x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

The Bottom-Up Revolution

The Bottom-Up Revolution features the stories of the Strong Towns movement in action. Hosted by Tiffany Owens Reed and Norm Van Eeden Petersman, it"s all about how regular people have stepped up to make their communities more economically resilient, and how others can implement these ideas in their own places. We’ll talk about taking concrete action steps, connecting with fellow advocates to build power, and surviving the bumps along the way—all in the pursuit of creating stronger towns. Each

society & culture

All Episodes

16:55

The Young Voice Shaping Salt Lake City's Future

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/08/19

Eva López Chávez is a city council member in Salt Lake City, Utah. Eva has been involved in many layers of local government, including working as a city staffer and construction project manager. Today, she and Norm discuss how she became a city councilor and how she’s building prosperity in her city.ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Connect with Eva: Instagram LinkedIn City Council (site) Bring the conversation to your community by booking Norm as a speaker! Norm Van Eeden Petersman

en

58:35

How Taking a Walk Can Make Your City Stronger

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/08/14

Ashley Thornton is the founder of Waco Walks, an organization devoted to promoting walkability in Waco, Texas. She was inspired to start the organization after spending a year with walking as her primary form of transportation.Ashley and Tiffany discuss the design choices that make Waco difficult to walk in and how Waco Walks is working to change that. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Local Recommendations: El Conquistador Mexican Restaurant Dubl-R Burgers Cameron Trading Company Helados La Aztecas

en

17:27

This Is Local Leadership Without the Ego

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/08/12

Mark Hoppen is a former city manager and Strong Towns member who’s been quietly strengthening communities in Washington state for decades. In this Bottom Up Short, Norm and Mark talk about why someone should pursue a career in city management, what real priorities look like in that role, and how to lead with both care and practicality.ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Gig Harbor Boatshop (site) Bring the conversation to your community by booking Norm as a speaker! Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do

en

01:02:37

Beating the Loneliness Epidemic, One Step at a Time

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/08/07

Adult friendships are difficult. A big part of that is our built environment, which is often designed in a way that stifles social connection instead of supporting it. Kat Vellos is an author, facilitator, and connection coach who’s working to change that. She and Tiffany discuss the importance of community building, ways to redesign our built environment, and other steps residents and local leaders can take to help their community thrive. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Local Recommendations: Jack London

en

16:29

How To Use Property Taxes to Clean Up Your Community

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/08/05

Ashley Salvador is a city councilor in Edmonton, Alberta. She’s a national leader in housing reform, zoning modernization, and urban revitalization. Ashley joins Norm on this Bottom-Up Short to discus one of her recent initiatives, which focuses on reducing the number of derelict and dangerous properties in the city. Ashley shares how she helped bring Canada’s first Derelict Tax Subclass into effect and how it’s driving revitalization.ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES More from Ashley: “Cleaning Up Our

en

56:20

Will This Transportation System Be More Popular Than...

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/07/31

Jeral Poskey is the founder and CEO of Swyft Cities, a California-based tech company that's spearheading a totally new transportation system. Jeral explains his unique approach to creating realistic transportation innovations. He describes the transportation system Swyft Cities has created and how it could address the issues that many cities face — like traffic, land wasted on parking, and difficulty with infill development. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Local Recommendations: Gelato Classico on

en

19:24

Courtyard Urbanism: The Best of Both City and Suburb

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/07/29

Dr. Alicia Pederson is a writer and advocate who encourages cities to adopt courtyard urbanism, a style of development where mixed-use buildings surround a shared courtyard. Today, she joins Norm to explain the benefits of this development style and how to advocate for it.ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Drawing by Leon Krier 6 housing reforms that could help make courtyard blocks possible. Read more from Alicia: Urban Courtyard (X/Twitter) “Chicago’s affordable housing plan demands a courtyard

en

39:03

This City Councilor Is Making Cambridge Safer and...

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/07/24

Meet Burhan Azeem, a city councilor in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A graduate of MIT, he’s the youngest councilor in the city’s history and has a special focus on housing affordability and street safety.Burhan has successfully expanded zoning for affordable housing, removed parking minimums, and helped build bike lanes throughout the city. He also helped found a nonprofit that impacts housing policy on the state level. Today, he and Tiffany sit down to discuss how he got to this point and what he’s

en

15:52

Bottom-Up Shorts: One Soldier’s Stand for Safer Streets

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/07/22

What happens when a city’s design puts lives at risk—and someone decides to speak up?In this episode, you’ll meet Army Master Sgt. Ben Hultquist, one of the leaders of Strong Towns Fayetteville, a Local Conversation in North Carolina. After a string of preventable deaths, Ben testified in city hall. Now, that testimony is helping turn the conversation in Fayetteville toward people-first design and safer streets. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Strong Towns Fayetteville (Facebook) Learn how to make your

en

01:00:40

How Community Gardens Can Make Cities Stronger

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/07/17

Linda Appel Lipsius is the executive director of Denver Urban Gardens, where she supports a network of over 200 gardens and food forests that produce 650,000 pounds of food annually. She also helps launch initiatives to help make Denver a greener, more food-resilient place.Linda and Tiffany discuss the importance of nature in urban resilience and the benefits of community gardening, from access to healthy food to community building and mental health improvement. Linda explains how a permaculture

en

19:46

Bottom-Up Shorts: Giving People Better Transportation...

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/07/15

Wendy Nash is the founder of Get Around Caboolture, a grassroots transportation initiative in Caboolture, Australia. She and Norm discuss the group's efforts to promote more transportation options, including hosting the first Week Without Driving outside the U.S. Wendy emphasizes the importance of tailoring messages to different audiences and explains why she would like to see more comedy in advocacy.ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Get Around Caboolture Strong Towns Academy Norm Van Eeden Petersman

en

56:29

Brandi Thompson: Driving Change Through Civic...

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/07/10

Brandi Thompson is the “accidental” co-founder and leader of Strong Towns ABQ, a Local Conversation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She’s lived in eight states and has worked as a rattlesnake wrangler, a grant writer, and a teacher. She currently works as a flight nurse, providing care to patients who need to be air-lifted to the hospital. Today, Brandi sits down with Tiffany to discuss the strategies that have helped Strong Towns ABQ successfully advocate for zoning reform and against highway

en

17:40

Alyssa Lee & Kay Crumb: How To Build a Thriving...

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/07/08

Alyssa Lee and Kay Crumb are leaders of Strong SacTown, one of the largest and most successful groups in the Strong Towns Local Conversations program. Based in Sacramento, California, the group has 140 engaged members, balances multiple ongoing initiatives, and successfully collaborates with city staff.In this Bottom-Up Short, Alyssa and Kay share their advice for building and sustaining a successful Local Conversation. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Strong SacTown (site) Alyssa Lee discussed this topic

en

37:30

Craig Cassar: How To Take a Holistic Approach to City...

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/07/03

Craig Cassar is a first-term city councilor in Hamilton, Ontario. Prior to serving in public office, he acquired nearly 25 years of private sector leadership experience. Craig is a believer in the Strong Towns philosophy of city building, an advocate for active and public transportation, and a passionate environmentalist.Today, Craig and Tiffany discusses the challenges Hamilton faces and the progress the city has made. They also talk about the importance of a holistic approach to city building,

en

12:44

Bottom-Up Shorts: How To Remove Barriers to Good...

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/07/01

Jesse Russell is a small-scale developer and Strong Towns member from Bend, Oregon. He joins Norm to discuss the ways he’s helping create more attainable homes in his hometown. He also explains how he works with the community and city officials to remove barriers to good development.ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Hiatus Homes (website) Bend made it to the Final 4 in this year’s Strongest Town Contest. There are many great lessons that cities of all sizes can learn from their hard work. Click here to

en

39:30

Eric Higbee: How to Master the Art of Community...

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/06/26

Eric Higbee is a landscape architect and writer who teaches university courses on community engagement at the University of Washington Department of Landscape Architecture. He works on community design and planning projects through his award-winning landscape architecture practice, Convene.Today, Eric joins Tiffany to discuss the importance of community engagement, why attempts at this kind of engagement often fail, and how to succeed at it. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Read more from Eric in his

en

16:18

Bottom-Up Shorts: How To Encourage Smart, Financially...

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/06/24

In today’s Bottom-Up Short, Norm is joined by Kevin McDonnell, the mayor of Petaluma, California, and Dave Alden, co-leader of Petaluma Urban Chat. Kevin and Dave discuss their Know Before You Grow initiative, a community-driven effort focused on smart, financially strong development. They share how this initiative has helped direct attention toward building housing in Petaluma’s downtown, where services already exist and infrastructure is more financially viable.ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Petaluma

en

01:04:03

Dr. Patricia Tice: Why Social Interaction Should...

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/06/19

Dr. Patricia Tice has been an transportation engineer, planner, researcher and self-proclaimed geek for nearly 30 years. She spent the first decade of her career doing hundreds of traffic impact studies. In 2011, she started her own consulting firm and, a few years later, completed a PhD in transportation engineering.In this episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution, Patricia talks about her research into human behavior, as well as the role of human interaction and LEGO in urban design. ADDITIONAL SHOW

en

01:03:41

Mr. Barricade: How to Quick Build a Connected City

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/06/05

Vignesh Swaminathan is an engineer, transportation planner, and content creator. Formerly the the CEO of a civil engineering firm, he now works as a project engineer and has over 1.7 million followers on TikTok, where he discusses urban infrastructure and transportation planning.Tiffany and Vignesh discuss how transportation planning affects other aspects of cities such as housing. Vignesh explains how he works with quick-build projects, intersection design, and social media to make cities

en

13:28

Bottom-Up Shorts: How To Humbly Observe Where People...

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/06/03

Danny Wind is a Local Conversation leader and Regional Transportation Commission member from Lake County, California. In this Bottom-Up Short, Danny discusses their Open Street Map Project, which gives people a space to share photos and descriptions of the everyday challenges they face. Danny explains how this method of humbly observing where people struggle is a powerful force for change and how it intersects with their Regional Transportation Commission work.ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Read more

en

212 results

Similar Podcasts

Voices of Life

APG Mannheim

Promo Estereo Podcast

Promo Estereo

Talking Timelines Podcast

Talkingtimelines

גיקונומי

ראם שרמן ודורון ניר

Drømmefanger

Drømmefanger