What Makes For a "Strong Town"? (w/ Allison Lirish Dean)
Current Affairs29 Mar 2024

What Makes For a "Strong Town"? (w/ Allison Lirish Dean)

Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs !

Allison Lirish Dean is a journalist and urban planner in North Carolina. She is the author of a recent piece for the Current Affairs print edition (and now available online) critiquing the "Strong Towns" organization. Strong Towns is highly critical of suburban sprawl and many of its suggestions for improving our cities and towns are sensible. But Allison argues that in its disdain for "government" and its rejection of important progressive notions of fairness, Strong Towns ultimately aims up pushing an approach to planning that will maintain existing unjust inequalities. Allison's critique has implications beyond this particular organization, though. It also illuminates the different possible approaches to thinking about how to make better places, and Allison articulates a clear progressive agenda for planning.

If, like me, you’re a progressive and distressed about the state of our cities, you will like a lot of what Strong Towns has to say. But its approach is ultimately undergirded by a right-wing ideology that does little to alter the political status quo and further naturalizes austerity and infrastructure inequality: communities get what they deserve based on their ability to build wealth through entrepreneurship, not what they need from a system that prioritizes human rights and the delivery of universal public goods. — Allison Lirish Dean

Episoder(600)

America Will Pay the Price for Israel’s War on Iran (w/ Trita Parsi)

America Will Pay the Price for Israel’s War on Iran (w/ Trita Parsi)

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Trita Parsi is the co-founder and Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible ...

10 Mar 29min

The Democrats Still Don't Get It

The Democrats Still Don't Get It

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Trump's fake-anti-imperialism only works because Democrats refuse to embrace the real thing. 🌹 Rea...

10 Mar 15min

The Iran War Is Unfathomably Depraved

The Iran War Is Unfathomably Depraved

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership  Our media’s sanitized coverage obscures the human toll. Are we able to confront the full sickening...

7 Mar 37min

Wait, Why Is Israel Allowed To Have Nukes?

Wait, Why Is Israel Allowed To Have Nukes?

🦩 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership  According to our elected leaders, we should be very scared of the possibility that Iran could get ...

4 Mar 24min

The U.S. Military is Destroying the Planet (w/ Abby Martin)

The U.S. Military is Destroying the Planet (w/ Abby Martin)

🦩 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership In their new documentary “Earth’s Greatest Enemy,” Abby Martin and Mike Prysner reveal that the cli...

2 Mar 42min

How the Cold War Changed Everything (w/ Daniel Bessner)

How the Cold War Changed Everything (w/ Daniel Bessner)

🦩 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Daniel Bessner is a historian and professor at the University of Washington’s Henry M. Jackson Scho...

28 Feb 45min

The Left is Always Right Too Early

The Left is Always Right Too Early

🦩 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership  From slavery and child labor in the 19th century to the Iraq War and Gaza, the Left position has b...

25 Feb 18min

Current Affairs News Briefing ❧ February 20, 2026

Current Affairs News Briefing ❧ February 20, 2026

A convoy to Cuba, Grok doxxes a sex worker,  Mamdani cuts the library, Pakistan has really fast jets, MGP declares war on sea lions, Andrew is arrested, and bugs are more popular than Trump. 📰 SUBSCR...

21 Feb 7min

Populært innen Humor

rss-spartsklubben
papaya
harm-og-hegseth
tusvik-tnne
enkel-servering
storefri-med-mikkel-og-herman
tore-og-haralds-podkast
topp-3-med-wold-og-fladseth
folk-flest-med-linn-og-nils
ma-pa-behandling-med-morten-ramm
rss-nesten-hele-uka-med-lepperod
mikkels-paskenotter
misjonen-med-antonsen-og-golden
wolfgang-wee-uncut
hanna-de-heldige
rss-snorre-med-gaute
jan-thomas-og-einar-blir-venner
verdens-verste
rss-det-alle-snakker-om-med-siri-og-kim
rss-dette-ma-aldri-skje-igjen