KunstlerCast - Conversations: Converging Catastrophes of the 21st Century

James Howard Kunstler addresses the proliferation of tattoos on the American main street. He thinks the fierce looking tattoos on young Americas are actually a sign of how deeply insecure we are as a nation. They're also a form of "non-conformist-just-like-you" consumerism. Jim also takes on the hip hop costuming that has invaded the mainstream and has made young men look like oversized babies and...

This July, oilman T. Boone Pickens told Congress that James Howard Kunstler is worth listening to and that he's right on about the mistakes we've made in America regarding our use of cheap oil. In this program, Kunstler discusses the "Pickens Plan" to use wind energy and natural gas to reduce America's reliance on foreign oil. Other topics include Shai Agassi's Better Place plan to make electric c...

This installment attempts to explore America's anti-urban bias. Topics include: environmentalists and the human habitat, suburban style housing projects in the ghetto, white flight, and Ralph Kramden's apartment in The Honeymooners tv show. James Howard Kunstler also gives advice to those of us who are required to visit the burbs to see our families. [Note: one curse word.] Direct Download: Kunstl...

How did the granola crunching nature-loving hippies of the 1960s become the gas guzzling, McMansion dwelling, suburban yuppies of today? James Howard Kunstler reflects on his own generation. Kunstler also shares some of his own groovy stories from the Age of Aquarius. [Note: This episode mentions sex, recreational drug use, and includes some curse words.] Learn about our theme music, join our mail...

Frederick Law Olmsted is most noted for designing Central Park in Manhattan. His method of landscape design now serves as the main model for how we design parks in America. But James Howard Kunstler believes that our ongoing attempts to replicate the Olmsted park have created many urban parks with serious shortcomings. Kunstler also warns listeners not to ask for "green space" in their towns becau...

James Howard Kunstler continues his walking tour of one city block in downtown Saratoga Springs , N.Y. , a classic Main-street American town. We resume the tour on the corner of Division Street and Railroad Place , where a major urban infill project has produced a brand new urban street that is well defined on both sides by five-story high buildings, with dignified frontages, ground-level retail s...

James Howard Kunstler often describes Saratoga Springs N.Y. as a classic Main Street American town. In part one of this special program, we take to the streets of Saratoga to experience the sense of place in this small city. Kunstler brings us from the busy sidewalks along Broadway to a sidestreet leading to a major urban infill project. He explains the urban sensibilities of the 19th century stru...

James Howard Kunstler explores the consequences of handicap access laws and codes, and how they have unintentionally promoted suburban sprawl throughout much of America. In many instances, developers feel it's easier and cheaper to just build one-story buildings rather than multi-story handicap accessible buildings. These laws can also discourage the retrofitting of second and third story retail s...

Religious activists are praying at Washington DC gas stations for cheaper fuel. James Howard Kunstler says that type of neurotic behavior isn't much different than the behavior of cargo cults in the South Pacific. The concept of getting something for nothing is widely accepted by American culture, and religion, too. But Jim feels spirituality in America might one day evolve into something worthy o...

Asphalt has become the default paving solution in America. And it's helped turn even side streets into mini freeways. It's ugly, it's bad for the environment and it might not be so cheap in the near future as the price of petroleum-based products rises. In this show, James Howard Kunstler discusses the aesthetics, the qualities and the practicalities of other paving materials. Jim says the built e...

A listener from San Francisco, who admits to suffering excessive civic pride for his hometown, asks James Howard Kunstler to critique The Golden Gate City and to speak about some of the other places in America that Jim actually likes. Kunstler acknowledges that San Francisco does a lot of things right. But it bends over for the car, and many of the streets are poorly detailed. He also warns that t...

A listener from New Zealand asks JamesHoward Kunstler what peak oil holds in store for his island nation. The picture isn't pretty. Kunstler says the Kiwis better watch their backs. China , Japan and even Australia could all pose threats to New Zealand as they face shortages in the new energy future. At the end of the program, a cast of listeners sounds off. We hear from a black man in Queens who...

A listener from Canada asks if small cities will be willing and able to absorb more people after peak oil makes big city life problematic. James Howard Kunstler believes that many small cities across North America are waiting to be reactivated. These places would benefit from having more people living in them. But in order to prepare for returning populations, they will need to return to a much sm...

James Howard Kunstler takes questions on personal rapid transit, sustainable green buildings and the happy motoring program in America.  He also scolds us for us referring to ourselves as consumers. This show is the result of a special collaboration between The KunstlerCast and Planetizen, the online network for professional planners. (Info about program and theme music at KunstlerCast.com) Direct...

A listener from Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. wants to know about the ethics of gentrification. What happens to the poor people who get pushed out of the cities when wealthier people move in? James Howard Kunstler addresses how abnormal it is that American city centers are primarily inhabited by poor people. Jim and Duncan also touch upon the racial dimensions of gentrification. (Info about prog...

When James Howard Kunstler isn't railing against suburban sprawl, he's painting it. Vincent van Gogh painted the peasant sleeping by the haystack because he was living in a landscape populated by people. Our landscape is populated by cars. So, as a sur la motif painter of our time, Jim's subjects include cars on the road, gas stations and the industrial ruins of America's manufacturing past. Makin...

Is raising children in suburbia a form of child abuse? What happens to developing people when public space is the berm between the Wal-Mart and the K-Mart? When school looks like a maximum security "facility"? When parents are chauffeurs? James Howard Kunstler addresses these topics and speaks of his own experiences growing up in the suburbs of Long Island and in Manhattan. (Info about program and...

James Howard Kunstler is one of the most vocal critics of modern urban planning. So it's only fair that in this show Jim fields some questions from the professional planning community. First off, the planners want to know how Jim answers to critics who challenge him on his lack of professional credentials in the planning and architecture fields. Next, a planning professor wants to know: what is th...

When James Howard Kunstler wrote The Geography of Nowhere , it was to give people "the vocabulary to understand what's wrong with the places they ought to know best." In this installment we run down a few choice Kunstlerisms, like "parking lagoons" , "nature Band-Aides" and "patriotic totems." Kunstler also tells us why the depressing topic of suburban sprawl is also really funny. (Info about prog...

A listener from Flagstaff, Ariz. wants to know what fate awaits his town in the post oil future. The verdict from Jim? At least it's not Phoenix, but most of Flagstaff looks like the service road around Newark Airport. The caller also asks about the new Honda hydrogen fuel cell car, which reminds Jim to bash so-called environmentalist Amory Lovins' fantasy to keep the motoring scene going at all c...

Ya seen one town in America ya seen 'em all. But that's because they're all mandated to look that way! James Howard Kunstler tells the tragic story of zoning codes in the United States . At one time, zoning was a rational response to unpleasant conditions of the newly emerging industrial city. But the fanatical level to which zoning became worshiped by public officials has reduced urban planning f...

How and why did Seattle build that hideous new public library? asks one listener from that city. James Howard Kunstler tells us how cities get hoodwinked into a status fashion contest to have a museum or library built by one of the celebrity architects of the day. Rem Koolhass, Frank Gehry, Peter Eisenman and others are deliberately designing these disastrous, anxiety-inducing mothership UFOs in o...

A listener from Columbus, Ohio shares the bad news about two proposed downtown parking garages. Even though James Howard Kunstler thinks the happy motoring scene in America is on the way out, he explains how to design a better parking garage with first-floor retail, a central lightwell and taller ceilings. The Europeans have a better solution, though: the car club. (Info about program and theme mu...

James Howard Kunstler reads from World Made By Hand , his new novel based on the post-oil future.  Published by The Atlantic Monthly Press, World Made By Hand is set in upstate New York in the not distant future. It is a fictional account of the ideas based in Kunstler's nonfiction book, The Long Emergency . (Info about program and theme music at KunstlerCast.com) Direct Download (7.2MB): Kunstler...

James Howard Kunstler describes the impending end of cheap oil, which he calls The Long Emergency. Suburbia is a living arrangement with no future. Things are going to get pretty gnarly in the big cities, too. But small cities, that exist at a scale that can be rebuilt, are the places of the future. (Info about program and theme music at KunstlerCast.com) Direct Download: KunstlerCast_02.mp3