Building Local Power

Host Zach Freed speaks with Jim Hrncir, owner of Las Colinas Pharmacy in Irving, Texas. Zach and Jim discuss how independent pharmacies are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jess Del Fiacco talks with ILSR Co-Director John Farrell about recent publications from ILSR's Energy Democracy initiative, including the Community Power Scorecard, which grades states on whether their energy policies help or hinder local clean energy action, and ILSR's recent report on community choice energy, which allows communities take charge of their energy supply.

This special episode of Building Local Power features a timely conversation between Stacy Mitchell, Co-Director of ILSR, and small business owner Sandy Grodin. Sandy owns El Paso Office Products in El Paso, Texas. He's been in the business for more than 30 years, but his company is now on the verge of collapse due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. He's shutting down for three weeks, and,...

Host Jess Del Fiacco talks with Stacy Mitchell, Co-Director of ILSR, and Christopher Mitchell, Director of ILSR’s Community Broadband initiative, about how communities are responding to the unprecedented challenge of Covid-19. It is already drastically impacting local businesses, and in many cases this crisis will further exacerbate existing inequalities -- making it impossible for people without...

Host Brenda Platt speaks with Elsa Higby and Aleks Jagiello of the Queens Botanical Garden Farm and Compost Site. Their site is a part of the New York Compost Project, which was created by the city in 1993. Brenda, Aleks, and Elsa discuss how the site has grown over the last 25 years, and the many benefits their programming has brought to their community and beyond. 

Host Christopher Mitchell is joined by ILSR Co-Founder David Morris for a wide-ranging conversation about whether or not modern populist movements are tied to concerns about centralized control.

This week we’re bringing you a bonus episode from our friends at the Green Dreamer podcast. Green Dreamer is a podcast for those who are yearning to live lives of vitality and fulfillment and who are dreaming of a thriving planet to call home. Green Dreamer inclusively and inquisitively dives into how sustainability is intersectional to all areas of our lives. This episode explores how decentraliz...

Building Local Power Host Zach Freed is joined by ILSR's Stacy Mitchell to discuss the team's most recent efforts in fighting monopolies.… Read More

In this episode of Building Local Power, host Nick Stumo-Langer sits down with Energy Democracy initiative director John Farrell to discuss John's latest report on solar and storage. … Read More

Host Nick Stumo-Langer is joined by researchers Stacy Mitchell and Olivia LaVecchia to discuss their new guide to policy tools that strengthen independent businesses. … Read More

Guest host Nick Stumo-Langer and ILSR co-director Stacy Mitchell discuss two recent Supreme Court cases that have vast implications for the state of our economy and the role of the court as a centralized entity in ILSR's decentralized worldview.… Read More

Three of our researchers (Christopher Mitchell, John Farrell, & Brenda Platt) sit down together to discuss how small cities across America are innovating in the ways they are supporting their local economies. Mitchell discusses this innovation in Idaho; Farrell details the discussions in Decorah, Iowa; and Platt portrays many different home composting programs.… Read More

Sarita Gupta of Jobs With Justice joins us to discuss the state of labor rights in the "gig economy" and how the care sector presents a huge opportunity to change both work and aging. … Read More

In this episode of the Building Local Power podcast, ILSR co-director and Community-Scaled Economy initiative director Stacy Mitchell sits down with Laura Flanders to discuss the disturbing trend toward a calcified and monopolistic media landscape.… Read More

Experts Stacy Mitchell, Christopher Mitchell, and John Farrell discuss the impact that concentrated economic power has in state legislatures in topics as wide-ranging as high-speed broadband access, electric utilities, and Facebook's recent Congressional foibles.… Read More

Dan Knapp and Mary Lou Van Deventer sit down with long-time friend and ILSR co-founder Neil Seldman and Communications Manager Nick Stumo-Langer to discuss their successful reuse business and how they fit into the wider Berkeley community.… Read More

Vanessa Williamson of the Brookings Institution joins Christopher Mitchell to discuss her new book, Read My Lips: Why Americans Are Proud to Pay Taxes, and the changing American attitudes in regard to taxation.… Read More

Economics writer Brendan Greeley joins Stacy Mitchell and Christopher Mitchell to discuss what we all get wrong when we talk about economic indicators and how he's working to change that.… Read More

Steve Fenberg (D-Boulder) talks with John Farrell about his history as a renewable energy activist and local control advocate and how he translates that work into his role in the state legislature.… Read More

Jacqui Patterson, the director of the NAACP’s Environmental and Climate Justice Program, talks with ILSR’s Neil Seldman and Nick Stumo-Langer about the practical implications of environmental justice.… Read More

In this episode of ILSR's Building Local Power podcast, Chuck Marohn of Strong Towns sits down with Stacy Mitchell to discuss why the conventional wisdom about economic growth often leads communities down a dark path of decay. … Read More

This roundtable discussion between ILSR's Stacy Mitchell, John Farrell, and Christopher Mitchell delves into the growing movement against monopoly power in the political economy.… Read More

Zero waste activist Paul Connett joins ILSR's Neil Seldman and Nick Stumo-Langer to detail how to move communities across the world to a zero waste reality as well as how this activism fits within the grassroots landscape.  Along with Paul's insights on zero waste policies -- from corporate redesign to community fun in participating in sustainability policies -- he regales listeners with a version...

Matt Rantanen, Director of Technology at the Southern California Tribal Chairmen’s Association, and Hannah Trostle, an ILSR research associate talk with Christopher Mitchell about the challenges to better Internet connectivity on tribal lands across America.… Read More

Joe Maxwell of the Organization for Competitive Markets details how our economy is tilted against family farms and rural communities, and how he’s working to build a political movement to change that.… Read More