The Strong Towns Podcast

On this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck answers housing questions submitted by Ohio State University students. The questions cover the history of the housing market, as well as backyard cottages, alternative housing arrangements, and housing finance. Tune in on Monday for Part 2, where Chuck will answer questions related to other topics, including state and federal housing policy. ADDIT...

On this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck discusses safe streets advocacy with Amy Cohen, the co-founder and president of Families for Safe Streets. They cover the importance of using both data and personal stories to drive change, some of Families for Safe Streets’ recent initiatives, and advice for local advocates on how to support people who have lost loved ones to traffic violence. Se...

It’s Member Week here at Strong Towns. As a special treat, we’re publishing three new episodes of the Strong Towns Podcast. In this episode, Chuck explains how election years affect a nonpartisan nonprofit like Strong Towns. It’s kind of ugly, but it doesn't change our mission. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Become a member today! Chuck Marohn (Twitter/X) .

It’s Member Week here at Strong Towns. As a special treat, we’re publishing three new episodes of the Strong Towns Podcast this week. In this episode, Chuck is joined by Norm Van Eeden Petersman, Strong Towns’ director of membership and development. They discuss the history of the Strong Towns movement and how members have brought it to heights Chuck never could’ve imagined — including spreading S...

Today, we’re kicking off Member Week at Strong Towns. As a special treat, we’ll be publishing three new episodes of the Strong Towns Podcast this week. In this first episode, Chuck discusses the cultural shift that the Strong Towns movement is striving to create and why that shift is so essential to building more prosperous and resilient communities. This is a bottom-up movement, and it needs your...

Strong Towns is a nonpartisan organization that’s focused on starting change from the local level, not the federal one. However, Chuck was recently challenged to come up with five things that the next president, whoever they end up being, should do once they’re in office. In today’s episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, he shares that list and explains why each item is important to building a stron...

On this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck discusses street safety with Melany Alliston, a project manager and civil engineer with Toole Design. They cover the role of engineers in creating safe streets, Alliston’s work with Toole Design and her experience participating in a number of Crash Analysis Studio sessions. To hear more about street safety, join us on Tuesday, October 15 for a vir...

In this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck talks about V2X (vehicle-to-everything) technology and how it’s an example of a moonshot — a big, risky gamble that promises an equally big reward. He explains why these big gambles often fail when applied to complex problems like street safety and how the Strong Towns approach differs. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Register for the virtual press conferen...

On this week’s episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck is joined by Beth Osborne, the director of Transportation for America, to discuss the Highway Trust Fund. They cover its history, how it affects federal and state transportation policies, and its potential future. Before joining Transportation for America, Osborne served as a deputy assistant secretary and acting assistant secretary in the...

In this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck addresses a question he frequently gets from young people: "What educational or career path should I take if I want to build strong towns?" ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Chuck Marohn (Twitter/X) .

At the Table is a podcast that discusses how community-based ministries can contribute to the common good via mutual relationships, spiritual practice, simplicity and an awareness of God’s activity in communities. They recently invited Strong Towns President Charles Marohn to appear on an episode. It was a great conversation, so we’re sharing that audio with you here on the Strong Towns Podcast, t...

In this special episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck talks about fraud in the housing market. He discusses how it manifests, how it gradually saturates the market and how it’s connected to housing bubbles. He then explores how fraud plays a role in the current housing crisis and how federal and private organizations are trying to combat it. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES " The Housing Market Is a Bub...

In this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck discusses municipal finance with Michel Durand-Wood, a longtime Strong Towns contributor and local budget aficionado. They talk about the importance of the average person understanding municipal finance, the obstacles that can make such understanding difficult and how their approaches to discussing finance have changed over the years. If you want...

In this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck discusses the report “ How To Improve Domestic High-Speed Rail Project Delivery ” with one of the report’s authors, Eric Goldwyn. They discuss the advantages of high-speed rail over other transportation options, the challenges that building such a system in the U.S. would pose and five key recommendations for overcoming those challenges. Goldwyn i...

In this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck takes a look at a recent fatal car crash that took place in Ontario. Unfortunately, deadly car crashes occur all the time across North America, and this one might not have even stood out if not for a tweet released in response by local law enforcement, which held the promise of a team that intends to investigate the crash…but for all the wrong rea...

In this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck discusses the feedback systems that created the housing affordability crisis. He explains why federal and state government policies can’t solve the problem and that local leaders are the real key to addressing it. He also lays out some of the concrete actions local leaders can take to address the housing crisis in their cities. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOT...

Maumee, Ohio, winner of the 2024 Strongest Town Contest, is facing a big sewer infrastructure challenge. It needs to update its sewer system to comply with EPA regulations — an extremely large, expensive project. To handle this problem, the city is requiring residents who want to sell their homes to pay for the needed updates to their sewage systems, which is generating backlash from residents. In...

In this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck responds to a recent Substack column that criticized the Strong Towns stance on the Suburban Experiment and infrastructure spending. He corrects some misconceptions from the column and discusses the ways that cities handle (or fail to handle) their finances and how that can lead to financial insolvency. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES “ Contra Strong Towns...

Can your city escape the housing trap simply through blanket rezoning? Is completely eliminating zoning compatible with an incremental approach? How should your city handle historic designations that are blocking housing development? Strong Towns President Chuck Marohn answers all these questions and more in this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast. This Q&A session comes on the heels of a mem...

This is the final episode in the Strong Towns Podcast's special Member Drive series. Every day, Chuck has read one of his best articles that you might’ve missed. Today, he’s reading one of Strong Towns’ most popular articles, “Most Public Engagement Is Worthless.” This article explores the typical methods used by city planners when collecting feedback from the public and why they often fail. Inste...

This is the fourth episode in the Strong Towns Podcast's special Member Drive series. Every day, Chuck is reading one of his best articles that you might’ve missed. Today, he’s reading “If We Made Shoes Like We Make Housing, People Would Go Barefoot.” This article is an excerpt from Chuck’s most recent book “Escaping the Housing Trap,” coauthored with Daniel Herriges. It discusses how restrictions...

This is the third episode in the Strong Towns Podcast's special Member Drive series. Every day, Chuck is reading one of his best articles that you might’ve missed. Today, he’s reading “How Fannie Mae Puts a Chokehold on Local Home Financing Solutions.” This article explains how mortgage financiers rose to dominance through an “orgy of debt and price appreciation” and how they continue to twist the...

This is the second episode in the Strong Towns Podcast's special Member Drive series. Every day, Chuck is reading one of his best articles that you might’ve missed. Today, he’s reading “One Billion Bollards,” which discusses the current engineering norm of prioritizing drivers’ safety over that of pedestrians — and how this blatant disregard for people’s lives is “nothing less than institutionaliz...

In honor of Member Drive, the Strong Towns Podcast is publishing five episodes this week. Every day, Chuck will read one of his best articles that you might’ve missed. Today, he’s reading “The Cost of an Extra Foot,” which explains why engineers love overdesign and what that means for cities’ finances. Make sure to check back in tomorrow to catch the next installment of this special series. If you...

Megan Kimble is an Austin-based journalist and author who’s spent the last four years writing about urban highways and highway expansion in Texas. Today, she’s joining us to discuss her new book “ City Limits: Infrastructure, Inequality, and the Future of America's Highways ,” where she explores three highway projects in Austin, Dallas and Houston, and the different groups fighting to stop them. A...