Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchDonovan X. Ramsey, "When Crack Was King: A People's History of a Misunderstood Era" (One World, 2023)
Episode 55
The crack epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s is arguably the least examined crisis in American history. Beginning with the myths inspired by Reagan's wa…
2 years, 10 months ago
Vaudine England, "Fortune's Bazaar: The Making of Hong Kong" (Scribner, 2023)
Episode 147
The legacy of the businessmen who built Hong Kong are all over the city. Bankers work in Chater House—named after Paul Chater, the Armenian businessm…
2 years, 10 months ago
Andrii Portnov, "Dnipro: An Entangled History of a European City" (Academic Studies Press, 2022)
Episode 25
Andrii Portnov's Dnipro: An Entangled History of a European City (Academic Studies Press, 2022) is the first English-language synthesis of the histor…
2 years, 10 months ago
Flora Samuel, "Housing for Hope and Wellbeing" (Routledge, 2022)
Episode 157
Housing and neighborhoods have an important contribution to make to our wellbeing and our sense of our place in the world. Housing for Hope and Wellb…
2 years, 10 months ago
Alejandro Portes and Ariel C. Armony, "Emerging Global Cities: Origin, Structure, and Significance" (Columbia UP, 2022)
Episode 75
Certain cities—most famously New York, London, and Tokyo—have been identified as “global cities,” whose function in the world economy transcends nati…
2 years, 10 months ago
Logistic Clusters: Delivering Value and Driving Growth
Episode 137
Why is Memphis home to hundreds of motor carrier terminals and distribution centers? Why does the tiny island-nation of Singapore handle a fifth of t…
2 years, 10 months ago
Ambient Commons: Attention in the Age of Embodied Information
Episode 132
The world is filling with ever more kinds of media, in ever more contexts and formats. Glowing rectangles have become part of the scene; screens, lar…
2 years, 10 months ago
When Did We See You a Stranger and Welcome You? (with Ben Metcalf)
Episode 64
The poor have always been with us, even in a rich country and a prosperous time. I ask Ben Metcalf, former Secretary of Housing and Community Develop…
2 years, 11 months ago
António Tomás, "In the Skin of the City: Spatial Transformation in Luanda" (Duke UP, 2022)
Episode 162
In his book, In the Skin of the City: Spatial Transformation in Luanda (Duke UP, 2022), António Tomás traces the history and transformation of Luanda…
2 years, 11 months ago
Brendan O'Brien, "Homesick: Why Housing Is Unaffordable and How We Can Change It" (Chicago Review Press, 2023)
Episode 154
Nobody who sits in traffic on Sedona, Arizona's main stretch or stands shoulder-to-shoulder in its many souvenir shops would call it a ghost town. Ne…
2 years, 11 months ago