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 will be resuming the KunstlerCast, solo, in the near future. In the meantime, this is the "pilot" episode for "A Small American City," a new podcast series by former KunstlerCast host Duncan Crary. Jim helped Duncan launch the new series with this special interview.

TROY, N.Y. - For many Americans, "The City" only refers to New York City, or one of the other major metroplexes in the country with populations in the millions. But North America is filled with smaller cities that were once just as lively, if only at a smaller scale. And they may come back to life again as events already underway continue to unfold.

Urban polemicist James Howard Kunstler believes that people will be living a lot differently in the U.S.A. during the coming years. Financial distress and energy scarcity are just two forces that may dictate Americans re-inhabit the centers of our smaller cities. But contrary to prevailing suburban notions of our times, life in an activated urban center - at a smaller scale - is delightful. The more activated these places become, the more desirable it will be to be in them.

Kunstler feels that Troy, N.Y., with its currently population of 50,000, has many characteristics that make it a universal stand-in for every small American city. But he also believes there are aspects that make Troy uniquely poised for a genuine comeback.

For this pilot episode of A Small American City, Kunstler joins host Duncan Crary for a special, introductory conversation about small cities, Troy, N.Y. and the urban fabric. From 2008 to 2012, Crary and Kunstler produced the popular podcast series, The KunstlerCast, a weekly conversation about "the tragic comedy of suburban sprawl." During their run, the two often used Crary's home city of Troy, N.Y. as an informal laboratory to illustrate and observe the urban design, energy and economic issues of the times.

Now, after completing what he considers an "intellectual apprenticeship," Crary will be setting off alone to continue exploring the urban organism. The episode begins with an excerpt from an essay by Crary about his time spent learning from Kunstler and living in Troy, NY. It first appeared in print as the concluding chapter of Crary’s book, The KunstlerCast: Conversations with James Howard Kunstler...the tragic comedy of suburban sprawl, (New Society Publishers, 2011). Visit http://asmallamericancity.com to hear more.

http://asmallamericancity.comVisit

Direct download: KunstlerCast_214.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:11pm EDT

Duncan and Jim update listeners on the future of the KunstlerCast now that Duncan is stepping back his role.

Direct download: KunstlerCast_213.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:18pm EDT

JHK updates listeners on his recent health issues. Duncan gets listeners caught up on recent tech issues.

Direct download: KunstlerCast_212.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:46pm EDT

JHK gives a walking tour of the grounds of the Kunstler Compound in Washington County, NY and updates listeners on his progress in planting his own edible garden and orchard.

Direct download: KunstlerCast_211.mp3
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Author James Howard Kunstler reads "A Systematic Misunderstanding of Reality" the coda of his nonfiction book "Too Much Magic" (Altantic Monthly Press, 2012: pp 241-243).

Direct download: KunstlerCast_TMM_05.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:47pm EDT

Author James Howard Kunstler reads "The Multicultural Dilemma" from Chapter 9 of his nonfiction book "Too Much Magic" (Altantic Monthly Press, 2012: pp 237-239).

Direct download: KunstlerCast_TMM_04.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:42pm EDT

Author James Howard Kunstler reads " Social Relations and the Dilemmas of Difference" from Chapter 9 of his nonfiction book "Too Much Magic" (Altantic Monthly Press, 2012: pp 216-221).

Direct download: KunstlerCast_TMM_03.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:38pm EDT

Author James Howard Kunstler reads "The Futility of Party Politics in The Long Emergency" from Chapter 5 of his nonfiction book "Too Much Magic" (Altantic Monthly Press, 2012: pp 85 - 86).

Direct download: KunstlerCast_TMM_02.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:33pm EDT

KunstlerCast TMM: Kingdom Come

Author James Howard Kunstler reads "Kingdom Come," Chapter 1 of his nonfiction book, "Too Much Magic," (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2012: pp. 19 – 22).

Direct download: KunstlerCast_TMM_01.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:22pm EDT

JHK discusses his newly published nonfiction book "Too Much Magic: Wishful Thinking, Technology, and the Fate of the Nation." Kunstler considers "Magic" to be an update on his 2005 book "The Long Emergency." He says it was time to issue a reality testing report from reality central.

Direct download: KunstlerCast_210.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 3:00pm EDT

JHK and Duncan speak to a group of NextGen New Urbanists during the Congress for the New Urbanism held in West Palm Beach, Fla. this May 9-12. NextGen New Urbanists are young professionals participating in the New Urbanist movement. Jim asks the group to tell him what they're up to and what's next for New Urbanism. After a quick history of the NextGen movement, topics include: Resettle America, the Braddock PA Initiative, Tactical New Urbanism, Growing Culture and more.

Direct download: KunstlerCast_209.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

JHK and Duncan walk through City Center in West Palm Beach, Fla. and comment on the built environment.

Direct download: KunstlerCast_208.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

Remarks by Leon Krier, architect, urban theoretician and author Leon Krier at CNU 20, followed by interview between JHK, Duncan Crary and Krier.

Direct download: KunstlerCast_207.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:19pm EDT

This episode, featuring a conversation betweek JHK and CNU President and former Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist, was recorded before a live audience at the Congress for the New Urbanism. Norquist and Kunstler answer audience quesions on a variety of topics.

Direct download: KunstlerCast_206.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

James Howard Kunstler joins other prominent New Urbanist writers on a recent panel at The Congress for The New Urbanism, held in West Palm Beach, Florida this May 9-12, 2012. Featuring: Chuck Bohl, Peter Katz, Philip Langdon, and Charles Marohn.

Direct download: KunstlerCast_205.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

This is an edited, re-released version of an episode first recorded in Sept. 2008: For this program James Howard Kunstler and Duncan Crary visit Colonie Center, a 1.3 million square-foot enclosed two-level regional shopping center located in suburban Albany, N.Y. After more than $12 million in renovations to this shopping center's exterior and interior, Jim remains as unimpressed with this place as he was in the 1970s when it was first built. Before entering the mall, Jim describes the heroic suburban 6-lane boulevard of commerce upon which Colonie Center is located. Inside, Jim relaxes in one of the lounge areas provided for shoppers and provides a brief history of enclosed shopping areas. He also discusses the price that Americans have paid for trading in real public places for private commercial spaces. He speaks to the clerks at a "sideways hat store." He also observes the local fauna: land whales.

Direct download: KunstlerCast_204.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

James Howard Kunstler and Duncan Crary record a podcast before a live student audience at Union College, in Schenectady, N.Y. As part of a Humanities Super Seminar on liberal arts and activism, the students read The KunstlerCast book. In this segment, students ask questions out the future of the Internet, concentrating poverty and wealth in New York City and how individuals can face the enormous issue of rebuilding our human habitat. Sponsor: "The Heirloom," by Richard Davies.

Direct download: KunstlerCast_203.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

James Howard Kunstler and Duncan Crary record a podcast before a live student audience at Union College, in Schenectady, N.Y. As part of a Humanities Super Seminar on liberal arts and activism, the students read The KunstlerCast book. During the podcast Jim and Duncan riff on college architecture and the Union campus before opening up the discussion to questions from the class. Topics include: the value of a liberal arts education in The Long Emergency, monocultures concentrating poverty in the built environment, the prospects for restoring passenger rail in North America and more. Along the way Jim also delivers a call to millennial students to renounce their student loans. Sponsor: "The Heirloom," by Richard Davies.

Direct download: KunstlerCast_202.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

JHK fields listeners calls about the healthcare industry and its future in the Long Emergency, the validity of peak oil, cognitive ability to retain information from a computer screen vs. the printed page, and light pollution. Sponsor: "The Heirloom," by Richard Davies: http://theheirloom.blogspot.com.

Direct download: KunstlerCast_201.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

The KunstlerCast celebrates its 200th episode with listener suggested clips of favorite moments from the past four years. Duncan reads a special essay about meeting JHK at the shopping mall before retrieving some retired audio from the archive.

Direct download: KunstlerCast_200.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

JHK and Duncan have a ramble 'n rant episode on the robitification of our communications landscape, that wasteland of overcomplexity and hyperdependence of modern technology. Sponsor: http://theheirloom.blogspot.com/

Direct download: KunstlerCast_199.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

JHK and Duncan speak about America's small industrial cities with Catherin Tumber, author of The Promise of America’s Smaller Industrial Cities in a Low-Carbon World. Sponsor: CNU20.org

Direct download: KunstlerCast_198.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

James Howard Kunstler speaks by phone with Catherin Tumber, author of Small, Gritty, and Green: The Promise of America's Smaller Industrial Cities in a Low-Carbon World. Tumber is a journalist and historian and research affiliate in the Community Innovators Lab in MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning.Sponsor: http://cnu20.org

Direct download: KunstlerCast_197.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 3:37pm EDT

KunstlerCast #196: JHK's Veganism

JHK talks about his experience being a 97 percent vegan and how the American diet may change in the Long Emergency. Sponsor: http://cnu20.org

Direct download: KunstlerCast_196.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:00pm EDT

James Howard Kunstler shares his thoughts on the experience of moving through the landscape and built environment on foot, rather than by car. Sponsor: http://www.CNU20.jpg

Direct download: KunstlerCast_195.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:00pm EDT

James Howard Kunstler helps host Duncan Crary define the term "urban," a term that is often misunderstood or confusing to the general American public.Sponsor: http://cnu20.org

Direct download: KunstlerCast_194.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:00pm EDT

In this episode, James Howard Kunstler and Duncan Crary go through the KunstlerCast listener mail bag. Topics include: David Brooks's recent 180 on the "wonders" of suburbia, the Zeitgeist movement, the fate of ebooks, home maintenance during The Long Emergency, rural Illinois and other topics. Sponsor: http://CNU20.org

Direct download: KunstlerCast_193.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:00pm EDT

James Howard Kunstler speaks by phone with Arthur E. Berman, who is a petroleum geologist and consultant to the energy sector; editorial board member of The Oil Drum; associate editor of the AAPG Bulletin; director of The Association for the Study of Peak Oil. Berman has published more than 100 articles on petroleum geology and technology and has made more than 50 presentations in the last year to professional societies, investment conferences and companies. He speaks to Jim tonight about the history of shale gas "fracking" and a lot of the "magical thinking" surrounding the prospects of America becoming "energy dependent" through fracking.

Direct download: KunstlerCast_192.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:00pm EDT

James Howard Kunstler comments on the rising rates of pessimism in the U.S. in response to Capital cronyism, the dissapearing American dream, and our own entitled wishful thinking.

Direct download: KunstlerCast_191.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:30pm EDT

JHK discusses the growing mistrust for government in the U.S. and the rise of local trust networks in response. The inspiration for today's show comes from The Automatic Earth blog, http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com

Direct download: KunstlerCast_190.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:00pm EDT

After a tragic death, citizens in the Albany area are clamoring to tear down an old train bridge slated to become a bike-hike trail. JHK & Duncan examine this story and explain why we must save historic infrastructure like the bridge in question.

Direct download: KunstlerCast_189.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:00pm EDT

JHK discusses his forecast for 2012 and shares his New Year's resolution.

Direct download: KunstlerCast_188.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:00pm EDT