In June 2017, city planner & creative writer/speaker/podcaster Matthew Boyd launched his locally produced Monorail City – “a fun podcast about cities and the people, politics and pop culture that shape them.”
An early episode titled ‘What’s the Deal with Placemaking‘ features the GVPN’s own Lorne Daniel. This is a great introduction for anyone looking for an answer to that eternal question ‘Just what is placemaking anyway?’ I guarantee that after listening to this you’ll be able to describe it to friends and family in 20 words or less.
The most recent episode of Monorail City features Teale Phelps Bondaroff (new GVPN board member and one half of the team behind the Little Free Library expansion in Victoria) talking community, Little Free Libraries and the April 2017 article by two Canadian librarians that went viral with its critique of the American Little Free Library organization.
Yet another active member of Greater Victoria Placemaking Network, Tania Wegwitz, is featured in ‘How to Be a Great Transit Planner.’ Tania was a key volunteer in last year’s Living Streets project, which developed the CRD Living Streets Guide.
Here are some other podcasts of interest to placemakers:
99% Invisible – probably the premier podcast in this genre, though what exactly the genre is is hard to define. Here’s how the folks at 99%pi.org describe the podcast – it “is about all the thought that goes into the things we don’t think about — the unnoticed architecture and design that shape our world”. Subscribe at all the usual places and if you’re more a visual/text person check out their website where you can read stories gorgeously supplemented with photos and drawings.
Strong Towns – brought to you by the team at Strong Towns, a US media organization “leading a national movement for change. We’re challenging every American to fundamentally rethink how our cities are built, and we’re shining a spotlight on an approach that will make us truly prosperous for the first time in over a century.” There are 426 episodes available for your listening pleasure, with new ones coming out every few days.
Placemaker (from the folks at Slate) – this was short-lived but still worth a listen – there are 19 free episodes and 3 paid ones (perhaps that’s why this podcast didn’t last?).
The Art of Placemaking Podcast – again, now defunct but 18 episodes from 2013-2015 that have some interesting topics.
Urbanism Speakeasy – another ‘historical’ (meaning no longer being made) podcast.
Third Wave Urbanism – this one has been going for almost a year with episodes coming out somewhat erratically but the last dropping just a couple of days ago – “A podcast highlighting the new normal of urbanism in our globalized cities, as told by Kristen Jeffers and Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman – two female urbanists.”
Susan Martin
Longtime resident of #YYJ who delights in exploring every corner and cul de sac of our beautiful city. Thinks that walking is one of the best medicines in existence and tries to get a dose of it each day. Keenly interested in how our built environment affects the health of individuals, neighbourhoods and societies.