Ten Across Conversations

On October 10th —25 days ahead of the 2024 presidential election—Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and veteran political correspondent James Fallows sat down to discuss journalism’s role in American democracy today. Fallows has been a notable observer of this dynamic since at least 1996, when he published Breaking the News, a book which described the origins of the public’s mistrust of the news media...

In the last month, the Ten Across Conversations podcast has explored a variety of influences on modern U.S.-Mexico relations, including a lack of cooperation on immigration policy , climate change impacts on transboundary water-sharing and the outsized role Mexico plays in the recent revitalization of North American manufacturing. For the final episode of this limited series on the border, we’ll e...

Culture, finances and people have always moved with fluidity across boundaries within the binational, three-state metropolitan region known as ‘the Borderplex.’ Together, Las Cruces, El Paso, and Ciudad Juarez are an economic powerhouse with a combined population of 2.7 million and the largest bilingual and binational workforce in the Western Hemisphere.   After the North American Free Trade Agree...

Alongside immigration, there is another issue testing diplomacy between the U.S. and Mexico in 2024. Increasingly unpredictable weather patterns in combination with growth in both population and industrial demand have made it difficult, if not impossible, for the two nations to meet the obligations defined by their 1944 U.S.-Mexico Water Treaty.   The Tijuana, Rio Grande, and Colorado Rivers have...

For more than a decade, the topic of immigration has remained at the center of national debate in the U.S. and has become an unfortunate source of rancor between the two major political parties. As a result, efforts to reform an aging and ineffective immigration system have been largely unsuccessful. Meanwhile, pressures on the U.S.-Mexican border continue to grow.   A convergence of factors, incl...

Whether humid or arid, summer heat indexes from Southern California to Florida have become increasingly fatal when people lack access to air conditioning or some form of cooling. Last year in Arizona's Maricopa County, alone, almost 25% of the more than 600 heat-related deaths were people who had been sheltered indoors, but with broken or insufficient air conditioning .     Most AC units are still...

Many scholars, energy experts, and federal politicians agree the U.S. electric grid is antiquated and increasingly ineffective at meeting the demands of the 21st century. Power demand over time, or “load growth,” has reached historic heights with the expansion of artificial intelligence, electric vehicle ownership, and American manufacturing. As a result, utilities like Arizona Public Service have...

In this episode, Ten Across Conversations revisits a 2022 interview with Arizona State University Professor of Practice David Orr to coincide with the release of Orr’s new book Democracy in a Hotter Time: Climate Change and Democratic Transformation and his recent two-day symposium at ASU covering related topics. Ten Across founder and executive director Duke Reiter helped author this book along w...

Extreme heat poses the greatest risk of all climate hazards in the Ten Across region today. Heat is estimated by the National Weather Service to be two times deadlier than hurricanes and tornadoes combined.   New research published this week based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows a 117% increase in U.S. heat-related deaths over the last 24 years. Unprecedented heat conditio...

The role of mayor is uniquely important in U.S. government, as an elected arguably closest to the results of governance in the everyday lives of constituents. Considering the influential power of cities in innovation, economic growth and sustainable development, mayors are also often required to navigate politics and publicity at national and international levels—even as they rise above political...

In a hotter world, places like Phoenix, Arizona, will continue to present the rest of the nation with captivating examples of the potential—or limits—of human ingenuity, collaboration and political will. The Atlantic , with its July/August 2024 cover story , goes so far as to suggest that Phoenix provides a particularly important view of the future of American civilization.   In more than 20,000 w...

In the first days of his term, President Joe Biden signed Executive Order 14008 on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad , introducing the Justice40 initiative and setting important climate priorities for the nation. Built upon principals of the U.S. environmental justice movement begun by Dr. Robert Bullard four decades prior, Justice40 set a goal that 40% the overall benefits of federal...

Ten Across makes the future visible through examinations of communities in the southernmost U.S., which are often on the front lines of climate change. This applies especially to the engineering, design and politics surrounding intersections of our built and natural environments—where the development of more resilient and equitable infrastructure has proven to be an important theme.     Ten Across...

When Henry Ford streamlined vehicle manufacturing in the 1920s, he vaulted the U.S. to its status as a global economic leader. Soon after, the passage of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 and its establishment of the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) affirmed private automobiles as Americans’ preferred method of travel. Federal and state departments of transportation have since dedicated vast sums of mon...

The administrative and financial costs of disaster recovery have increased in recent years, exacerbated by the changing climate. The 122 separate billion-dollar disasters occurring between 2016 and 2022 in the U.S. represented more than $1 trillion in damages and claimed 5,000 lives. A significant portion of that expense was incurred by seven Category 4 and 5 hurricanes that made landfall in the T...

Insurer vacancies resulting from recurring natural losses in California, Florida, and Louisiana point to the fact that climate change is among the greatest threats to companies’ bottom lines within the coming years and decades. As a result, investors want greater transparency when it comes to the environmental risks of publicly-traded organizations.   A recent decision from the Securities and Exch...

The Ten Across geography reveals many aspects of the entire nation’s future, particularly the ways climate change will reshape where we choose to live and why. This southernmost tier of the country is a natural focus for examinations of climate trendlines and the tipping points for human habitability. The residents of Louisiana’s Isle de Jean Charles are often cited as the first community in the n...

A note to listeners who may be sensitive to the subject matter: This episode contains brief descriptions of death and distress caused by climate events.   With a widescale and urgent phenomenon like climate change, there are innumerable ways to imagine communicating its impacts through articles, film, or television. That said, given the immensity of this subject within our minds and environment, c...

A note to listeners who may be sensitive to the subject matter: This episode contains a brief discussion of suicide risk among construction workers.   The work of decarbonizing our communities and cities has never been more critical than it is today. Countless observers of climate change are warning the world that our window to drastically reduce or eliminate fossil fuel use and avoid 1.5°C or mor...

Gensler began as a corporate interior design firm in the 1960s. Today, it is the world’s largest architecture firm in terms of revenue and staff. In 2023, Gensler employed 6,000 professionals across 53 offices globally, reaching 3,500 clients in more than 100 countries.   The influence of this firm within the building and design industry cannot be overstated. Given its reach, it is encouraging tha...

Artificial intelligence is advancing and intersecting with nearly all professional sectors today, including local government. However, without much AI-specific policy yet established at the federal or state levels, many cities are learning to navigate this emerging technology on their own.   A combination of public policy and residents’ openness to new ideas in the Phoenix metropolitan area has ma...

Arizona's unique natural beauty and lingering "Wild West" spirit often charm outside observers. That allure may waver when closer examination reveals realities of extreme temperatures, extended drought, and what author Tom Zoellner refers to as a "transient" community fabric.   In his 2023 book, Rim to River: Looking into the Heart of Arizona, Tom's collection of essays details his one-man pilgrim...

In part one of our interview with Brookings Metro fellow Tracy Hadden Loh , we discussed lasting influences of post-pandemic work trends on urban design and governance. Although it is the most recent example, the COVID-19 pandemic is not the first major disruptor of economic activity within major U.S. metros, and it certainly will not be the last. A century earlier, the widespread adoption of auto...

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent rise in remote work sent a ripple through most U.S. cities. Heavy office districts became ghost towns, public transit services struggled, and downtown brick and mortar retail spaces emptied in response to a sudden drop in foot traffic. During this period, there was also a significant migration of remote workers from more crowded and expensive cities like New Yo...

The responsibility of U.S. mayors expanded dramatically at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, as cities of all sizes were forced to reckon with aging infrastructure, dated public health procedures, and a dramatic drop in revenue and activity within their urban cores. This historic disruption in communities compounded upon many other issues which local leaders in the 10X region and beyond have bee...