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Category Archives: Notebook on Cities and Culture

Notebook on Cities and Culture S2E22: Uncaptive Rider with Jarrett Walker

Colin Marshall sits down in southeast Portland with Jarrett Walker, public transit consultant and author of the blogs Human Transit and Creature of the Shade as well as the book Human Transit: How Clearer Thinking About Public Transit Can Enrich Our Communities and Our Lives. They discuss how Portland “turned the battleship” toward sustainable transport in that least likely of all […]

Notebook on Cities and Culture S2E21: Grittiness and Heart with Kevin Sampsell

Colin Marshall sits down in Portland’s Montavilla with Kevin Sampsell, publisher of Future Tense Books, editor of Portland Noir, and author of the memoir A Common Pornography and the novel This is Between Us, forthcoming from Tin House. They discuss the meth crime to be found beyond 82nd Avenue; Portland from the vantage point of […]

Notebook on Cities and Culture S2E20: Conservatively Progressive with Carl Abbott

Colin Marshall sits down at Portland State University with Carl Abbott, professor there of urban studies and planning and author of Portland in Three Centuries: The Place and the People. They discuss the debate over Portland’s status as a “small city” or a “big town”; the distinctive ease of making connections in the city; how […]

Notebook on Cities and Culture S2E19: Small Town Cop with Matt Haughey

Colin Marshall sits down in Portland’s Slabtown with Matt Haughey, founder of MetaFilter, the most civilized community on the internet, co-founder of Fuelly, and creator of several other sites as well. They discuss his escape from San Francisco’s “goofball startup culture”; what it means for MetaFilter to be “civilized”; his desire not simply to create […]

Notebook on Cities and Culture S2E18: 200% Happier with Mia Birk

Colin Marshall sits down in southeast Portland with Mia Birk, author of Joyride: Pedaling Toward a Healthier Future and President of Alta Planning + Design, which strives to make biking, walking, and mass transit an integral part of daily life. The discuss exactly how much happier he would have been riding a bicycle to the […]

Notebook on Cities and Culture S2E17: Grueling Whittling with Mike Russell

Colin Marshall sits down in northwest Portland with comic artist and film critic Mike Russell, co-host on the Cort and Fatboy podcast, creator of Culturepulp, Mr. Do and Mr. Don’t, The Sabertooth Vampire, and more. They discuss the excruciating process of drawing an interview; his adaptation of a page of David Foster Wallace’s “Up, Simba”; […]

Notebook on Cities and Culture S2E16: Reality’s More Interesting with Thom Andersen

Colin Marshall sits down in Silver Lake with Thom Andersen, professor at the California Institute of the Arts’ School of Film/Video and director of films including Red Hollywood, the new Reconversion, and the well-known documentary Los Angeles Plays Itself, on the truth and falsity of the city’s representation in motion pictures. They discuss The Fast […]

Notebook on Cities and Culture S2E15: Places are People with Ben Casnocha

Colin Marshall sits down in San Francisco’s South Beach with entrepreneur, author, blogger, traveler, and learner Ben Casnocha. His latest book, co-written with Reid Hoffman, chairman of LinkedIn, is The Start-Up of You. They discuss the advantages of hanging an IKEA world map on the wall; his ten days of silent meditation and the feeling of enlarged […]

Notebook on Cities and Culture S2E14: Next Year, Jerusalem with Peter Orner

Colin Marshall sits down in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights with Peter Orner, author of the novels Love and Shame and Love and The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo and the short story collection Esther Stories as well as co-editor of the nonfiction collections Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives and Hope Deferred: Narratives of Zimbabwean Lives. They discuss […]

Notebook on Cities and Culture S2E13: Greatly Great Music with Cariwyl Hebert

Colin Marshall sits down in San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Gardens with Cariwyl Hebert, founder of the community-based classical music appreciation society Salon97. They discuss New Yorker classical music critic Alex Ross’ hatred of “classical music”; her project of pretension removal and safe-place creation; how she identified a need in the way her work in classical music […]