Who Killed the Starter Home?

This episode is a special one — our first recorded in front of a live audience on November 12th at the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority conference in Madison. I sat down with Elmer Moore, WHEDA’s executive director, to talk about re-imagining starter homes, the power of combining audacity with innovation, and how WHEDA is putting those words into action to make housing happen.    

In this episode, I talk with journalist Benjamin Schneider, author of The Unfinished Metropolis: Igniting the City-Building Revolution. We explore why cities need room to evolve and innovate, and how that mindset can help bring back starter homes and neighborhood-level creativity. We even dig into the question of where and why one would build an entirely new city and what is an "eco-district."

Every week, 75 to 100 churches close their doors. Some dilapidated buildings will slowly decay; others will become luxury condos with stained-glass windows. Our guest, pastor and property developer Mark Elsdon, isn’t waiting around. He’s building tools to help communities start early and grow something truly unique in God’s backyard — with patience, trust, and purpose.

I had so much fun speaking with Anthony Mattacchione and Raphael Kay.   They apply what they learned from slime mold to architecture and planning. This fascinating single-cell organism sends pulses through its body and can build efficient networks that resemble cities and transportation systems, only more resilient!   I learned that we need a bit of “individual stupidity” for bottom-up community design to work. And that digital twin-making for cities already exists! What are we going to learn from it?

This episode is a little different. I switch roles and speak with Alex Margulis, a Princeton student and inspiring thinker who is researching and writing about climate, housing, and the power of agency. We talk about why sustainability shouldn’t be driven by fear, how housing can be one of the most impactful climate solutions, and explore practical ways students can turn their advocacy into real impact.