A curious part of living in the inner city is how close together hope and despair can be. A beautifully maintained house can be situated between two run-down abandoned buildings. Something exciting can be quickly interrupted by an act of violence and positive change can be overshadowed in an instant. On this weeks episode of the 53206 Cast Meg and Alex dive into that phenomenon and give some thoughts on how we can push for hope rather than despair. 

The future of the inner city is many times siloed into going down two potential paths, continued denigration or gentrification. While a third option might not be readily available, Meg and Alex try to give shape to what that might look like as they think about the future of 53206.

When a person has little to no frame of reference around how someone else might experience life, it can be difficult to empathize. That difficulty shouldn't be a reason to not engage in that work. Meg and Alex tackle this topic and more on the latest episode of the 53206 Cast. 

The 53206 Cast welcomes back Ashley Frahm to the podcast. Ashley talks about a recent shooting that took place outside of Rufus King High School within eyesight of her house. She shares how she approached processing the event with her children and gives some insight on some of the trickle down effects of gun violence. 

On this special episode of the 53206 Cast, Meg and Alex welcome their 11 year old daughter Mae to the show. An avid consumer of podcasts herself, Mae shares insights on what it's like growing up in the inner city. 

Meg and Alex are back to talk about the curious tendency we have to diminish the severity of tragedy based on our pre-conceptions of the inner city. The two discuss a recent mass shooting and give some practical advice on how we can re-think horrific events that take place across our inner cities. 

On this week's episode of the 531206 Cast, we cover pre-teen slumber parties, flat tires, and our unfortunate tendency to judge what we don't understand.   

Sometimes it's hard to be an advocate because the problems are so massive and the entry points aren't clearly defined. On this episode of the 53206 Cast, Meg and Alex talk about the adjacent possible and how anyone can shift their habits toward rewriting the narrative around inner cities by making small tweaks to their thoughts and actions. 

A home is a lot more than just a roof over our heads. A home in great condition is blessing. A home in disrepair is a curse. On this episode we talk about the process of re-renovating the first rental property and what has changed on the block since we bought this house in 2016. 

If cities or even neighborhoods have self esteem, what would the self esteem of the inner city be? On this episode of the 53206 Cast, Meg and Alex dive into the topic of macro self esteem and give some practical advice to helping create a greater level of self esteem within our poorest and most marginalized places.