KunstlerCast - Suburban Sprawl: A Tragic Comedy
James Howard Kunstler, author of The Geography of Nowhere, The Long Emergency, and World Made By Hand, takes on the converging catastrophes of the 21st century. Features a new guest each month. (Note: Episodes 1 - 214 featured conversations between Duncan Crary and JHK during the years 2008 through 2012 and focused on the topics of suburban sprawl, disposable architecture and the end of the cheap oil era.)

James Howard Kunstler explores the topic of building traditional town centers in suburbia, where town centers are typically absent. Though it may be possible to retrofit the suburbs, Kunstler doesn't believe that Americans will have the money to remake some of the worst suburbs into more traditional, mixed-use neighborhoods...even if they wanted to in the first place. As more and more suburbanites find themselves unemployed, some of the more isolated housing subdivisions are simply being abandoned. In the second half of this podcast Kunstler explores the topic of future population decline in the United States. Kunstler believes that Americans will face enormous problems producing food for its population as financial problems make agribusiness increasingly expensive. Moreover, suburbia has destroyed much of America's agricultural land, which most people wouldn't know how to farm anyway.

Theme music provided by IODA Promonet.

Direct download: KunstlerCast_54.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 11:42am EDT