Skip to content
Sign in
Artwork for Next City
GovernmentBusinessNon-Profit

Next City

Straw Hut Media

Join Lucas Grindley, executive director at Next City, where we believe journalists have the power to amplify solutions and spread workable ideas. Each week Lucas will sit down with trailblazers to discuss urban issues that get overlooked. At the end of the day, it's all about focusing the world's attention on the good ideas that we hope will grow. Grab a seat from the bus, subway, light-rail, or whatever your transit-love may be and listen on the go as we spread solutions from one city to the Next City .

Play
Open in
  • 26 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 34 min
  • English

Episodes 26

NewestOldestLongest
All20Unplayed20In progress0Played0
Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.
  • Yesterday · 33 min

    Why Black Children’s Joy Should Be Protected

    Sponsored: In Black neighborhoods today, parks are half the size of those in white neighborhoods and nearly five times as crowded, according to a new report that says time to play is about far more than fun. In the second of two sponsored episodes with KABOOM!, we delve further into the report “The State of our Kids: Addressing the Youth Mental Health Crisis.” Lysa Ratliff, CEO of KABOOM!, and Dr. Leah Austin, President and CEO of the National Black Child Development Institute, warn that systems adultify Black children, who are often seen as older and more threatening and are monitored and disciplined before they're allowed to live freely. “In play, Black children get to be loud, curious, silly,” says Austin, who makes the case for an asset-based lens that locates problems in systems rather than in children who are actually gifted thinkers, creators, and storytellers. “Adults often miss these strengths because they've been trained to only recognize Black children's vulnerability, more readily than they actually see and experience their brilliance.” Ratliff says a new playspace in a neighborhood that has gone without means more to kids than adults realize. “It sends a signal that kids matter,” says Ratliff. “So if I'm living in a community that is full of disinvestment, that isn't getting the things that it needs, and all of a sudden there's investments being made, and they're being made for me as a child, it sends a signal to me that I'm seen and I matter, and the adults around me care enough to be prioritizing what is important to me.” KABOOM! goes further by co-designing each playspace with the community. Its data shows playspaces built with community input see a 223% increase in use, compared with 61% without it. Read the full report at kaboom.org/sook.

  • October 7 · 39 min

    Revisiting: Inside the Fight to Save LGBTQ Landmarks and Culture

    Preserving the stories and spaces that define LGBTQ communities is an act of resilience and resistance. Hear from designers, historians, and activists about the vital work of safeguarding these cultural landmarks and ensuring their legacy endures.

  • September 30 · 34 min

    The State of Our Kids: Young People Are The Solution

    Four in 10 students report persistent sadness or hopelessness, and a new KABOOM! report says remedies start with simply listening to young people. In the first of a two-part sponsored series with KABOOM!, we delve into the “State of Our Kids,” a new report on the youth mental health crisis built with a youth editorial board that pushed back on adult assumptions and centered lived experience alongside statistics. Lysa Ratliff, CEO of KABOOM!, and Amy Meuers, CEO of the National Youth Leadership Council, say most conversations about youth mental health happen without kids in the room. Or, adults tokenize young people. “A lot of times, as adults, we'll invite young people to share their opinion, and then we turn away from them,” says Meuers. In its approach to the report, KABOOM! drew upon its 30-year history of treating youth as designers and experts during its efforts to close the gap in playspace equity. “When you're 5 years old, you know how to build a playground more than a 50-year-old, right?” says Ratliff. “When you're 15 years old, you know what's going on with young people who are overscheduled or trying to get into college or dealing with things in their community more than a 35-year-old.” Ratliff describes a generation growing up with a tablet by age 2, offered more distracting technologies than opportunities to play. “It became really important to us at KABOOM! to expand the conversation beyond playground design and playspace design,” says Ratliff, explaining what led to the new report. “We started tuning into statistics that made us really worried and concerned about the wellness and mental health of our young.” Read the full report at kaboom.org/sook.

  • September 16 · 2 min

    Coming Soon: Not My Narrative

    This October, Next City is launching Not My Narrative, a new podcast and essay series about the stories we tell ourselves that are mistaken for facts and the people proving them wrong.

  • September 2 · 39 min

    The Secret Sauce in Democratic Community Engagement

    A group is working to ensure that the closure of Hester Street in New York City doesn't mean the loss of its wisdom as a trusted facilitator of processes that authentically engaged the community in development projects.

  • June 24 · 14 sec

    Summer Break

    Next City is on a brief hiatus for the summer. We'll be back at the end of July. Thank you for listening to Next City. Together we can spread good ideas from one city to the next city.

  • June 10 · 43 min

    On Being Planners With Purpose

    We are creating a podcast episode about these three episodes related to the Planners With A Purpose conference that Next City sponsored.

  • June 3 · 37 min

    After 150 Episodes, Revisiting Our Favorite Solutions

    The Next City podcast debuted in November 2021 and has now recorded 150 episodes, with hundreds of interviews about solutions with changemakers. Host Lucas Grindley and Editorial Director Deonna Anderson look back on some of the biggest takeaways after more than 75 hours worth of journalism.

  • May 20 · 43 min

    For Immigrant Communities, These Organizations Build Belonging

    Sponsored podcast: From Chelsea to the Berkshires, these organizations do the frontline work of caring for their community when federal policy turns hostile. When ICE raids and hostile federal policies destabilize entire communities, frontline organizations in cities and rural counties alike are answering with door-knocking, theater, wellness programs, and the slow work of building power from within. In this sponsored episode with The Culture & Community Power Fund, two Massachusetts organizations respond to the mounting pressures facing immigrant and refugee communities. The organizations they support are responding to the moment, said Erik Takeshita, Director of The Culture & Community Power Fund. "It was already really hard work, and now it's like you have to add another layer of creativity and ingenuity to really be able to reach out to people,” said Takeshita. La Colaborativa in Chelsea turns organizing and door-knocking into power in so many ways, including policy wins, arts and wellness programming, and a full continuum of youth services. Norieliz DeJesus is the Director of Youth Programs for La Colaborativa, but she first came to the organization as a teen participant. Today, she knows many neighbors who also went through the program and work as nurses, police officers, and community leaders. She considers them part of“ the safety net that this community has created over the years.” “It makes it easier for the community to trust when they can see that the person in those seats of power are people who lived and experienced this community,” said DeJesus, who is a member of the city council. Meanwhile on the other end of the state in Berkshire County, the team at Multicultural BRIDGE—including Gwendolyn VanSant, CEO and founding director, and Dr. Lina Polo, the physician who leads its public health programs—host culturally specific wellness days, support groups, food distribution, and coordinate the county's Community Health Improvement Plan all as ways of addressing isolation, healthcare gaps, and belonging in a predominantly white rural region. "If you treat the least healthy and the person with the least access, it's going to improve things unseen," said VanSant on the need for solidarity. This sponsored series is created in partnership with ⁠The Culture & Community Power Fund (C&CPF)⁠, a national funders’ collaborative advancing the role of culture in building identity, agency, and collective power. This series explores the cultural ecosystem—the traditions, stories, rituals, and spaces that sustain frontline communities—and what it takes to support and strengthen it. ⁠Read the complete series.⁠

  • May 13 · 38 min

    How Boston’s Chinatown Turns Culture Into Power

    This sponsored series is created in partnership with The Culture & Community Power Fund (C&CPF), a national funders’ collaborative advancing the role of culture in building identity, agency, and collective power. This series explores the cultural ecosystem—the traditions, stories, rituals, and spaces that sustain frontline communities—and what it takes to support and strengthen it. Read the complete series. Boston’s Chinatown has for many years faced incredible pressures of displacement, but a network of nonprofits has turned art, storytelling, and organizing into a strategy to empower the community to fight back. In this sponsored episode with The Culture & Community Power Fund, leaders of three community organizations explain how the Chinatown Cultural Plan gives their coalition a shared roadmap for collaboration. "Embarking on this cultural plan allowed us an opportunity to step back, talk to many organizations, community members, see what people are doing, and see how our work complements each other and strengthens each other," said Cynthia Woo, director of the Pao Arts Center at the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center. The center is among a network of community organizations working on the plan that received unrestricted funding from C&CPF, a national funders’ collaborative that supports organizations working on the front lines in communities impacted by systemic oppression. Erik Takeshita, director of C&CPF, says the philanthropic sector will too often “focus on the organization as a unit, not necessarily as the community, as the unit of change and intervention. As a result, you end up with these fractured communities.” In Boston’s Chinatown, the network they’re supporting also includes the Asian Community Development Corporation and the Chinatown Community Land Trust. Angie Liou, executive director of ACDC, explains their “anchor strategy,” which uses arts and culture as an anti-displacement tool “and a tool to strengthen Chinatown's boundaries and sense of identity and belonging.” Lydia Lowe, executive director of the Chinatown CLT, explains how art and storytelling drive their organizing and even helped the land trust acquire its first permanently affordable homes. "Sharing stories is a really important part of strengthening our power,” said Lowe. “Because we want every generation to be grounded in that history and to know that there are struggles that happened before us and we can win and we can make a difference."

  • April 29 · 37 min

    Real Solutions Are Everywhere

    A partner episode with the podcast, Real Solutions, produced with The Othering & Belonging Institute.

  • April 22 · 38 min

    Lessons on Serving Immigrant Communities Under Attack

    As immigrant communities face daily threats from ICE and the Trump administration, they need allies they can trust. And that's why today we're looking at nonprofit newsrooms that speak directly with immigrant communities.

  • April 8 · 34 min

    Tenants Rising: Organizing for Housing Justice, Part 2

    Examine tenant-led movements and legal strategies to preserve affordability and resist displacement. It could highlight lawsuits like the one in Missouri where tenants fought to keep their homes within the LIHTC program, connecting to broader tenant unionization efforts nationwide.

  • April 1 · 32 min

    Tenants Rising: Organizing for Housing Justice, Part 1

    Examine tenant-led movements and legal strategies to preserve affordability and resist displacement. It could highlight lawsuits like the one in Missouri where tenants fought to keep their homes within the LIHTC program, connecting to broader tenant unionization efforts nationwide.

  • March 25 · 33 min

    This City Spent $1 Million To Erase $90 Million in Residents’ Debt

    On a daily basis, thousands of Americans are faced with the choice of whether to seek needed medical care, or stay home untreated to avoid sliding further into debt. But one city in Kentucky has found a way to alleviate the dangerous pressures of medical debt for its residents.

Showing 1–20 of 26 episodes