Who Killed the Starter Home?

Marina Rubina

Arts Design

Latest episode

50 episodes

Homelessness is a housing problem. Conversation with Gregg Colburn
30/1/2026 | 48 mins.
In this episode, I talk with Gregg Colburn about why homelessness is not just a personal tragedy, but a policy failure. Professor Colburn has done the research. If we want fewer people on the street, we must create more homes. It’s not rocket science. We’ve tried it, and it works.
If Lawmakers Won't Act, Voters Will. Conversation with Andrew Mikula.
23/1/2026 | 48 mins.
In this episode, I talk with Andrew Mikula, who is leading an effort to bring a ballot measure to voters in Massachusetts that would make it possible to create starter homes.

Their proposal doesn’t seem too radical: if you have a plot of land the size of an NBA basketball
court, or can create a lot of that size in an area with existing infrastructure, you should be allowed to build a home on it.

Andrew walks through how his team is approaching this process and what it says about the state of our government that it may be easier to win majority support from voters than to pass state legislation to do the same.
Stop Pretending All Solutions are Equal. Conversation with Luca Gattoni-Celli
16/1/2026 | 1h 10 mins.
In this episode, I speak with Luca Gattoni-Celli about why we can’t subsidize our way out of the housing crisis and how vacancy chains really work.

We also unpack two issues that feel permanent but are actually new: today’s homelessness crisis and the growing immobility of people who are being pushed away from opportunity because they can’t afford to live anywhere near it.
Avoiding Conflict Does Not Build Consensus, Conversation with Casey Anderson
09/1/2026 | 1h 4 mins.
In this episode I spoke with Casey Anderson who for 8 years chaired the Montgomery County Maryland Planning Board. I came across his recent article "What are planning hearings for?" where he talks about problems he saw that make our public engagement process so dysfunctional.

Casey offers suggestions, but we by no means came up with complete solutions. We hope that this is a start of the conversation.
Sustainability Starts With Flexibility. Conversation with Taizo Yamamoto
02/1/2026 | 55 mins.
In this episode, I spoke with Taizo Yamamoto, principal of Yamamoto Architects. They creating beautiful, sustainable housing in Vancouver. He shares how the flexibility of Vancouver’s zoning allows for innovative and green projects. I loved learning about mass timber structures and other ideas that could help create more sustainable buildings and vibrant neighborhoods.

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About Who Killed the Starter Home?

Have you seen any starter homes for sale lately? Neither have we. In this podcast, we speak with experts and try to figure out why this humble first home is going extinct. We’ll be exploring if it is the politicians, wielding zoning laws like a murder weapon who killed the starter home? Or maybe the scaredy-cat planners and designers? Or the developers, armed with cookie-cutter plans and corporate indifference? Is it our convoluted tax policy that subsidies homeownership, but puts every tax penalty in the way of creation of the starter homes. Spoiler alert: it’s probably a little of everything. We’ll be peeling back the layers of bureaucracy, bad faith, and bad planning, with stops along the way for affordable housing scandals, ADU success stories, and a passionate plea for building code updates. Join us for a conversation that’s part policy deep-dive, part therapy session for frustrated builders, and entirely a love letter to cities that deserve better.

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Arts Design