From Crime to Common Practice: How Fraud Dominates the Housing Market

    In this special episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck talks about fraud in the housing market. He discusses how it manifests, how it gradually saturates the market and how it’s connected to housing bubbles. He then explores how fraud plays a role in the current housing crisis and how federal and private organizations are trying to combat it.

    ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES
    28 August 2024, 10:00 am
  • 1 hour 16 seconds
    From Boring to Brilliant: Making Municipal Finance Fun With Michel Durand-Wood

    In this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck discusses municipal finance with Michel Durand-Wood, a longtime Strong Towns contributor and local budget aficionado. They talk about the importance of the average person understanding municipal finance, the obstacles that can make such understanding difficult and how their approaches to discussing finance have changed over the years.

    If you want to hear more from Durand-Wood, he’ll be co-hosting a Local-Motive session with Chuck on September 19, titled “Parsing Through Your Local Budget to Find Some Real Answers.”

    ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES
    26 August 2024, 10:00 am
  • 1 hour 3 minutes
    Build the Damn Train: How To Bring High-Speed Rail to the United States

    In this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck discusses the report “How To Improve Domestic High-Speed Rail Project Delivery” with one of the report’s authors, Eric Goldwyn. They discuss the advantages of high-speed rail over other transportation options, the challenges that building such a system in the U.S. would pose and five key recommendations for overcoming those challenges.

    Goldwyn is a leading urban scholar and program director at the Marron Institute of Urban Management, as well as a clinical assistant professor in the Transportation and Land-Use program at the NYU Marron Institute. To hear more from Goldwyn, check out this episode, where he discusses why U.S. transit is so expensive and how to fix it.

    ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES
    19 August 2024, 10:00 am
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