The Strong Towns Podcast

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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Josef Bray-Ali is a Los Angeles resident, bike shop owner, long-time Strong Towns member and current candidate for city council. In this interview with Chuck Marohn, he discusses his experience as a small business owner and a community organizer for safe streets. He also talks about what motivated him to run for city council and the ways he's implemented Strong Towns ideas in his city.

Joe Bray-Ali's writing and videos on our site:

• "A Strong Citizen in Los Angeles"
• "Making my City More Bike-Friendly for $0"
• "Why One Strong Towns Member Chose to Run for City Council"

Chuck and Rachel discuss the recent Strong Towns Staff & Board Meeting in Chicago, which included lots of planning and assessment, plus some authentic Chicago-style deep-dish pizza. They also discuss Jonathan Haidt's work on moral foundations and a technique to clean up a toxic Facebook feed.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

• "Our Contentious Culture"
• Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999 movie)
• We Eat Our Own by Kea Wilson
• This week's slackchat is hosted by Kea Wilson and it'll be at 1pm CT on Thursday.

Our nation has an infrastructure funding crisis.....or do we?

Related Posts:

• What clearly makes us richer
• The real reason your city has no money
• Poor neighborhoods make the best investments
• Gladwell's question to Thaler (YouTube)

Chuck and Rachel discuss Chuck's letter to President Trump and ways to encourage investment in small-scale infrastructure projects instead of big ones. They also talk about recent books they've enjoyed and the growth of the Strong Towns movement.

Mentioned in this episode:

• "A Letter to POTUS on Infrastructure" and an upcoming Slackchat to discuss that letter
• #InfrastructureCrisis stories on our site
• "New Milwaukee Housing Program Takes the Easy Route"
• "Strong Talk: How do we create more housing options?" recorded live January 20
• The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
• The Righteous Mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion by Jonathan Haidt
• Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

Chuck and Rachel chat about recent articles which have garnered a ton of attention on the internet over the past week. They also discuss the non-partisan nature of Strong Towns, particularly in light of new readers coming to the site in the last week (as evidenced by the quote above). Finally, they announce that public tickets are now available for the Strong Towns Summit. Get yours before they're gone.

Mentioned in this podcast:

• "The Real Reason Your City has no Money"
• "Poor Neighborhoods Make the Best Investments"
• "Is Strong Towns my Tribe?"
• "Reinventing Poor Cities at Scale"
• Sign up to participate in Strong Talk or submit your topic ideas.
• Strong Towns Summit info and tickets
• In case you're eager for more podcasts, here's Chuck Marohn interviewed on 3 different podcasts.

Chuck and Rachel discuss Chuck's recent writing on federal infrastructure spending and today's article, "A Utah Republican Might Have the Best Urban Transportation Plan." They also discuss books they're reading (Rachel finally got around to starting Hillbilly Elegy) and political language in the context of Strong Towns.

Mentioned in this podcast:

• Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J. D. Vance
• The Road to Ruin: The Global Elites' Secret Plan for the Next Financial Crisis by James Rickerts
• The Content Trap: A Strategist's Guide to Digital Change by Bharat Andand