Episodes
Monday May 23, 2022
Mike McGinn: Making America More Walkable
Monday May 23, 2022
Monday May 23, 2022
America Walks is a nationally recognized non-profit organization that aims to create a more walkable America by giving people resources to effectively advocate for change. Join Strong Towns President Chuck Marohn in a conversation with Mike McGinn—executive director at America Walks and once mayor of Seattle—where they talk about the things that make America less walkable and what we can do about it.
“We're both struggling with that highway building coalition in our work,” says Chuck. “I think the thing about America Walks today is that I see you’re approaching it from a fresh [and] energized perspective around people walking, and really starting there with getting your feet on the ground, metaphorically and physically in real life.”
In this episode of The Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck and McGinn discuss topics such as the federal government passing the largest infrastructure spending bill in the nation's history, why it’s so important for walking that we address highways and how they really affect our communities, and core characteristics of strong cities.
Additional Show Notes
Monday May 09, 2022
This Vancouver-Based Artist Is Writing Music…About Building Strong Towns!
Monday May 09, 2022
Monday May 09, 2022
People have taken the Strong Towns approach in a lot of fascinating directions, but this might be one of the most fascinating yet: William Chernoff is a young, Vancouver-based musician who has written songs inspired by Strong Towns.
During the pandemic, Chernoff also started writing about music, building strong towns, and more. In this conversation, Marohn (a musician himself) and Chernoff discuss the creativity involved in writing and music, the way they’re inspired by others and build upon previous work, and the collaborative nature of art. Chernoff specifically talks about the importance of cultivating financially successful local music scenes, using tools like economic gardening to support mid-level or “Stage 2” music groups—tools Strong Towns also recommends for building up local businesses generally.
You don’t want to miss this unique discussion between two people who love music and are passionate about building strong towns!
Additional Show Notes
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Listen to “Chuck’s Strip Mall” on Bandcamp!
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“Strong Towns music: strong music scenes,” by Will Chernoff, Rhythm Changes (December 2021).
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“Selections from Strong Towns,” by Will Chernoff, Chernoff Music (June 2021).
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Cover image via Will Chernoff.
Monday May 02, 2022
Chuck Marohn Answers Your Questions
Monday May 02, 2022
Monday May 02, 2022
It's time for another Q&A session! Today, Chuck Marohn will be responding to your questions on things like how to calculate the actual value of spaces like public parks, whether or not high visibility traffic cameras influence driver behavior, and choosing between unfavorable options in planning processes.
If you've got a burning query that you want us to answer, head on over to the Community Section of the Acton Lab, and post it there. Our goal is to address as many questions as we can, and especially the ones that we think are going to help a lot of people out. So, stay tuned for future Q&A sessions!
Additional Show Notes
Monday Apr 25, 2022
Ryan Crane: Malpractice and Accountability in Engineering—A Surgeon’s Take
Monday Apr 25, 2022
Monday Apr 25, 2022
In most medical centers, physicians hold routine “morbidity and mortality” conferences, where they analyze cases where patients died or were seriously injured while under medical care. In today’s episode of The Strong Towns Podcast, otolaryngologist and surgeon Ryan Crane discusses how these morbidity and mortality conferences are a chance for medical practitioners to learn, through peer review, where they may have gone wrong in caring for a patient.
“Was there anything that we missed? Was there something about the patient that we didn’t identify? Did we fail as surgeons?” Says Dr. Crane, “When I pick a patient to operate on and something goes wrong, or I hurt them, they come back to my office and I have to look them in the face and tell them: This is what happened, and I’m sorry.”
Where is that sense of accountability in the engineering profession, when people die in car crashes? The medical field certainly isn’t perfect, but perhaps engineers should take a leaf from the doctor’s book and start asking themselves: When people die on our roads, did we fail, as engineers?
Additional Show Notes
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Want to hear the Strong Towns message live? Check out our Events page to see when we’re coming to a location near you!
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Explore more key Strong Towns concepts—and our top content about them—over at the Action Lab.
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Cover image source: Unsplash.
Thursday Mar 17, 2022
An Update and the Strong Towns Strategic Plan
Thursday Mar 17, 2022
Thursday Mar 17, 2022
Chuck is taking a little break from podcasting for a few weeks, but in the meantime, here's an update on what's going on behind the scenes at Strong Towns!
Monday Mar 07, 2022
“How Can My Town *Not* Be Wealthy When There’s Been So Much Growth?”
Monday Mar 07, 2022
Monday Mar 07, 2022
“How can a city not have pots overflowing with money if there has been so much growth? How are apartments subsidizing people who live in single-family neighborhoods?”
That’s what the city of Oviedo, Florida, asked when it invited Strong Towns President Chuck Marohn (along with Joe Minicozzi and Cate Ryba of Urban3) to speak at its “Make Oviedo Stronger” event last week.
We wanted to share Chuck’s talk with you today on the Strong Towns Podcast, because the core Strong Towns concepts he shared with Oviedo are applicable in so many other cities and towns across the United States—including, most likely, in yours.
Additional Show Notes
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Want to hear the Strong Towns message live? Check out our Events page to see when we’re coming to a location near you!
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Explore more key Strong Towns concepts—and our top content about them—over at the Action Lab.
Monday Feb 28, 2022
Annamarie Pluhar: Shared Housing Doesn’t Have to Be Scary
Monday Feb 28, 2022
Monday Feb 28, 2022
Today on the Strong Towns Podcast, host Chuck Marohn is speaking with special guest Annamarie Pluhar. Pluhar is an expert on co-housing and shared housing, and is the author of the book Sharing Housing: A Guidebook for Finding and Keeping Good Housemates.
Despite the fact that practically the entire nation is experiencing a housing crisis, 27% of homes in the U.S. are single occupancy. In other words, one in four adults lives alone, and this is a serious cause of social isolation for many people. Shared housing can be a solution not only for addressing our scarcity of housing, but also for relieving psychological distress for a significant portion of the population.
A Strong Town should have many different options for housing. Pluhar shares her expertise on how we can begin including co-housing among those choices, and how the transition to shared housing doesn’t have to be intimidating for individuals.
Additional Show Notes
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Read Annamarie Pluhar’s book, Sharing Housing: A Guidebook for Finding and Keeping Good Housemates
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Sharing Housing, Inc. website
Monday Feb 21, 2022
The Latest Update on the Strong Towns Lawsuit
Monday Feb 21, 2022
Monday Feb 21, 2022
Today on the Strong Towns Podcast, we wanted to give our listeners an update on the lawsuits that Strong Towns is involved in.
For those new to Strong Towns, here is a brief overview: Charles Marohn, president of Strong Towns, is an engineer and maintains his license even though he stopped doing engineering work in 2012. Briefly in 2018, his license lapsed. Once he realized this, Marohn promptly renewed it, however, the Minnesota Board of Licensure is claiming that he misrepresented himself to the public during the time when his license had expired. They are now demanding that Marohn sign a stipulation order stating that he deceived the public.
In turn, on May 18, 2021, Strong Towns filed a lawsuit against the Minnesota Board of Licensure. The complaint holds that the Board and its individual members have violated the First Amendment free speech rights of Charles Marohn and Strong Towns.
The threatened action by the Board of Licensure is about one thing: using the power of the state to discredit Strong Towns, a reform movement. To silence speech. To retaliate against an individual who challenges the power and financial advantages enjoyed by a certain class of licensed professionals.
This has become even clearer with some new documentation that casts a disturbing light on the situation. Marohn discusses this in detail in the podcast, and you can download the accompanying PDF here. The original article referenced in the documentation can be read here.
Additional Show Notes
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Read more about the lawsuit here, along with the full complaint that was filed and accompanying exhibits, as well as background articles from Strong Towns on engineering reform and the engineering profession.
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To support this podcast and the work of Strong Towns, become a member today.
Monday Feb 14, 2022
Truth in Accounting: Making Cities’ Finances Transparent for All
Monday Feb 14, 2022
Monday Feb 14, 2022
Last year, our friends over at Urban3 introduced us to a nonpartisan nonprofit called Truth in Accounting, which recently published Financial State of the Cities 2022, an annual report that they do on local governments and the state of their budgets.
It’s an incredible piece of work, one that says, “We do not advocate for anything: no tax policy, no spending policy. The only thing we advocate for is good budgeting and accounting.” Their only goal is to get the numbers out there to the public, as they believe strongly that governments are harmed when citizens (and sometimes even elected officials) are in the dark when it comes to financial information. Knowledgeable decisions can’t be made if people don’t know the true financial condition of their government.
Sheila Weinberg, a CPA and Founder and CEO of Truth in Accounting, joins Chuck Marohn today on the Strong Towns Podcast to talk about the work her organization is doing to make municipal financial information both transparent and available to everyone.
Additional Show Notes
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Financial State of the Cities 2022, by Truth in Accounting (2022)
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Cover image source: Truth in Accounting.
Monday Feb 07, 2022
Jeff Speck on Confessions of a Recovering Engineer
Monday Feb 07, 2022
Monday Feb 07, 2022
Today we wanted to share a conversation between Strong Towns President Chuck Marohn and renowned urban planner and walkability expert Jeff Speck. Speck is a returning guest on the Strong Towns Podcast, and author of the books Walkable City (which is getting an update this November with a new forward and introduction) and Walkable City Rules. He’s also the recipient of this year’s Seaside Prize, and has curated a weekend (March 4–6) of guest lectures at Seaside, which includes speakers like Janette Sadik-Khan, Mike McGinn, Dar Williams, Andres Duany, and Strong Towns’ own Chuck Marohn. It’s going to be a great event, so we encourage you to attend if you’re able to make the trip!
Speck also talks with Marohn about Strong Towns’ ongoing lawsuit against the Minnesota Board of Engineering Licensure. Marohn gives an update on where the case is at, and shares some of his thoughts on it. He then has an in-depth discussion with Speck about Marohn’s latest book, Confessions of a Recovering Engineer. You don’t want to miss out on the insights Speck shares about Confessions, and the questions he poses to Marohn about the book!
Additional Show Notes
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To learn more and sign up to attend the 2022 Seaside Weekend, visit the Seaside Institute’s website.
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Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time
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Cover image source: Jeff Speck.