The Strong Towns Podcast
Strong Towns
300 episodes
The Strong Towns Podcast is a weekly conversation on the Strong Towns movement, hosted by Strong Towns Founder and President Charles Marohn and frequently featuring special guests. The podcast explores how we can financially strengthen our cities, towns, and neighborhoods and, in the process, make them better places to live. Join Chuck in examining how everything from urban design to economics to systems theory to psychology helps inform this core question.
Episodes page 3 of 6
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The Traffic Enforcement Futility Loop
In this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck takes a look at a recent fatal car crash that took place in Ontario. Unfortunately, deadly car crashes occur all the time across North America, and this one might not…
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Why Local Leaders Can Address the Housing Crisis but Federal Programs Fail
In this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck discusses the feedback systems that created the housing affordability crisis. He explains why federal and state government policies can’t solve the problem and that…
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Oh Crap! Dealing With Sewer Upgrades Is a Complicated Mess
Maumee, Ohio, winner of the 2024 Strongest Town Contest, is facing a big sewer infrastructure challenge. It needs to update its sewer system to comply with EPA regulations — an extremely large, expensive project. To…
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The Truth About the Suburban Experiment: A Response to “Contra Strong Towns”
In this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck responds to a recent Substack column that criticized the Strong Towns stance on the Suburban Experiment and infrastructure spending. He corrects some misconceptions…
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How To Escape the Housing Trap: A Special Q&A Session
Can your city escape the housing trap simply through blanket rezoning? Is completely eliminating zoning compatible with an incremental approach? How should your city handle historic designations that are blocking…
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Member Drive Week Special: Most Public Engagement Is Worthless
This is the final episode in the Strong Towns Podcast's special Member Drive series. Every day, Chuck has read one of his best articles that you might’ve missed. Today, he’s reading one of Strong Towns’ most popular…
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Member Drive Week Special: If We Made Shoes Like We Make Housing, People Would Go Barefoot
This is the fourth episode in the Strong Towns Podcast's special Member Drive series. Every day, Chuck is reading one of his best articles that you might’ve missed. Today, he’s reading “If We Made Shoes Like We Make…
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Member Drive Week Special: How Fannie Mae Puts a Chokehold on Local Home Financing Solutions
This is the third episode in the Strong Towns Podcast's special Member Drive series. Every day, Chuck is reading one of his best articles that you might’ve missed. Today, he’s reading “How Fannie Mae Puts a Chokehold…
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Member Drive Week Special: One Billion Bollards
This is the second episode in the Strong Towns Podcast's special Member Drive series. Every day, Chuck is reading one of his best articles that you might’ve missed. Today, he’s reading “One Billion Bollards,” which…
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Member Drive Week Special: The Cost of an Extra Foot
In honor of Member Drive, the Strong Towns Podcast is publishing five episodes this week. Every day, Chuck will read one of his best articles that you might’ve missed. Today, he’s reading “The Cost of an Extra Foot,”…
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Megan Kimble: The Toll Urban Highways Take and the People Fighting Back
Megan Kimble is an Austin-based journalist and author who’s spent the last four years writing about urban highways and highway expansion in Texas. Today, she’s joining us to discuss her new book “City Limits:…
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How to Escape Housing (and Baseball Stadium) Traps, Plus a Little Disney Urbanism.
The Messy City is a podcast that discusses urban planning and design issues. Its host, Kevin Klinkenberg, recently invited Strong Towns President Chuck Marohn to appear on an episode. It was a great conversation, so…
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The Strong Towns Tension With YIMBYism
The Strong Towns approach to housing has some obvious tensions with NIMBYism, but what about YIMBYism? That’s the topic for discussion on the table for today’s episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, because while our…
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Alex Alsup: How Much of the U.S.'s Housing Stock Is Locally Owned?
This week on the Strong Towns Podcast, host Chuck Marohn is joined by Alex Alsup of Regrid, an organization that, among other things, has put together the only 100% complete national parcel map for the United States.…
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Where Strong Towns Stands As We Enter Another Election Year
As the U.S. enters another election year—one that is certain to be contentious—we know that many Americans are going to be engrossed in the conversation about national politics. And many of our readers want to know…
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Why We Need To Show Empathy Toward Drivers in Conversations About Street Safety
Bike Talk is a radio show dedicated to the idea that we need to prioritize bikes as a form of public transportation, and they recently invited Chuck to appear on an episode. It was a great conversation, and so we’re…
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Benjamin Herold: The Unraveling of America’s Suburbs
Benjamin Herold, author of Disillusioned: Five Families and the Unraveling of America’s Suburbs, joins host Chuck Marohn on this week’s episode of the Strong Towns Podcast. Disillusioned tells the story of five…
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What Is the Role of Philanthropy in Building Stronger Towns?
What’s the role of philanthropy when it comes to building strong towns? How do we get philanthropy involved, and how do we make good investments? How do we access federal programs and bigger resources effectively? This…
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Sam Quinones: Recovering Addicts Are Having a Bottom-Up Revolution in This Small Kentucky Town
Journalist and author Sam Quinones returns to the Strong Towns Podcast for the third time to discuss a recent, moving article he’s written for The Free Press: “Opioids Decimated a Kentucky Town. Recovering Addicts Are…
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Tony Jordan and Chris Meyer: Pushing for People Over Parking
This week’s episode of the Strong Towns Podcast is all about parking reform, and here to talk with host Chuck Marohn on the matter are Tony Jordan and Chris Meyer. Jordan is the president of the Parking Reform Network,…
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Eric Goldwyn: Why U.S. Transit Is So Expensive (and How To Fix It)
On this week’s episode, host Chuck Marohn talks with Eric Goldwyn, a leading urban scholar and program director at the Marron Institute of Urban Management, as well as a Clinical Assistant Professor in the…
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Meet the Freeway Fighters Who Are Suing the Texas Department of Transportation
One of the most egregious highway expansion projects we’ve encountered is the I-35 project in Austin, Texas. A lot of good people have been fighting it for a long time, and on this week’s episode of the Strong Towns…
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Shima Hamidi: Narrow Lanes Save Lives
On this week’s episode, Chuck talks with Dr. Shima Hamidi of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who, in November 2023, wrote about the study when it first came out, and we’re excited to now have Dr.…
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Minnesota Introduces First-in-the-Nation Bill To Eliminate Minimum Parking Mandates Statewide
On this week’s episode, Chuck Marohn talks about a trip he made to the Minnesota state capitol, where he was invited to take part in a press conference in which a bill was launched. Strong Towns is a bottom-up,…
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Where Is Sprawl Good? (Featuring Joe Minicozzi)
At Strong Towns, we try to avoid using the word “sprawl” as a shorthand term in our content—and we’d even go so far as to say that sprawl isn’t the problem we’re trying to solve in our communities. All that said, are…
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Reading Member Comments—Live From Buc-ee’s!
Alright, it’s not exactly “live,” but while visiting Austin, Chuck Marohn couldn’t resist stopping by a Buc-ee’s to marvel at this Texas-sized gas station. It’s emblematic of the overbuilt, spread-out, auto-oriented…
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We’re Seeing a Groundswell of People Doing Amazing Things in Their Communities
On this special Member Week episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck Marohn reflects how, despite being sick, his spirits were bolstered this week by the efforts of advocates he’s observed doing amazing work in their…
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We Must Become More Sensitive to the Stress Our Cities Are Under
Different people are sensitive to different things around them, and this Member Week, we’re asking you to challenge yourself to become a little more sensitive to the things that are happening in your community. What do…
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Seth Kaplan: Repairing American Society, One Zip Code at a Time
On this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, host Chuck Marohn talks with friend, author, and expert on fragile states, Seth Kaplan. His new book, Fragile Neighborhoods, offers a bold new vision for addressing social…
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Conor Semler: A New Decision-Making Framework for Street Design
On this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, host Chuck Marohn chats with Conor Semler, an associate planner with Kittelson and Associates. Semler was involved in the development of both the National Association of…
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Strong Towns Is Jane Jacobs in Action
Strong Towns founder and president, Charles Marohn, was invited to the Lit with Charles podcast to discuss Jane Jacobs’ seminal work, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, and the impact it has had on urban…
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The Arguments for Speed Cameras…and Why They Don’t Hold Up
On this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, host Chuck Marohn talks about his concerns with speed cameras. Plenty of people dislike speed cameras as surveillance devices and, conversely, many urbanists support the use…
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Steve Mouzon: How Do We Rebuild Maui?
In light of the recent wildfires in Maui (and other parts of Hawaii), this week’s Strong Towns Podcast episode features a conversation with Steve Mouzon, author of The Original Green and member of the Strong Towns…
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Walkable City Design Is Critical for Economic Health
After World War II, the U.S. embarked on an experiment in how we build cities. Instead of creating places scaled to people who walked, we built suburbs that focused on moving cars quickly and efficiently. Many cities…
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Citizen Versus Developer? No! It’s Citizen As Developer.
Recently, an article came out of Medicine Hat, Alberta, reflecting on some development conversations happening within the city, inspired by Strong Towns presentations. When Chuck Marohn read the article, he felt core…
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Four Communities Are Becoming Examples of Change
Change is not always easy, and without examples, it can be difficult to reimagine how we do things. That’s just one of the reasons Strong Towns decided to launch the Community Action Lab: a carefully customized,…
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From 500 to 5,000: What Strong Towns Members Are Doing to Make Their Places Better
Just a couple weeks ago, we got the opportunity to meet nearly 500 Strong Towns members for the first time at the Strong Towns National Gathering. It is evident that Strong Towns members are people who care deeply…
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Dollar Stores Are Leeching the Economic Vitality of Communities Across the U.S.
A recent report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance reveals some shocking facts: In 2021, half of the new stores opened in the U.S. were chain dollar stores. Moreover, Dollar Store and Dollar Tree (which are…
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Ian Lockwood: Thoughts From an Engineer
How should engineers be thinking about building wealth in communities? That’s just one of the questions Chuck Marohn asks of Ian Lockwood, a recognized national leader in sustainable transportation policy and urban…
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What’s Going On With the Recent Bank Failures?
In March 2023, major banks collapsed, interest rates have been rising, and many people are greatly—and rightly—concerned about inflation. In this week’s episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck Marohn talks about the…
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Growth Through Destruction
In 1906, a powerful earthquake in San Francisco, California, damaged a good portion of the city, causing havoc and distress as 28,188 buildings were destroyed, and over 3,000 people were killed. Curiously, after this…
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On the Conservative Reaction to 15-Minute Cities
We believe everyone can build a Strong Town, but all too often, political differences divide communities, and instead of working together to build stronger neighborhoods from a bottom-up approach, we get caught up in…
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The Property Tax System is Broken—Regrid Works on Tools to Help Fix It
The property tax system is broken all across the nation. In Detroit, residents face an issue of inconsistent assessments, where two homes that are similar in condition and sitting on similar-sized lots have widely…
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Jeff Speck on the 10th-Anniversary Edition of Walkable City
Today on the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck Marohn welcomes back Jeff Speck, city planner and author, to talk about a brand-new version of his book, Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time. It’s…
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Lawsuit Update: Making a Stand for Engineers in the Minnesota State Court of Appeals
Anyone should be able to speak up and question whether current engineering practices truly benefit our communities. That’s especially true for licensed professionals who have a special duty to the public to be heard.…
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Mike Hathorne: Where Does Decision-Making Need to Occur in Our Communities?
How far up the chain of command does a problem need to go before someone can make a decision on it? According to the concept of subsidiarity, it matters less what decision is made and more who makes the decision—in…
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Ben Hunt: In Praise of Bitcoin
Today’s Strong Towns Podcast guest, Ben Hunt, wrote on Epsilon Theory that “Bitcoin has been an authentic expression of identity, a positive identity of autonomy, entrepreneurialism, and resistance to the Nudging State…
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Thanks for a Great Year
It's been a great year for the Strong Towns Podcast; thanks for listening. We wanted to close out 2022 with one last message, and to wish you Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!
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Sam Quinones: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth
This week on the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck Marohn chats with Sam Quinones, author and journalist, about his most recent book: The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth. Along…
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Get Ready for #BlackFridayParking
Our annual Black Friday Parking event is coming up, so get your cameras ready! Black Friday Parking is a nationwide event drawing attention to the harmful nature of minimum parking requirements. Parking minimums…
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