Interplace
123 episodes - English - Latest episode: 3 days ago - ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsInterplace explores the interaction of people and place. It looks at how we move within and between the places we live and what led us here in the first place.
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Episodes
The Genesis of Car Dependency
July 16, 2022 00:57 - 26 minutes - 36 MBHello Interactors, This has been a wild week in our neighborhood. It was a car enthusiasts dream. Too bad our family’s biggest car enthusiast, my son, was busy working his summer job. It was guys like him that got America hooked on cars. And now our planet is cooked. Is it a lost cause? As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an attentive community so I welcome your participation. Please leave your comments...
Super Sonic Hydroponic Famine Tonic
July 09, 2022 01:27 - 25 minutes - 34.3 MBHello Interactors, There have been huge advances in how food is grown over the last decade. A new revolution in agriculture. It just may be coming at the right time. The world’s population is skyrocketing, and more and more people are pouring into cities. We’ll need more food and more ways to make it accessible and new techniques look promising. But at what cost? As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an atte...
Great Grains! U.S. Aid to Russia?
July 01, 2022 23:08 - 23 minutes - 32.7 MBHello Interactors, We’re staying in Russia this week because the United States sticks with Russia. At least they used to. And boy did they need it. The famines that have swept through that region over the years have taken the lives of tens of millions of people. Even though Russia was home to the world’s leading seed expert. But the U.S. was always there to bail them out. If the U.S. fell into a food crisis, would Russia return the favor? As interactors, you’re special individuals self-sel...
Freedom Fries and the Big Mac Attack
June 25, 2022 19:16 - 24 minutes - 33.5 MBHello Interactors, This episode kicks off the summer season on the environment and our interactions with it and through it. I’m starting with food. Food is a big topic that impacts us all, albeit in uneven ways. It got me wondering about the global food system and how it’s controlled. Who are the winners and who are the losers? And why is there competition for nourishment in first place? As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’r...
Another Great Transformation
June 11, 2022 00:58 - 22 minutesHello Interactors, Where, how, and when people work continues to shift. Meanwhile, scores of people are moving to urban regions in search of opportunities. Some of which are more accessible than others. It’s putting stresses on how cities plan, how we move, and what kinds of freedoms are afforded and to whom. But hidden in the complexities of societies are patterns of hope. As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also membe...
Freedom To Choose or Rights Refused?
June 04, 2022 19:25 - 25 minutesHello Interactors, I ended up walking almost six miles in two days last week that included two trips by bus and light rail. I’m always surprised by the rich experience that comes with choosing to walk, bike, or bus. But it’s not always pleasant. A car is comfortable, quiet, and convenient but can be experientially anemic. I’m fortunate to have these choices. Not everyone does. And what choice they do have can be unfair and even dangerous. Is that the American way? As interactors, you’re s...
Iowa's Gray Blob Eats Corn on the Cob
May 28, 2022 04:55 - 23 minutesHello Interactors, There’s but a short window of time When the dirt is in its prime Not too cold or wet Or the seeds will not set Last week the fields were lakes This week the soil bakes Gone is the mud and grime So into the tractors they all climb It’s time to get those seeds in the ground! If you have the space. The state of Iowa, where I grew up, has this as their slogan: ‘A Place to Grow’. But those places are being displaced by homes at a record pace. As interactors, you’re special ...
Bike Everywhere...If You Dare
May 20, 2022 23:59 - 22 minutesHello Interactors, Most people think roads were planned, designed, and built for cars, but that’s not true. They’re public spaces intended to bring social and economic benefit by increasing mobility. Economically they’re successful, but socially they not only are failing us…they’re killing us. As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an attentive community so I welcome your participation. Please leave your com...
City Maps and Scaling Math
May 14, 2022 06:37Hello Interactors, Cities are sprawling, the climate crisis is appalling, left and right are brawling, and politicians are stalling — leaving many in a corner bawling. It’s enough to lead some star-gazing billionaires to want to colonize space. But we planned for this with cunningly precise maps. Have we always been this dim? The evidence suggests yes and no, opinions vary on why, but scaling laws offer clues on calculating a plan. As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected...
Creepy Creeps Down Suburban Streets
May 06, 2022 23:57 - 26 minutesHello Interactors, Do you ever walk through a neighborhood and wonder where all the people are? It happened to me last weekend. What’s worse, it was a 1960s planned development that reminded me of the suburb where I grew up. I don’t remember the streets being this quiet, but maybe these planned communities were meant to be this way. Or maybe we’ve changed. Or both. As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an at...
The Synaptic Map of the Cartesian Trap
April 29, 2022 23:42 - 23 minutesHello Interactors, Beauty may be in eye of the beholder, but it’s also in the brain. We all seem to be drawn to balance, order, and predictable patterns which rulers, T-squares, protractors, and compasses have readily provided. It’s the stuff maps are made of. They’ve brought progress and good fortune to many over the centuries, but have they also lead to our decay? As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an a...
Dynamic Cartography
April 23, 2022 05:39 - 20 minutesHello Interactors, Last Sunday I ‘rabbit-holed’ on the origins of Easter. That led me to Passover, and then Ramadan. The origin stories all involve the movement of people, or their ephemeral equivalents, through space over time. And they all share a ‘common interest’ in one of the most ancient cities on the map — Jerusalem. Is there a map for that? As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an attentive community...
Cartography Gets Radical
April 16, 2022 05:53 - 26 minutesHello Interactors, I ran into a friend last week who shared a bit of neighborly news. A border dispute is brewing in our neighborhood and you can bet maps are soon to be weaponized. It’s nothing new in border disputes around the world, but do maps really lead to a shared understanding of people and their interaction with place? It may be time cartography gets radical. As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of a...
Maps Made to Persuade: Part 3
April 08, 2022 19:44 - 19 minutesHello Interactors, This post is part three of my three week experiment. I’ve divided my topic into three parts each taking a bit less time for you to read or listen to. They each can stand on their own, but hopefully come together to form a bigger picture. Please let me know what you think. Maps are such a big part of our daily lives that it’s easy to let them wash over us. But they’re also very powerful forms of communication that require our attention and scrutiny. If we don’t, we run th...
Maps Made to Persuade: Part 2
April 01, 2022 22:00 - 9 minutesHello Interactors, This post is part two of a three week experiment. I’ve divided my topic into three parts each taking a bit less time for you to read or listen to. They each can stand on their own, but hopefully come together to form a bigger picture. Please let me know what you think. Maps are such a big part of our daily lives that it’s easy to let them wash over us. But they’re also very powerful forms of communication that require our attention and scrutiny. If we don’t, we run the r...
Maps Made to Persuade: Part 1
March 25, 2022 18:51 - 30 minutesHello Interactors, This post is part of a three week experiment. I’ve divided my topic into three parts each taking a bit less time for you to read or listen. They each can stand on their own (maybe), but hopefully come together to form a bigger picture. Please let me know what you think. Maps are such a big part of our daily lives that it’s easy to let them wash over us. But they’re also very powerful forms of communication that require our attention and scrutiny. If we don’t, we run the ...
Migration: A 'My Nation' Fixation
March 19, 2022 00:58 - 27 minutesHello Interactors, This is the last week of winter. Next week I’ll start writing about cartography. Today’s post just may whet your appetite. All of the dislocation maps resulting from the war in Ukraine got me thinking about a pervasive human behavior; the ultimate interaction of people and place – migration. As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an attentive community so I welcome your participation. Plea...
Leave Polarization Behind, By Simply Being Kind
March 12, 2022 02:32 - 27 minutesHello Interactors, Wars, gas prices, eventual food and mineral shortages, inflation, a nagging pandemic, homelessness, immigration, migration, social and economic inequities, rising health prices, home prices, climate change, and natural disasters. What am I missing? Global society needs a hug but we’re all afraid to offer one. We need fixed, I believe, but we are fixed in what we believe. As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You...
The Empire; Fight Back
March 05, 2022 04:03 - 25 minutesHello Interactors, The 80s band Tears for Fears released a new album recently. Their biggest hit, Everybody Wants to Rule the World has new meaning this week. What is it about empire building sociopaths in the West and the East that makes everybody want them to stop trying to rule the world? As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an attentive community so I welcome your participation. Please leave your comme...
Sleepless and Homeless in Seattle
February 26, 2022 21:43 - 23 minutesHello Interactors, There’s talk of turning a nearby hotel into transitional housing for the homeless. Everyone agrees the county needs to address the homeless crisis, but they never imagined the solution would impact them. What is it about people that makes them reluctant to share their space with those who have been displaced and disgraced? As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an attentive community so I w...
Remote Work: a Cushy Perk or Just More Work
February 19, 2022 05:54 - 21 minutesHello Interactors, Hints of loosening COVID restrictions are wafting through the air like a contagious air-born disease. Does this mean people will be heading back to work? Some can’t wait, some would rather not, and others would love to have such a luxury to consider. Is remote work here to stay? And if so, are we sure it’s healthy? As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an attentive community so I welcome ...
What to Do with Eileen Gu
February 12, 2022 08:21 - 22 minutesHello Interactors, The Olympics are in full swing. I admit I’m staying up later than I probably should be, but I’m a sucker for the Olympics. Yes it’s strange seeing a white strip of snow down a brown windy hill or watching big air competitions against a dystopian industrial waste site, but hey, that’s Beijing! But maybe I’m being too judgmental. Surely there’s more than meets the eye. As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re ...
Telling Stories of Territories
February 05, 2022 01:25 - 19 minutesHello Interactors, While the media dwells on border disputes like Russia and Ukraine or Trump’s wall, COVID, climate change, and the global economy thumb their nose at territorial boundaries. Are these borders we obsess over even real or are they products of our imagination? As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an attentive community so I welcome your participation. Please leave your comments below or ...
Me, Myself, and I
January 29, 2022 01:10 - 23 minutesHello Interactors, We all intuitively feel the world is falling into selfishness, defensiveness, and pettishness. Me, my, and eye for an eye. If the words we see in the books we read are any indication, it’s not just intuition but fact. And the shift started right around 1980. As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an attentive community so I welcome your participation. Please leave your comments below or em...
A Not So Happy Anniversary
January 21, 2022 21:55 - 22 minutesHello Interactors, Two years ago yesterday, the first case of COVID-19 in the U.S. was reported just north of Seattle in Everett, Washington. By the end of the month, my town, Kirkland, became famous for more than just the brand of Costco toilet paper. It was the site of the first serious outbreak of COVID in the United States. How many more years will this last? It all depends on if we’re honest with each other and behave ourselves. As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected...
You Are What You Drive...If You Survive
January 14, 2022 23:03 - 25 minutesHello Interactors, Our family hit a snag in the transportation department last week. Our routine was disrupted making us scramble for remedies — including possibly needing a new car. It all came at a time when the state of Washington released its 2021 figures on automobile related deaths. It made me wonder and reflect on car dependency, the Covid funk, and the psychology of cars. As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also ...
Fear and Nostalgia; Altruism and Defiance
January 08, 2022 01:19 - 31 minutesHello Interactors, Welcome to 2022. Or, as my son likes to say, twenty-twenty also. Today we begin our winter journey through human behavior as it relates to the interaction of people and place. As we further divide, we seem to also be drifting apart. So I turned to one of our leading philanthropic philosophizing musicians, Bono, for the answer. As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an attentive community so...
Interplace 2021
December 31, 2021 21:33 - 20 minutesHello Interactors, The first year of Interplace is nearly complete. I want to thank everyone who supported me through 2021 by subscribing, reading, listening, commenting, and sharing. I also want to thank the London Writers’ Salon and all faithful writers who showed up on Zoom with me every morning at 8:00 Pacific time. It brought companionship, accountability, and miles of smiles. Evolutionary biologists call interactors the individual traits that are so uniquely beneficial that they lead...
Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, Your Story Has Many Branches
December 24, 2021 23:31 - 21 minutesHello Interactors, For all you Christmas celebrators out there, happy Christmas Eve. Since many will be gathering ‘round a Christmas tree, I thought I’d tell the story of its origin. And like so much of America history, it has ties to immigrants and slavery; but in this case — anti-slavery. As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an attentive community so I welcome your participation. Please leave your commen...
Cryptocurrency, Euro-insurgency, and Economic Urgency
December 18, 2021 01:27 - 26 minutesHello Interactors, This is the last full week of fall and so the last episode on economic geography. Happy early winter solstice everyone. Soon we in the North start tilting toward the sun. I’ve learned a ton this season and hope you have too. Today I conclude with a summarization of the history and effects of capitalism as we know it today and offer a glimpse at alternatives. We like easy answers to hard problems, but I’m here to tell you it’s messy and complex. And that’s just the good st...
Hoops, Groups, and Feedback Loops
December 11, 2021 01:10 - 24 minutesHello Interactors, The field of economics is stuck in the past. They need to move on, and they need to do it fast. Stop standing around, get in on the bustle. MOVE, MOVE, MOVE! HUSTLE, HUSTLE, HUSTLE! As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an attentive community so I welcome your participation. Please leave your comments below or email me directly. Now let’s go… BE ON THE VERGE TO SURGE I recently attende...
The ‘One Click Buy’ Empire Needs an Umpire
December 03, 2021 20:24 - 24 minutesHello Interactors, As the holiday season calls on us to shop online, it’s worth considering the cost. I’m not talking about the price of the item your mouse is hovering over, but the hidden cost of getting it delivered to your doorstep. As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an attentive community so I welcome your participation. Please leave your comments below or email me directly. Now let’s go… GETTING ...
The ‘One Click Buy’ Empire Needs an Umpire
December 03, 2021 20:24 - 24 minutesHello Interactors, As the holiday season calls on us to shop online, it’s worth considering the cost. I’m not talking about the price of the item your mouse is hovering over, but the hidden cost of getting it delivered to your doorstep. As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an attentive community so I welcome your participation. Please leave your comments below or email me directly. Now let’s go… GETTING H...
Black Friday and the Christmas Creep: Part 2
November 26, 2021 15:00 - 21 minutesHello Interactors, Today is Black Friday. It’s one of the most anticipated shopping days of the year. In Part 1 of this two part series, I talked about how the Christmas holiday season is rooted in consumption and classism. Its origins had little to nothing to do with Christianity, but everything to do with establishing social order. Black Friday is no different. As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an atte...
Black Friday and the Christmas Creep: Part 1
November 19, 2021 15:05 - 16 minutesHello Interactors, This is part one of a two part series on the role of economics in the holiday season. We’re a week away from Thanksgiving, but Christmas has already started to enter our lives. If it feels like it keeps creeping closer to Halloween, that’s because it is. Little did I know, it actually started out that way. As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an attentive community so I welcome your part...
Bond, Bezos, Gates, and Musk
November 13, 2021 02:54 - 23 minutesHello Interactors, Most of you probably heard about Bill Gates’ recent over the top 66th birthday celebration. The images conjured up visions of a Bond film. It got me thinking about Bezos and Musk and how they could easily be cast as villains in a Bond film. Maybe real-life really is stranger than fiction. Or maybe they’re one in the same. As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an attentive community so I w...
Supply Chain Pains as China Gains
November 05, 2021 20:36 - 23 minutesHello Interactors, It’s hard to miss news about global supply chain woes these days. Between Covid, natural disasters, and strained trade relations with China it seems unlikely we’ll see anything that looks like normal for some time. But companies aren’t waiting to find out. They’re taking matters into their own hands. Or so they think. As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an attentive community so I welc...
Hitler and the Capitalist's Fix
October 30, 2021 04:08 - 25 minutesHello Interactors, I was reminded that three years ago this week I was on a trip visiting remote Microsoft development centers overseas. Those trips afforded me the luxury of observing and understanding diverse geographies, societies, and economies. But it also drove home both the pleasure and pain imposing political and economic structures can bring. As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an attentive commu...
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
October 22, 2021 22:29 - 31 minutesHello Interactors, As the rain returns to the northwest it’s time to summon even more motivation to get outside for exercise. I established a bit of a fitness pattern this summer and I’m motivated to keep it up. But the rain isn’t the only thing holding me back, so is my body and my mind. As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an attentive community so I welcome your participation. Please leave your comments...
From a Shoe Lust Hit, to 'Just Do It'.
October 16, 2021 04:26 - 23 minutesHello Interactors, My wife and I took our daughter on a trip down Interstate 5 earlier this week so she could tour the University of Oregon. It’s a beautiful lush campus in a funky college town that is speckled with fancy new structures financed largely by Nike founder and alum, Phil Knight. Upon the completion of the new track stadium last year, his total contributions to the school is nearing one billion dollars. Where did it all come from? As interactors, you’re special individuals se...
Only a Nobody Walks in L.A.
October 10, 2021 02:11 - 22 minutesHello Interactors, I was stuck needing a car this week to meet a friend for coffee, but didn’t have access to one. So, I grabbed a bus and was there nearly as fast as a car would have taken me. That isn’t always the case, of course. The incident brought back some challenging memories of a time when I was suddenly carless in a region known for cars — Southern California. As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of...
Space Cadets and the Earthy Crunchies
October 02, 2021 00:05 - 26 minutesHello Interactors, Most people’s awareness of the economy starts with three letters: GDP. It seems every news report about the health of any nation starts with their GDP. And there is only one direction it can go for anyone to be satisfied and that is up. Even though we all know that as those numbers go up the health of our environment goes down. How did we get here? As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of a...
The Wealth of Generations
September 24, 2021 22:26 - 25 minutesHello Interactors, This week kicks off the fall series on economic geography. My introduction to economics started with a room full of giggling girls. Its founding began by exploring a common moral sympathy, but it has become anything but. This evolution has been relatively fast; occurring throughout the lives of a rural postman pioneer and his pioneering punch card punching son. As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also m...
Lay Dung; Feng Shui
September 18, 2021 04:40 - 26 minutesHello Interactors, This is the last post on the subject of physical geography. Starting next week and through the fall I’ll be digging into economic geography and how the interaction of people and place relates to inequality, instability, and sustainability of local and global economies. This final post of the season ushers in a windy wet fall by focusing on the forces of wind and water; and our sometimes intimate relationships with nature. As interactors, you’re special individuals self-...
Ditches, Wells, and Dams. Riches, Cartels, and Scams.
September 11, 2021 06:17 - 29 minutesHello Interactors, I’ve started to making my own milk again. It’s not really milk. It’s creamy colored water made from pulverized remains of nuts or grains that I sweeten with a little maple syrup. Invariably I get lazy and real dairy creeps back in. But every time I look at that carton, I know what’s inside didn’t come from that cute cow or that stylized farm on the label. And however it got here, I know it came at a cost greater than what I paid. As interactors, you’re special individual...
Calamity in Klamath
September 04, 2021 05:36 - 31 minutesHello Interactors, What a wild water filled week. From too much water coming too fast to not enough coming too slow, the United States is bearing witness to the schizophrenic behavior of an angry imbalanced ecosystem. Our mother earth isn’t the only one with schizophrenia. The United States, and other eco-wrecking countries, can’t decide if Indigenous people — the historical stewards of this planet — should be silenced and contained or begrudgingly ordained as the knowledge keepers and lead...
Charlie Watts and the Strange Attractor
August 27, 2021 23:10 - 31 minutesHello Interactors, I spent this week listening to my favorite Rolling Stones songs and fretting over whether democratic infighting in Washington would end our best, and perhaps only, hope of climate change legislation. I can’t get no satisfaction and my sympathy for the devil is wearing thin. I hate to be the beast of burden, but can somebody gimme shelter? As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an attentive ...
Solar Powered Imperialist Addictions
August 21, 2021 07:06 - 31 minutesHello Interactors, It’s been a troubling week in international news as we all watched Afghanistan unravel. That country has been through a lot over the last two decades and centuries; most of which is due to Western invasion and intervention. To make matters worse, the effects of climate change are compounding their problems. I hope we can learn how to better help, they’re going to need it. As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. Yo...
An Ancestor's Garden
August 13, 2021 23:13 - 22 minutesHello Interactors, This has been an eventful week, but also a week of more extreme heat and smoke. Just when climatologists warned of the certainty of more extreme weather patterns. I’m ready for fall and we’re barely halfway through summer. My plants are struggling too. Does anybody out there know how we’re going to adapt? As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an attentive community so I welcome your parti...
An Olympic Sized Metabolism
August 07, 2021 04:16 - 20 minutesHello Interactors, I’ve spent many a night this week watching the Olympics. I’m also trying to get back into running shape; which to me feels like training for the Olympics. It demands a lot of energy and patience, but also reaps a lot of rewards — like ice cream. But I’ve also been thinking back to the energy my family consumed flying across the country and then driving all over New England. We rarely give it a second thought, but we humans expend a lot of energy. And we’ve been doing more...