Ten Across Conversations

The devastation wrought by Hurricane Ida revealed the climate change vulnerabilities of the U.S. Gulf Coast and Northeast regions with communities destroyed, commerce halted, and energy systems disrupted. It also provided a sobering view into what the future will look like with a rapidly warming climate.

In this episode, Ten Across founder Duke Reiter talks to Baton Rouge Area Foundation President and CEO John Davies about efforts to recover from this devastating storm, the importance of data informed decision making, and how we can learn to build more adaptable and resilient communities.

For more information about the Ten Across initiative visit www.10across.com.

In the arid and drought ridden American southwest, the future of water is here.

Ten Across Founder Duke Reiter talks to water policy experts, Felicia Marcus and Kathryn Sorensen, each of whom represents two of the most drought impacted states in the U.S., California and Arizona respectively. The images of a shrinking Colorado River have been widely distributed and climate change identified as the driver. With Lakes Mead and Powell at critically low levels, excessive groundwater pumping, less precipitation, and a drying climate, is the media getting this complicated story straight? And how can two states with differing approaches to water but dependent upon shared resources work together to ensure a more sustainable future?

For more information about the Ten Across initiative visit www.10across.com.

Well-constructed survey data tells us a lot about how people in our communities truly feel about critical issues. What is also revealed is the disconnect between those perspectives and the orientation of elected representatives, especially at the state level. Why do people think differently than they vote? How can a divided electorate come together on issues they agree on like education, immigration, elections, and even hot-button issues such as gun control.

Join Ten Across Founder Duke Reiter as he speaks with sociologist Stephen Klineberg and policy analyst and architect Sybil Francis about what recent survey data has revealed about the changing communities of Texas and Arizona and how it can be leveraged to creative positive change in our cities and states.

For more information about the Ten Across initiative visit www.10across.com.

Southern and rural parts of the U.S. are often overlooked in the national media, giving a limited view of some of the most pressing challenges facing our nation today.

Ten Across Founder Duke Reiter talks to veteran journalists James and Deborah Fallows, who have recently traveled the country reporting from America’s small towns to explore the nation’s growing fragmentation and how we can look beyond artificial boundaries. What does the southern portion of the U.S. tell us about economic opportunity in our country? What does infrastructure really mean in the 21st century? How does the future of democracy look outside of our big cities? And how can these insights help us to better understand the critical issues the nation and our capacity to plan more effectively for the future?

For more information about the Ten Across initiative visit www.10across.com.

As a monumental infrastructure bill makes its way through Congress, state and local governments are preparing to bring America’s infrastructure into the future. The Ten Across geography has been manipulated by massive infrastructure projects to transform challenging environments into the fastest growing areas of the country. Is this a viable strategy for the future?

Duke Reiter talks to Henry Cisneros and Bill Fulton about how a bottom-up approach is necessary and how looking beyond state and local boundaries can help us to better address not only conventional infrastructure projects but also issues like pandemic recovery, racial equity, climate change, and digital transformation. In their report, A Bottom-Up Infrastructure Strategy for American Renewal, they survey the infrastructure priorities of 100 metropolitan areas and 134 cities across the country to provide a holistic overview of the most pressing work ahead.

For more information about the Ten Across initiative visit www.10across.com.