March 22, 2019

Strong Towns: The Book is Finally Coming. But Why Now?

29 minutes

So you might have heard that our founder and President, Chuck Marohn, finally wrote the book that Strong Towns fans have been clamoring for ever since we started this movement. (If you haven’t, that’s actually kind of impressive, because we can’t stop talking about it.) And you may have even heard about the exciting, cross-continental tour we’re embarking on to share the book with as many communities we can—and to share stories from the communities we visit with the broader Strong Towns movement.

But hold on a sec, you might be saying. What’s this book actually going to be all about? What will it give you that’s any different than the stuff you already get on the Strong Towns site for free? And why bring it into the world now, especially as we head into what promises to be one of the most tumultuous presidential election seasons of all time? Are people really going to want to sit around and read hundreds of pages on city finances at a time like this?

This week on Upzoned, we’re doing something a little different. Instead of spotlighting one big story from the week in global news, we’re spending this hour talking about the biggest story in the Strong Towns universe—the long-awaited Strong Towns book. And you’ll hear the answers to these questions from the man himself: Strong Towns president, founder, and soon-to-be debut author, Charles L. Marohn, Jr., better known to most of us as Chuck.

Then in the Downzone, Chuck talks about how he’s decompressing after finishing his manuscript: re-reading the entire Lord of the Rings Trilogy. And Kea talks about the last book she finished: Maid by Stephanie Land, which gives an insight into what life is like as a modern-day domestic worker in the age of giant suburban homes and neighborhoods that all but guarantee that the poorest among us have to spend a lot of our time and money driving to and from work.

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