The Power Broker #9: Majora Carter
20 September 2024 - 2 hours 32 minsThis is the ninth official episode, breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Power Broker by our hero Robert Caro.
This week, Roman Mars and Elliott Kalan sit down with Majora Carter, an urban revitalization strategist and real estate developer from the South Bronx. Growing up, she always viewed the neighborhood as a place she had to leave in order to find success. But as she got older, she began to undo some of Robert Moses’ legacy, like building Hunt’s Point Riverside Park along the Bronx River. She is a champion for bettering neighborhoods like the South Bronx, so that they are places where people want to remain—even when they have been ruined by a tyrant.
Elliott and Ro...
The Checkerboard
A single diagonal step on a map sparks a legal war with huge consequences.
38 mins
9 December Finished
U Is for Urbanism
How Jane Jacob's urbanism dreams came to life on the most beloved kids' TV block.
38 mins
2 December Finished
Constitution Breakdown #4: Janet Napolitano
This month, Roman and Elizabeth turn to Article Two, which establishes the executive branch, alongside former Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.
1 hour 22 mins
28 November Finished
Murderland
Writer Caroline Fraser argues a chilling link between industrial poison, deadly design, and a generation of serial killers in the Pacific Northwest.
27 mins
25 November Finished
The Moving Walkway Is Ending
People once dreamed of sidewalks that could whisk them across cities. Somehow, that dream ended up at the airport.
39 mins
18 November Finished
How to Write a Joke
Comedy writer Elliott Kalan (The Daily Show, The Flop House, Mystery Science Theater 3000, and co-host of the 99% Invisible Breakdown of The Power Broker) spills the secrets of how he grows jokes from tiny ideas into full-blown laughs.
31 mins
11 November Finished