American Planning Association

By American Planning Association

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What's American Planning Association about?

Welcome to the American Planning Association Podcast. This is your source for discussions, interviews, and lectures on a multitude of planning topics.

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American Planning Association episodes:

04.24.2024
National Zoning Atlas Founder Sara Bronin is Empowering Communities to Transform Land Use
Zoning reform has become a topic of national interest, not just among planners and local decision makers, but also in the national media and in everyday conversations. While the national housing crisis is well-documented, information on the role of local...
04.23.2024
Megan Oliver on How to Plan for Happiness in Cities
Planners can design places for many purposes: to promote commerce, to protect us from natural disasters, to uplift historical significance. As mental health and social relationships become increasingly significant, new questions rise to the top: What about planning for the...
12.19.2023
Anaid Yerena and Rashad Williams on Building an Equitable Future of Planning
The history of planning includes racist policies and practices that have resulted in entrenched inequity and enduring systemic barriers. Understanding the complexities and impacts of those barriers is necessary to dismantling ingrained inequalities and achieving transformative change. A recent edition...
12.14.2023
Rediscovering Roots: Planner Jewell Littles Walton Uncovers Family Ties to Tulsa's Black Wall Street
Jewell Littles Walton is an urban planning and real estate professional with a career spanning multiple decades. She joins Dina Walters, a member of APA's Prioritize Equity team, for this special episode to share the story of uncovering her family’s...
10.19.2023
Shain Shapiro on Taylor Swift and the Benefits of a Music Policy for Your City
When it comes to essential services and the stakeholders of a city, music and the people who make up a music ecosystem may not always be mentioned in the same breath as utilities and schools or residents and businesses. But...
08.29.2023
Taiwo Jaiyeoba on How Planners Can Lead Through Zoning Reform and by Crafting Equitable Comprehensive Plans
Addressing systemic racism and entrenched inequity has become an imperative for many institutions. Planners are in a unique position to make a big course correction on equity through comprehensive planning — if they embrace the opportunity to lead. On this...
07.18.2023
Robert Goodspeed on How Exploratory Scenario Planning Helps Imagine Uncertain Futures
It seems the word “unprecedented” has been used so often to describe everything from the weather to public health in recent years that the only certainty is uncertainty. This makes the job of urban planners especially difficult as they try...
06.20.2023
YouTuber and Planner Dave Amos on Teaching a Crash Course in Urban Planning, One Video at a Time
The average person on the street may not know what a planning professional does, but they probably have opinions on traffic, housing, and the many other elements of daily life that planners influence. Planner Dave Amos bet on that natural...
06.01.2023
Planning to Ensure Longevity for Small Minority-Owned Businesses
In this APA podcast - part of the Planning for Equity series - Bobby Boone, founder and chief strategist of &Access, discusses economic development strategies for combatting displacement of small minority-owned businesses. Boone shares how planners can work with small...
05.25.2023
Embracing Heritage: How Culture Influences Your Planning Work
In this APA podcast - part of the Planning for Equity series - Daniel Besinaiz, senior comprehensive planner at the City of Colorado Springs, shares his somewhat unexpected and personal journey on learning to celebrate and embrace his Latino heritage....
04.18.2023
Disability Advocate Rebekah Taussig on Built Environment Barriers You Might Not See
Three-plus decades after the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed, the built environment remains a maze of obstacles. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one in four Americans live with a disability. Despite what many...
03.29.2023
Critical Conversations in Transportation Planning: Misty Klann and Cole Grisham
Every two years, the American Planning Association Transportation Planning Division publishes the State of Transportation Planning Report with the intention of highlighting innovative ideas, cutting-edge research, and interesting experiments in transportation planning in the United States. As part of the...
02.28.2023
Mural Arts Philadelphia’s Jane Golden: Planning and Public Art Ignite Change
Philadelphia is a public art epicenter — and not by chance. The city has long institutionalized investment in local muralists through programs like Mural Arts Philadelphia, a nonprofit created in 1998 by artist and executive director Jane Golden. Through more...
01.18.2023
Critical Conversations in Transportation Planning: Tamika Butler
Every two years, the American Planning Association Transportation Planning Division publishes the State of Transportation Planning Report with the intention of highlighting innovative ideas, cutting-edge research, and interesting experiments in transportation planning in the United States. As part of the...
12.20.2022
‘Arbitrary Lines’ Author Nolan Gray on Zoning Reform and Hitting Planning’s Reset Button
As the old saying goes, “when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” For decades, zoning has been the hammer swung by cities at a laundry list of challenges. But this blunt tool, developed to regulate...
12.08.2022
Critical Conversations in Transportation Planning: Judy Shanley and Claire Stanley
Every two years, the American Planning Association Transportation Planning Division publishes the State of Transportation Planning Report with the intention of highlighting innovative ideas, cutting-edge research, and interesting experiments in transportation planning in the United States. As part of the...
11.22.2022
Philadelphia CIO Mark Wheeler: Web 3.0 and Blockchain Could Bring Transparency to Smart Cities
While it’s hard to have missed the buzz that’s been building around blockchain over the last five years, it’s easy to be confused and overwhelmed by its applications. Cryptocurrency and NFTs have been in the news recently, but less has...
09.20.2022
Planner and City Official Nithya Raman’s Vision to End Homelessness in Los Angeles
One of L.A. City Council’s newest members, Nithya Raman, ran on a platform of addressing homelessness and advancing inclusivity in city government. As a former urban planner and founder of a homelessness nonprofit, she’s working to show her fellow Angelenos...
08.02.2022
Critical Conversations in Transportation Planning: Olatunji Oboi Reed
Every two years, the American Planning Association Transportation Planning Division publishes the State of Transportation Planning Report with the intention of highlighting innovative ideas, cutting-edge research, and interesting experiments in transportation planning in the United States. As part of the...
07.19.2022
Navigating Mobility Justice with Naomi Doerner
As a growing number of cities develop mobility justice initiatives, Naomi Doerner, MUP, is helping planners navigate these efforts to address systemic inequities and barriers in transportation. Doerner, principal and director of equity, diversity, and inclusion at  Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates and...
05.26.2022
The Intersection of Hip Hop and Planning with Michael Ford
In this special episode of the People Behind the Plans podcast, guest host Jason Pugh, AICP, AIA, NOMA, LEED AP, president of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA), sits down with Michael Ford, AIA, NOMA, keynote speaker at the...
04.06.2022
San Diego County Tackles Affordable Housing and Climate Change
Dahvia Lynch, AICP, the director of Planning & Development Services for San Diego County, talks about her agency’s bold plans for housing and climate change, an accessory development unit program that helped drive a 70 percent uptick in ADUs, and...
12.22.2021
Cascading Hazards with Dr. Michael Greenberg
In this episode of the Resilience Roundtable series, host Rich Roths, AICP, speaks with Michael Greenberg, Ph.D, distinguished professor at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. The two discuss the concept of cascading...
10.26.2021
Fighting Climate Change in Cities With Biodiversity and Nature-Based Design
In this episode of the People Behind the Plans podcast series, host Courtney Kashima, AICP, is joined by Rasmus Astrup, partner and design principal at Danish urban design and landscape architecture practice SLA. Rasmus was a co-presenter during the 2021...
08.18.2021
TikTok's TalkingCities Makes Urban Planning Fast and Easy to Grasp
If you're not on TikTok, you might not know that urban planning is going viral. But accounts like TalkingCities, run by Paul Stout, and others are distilling complex planning topics into bitesized, easily digestible videos. And viewers are eating them...
08.12.2021
Artificial Intelligence and Urban Planning: What Planners Need to Know Now
You might not realize it, but artificial intelligence, or AI, already affects your life in countless ways. Your favorite wayfinding app? It’s powered by AI. The product recommendations you get on that e-commerce site you visit regularly? That’s AI, too....
07.08.2021
Philadelphia is Transforming Vacant Lots into Climate-Resilient Pollinator Gardens
Vacant lots make up nearly 17 percent of land in U.S. cities. A history of disinvestment has contributed to a significant overlap between neighborhoods with the highest concentration of vacant lots and those most threatened by the impacts of climate...
05.10.2021
We Need to Outthink Wildfire, Not Try to Eliminate It
With an unprecedented season of wildfires barely in our rearview mirror, National Fire Protection Association veteran Michele Steinberg comes on the Resilience Roundtable podcast series to talk about wildfire mitigation and prevention. Her conversation with host Jim Schwab, FAICP, revolves...
04.26.2021
The City-Making Process Gets Focused on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in This Planner's Work
Cherie Jzar, AICP, has worked in more than a few areas of planning — from airport, transit, and comprehensive planning to community outreach and engagement. Now she's bringing her expertise to a new type of work: building more equitable policies...
03.31.2021
"Feminist City" Author Leslie Kern on Envisioning More Equitable Urban Spaces
What is a feminist city? Who is a feminist city for? How do different groups of people experience the cities we live in now? And what does it all mean in a world inching toward recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic?...
03.26.2021
Why Planners Need to Prepare for Urban Air Mobility
According to NASA, by 2028, urban air mobility is likely to be a commercially viable market for air metro services in the U.S. In addition, companies such as Amazon, UPS, or Walmart have been experimenting with drone deliveries in cities...
03.12.2021
Planning for Volcanic Activity in Hawaii
In 2018, eruptions from the Kīlauea volcano caused widespread devastation to Hawaii's Big Island. It decimated more than 700 structures and uprooted more than 3,000 people. Resilience Roundtable host Jim Schwab, FAICP, talks with Douglas Le, AICP, disaster recovery officer...
02.24.2021
Katanya Raby Continues Equity Work of Civil Rights Giant Al Raby
Urban planner, artist, and activist Katanya Raby joins host Courtney Kashima, AICP, to talk about her work at the Office of the Mayor for the City of Chicago, her time at the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), and her...
01.29.2021
Is Your Environment Limiting Your Functioning?
Esther Greenhouse has a unique job title: built environmental strategist. She is also an environmental gerontologist, specializing in design for older adults, and she points out that the built environment often does not allow people of all ages and abilities...
01.29.2021
AARP's Rodney Harrell on Changing Demographics and Livable Communities
Rodney Harrell, a planner and AARP Public Policy Institute's vice president of Family, Home and Community, thinks the biggest policy problem we face is the siloing of planning issues — separating housing from transportation from economic development from health. This...
01.29.2021
Why We Need More Intergenerational Policies, Programs, and Places
You've probably heard the term "multigenerational," but what about "intergenerational"? Matthew Kaplan, professor of Intergenerational Programs and Aging at Penn State University, outlines what that means for APA's editor in chief Meghan Stromberg, and the two discuss some of the...
12.21.2020
Tamika Butler on Antiracism, Equity, and Self-Care Through Solopreneurship
As a watershed year comes to a close, Tamika Butler, Esq., founder and principal of Tamika L. Butler Consulting, joins host Courtney Kashima, AICP, on this episode of the People Behind the Plans podcast series. The result is a stirring,...
12.01.2020
Seeking Justice and Showing Communities Love Through Planning
When social justice planner Monique López, AICP, MCRP, MA, talks about her anti-racist, values-driven participatory planning and design firm called Pueblo Planning, she describes its work in no uncertain terms: “I still very much see this as an experiment in...
10.30.2020
How El Paso Reimagined Capital Improvement Planning During COVID-19
The fiscal impacts of COVID-19 are forcing cities to significantly rethink their budgets and spending decisions. But when projected revenue shortfalls put most of the City of El Paso's scheduled capital improvement projects on hold, planners in this Texas border...
09.02.2020
Planners Are Helping Small Businesses Become Resilient Amidst the Pandemic
When the coronavirus pandemic dramatically halted normal economic activity in March, many knew small business owners and their employees would not come away unscathed. But small businesses are critical to our communities, making up 44 percent of all economic activity...
07.17.2020
A Medical Anthropologist Says Planners Are Vital to COVID-19 Recovery
What do natural disasters and the coronavirus pandemic have in common? Quite a bit, in fact. Medical anthropologist Dr. Monica Schoch-Spana joins host Jim Schwab, FAICP, on this episode of Resilience Roundtable series to talk about the commonalities between these...
07.02.2020
Harnessing Data and Knowledge of New York City Facilities to Respond to COVID-19
New York City's response to COVID-19 required unprecedented creativity and collaboration among its city agencies. Bob Tuttle, director of the New York City Department of City Planning’s Capital Planning Division, comes on the podcast to describe to Ann Dillemuth, AICP,...
06.23.2020
How COVID-19 Has Underscored the Digital Divide
COVID-19 has underscored yet another reality that planners already knew: Broadband access — or reliable, high-speed internet access — is a necessity, not a luxury. APA's Sagar Shah talks with Anna Read, an officer for the broadband research initiative at...
06.16.2020
Centering Equity and Climate Action in COVID-19 Recovery
As cities around the world address COVID-19 challenges, they're reimagining how they use policy tools to meet the needs of their residents. In Portland, Oregon, the City Council recently adopted a resolution that highlights the connections between equity, climate, and...
06.08.2020
Immigrant Experiences, Economic Development, and "Third Places" in the U.S. — and Australia
As a second-generation Australian and a globetrotter who's studied and worked in New York and Chicago, Samantha Choudhury understands how critical social bonds are to building communities that thrive. She and host Courtney Kashima, AICP, start off their conversation by...
05.06.2020
Moving Planning Commission Meetings Online During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Big-City Perspective
The COVID-19 pandemic is challenging planners around the country to rethink how they work with various shelter-in-place and social distancing guidelines. One particular hurdle is how to continue with planning commission and other board meetings to keep communities moving forward....
05.01.2020
The Future of Fast Food After COVID-19, Coding and Planning, and More
The Planning magazine editors get together — virtually — to recap some of the stories from the April 2020 issue. First up are drive-thrus: In the article "Is Fast-Food Through With Drive-Thrus?" author Brian Barth talks about how good urban...
04.22.2020
How Boston Responded to the COVID-19 Crisis
Boston is currently a hot spot for the new coronavirus. Like many municipalities across the country, it's taking unprecedented action to respond to the challenges brought about by the pandemic. Brian Golden, director of the Boston Planning & Development Agency...
04.14.2020
What Planners and Public Sector Agencies Need to Know About Cybersecurity
With millions across the country now working remotely to curb the spread of COVID-19, cybersecurity and data protection issues are top of mind for just about everyone. Phishing attacks have increased. The term "Zoom bombing" has entered the lexicon. What...
04.01.2020
How E-Commerce Affects Land Use — And How COVID-19 Affects E-Commerce
This episode features a dynamic conversation between Planning magazine editor-in-chief Meghan Stromberg and Lisa Nisenson, vice president for new mobility and connected communities at WGI. The two discuss what e-commerce trends mean for land use and contactless delivery; they also...

What's American Planning Association about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

American Planning Association episodes:

National Zoning Atlas Founder Sara Bronin is Empowering Communities to Transform Land Use

Megan Oliver on How to Plan for Happiness in Cities

Anaid Yerena and Rashad Williams on Building an Equitable Future of Planning

Rediscovering Roots: Planner Jewell Littles Walton Uncovers Family Ties to Tulsa's Black Wall Street

Shain Shapiro on Taylor Swift and the Benefits of a Music Policy for Your City

Taiwo Jaiyeoba on How Planners Can Lead Through Zoning Reform and by Crafting Equitable Comprehensive Plans

Robert Goodspeed on How Exploratory Scenario Planning Helps Imagine Uncertain Futures

YouTuber and Planner Dave Amos on Teaching a Crash Course in Urban Planning, One Video at a Time

Planning to Ensure Longevity for Small Minority-Owned Businesses

Embracing Heritage: How Culture Influences Your Planning Work

Disability Advocate Rebekah Taussig on Built Environment Barriers You Might Not See

Critical Conversations in Transportation Planning: Misty Klann and Cole Grisham

Mural Arts Philadelphia’s Jane Golden: Planning and Public Art Ignite Change

Critical Conversations in Transportation Planning: Tamika Butler

‘Arbitrary Lines’ Author Nolan Gray on Zoning Reform and Hitting Planning’s Reset Button

Critical Conversations in Transportation Planning: Judy Shanley and Claire Stanley

Philadelphia CIO Mark Wheeler: Web 3.0 and Blockchain Could Bring Transparency to Smart Cities

Planner and City Official Nithya Raman’s Vision to End Homelessness in Los Angeles

Critical Conversations in Transportation Planning: Olatunji Oboi Reed

Navigating Mobility Justice with Naomi Doerner

The Intersection of Hip Hop and Planning with Michael Ford

San Diego County Tackles Affordable Housing and Climate Change

Cascading Hazards with Dr. Michael Greenberg

Fighting Climate Change in Cities With Biodiversity and Nature-Based Design

TikTok's TalkingCities Makes Urban Planning Fast and Easy to Grasp

Artificial Intelligence and Urban Planning: What Planners Need to Know Now

Philadelphia is Transforming Vacant Lots into Climate-Resilient Pollinator Gardens

We Need to Outthink Wildfire, Not Try to Eliminate It

The City-Making Process Gets Focused on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in This Planner's Work

"Feminist City" Author Leslie Kern on Envisioning More Equitable Urban Spaces

Why Planners Need to Prepare for Urban Air Mobility

Planning for Volcanic Activity in Hawaii

Katanya Raby Continues Equity Work of Civil Rights Giant Al Raby

Is Your Environment Limiting Your Functioning?

AARP's Rodney Harrell on Changing Demographics and Livable Communities

Why We Need More Intergenerational Policies, Programs, and Places

Tamika Butler on Antiracism, Equity, and Self-Care Through Solopreneurship

Seeking Justice and Showing Communities Love Through Planning

How El Paso Reimagined Capital Improvement Planning During COVID-19

Planners Are Helping Small Businesses Become Resilient Amidst the Pandemic

A Medical Anthropologist Says Planners Are Vital to COVID-19 Recovery

Harnessing Data and Knowledge of New York City Facilities to Respond to COVID-19

How COVID-19 Has Underscored the Digital Divide

Centering Equity and Climate Action in COVID-19 Recovery

Immigrant Experiences, Economic Development, and "Third Places" in the U.S. — and Australia

Moving Planning Commission Meetings Online During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Big-City Perspective

The Future of Fast Food After COVID-19, Coding and Planning, and More

How Boston Responded to the COVID-19 Crisis

What Planners and Public Sector Agencies Need to Know About Cybersecurity

How E-Commerce Affects Land Use — And How COVID-19 Affects E-Commerce