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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

15:39

Bottom-Up Shorts: How Decorah, Iowa, Is Becoming a...

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/03/18

Travis Goedken is the city manager of Decorah, Iowa. In this Bottom-Up Short, he joins Norm to talk about a few of the practices and reforms that are making Decorah strong, including making its budgeting easier to understand for residents, embracing a highly collaborative planning process, and opening up new housing options by finding creative loopholes in restrictive state laws.ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Feeling inspired? Vote for Decorah in the Strongest Town Contest! Travis Goedken

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01:06:09

Ryan Andrews: Re-Localizing the Benefits of Housing...

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/03/13

Ryan Andrews is the CFO of Hiatus Homes, a small-scale development company in Bend, Oregon. He is also the CFO of the Hiatus Capital Fund, which helps Bend locals invest in development projects in their own community. He’s managed more than 20 investment funds and syndications across real estate debt, equity and venture capital, and he specializes in capitalizing construction and development projects. In this episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution, Andrews discusses the importance of local investment

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17:54

Bottom-Up Shorts: How To Make Your City’s Finances...

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/03/11

David Jenkins is a city councilor in La Plata, Maryland, as well as the city’s Local Conversation leader. He joins Norm on this episode of Bottom-Up Shorts to discuss his work with the city’s budget, particularly his efforts to share the city’s financial information with the community in a way that’s easy to understand and actually allows residents to participate in the budgeting process.ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES La Plata Financial Sustainability podcast The Local-Motive session that inspired

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50:18

Dr. Jonathan Gingrich: A Better Way To Teach...

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/03/06

Dr. Jonathan Gingrich is a professor of engineering at Dordt College in Iowa. A trained chemical and environmental engineer, he started teaching transportation engineering due to staffing shortages. Unsatisfied with the standard materials required for the class, he incorporated the book "Confessions of a Recovering Engineer" by Chuck Marohn into his curriculum and had his class conduct a Crash Analysis Studio.In this episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution, Dr. Gingrich shares how his unusual

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21:10

Bottom-Up Shorts: How a Personal Loss Can Drive...

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/03/04

Josh Stewart is an advocate from Littleton, Colorado. A year ago, his 12-year-old son was struck and killed by a car while biking to school. Since then, Josh has been relentlessly pushing for safer streets in his community. He joins Norm in this Bottom-Up Short to share his story and what he’s learned over the last year of advocacy work.ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES “The Cost of an Extra Foot” (article) “Large Trucks Need Better Street Design” (article) Learn more about the Crash Analysis Studio

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51:38

Jesse Russell: Making a Big Impact With Tiny Homes

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/02/27

Jesse Russell is the founder and CEO of Hiatus Homes, a development company in Bend, Oregon, that specializes in small home design and cottage community development. In 2019, he introduced Bend’s first small-scale housing community. He’s also been involved in citywide policy and incentive reform for small-scale development and urban infill.Russell joins Tiffany on today’s episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution to discuss his journey from Los Angeles TV producer to small-scale developer. They talk

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13:59

Bottom-Up Shorts: How to Build Momentum as a Local...

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/02/25

In this Bottom-Up Short, Norm is joined by Christian Schick, the leader of Strong Towns RVA, a Local Conversation in Richmond, Virginia. The group has built a lot of momentum in the past year, and Schick talks about how they did that in a productive and helpful way, particularly while juggling local elections.ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Strong Towns RVA (Linktree). Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn). Do you know someone who would make for a great The Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know

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01:09:13

Mike Christensen: Bringing the Benefits of Passenger...

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/02/20

Mike Christensen is the executive director of the Utah Rail Passenger Association, where he works to educate the public and policy makers about the value of investing in passenger rail. He also serves on Salt Lake City’s planning commission, as well as the boards of the Utah chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism, the Utah Transit Riders Union and the national Rail Passengers Association. Christensen joins Tiffany Owens Reed on this episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution to discuss the benefits

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12:51

Bottom-Up Shorts: How To Capture the Rhythm of a City

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/02/18

Varsha Gopal is an architect from Chennai, India. She is putting Strong Towns ideas into action by starting conversations about what makes places thrive — what makes them special, sustainable and prosperous. On this episode of Bottom-Up Shorts, she joins Norm to discuss two research projects she recently conducted in her city and what they taught her about thriving cities, urban design and community engagement.ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn). Do you know someone who

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59:33

Maricela Sanchez: Applying Big City Lessons to a...

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/02/13

Maricela Sanchez is a city council member and anesthesiologist from Prosser, Washington. She has lived in major cities all over the U.S., including Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City. In today’s episode, she joins Tiffany to discuss how her travels and profession molded her perspective on what makes a town safe and resilient. They also discuss Sanchez’s role as a councilor, where she focuses on creating safe, walkable neighborhoods and improving active transportation. ADDITIONAL SHOW

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01:03:25

Stanis Moody Roberts: Rallying a Community To Fight...

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/02/06

Stanis Moody Roberts is a business owner from the Portland, Maine area. For the past year he has been organizing locals to oppose a highway expansion that would have claimed eight acres of his land. He joins Tiffany on today’s episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution to discuss this journey and the progress his community has made — including how they convinced their town council to rescind support for the project and delayed construction by several years.ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Local

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15:31

Bottom-Up Shorts: How To Build Credibility and...

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/02/04

Welcome to this episode of Bottom Up Shorts! Today, Norm is joined by Andrew and Anna Carley, the leaders of Strong Towns Grand Rapids, a Local Conversation in Michigan. They discuss the progress they’ve made in advocating for policy changes in their city and how they became one of the go-to groups that city officials turn to when they’re considering policy changes.ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Strong Towns Grand Rapids (site). Want to hear more from the Carleys? Hop on the Spring Local Motive Tour,

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32:09

Emily Hutcheson: Building a Culture of Bicycling

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/01/30

Emily Hutcheson is a bike advocate in San Antonio, Texas, and a mom of three. She joins Tiffany on this episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution to discuss her work improving bike infrastructure in her city. They discuss her path to advocacy, some of the initiatives she’s spearheaded, including a bike club and bike bus, and the response from the public and local officials.ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Local Recommendations: Bright Coffee. Copper Rose Winebar. SoHill Café. Tiffany Owens Reed

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15:20

Bottom-Up Shorts: How To Incrementally Improve Your...

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/01/28

Spencer Coyne is the mayor of Princeton, British Columbia. As a proud Strong Towns member, he works to bring incremental development and community resilience to his city. Coyne joins this Bottom-Up Short to explain how he’s implementing the Strong Towns approach in Princeton, including how to incrementally reform a zoning code and how to do a lot with a small amount of funding.ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Connect with Spencer Coyne: Facebook. LinkedIn. Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn). Do

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46:35

Ellie Riggs and Ryan Carter: Advocating for Clean...

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/01/23

In this episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution, host Tiffany Owens Reed is joined by Ellie Riggs and Ryan Carter from Catawba Riverkeeper, a grassroots organization that preserves the waters of the Catawba-Wateree River basin in North Carolina.They discuss stormwater’s effect on the environment, how it’s connected to parking reform and developers, and a new stormwater management bill that Riggs and Carter are introducing to the North Carolina state legislature in a few weeks. They also discuss Riggs

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18:00

Bottom-Up Shorts: How To Remove Parking Mandates in...

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/01/21

In this episode of Bottom-Up Shorts, host Norm Van Eeden Petersman is joined by Michael Bassili, one of the leaders of Strong Towns Nanaimo, a Local Conversation group based in British Columbia, Canada. Bassili explains how his Local Conversation created a parking campaign that convinced their city council to vote 8-1 to eliminate parking mandates in their downtown.ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Connect with Strong Towns Nanaimo: Website. Instagram. LinkedIn. Try Strong Towns Nanaimo’s letter of

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49:21

Matt Harder: Making City Budgeting More Participatory

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/01/16

Matt Harder is the founder of Civic Trust, a participatory budgeting company that provides technology infrastructure, communications and process methodology to help citizens participate in their governments’ budgeting process.In this episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution, Harder joins host Tiffany Owens Reed to discuss participatory budgeting, a method of getting resident input on how a city’s budget is spent. They talk about the three phases of participatory budgeting, the benefits and challenges to

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10:59

Bottom-Up Shorts: How This 4-Step Approach Can...

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/01/14

In this special episode of Bottom-Up Shorts, host Norm Van Eeden Petersman is joined by Edward Erfurt, chief technical advisor for Strong Towns, to discuss a transformative 4-step approach to public investment. They explore real-world examples of this approach in action, including the inspiring stories of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and Chisholm, Minnesota. These stories illustrate the power of starting small, focusing on what's possible today, and engaging local energy to build something truly

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12:02

Bottom-Up Shorts: How Local Papers Can Help Combat...

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2025/01/07

In this episode of Bottom-Up Shorts, host Norm Van Eeden Petersman is joined by Jake Loftis, a pastor and leader of the Local Conversation group Strong Towns Blair. They discuss the ways that North America’s built environment can lead to social isolation and how Loftis used his local paper to combat that isolation and encourage engagement in his community.ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Transcript available on our site. Read more about Loftis and Strong Towns Blair. Norm Van Eeden Petersman

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56:38

The Bottom-Up Revolution Is…Building a Coalition for...

The Bottom-Up Revolution ·

2024/12/19

In this episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution, host Tiffany Owens Reed is joined by Chloe Groome and Aaron Feldman, co-leads of the Local Conversation group Strong Towns Chicago.They discuss the initiatives that Strong Towns Chicago is working on, including legalizing fourplexes throughout the city and getting city officials involved in tactical urbanism. They also talk about the challenges the group faces and their strategies for overcoming those difficulties, including building a coalition with

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212 results

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