What 50 Interviews Taught Me About Community Action

What 50 Interviews Taught Me About Community Action

Author: Strong Towns November 11, 2025 Duration: 17:27
Strong Towns members are doing remarkable things in their communities, but none of it requires magic abilities. Norm shares what he's learned from 50 interviews — and explains how you can get involved. Additional Show Notes It's Member Week at Strong Towns! Join the movement by making a donation of any amount.

There’s a quiet shift happening in neighborhoods and city halls across the continent, a push to rethink what makes a place thrive. The Bottom-Up Revolution, from the team at Strong Towns and hosted by Tiffany Owens Reed, dives into that shift by sharing real stories from within the movement. Instead of grand top-down plans, this podcast focuses on the tangible, often overlooked work of everyday people who are rolling up their sleeves to foster economic resilience right where they live. Each conversation explores the practicalities-how someone identified a small, solvable problem in their community, the steps they took to rally their neighbors, and the challenges they faced turning an idea into reality. You’ll hear about the messiness of local advocacy, the importance of building connections to create lasting influence, and the personal lessons learned along the path to a stronger town. It’s a resource for anyone who believes change starts on their own street, offering not just inspiration but a sense of shared struggle and possibility. Tune in for a candid look at the grassroots work that’s quietly reshaping our cities and towns, one concrete action at a time.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

The Bottom-Up Revolution
Podcast Episodes
This City Councilor Is Making Cambridge Safer and More Affordable [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 39:03
Meet Burhan Azeem, a city councilor in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A graduate of MIT, he’s the youngest councilor in the city’s history and has a special focus on housing affordability and street safety. Burhan has success…
Bottom-Up Shorts: One Soldier’s Stand for Safer Streets [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 15:52
What happens when a city’s design puts lives at risk—and someone decides to speak up? In this episode, you’ll meet Army Master Sgt. Ben Hultquist, one of the leaders of Strong Towns Fayetteville, a Local Conversation in…
How Community Gardens Can Make Cities Stronger [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:40
Linda Appel Lipsius is the executive director of Denver Urban Gardens, where she supports a network of over 200 gardens and food forests that produce 650,000 pounds of food annually. She also helps launch initiatives to…
Bottom-Up Shorts: Giving People Better Transportation Options [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 19:46
Wendy Nash is the founder of Get Around Caboolture, a grassroots transportation initiative in Caboolture, Australia. She and Norm discuss the group's efforts to promote more transportation options, including hosting the…
Brandi Thompson: Driving Change Through Civic Empowerment [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:29
Brandi Thompson is the “accidental” co-founder and leader of Strong Towns ABQ, a Local Conversation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She’s lived in eight states and has worked as a rattlesnake wrangler, a grant writer, and a…
Alyssa Lee & Kay Crumb: How To Build a Thriving Advocacy Group [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 17:40
Alyssa Lee and Kay Crumb are leaders of Strong SacTown, one of the largest and most successful groups in the Strong Towns Local Conversations program. Based in Sacramento, California, the group has 140 engaged members, b…
Craig Cassar: How To Take a Holistic Approach to City Building [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:30
Craig Cassar is a first-term city councilor in Hamilton, Ontario. Prior to serving in public office, he acquired nearly 25 years of private sector leadership experience. Craig is a believer in the Strong Towns philosophy…
Bottom-Up Shorts: How To Remove Barriers to Good Housing Development [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 12:44
Jesse Russell is a small-scale developer and Strong Towns member from Bend, Oregon. He joins Norm to discuss the ways he’s helping create more attainable homes in his hometown. He also explains how he works with the comm…
Eric Higbee: How to Master the Art of Community Engagement [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 39:30
Eric Higbee is a landscape architect and writer who teaches university courses on community engagement at the University of Washington Department of Landscape Architecture. He works on community design and planning proje…