In this episode, I connect with Seth Kaplan, author of the recent book "Fragile Neighborhoods" and a recent article "The Real User Interface: Recovering Our Neighborhoods," for a conversation about the challenges of our current community designs and how we can make our neighborhoods less fragile, or to channel Nassim Taleb, make our neighborhoods "Anti-Fragile" once again.

Seth argues that our planners and engineers have built a physical landscape optimized for cars but minimized for actual human relationships, suggesting that the automobile is arguably the technology that has made the biggest impact on our associational life while our spread-out community design isolates and divides, weakening the bonds that tie us together. This is especially problematic for children, whose opportunities for spontaneous free play—and the constructive friction that self-organized activities create—are further limited when the physical landscape discourages exploration. He emphasizes that having meaningful destinations within comfortable walking distance is key to building strong ties between us.

Thank you so much for tuning in! If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend and subscribe to the podcast on your preferred listening platform. Also, don't forget to check out the Active Towns Channel for video content.

Helpful Links (note that some may include affiliate links to help me support the channel):
👉 The Real User Interface: Recovering Our Neighborhoods post
👉 Seth's website
👉 Seth on LinkedIn
👉 Buy Fragile Neighborhoods book on Amazon or by supporting local bookstores here on Bookshop.org
👉 Strong Neighborhoods paper
👉 My Let Grow episode with Lenore Skenazy
👉 Anxious Generation website
👉 Strong Towns website
👉 Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) website

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1. Become an Active Towns Member on YouTube for exclusive member-only content and Livestreams
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4. Make a donation to my non-profit, Advocates for Healthy Communities, Inc., to help support my pro bono work with cities

Credits:
- Video and audio production by John Simmerman
- Music via Epidemic Sound

Resources used during the production of this video:
- My recording platform is Ecamm Live
- Editing software Adobe Creative Cloud Suite
- Equipment: Contact me for a complete list

For more information about the Active Towns effort or to follow along, please visit our links below:
- Active Towns Website
- Active Towns on Bluesky
- Weekly Update e-Newsletter

Background:
Hi Everyone! My name is John Simmerman, and I’m a health promotion and public health professional with over 30 years of experience. Over the years, my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization in how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.

Since 2010,  I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be while striving to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."

The Active Towns Channel features my original video content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.

Thanks once again for tuning in! I hope you find this content helpful and insightful.

Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2025