A woman with headphones on stock photo from Stock image/Shutterstock.

The number of people listening to podcasts has spiked dramatically over the past decade. According to a 2019 article in the New York Times, nearly one out of every three people listens to at least one podcast a month. Every so often, Greater Greater Washington writes about the podcasts we have enjoyed. It is time to refresh our list, highlighting old favorites, and sharing some new finds.

These days, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with all these new shows and streaming services. Podcasts are no different. When we started looking at podcasts, and specifically urbanism-related podcasts, the formats were fairly uniform. Now, we have podcasts that are only limited series and serials (i.e. like TV seasons) in addition to the more standard weekly/biweekly episodic format.

This time around, we are taking a closer look at equity and racial justice. Many podcast staples – like The Daily, have episodes about these issues. But I think it is clear, the podcast universe has plenty of space for more voices, more perspectives, and more stories about the places that shape our economic choices, our mobility options, and quality of life.

Here, we share some podcasts and podcast episodes about urbanism-related issues that you might enjoy:

Places and spaces

There Goes the Neighborhood: This podcast applies a serial-type storytelling to gentrification within a specific city. WYNC Studios and their local public radio station partners spotlight the ecosystem that contributes to gentrification and its side effects of loss of belonging and displacement. So far, this podcast’s three seasons have focused on Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and Miami. I “binge-listened” during a recent trip, absorbed in the personal stories and complications associated with gentrification.

Invisible City: Jennifer Keesmat, the former Chief Planner for Toronto, hosts this podcast. She examines global issues within the context of city building in the 21st century. These episodes are internationally focused.

99% Invisible: This is a GGWash favorite. We featured it in our previous posts, and Roman Mars continues to publish interesting episodes each week. Some recent episode favorites examined traffic violations and policing.

Future of the American City: This is a limited series-type podcast, produced by Harvard’s Graduate School of City with funding from the Knight Foundation. The initiative promotes intersectionality between design, landscapes, planning, and architecture to identify how US cities can look in the mid-21st century. A podcast is one of its outreach tools.

Strong Towns: A popular website amongst the urbanist crowd, it also produces three podcasts - the eponymous Strong Towns, Its the Little Things, and Upzoned.

Transportation and mobility

Autonocast: About every other week, the Autonocast publishes a new episode examining transportation technology trends. Recent episodes looked at autonomous ride-hailing as well as mergers within the Electric and Autonomous Vehicles worlds.

War on Cars: This is another GGWash podcast go-to. Biweekly, the hosts bring us a new episode on the interplay between cars and our built environment.

Talking Headways: We included this podcast in previous lists and Jeff Wood is a contributor who writes our National links posts. He consistently produces great episodes. I enjoyed listening to its Laws Prioritizing Cars Over People episode during my quarantine walks. Recent episodes include a conversation with the author of Golden Gates, Congestion Pricing in the United States, and discussion with Andre Perry about his new book Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities.

The CoMotion podcast is a product of a nonprofit organization with the same name. About every week, the organization’s CEO interviews someone within the urban, tech, or transportation space.

Reinventing Transport: An internationally focused podcast that infrequently produces new episodes. If you enjoy learning about “informal” transport or issues outside North America and Europe, this is a great podcast for you.

The Mobility Podcast is another one that examines technology and its impact on people and their ability to move. A new episode drops every few weeks or so. Recently, the three hosts have focused on the big topics of our time - COVID 19 and Racial Justice - and the interplay with transportation technology. I really enjoyed their episode, featuring a conversation with the Capital Weather Gang on resilience and extreme weather events.

Headphones by M. Johnson licensed under Creative Commons.

Of course, this list is not at all exhaustive. We have also enjoyed some podcasts that looked at the planning profession itself, such as The Urban Planner’s podcast.

There’s room for more too. We’d love to see more podcasts looking at inclusive urbanism. Using podcasts as the medium for telling stories can be very powerful. Story-telling is difficult, and I love how podcasts can be the tool for telling stories that don’t work well in a TV or film format.

What are some of your favorite podcasts or episodes that discuss issues important to the GGWash community?

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Tagged: arts

Elizabeth Whitton’s passion for safe, reliable infrastructure began during her time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco. She works with clients across the country to conduct research, communicate, and apply interdisciplinary skills across the built environment. After several years as a Capitol Hill resident, she is now based in Florida.