In cities around the world, the ever growing demands for food is putting increasing pressures on the already stretched food distribution systems. One way to reduce this pressure, is to start growing the food right in the city.

On this podcast episode, we discuss the urban agriculture revolution and how it may just change the world, or at least change the way we eat.

In 1982, a film was released that would forever change the fate of a small town in the Pacific Northwest. That film was Rambo: First Blood, and the town was Hope, British Columbia. This podcast episode is all about why the film left such a unique footprint on the town and how that relationship is still thriving today.

The take-a-book, leave-a-book movement is going global, but not everyone is excited about it. These localized book-sharing boxes have been put under recent scrutiny and accused of being elitist and nothing more than a highly visible form of self-gratification cleverly disguised as book aid (but how do you really feel???). This opinion caught the attention of CityLab and other mainstream media, and then suddenly everyone had an opinion.

In a not-so-surprising twist, there are a lot of people who disagree.

Teale Phelps Bondaroff, a local champion of the Little Free Library scene in Victoria, Canada, is one of those people and he joins us to share his rebuttal against this criticism and provides a very compelling case as to why these little public boxes of books are actually really good for building community, promoting literacy and supporting placemaking. He also shares why we all need more ‘whimsical’ things in our life.

Enjoy!

On the cutting edge of experimental learning, Dr. Owens has knocked down the barriers of the classroom by taking the students out into the “real world”. The unique study travel programs give students the chance to interact with people and places that they may never have experienced inside a classroom.

In this podcast, Dr. Owens discusses the benefits of programs like this and how they can better prepare students for post-grad life and evolve into great civic leaders and champions of sustainability. 

Dr. Owens also does a great job of making me realize just how much I would like to go back to school ;)

A growing trend in the food industry is meal kit delivery services. Companies like Local Urban Bites take online orders from customers, then deliver the necessary ingredients and recipes directly to the customer’s home, then the customer follows the instructions and 30 minutes later, voila! dinner is served.

These services are helping to ease the age-old question of “what’s for dinner?”; but they’re also changing the way we buy and make food. For this podcast, the co-founders of Local Urban Bites, Alyssa Talley and Corey McPherson join me to discuss how this trend is revolutionizing the food industry. 

What is their relationship with restaurants, how do they inspire people to spend more time together and will they ever do a meal that is just a plate of bacon?

Find out more by listening! (we apologize in advance if this podcast results in extreme hunger)

Tania Wegwitz started her transportation career as a coin counter at BC Transit. Twenty years later, she‘s become one of the most experienced transit planners in Canada, having worked in big cities, tiny towns and everything in between. Recently her passion inspired her to develop a blog called “Connect Dots” which is an excellent resource for planners, city builders and general do-gooders alike.

Recently on her blog she developed the Ten Principles of Great Transit Planning which provides the blueprint for both new and experienced planners. The post went viral with even some engineers acknowledging it (!).

For this podcast Tania provides info on what it takes to be a transit planner and also where the transportation industry is going into the future… (spoiler alert: the future will hopefully look a lot like the past)