Going off the grid in the push to broadband
They’re calling it the modern day equivalent of the electrical grid, or the interstate highway system. Seven billion dollars of the stimulus plan making its way through Congress right now is devoted to...
View ArticleGround zero Detroit: Auto industry, foreclosures, and the recession hit hard
Facing a triple threat from the spiraling economy, mortgage foreclosures and an ailing auto industry, President Obama began his economic counteroffensive this week. He signed a huge stimulus bill, was...
View ArticleA look at one square mile of the recession
The Takeaway is drilling down into the recession with our friend and contributor Paddy O’Connell, the host of BBC’s Broadcasting House. Paddy has been looking at how the recession is affecting people...
View ArticleHow Gentrification Changes a City
In the past 50 years, Denver has grown from a small city to a sprawling metropolitan region. With urban sprawl comes gentrification. The Takeaway caught up with Andres Duany, the founding member of the...
View ArticleRiding the Rails: Upgrading Transportation in Denver
Like many cities, Denver is struggling to connect its suburbs to its downtown, and to create a new kind of city center. Continuing our series on the New Urbanism, The Takeaway talks to Matt Dellinger....
View ArticleJeffrey Eugenides on his Detroit Roots
Author Jeffrey Eugenides was born and raised in Detroit and the city often becomes a central character in his writings. (He lives in Princeton, New Jersey, these days.) He’s based both of his novels,...
View ArticleHealthy Cooking from the Convenience Store or Drug Store
According to the White House, 23.5 million Americans currently live in what are known as 'food deserts.' Food deserts are essentially nutritional wastelands that lack reasonable, affordable access to...
View ArticleCities: Better For Your Health and Happiness?
Over 249 million Americans live on the three percent of land that constitutes our cities. More than half of America’s income is earned in 22 metropolitan areas. And people live longer in New York City...
View ArticleOne Tough Neighborhood, Two Friends, and Thousands of Photos
We’ve seen the rough, urban neighborhood documented thousands of times by photojournalists dating all the way back to Jacob Riis in the 1800s. Over and over again, the images appear the same: children...
View ArticlePhilly Mayor Michael Nutter: America is Broken & Needs Fixing
This past weekend, Dallas played host to hundreds of guests from around the nation. The city was inundated with individuals who are arguably some of the hardest working people in the country: Elected...
View ArticleDavid Hilfiker — Seeing Poverty After Katrina
Hurricane Katrina brought urban poverty in America into all of our living rooms. In this program, David Hilfiker tells the story of how poverty and racial isolation came to be in cities across America....
View ArticleCities
In this hour of Radiolab, we take to the street to ask what makes cities tick.There's no scientific metric for measuring a city's personality. But step out on the sidewalk, and you can see and feel it....
View ArticleBike Messengers and the City
Urban bike messengers are a devoted bunch with their own subculture. Jeffrey L. Kidder, assistant professor of sociology at Northern Illinois University and a former bike messenger, discusses his new...
View ArticleIn Good Hands (part 1)
A pair of urban explorers goes underground, in the first part of a continuing story. Starring Emily Tarver, Alex Marino, Louis Kornfeld, Ed Herbstman, Christian Paluck, and Amy Warren. Produced by...
View ArticleIn Good Hands (part 2)
Our story about two urban explorers concludes, when they are helped by a group of very eccentric people. Performed by Emily Tarver, Alex Marino, Louis Kornfeld, Christian Paluck, Ed Herbstman, Amy...
View ArticleNYC Aims to Stop Bike "Dooring" by Targeting Taxis
(image courtesy of DOT)UPDATED with Chicago dooring figures below.New York is dreaming of a world where taxis and cyclists can be friends.In addition to new logos and a brighter yellow color, the...
View ArticleIn Good Hands
Two urban explorers enter an abandoned subway. What happens next is our secret. This is the complete version of a story that was previously only available in two parts.Two urban explorers enter an...
View ArticleTell Us: How Do You Block Out Noise?
Joyce Cohen recently wrote on BuzzFeed about living with hyperacusis, a condition which makes soft sounds unbearably loud and painful. After Cohen joined us last week to talk about it, we received some...
View ArticlePopularity of Morning Walks May Shape the Pedestrian Streetscape of Central...
What started as a mayor's morning walk for a healthier staff and community is expanding into a renewed dialogue about pedestrians in Central Florida. In three small cities in the region, Maitland,...
View ArticleSandy One Year Later; Jon Meacham; NYC Taxis; Urban Trends
Sandy hit one year ago today. WNYC's Matthew Schuerman and Janet Babin talk about lessons learned and stories unfolding a year into the recovery. Plus: Jon Meacham discusses his book about Thomas...
View ArticleAffordable Housing Advocates Demand More from Mayor
More than 100 affordable housing advocates gathered on the steps of New York City Hall to demand that Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration force developers to create more low and moderate income...
View ArticleHow Amusement Parks Modernized America
At one point there were more than 1,500 amusement parks across America. And they offered far more than just thrill rides. Historian Lauren Rabinovitz says they helped ease the country into a period of...
View ArticleLos Angeles Is Bursting with Crystals
Mineral crystals are so beautiful, it's tempting to buy them as necklaces or coffee table ornaments even though they're so New Age-y. There's something pretty magical about the fact that their complex...
View ArticleWhat Cities Need To Succeed
Pittsburgh was built on steel, but now it’s building robots. We talk with author Richard Florida about how cities like Pittsburgh can attract the “creative class” leading the tech revolution....
View ArticleComparing Today's Syrians With Yesterday's Jewish Refugees; Boosting...
Coming up on today's show:Most of the presidential candidates seem to agree that the key to defeating ISIS is mobilizing Middle Eastern nations. Two foreign policy experts discuss how other Gulf...
View ArticlePublic-Private Partnerships That Make You Say “Oh, Cool!”
The issue that plagues many public-private partnerships is public skepticism about who profits.So to fix that, our guest Gabe Klein says both sides need to align the incentives of the citizenry with...
View ArticleTwin Cities Adjusts to New American Urbanism
America is rapidly organizing as more and more people move to cities. Centralized city living is often more efficient and greener, a reality that local and state governments are responding to.In the...
View ArticleBeing Culturally Responsive in Classrooms
As part of the WNYC series "Integration 2.0," Christopher Emdin, associate professor at Columbia University's Teachers College, creator of the #HipHopEd Twitter movement and Science Genius...
View ArticleThe Creative Rivalry That Built Modern American Architecture
Frank Lloyd Wright and Philip Johnson were two of the most influential and seemingly opposite architects of the 20th century. In Architecture’s Odd Couple: Frank Lloyd Wright and Philip Johnson,...
View ArticleThis Stretch of I-95 is a Microcosm for America's Challenges
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this segment.America's economic challenges can be seen if you stand on a tall building in Philadelphia and look north to the horizon. The abject poverty of...
View ArticleDearborn County, Indiana: A Microcosm for America's Prison Problem
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this interview.Dearborn County, Indiana is not a county that has a high rate of violent crime. In fact, Dearborn's percentage of people below the poverty line...
View ArticleDesigning Smarter, Safer Cities for an Urban Future
By the year 2080, cities will be home to 80% of the world’s population. In The Well Tempered City: What Modern Science, Ancient Civilizations, and Human Nature Teach Us About the Future of Urban Life,...
View ArticleSmart Decline
Youngstown, Ohio is the center of the Rust Belt. During steel's heyday, Youngstown was a city of nearly 200,000. Now, it’s under 70,000. The steel mills closed in the 1980’s, people left, and no one...
View ArticleWhy American Ghettos Persist
Tommie Shelby, the Caldwell Titcomb Professor of African & African American Studies and of Philosophy at Harvard University, looks at why American ghettos persist, despite decades of public policy...
View ArticleFor White Folks Who Teach in the Hood
Chris Emdin is the author of “For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood…And the Rest of Y’all Too” He’s a professor in the Department of Mathematics, Science, and Technology at the Teacher’s College at...
View ArticleSix charts that illustrate the divide between rural and urban America
A corn field is seen in DeWitt, Iowa, on July 12, 2012. Photo by Adrees Latif/Files/ReutersEditor’s note: We’ve all heard of the great divide between life in rural and urban America. But what are the...
View ArticlePolitical Divides Sharpen Between Urban and Rural Areas
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this segment.Thousands of "no" supporters took to the streets on Monday in response to Sunday's referendum that granted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan...
View ArticleIs the ‘creative class’ saving our cities, or making them impossible to live...
Morning commuters cross the street as the sun shines down 42nd St in New York City on March 16, 2016. Photo by Lucas Jackson/ReutersRichard Florida may be the most widely read author on the subject of...
View ArticleColumn: ‘The New Urban Crisis’ is a crisis of capitalism, writ large
A woman walks in a local park while clouds shroud the Empire State Building and the skyline of New York as it is seen from Weehawken, New Jersey, U.S. May 29, 2017. Photo by REUTERS/Eduardo...
View ArticleDavid Hilfiker — Seeing Poverty After Katrina
Hurricane Katrina brought urban poverty in America into all of our living rooms. In this program, David Hilfiker tells the story of how poverty and racial isolation came to be in cities across America....
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