The Strong Towns Podcast

Kea Wilson (Strong Towns' Director of Community Engagement) fills in for Chuck Marohn on this weekly podcast hosted by Rachel Quednau. They discuss Kea's recent writing and an upcoming article she's working on about time banking in St. Louis, MO. They also provide some behind the scenes info about the impending Strong Towns Summit in Tulsa, OK and an update on the Strongest Town Contest.

Mentioned in this podcast:

• The Cowry Collective in St. Louis, MO
• Nebraska Bike Walk Summit and Meet Up where Chuck Marohn is speaking later this week
• Strong Towns Summit in Tulsa, OK. Read about workshops here.
• Vital Little Plans by Jane Jacobs
• Dark Age Ahead by Jane Jacobs
• The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn't Have to Be Complicated by Helaine Olen and Harold Pollack
• Strongest Town Contest

Welcome to our third round of the Strongest Town Competition. We invite you to listen to this interview that Rachel Quednau, Communications Director for Strong Towns, conducted with representatives from a town in our contest, then make sure to listen to their competitors' podcast (Lafayette, LA). Once you've finished listening to the episodes, please visit www.strongtowns.org/strongtesttown to vote for the strongest.

Mayor Cam Guthrie and resident Mike Watt share about their town's fantastic location and famous festivals, as well as how they're handling the challenge of new growth.

See photos of Guelph here and read the town's initial entry here.

Welcome to our third round of the Strongest Town Competition. We invite you to listen to this interview that Rachel Quednau, Communications Director for Strong Towns, conducted with representatives from a town in our contest, then make sure to listen to their competitors' podcast (Guelph, ON, Canada). Once you've finished listening to the episodes, please visit www.strongtowns.org/strongtesttown to vote for the strongest.

Carlee Alm-LaBar, Director of Planning, Zoning, and Development for the Lafayette Consolidated Government, discusses her town's unique culture, their strong connection with the local university and their take on planning for their financial future.

See photos of Lafayette here and read the town's initial entry here.

Welcome to our third round of the Strongest Town Competition. We invite you to listen to this interview that Rachel Quednau, Communications Director for Strong Towns, conducted with representatives from a town in our contest, then make sure to listen to their competitors' podcast (Traverse City, MI). Once you've finished listening to the episodes, please visit www.strongtowns.org/strongtesttown to vote for the strongest.  

In this episode, Mayor Jon Costas of Valparaiso, IN discusses his town's collaborative nature, its thriving downtown and the impact of its local university.

See photos of Valparaiso here and read the town's initial entry here.

Welcome to our third round of the Strongest Town Competition. We invite you to listen to this interview that Rachel Quednau, Communications Director for Strong Towns, conducted with representatives from a town in our contest, then make sure to listen to their competitors' podcast (Valparaiso, IN). Once you've finished listening to the episodes, please visit www.strongtowns.org/strongtesttown to vote for the strongest.

In this episode, Rick Brown and Russ Soyring of Traverse City, MI explain why their town's natural beauty, walkable neighborhoods and creative housing solutions make it a strong community. See photos of Traverse City here and read the town's initial entry here.

In a solo podcast, Chuck Marohn continues an ongoing conversation about infrastructure spending. (Listen to the first episode in this conversation, "Is there a crisis?".) Chuck discusses his letter to President Trump and the need to create a new infrastructure funding system, not keep dumping more money into the existing system. The key is giving local leaders the power to choose how that money is spent.

In their weekly update podcast, Chuck and Rachel discuss the final article in Chuck's series about the economic impacts of the Shreveport highway project. They also dish about the current standings in the Strongest Town Contest and reveal how their brackets have fared.

Mentioned in this podcast:

• "The Economics of the I-49 Connector, Part 3" by Chuck Marohn
• Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones
• Strongest Town Contest

Rachel and Chuck discuss last week's campaign against an inner-city highway in Shreveport, plus the beginning of the 2017 #StrongestTown Contest.

Mentioned in this podcast:

• Shreveport content from last week
• The Economics of the I-49 Connector: Part I and Part II
• Strong Talk - a video conversation with two Shreveport residents
• Strongest Town Contest (see the entries and vote here)
• Download a Strongest Town bracket 
• The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
• The Lego Batman Movie

Steve Shultis is a long-time member of Strong Towns, a blogger at RationalUrbanism.com, a resident of inner-city Springfield, MA, and a frequent guest on the Strong Towns podcast. He and Chuck talk about traffic deaths and his interactive graphic Death Race 2016 which compares criminal homicides with traffic deaths. He also discusses media coverage about homicides vs. traffic deaths.

Read Steve's past articles on Strong Towns.

Listen to Steve's previous podcast interviews on urban schooling from 2015 and 2016.

Rachel and Chuck discuss the 2016 Strong Towns Annual Report. They also invite submissions for the Strongest Town Contest (deadline is Friday, Feb. 17).

Mentioned in this podcast:

• 2016 Strong Towns Annual Report
• Strongest Town Contest
• Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade by Robert Cialdini
• The Content Trap by Bharat Anand
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