The Strong Towns Podcast

The Strong Towns message has a big impact wherever it is heard, but how do we turn that into action? In this episode, Founder and President of Strong Towns, Chuck Marohn, talks about some of the next steps for the movement.

Chuck and Rachel recap recent events in New Haven, CT and New York, NY. They also discuss some recent success stories of Strong Towns members in action.

Mentioned in this podcast:

• "An Open Letter to the City of Springfield" by Chuck Marohn
• "One Million Strong" by Chuck Marohn
• Join us for this week's slackchat at 12pm CT on Wednesday
• "Putting Portland's Urban Highway in its Place" by Rachel Quednau
• "Placemaking Projects Create a Stronger Iron Range" by Rachel Quednau
• Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber
• Who Gets What ? and Why: The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design by Alvin Roth

In this podcast episode, Rachel Quednau interviews her colleague Kea Wilson about her journey to financial freedom and personal resilience. Kea talks about how she paid off $25,000 in college debt in less than a year and how a mindset of financial frugality and saving over spending has stayed with her since. By finding joy in low-cost, productive, simple activities and adopting a lifestyle aimed at happiness, not consumption, Kea is charting a path of personal and community resilience. We can all learn something from it.

This episode is part of an ongoing series about personal resilience. Find more articles in the series here.

Chuck and Rachel begin with some exciting news, then discuss upcoming East Coast events and debt in Puerto Rico (and what it means for all of us). Apologies; we had some issues with Chuck's audio on this one. 

Mentioned in this podcast:

• Planetizen's List of Top 100 Most Influential Urbanists
• New Haven, CT presentation and meet-up
• New York City presentation and meet-up
• "The Spooky Nature of Debt" by Chuck Marohn
• Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graebe
• Cognitive Architecture: Designing for How We Respond to the Built Environment by Ann Sussman
• Send Rachel your ideas and comments: quednau@strongtowns.org

Chuck Marohn interviews Catherine Fitts, Strong Towns member and founder of the Solari Report. Catherine served as managing director and member of the board of directors of the Wall Street investment bank Dillon, Read & Co. Inc., as Assistant Secretary of Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development in the first Bush Administration, and was the president of Hamilton Securities Group, Inc. 

In this conversation, Catherine discusses her past leadership roles and how that has influenced her outlook on building investment and wealth—not just for individuals—but for communities as a whole.

Chuck Marohn was also featured on the Solari Report earlier this year, which you can check out here.

Chuck and Rachel recap a bunch of recent Strong Towns events in Spearfish, SD, Akron, OH, Santa Ana, CA, Pensacola, FL, and Holland, MI. They also discuss Chuck's Monday article, "Rules for the Uncomfortable."

A few weeks ago, we had the pleasure of hosting a webcast for Strong Towns members with Ferguson, MO-based farmer, Molly Rockamann of EarthDance Organic Farm School. This was part of a series we've been doing throughout the last few months about local food. You can find the whole series here. Kea Wilson interviewed Molly about how the farm got started, the challenges and advantages of having a farm in this location, where local food intersects with building Strong Towns and much more. 

We're now releasing the audio of the webcast as today's podcast. If you'd like to watch the whole video, just visit our website.

Even if you're not looking to become a farmer in the near future, there's still a lot to learn from this discussion. The conversation considers how farmers and non-farmers can be good neighbors to one another, how local food can support a strong local economy, and how regular people can take small steps to participate in local food systems, whether or not you're ready to get down in the dirt and grow something. 

With Chuck on the road, Rachel brings in her colleague Kea Wilson for a special edition of the Week Ahead podcast. Rachel and Kea discuss articles they've recently written and some upcoming projects. They also announce a slackchat they're hosting on Friday and discuss some favorite books.

Mentioned in this podcast:

• "Is your state transportation system broke? Then hit up the Prius drivers!"
• "False Choices in American Transportation"
• Event in Pensacola, FL
• Event in Holland, MI
• "Four Tips for Better Community Engagement"
• This Week's Slackchat: Open Resource Sharing with Kea and Rachel
• Sign up for Slack
• The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael Twitty
• We Eat Our Young by Kea Wilson
• Becoming Jane Jacobs by Peter Laurence

Chris Brown is the city engineer for Fayetteville, AR and has been involved in spearheading a tactical urbanism program for the city. In this podcast interview, he talks about the life of a city engineer, his community's desire for safer streets, and how that led the city to start this new program. He also talks about the challenges of such an initiative and how to overcome them.

Read more about tactical urbanism in Fayetteville and download a free guide to implementing a tactical urbanism project here.