Next City

Next City

Join Lucas Grindley, executive director at Next City, where we believe journalists have the power to amplify solutions and spread workable ideas. Each week Lucas will sit down with trailblazers to discuss urban issues that get overlooked. At the end of the day, it's all about focusing the world's attention on the good ideas that we hope will grow. Grab a seat from the bus, subway, light-rail, or whatever your transit-love may be and listen on the go as we spread solutions from one city to the Next City .

Episodes

How Your Nonprofit Can Use Research to Strengthen Impact

September 24, 2025 • 35 mins
The Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO) is partnering with nonprofits to uncover what works—and why. In this sponsored episode, we hear the stories of programs strengthened by evidence. Plus we meet the executive director of Corner to Corner in Nashville, Shana Berkeley, who is partnering with LEO to design research. Guest from the LEO team include researcher Patrick Turner and project development lead Fran Gallaghe...
Mark as Played
Transcript

A Federal Freeze Won’t Stop Green Progress

September 17, 2025 • 37 mins
Networks of financial institutions are pushing ahead with the green evolution of energy despite federal dollars in flux, as $20 billion from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund is locked in a legal battle. 
Mark as Played
Transcript

Alternative Models For Funding and Supporting Cultural Spaces and Workers

August 27, 2025 • 25 mins
Communities need spaces for art; you can't support art without supporting artists. We're talking with three leaders working on alternative models for sustainability.
Mark as Played
Transcript

The Fight for Freedom of Mobility in Black America

August 20, 2025 • 38 mins
Charles T. Brown, author of "Arrested Mobility," discusses why mobility is not afforded in the same way to everyone – and the dire cost of this inequity.
Mark as Played
Transcript

Heroic Oysters Are ‘Holding Back the Tide’

August 13, 2025 • 26 mins
New York was once the world’s oyster capital. The director of a new feature-length impressionist hybrid documentary, "Holding Back the Tide," traces the city’s many life cycles with the oyster as her main character. Emily Packer follows environmentalists restoring oysters to the harbor, while examining the oyster not only as entangled with nature, but also as a queer icon, with much to teach about our society’s continued survival. ...
Mark as Played
Transcript

Razing Liberty Square: On Writing the Playbook to Fight Gentrification

August 6, 2025 • 34 mins
The documentary "Razing Liberty Square” shows what happens in Miami as sea levels rise and the rich move inland, encroaching on residents of the Liberty Square public housing project. The film tells the story of a historically Black community faced with a $300-million-dollar “revitalization” of their neighborhood. In this episode, hear from a resident and climate activist, Valencia Gunder, who says she’s fighting a new form of raci...
Mark as Played
Transcript

'The Black Power Scorecard:' On Expanding Power and Lives

July 30, 2025 • 29 mins
Black power is more than symbolic. It’s a measurable reality tied to things like ownership, investment in neighborhoods, and—ultimately—life expectancy. 

In this episode with the authors of two new books—“The Black Power Scorecard” and “The Banks We Deserve”—Andre Perry and Oscar Perry Abello talk about systems that have historically failed communities of color and what it will take to build lasting institutions that truly serve the...
Mark as Played
Transcript

Revisiting Lexington - "This ‘Big Town’ Has Solutions for Cities Everywhere"

July 23, 2025 • 29 mins
This week, we’re revisiting an episode we released earlier this year, all about Lexington, Kentucky — a city where collaboration and creativity are transforming challenges into opportunities. In this episode, we highlighted how Lexington’s leaders are finding ways to foster nonpartisanship, boost civic engagement, and narrow the racial wealth gap.

We’re bringing this episode back now because it offers a window into the themes we exp...
Mark as Played
Transcript

Creating Common Ground: The Value of Public Parks

July 16, 2025 • 25 mins
The Trust for Public Land’s ParkScore® Index each year ranks the 100 largest U.S. cities on factors such as park access, investment, and equity. In this sponsored episode, we explore how cities have turned their ParkScore data into action—investing in green spaces to spark civic engagement and foster a genuine sense of belonging.
Mark as Played
Transcript

How Community Development Is Responding To This Crossroads

July 9, 2025 • 32 mins
Community development in America is at a pivotal moment. Long-standing federal programs that fuel homeownership, support small businesses, and promote neighborhood revitalization—especially in communities of color—are now under threat.

But on today's sponsored episode, we’ll hear how the people working on the front lines of equitable development are adapting, organizing, and doubling down on their missions. 

Guests on this episode in...
Mark as Played
Transcript

Not My Narrative – “The Bootstraps Narrative” (Pilot Episode)

June 25, 2025 • 39 mins
This week, we’re trying something new: instead of our usual Next City episode, we’re sharing the pilot for “Not My Narrative,” an experimental mini-series that not only debunks harmful myths holding back progress but also elevates the counter-narratives driving positive momentum.

In this debut episode of Not My Narrative, Host Lucas Grindley, Executive Director of Next City, takes listeners on an examination of one of America’s most...
Mark as Played
Transcript

Unlocking Housing Access: Why Tenant Screening Protections Matter

June 11, 2025 • 39 mins
In the U.S., approximately 3.6 million households are threatened by eviction each year, and for many, the consequences last long after the eviction itself. Even if individuals avoid losing their homes, eviction records can prevent them from securing future housing. This happens because landlords use tools that screen the rental, credit, employment, income and criminal histories of tenants—often without context or accuracy.

In this s...
Mark as Played
Transcript

The Evolution of the Queer Women’s Gathering Space?

June 4, 2025 • 32 mins
Back in the 1980s, there were more than 200 lesbian bars across the United States. By 2022, that number had shrunk to 21. This year, a group of friends in Brooklyn joined a recent resurgence of such queer spaces—and set it up as a worker-owned coop, to boot.

Boyfriend Co-op is part cocktail bar, part coffee shop, part workspace. Designed to feel like “a queer living room,” it’s all about ethical, sustainable practices—from its coope...
Mark as Played
Transcript

The Problem With Streets and Climate Disasters

May 21, 2025 • 21 mins
When fires swept through the wealthy L.A. enclave known as the Pacific Palisades, the images were chaotic: cars abandoned on Sunset Boulevard, people fleeing on foot. A bulldozer had to plow through the traffic just so firefighters could reach the flames.

Planners and researchers recognize the dangers of evacuating thousands at a moment’s notice and argue that our streets urgently need to be redesigned.

“In the event of a climate dis...
Mark as Played
Transcript

One Way to Ensure ‘Altadena Is Not For Sale’

May 14, 2025 • 36 mins
When the Eaton Fire tore through the Altadena neighborhood in January, many homes were lost. But also at risk was history, culture and community in a neighborhood known for its uniquely high Black homeownership rate. In the aftermath, as displaced residents were overwhelmed, private investors have swooped in, offering to buy up scorched lots for eye-popping amounts of cash.

It's Altadena versus disaster capitalists, and residents ha...
Mark as Played
Transcript

This “Unapologetically Black” Monument Is Already Changing Los Angeles

May 7, 2025 • 33 mins
In our fifth-ever episode of the Next City podcast, we spoke to Jason Foster of Destination Crenshaw, a monument to Black Los Angeles that had just broken ground. Four years later, that 1.3-mile monument to Black culture—set to be the largest Black public art project in America—has started transforming the city's Crenshaw corridor.

Construction is nearly complete on Sankofa Park, the project's “crown jewel,” which will feature 40,00...
Mark as Played
Transcript

The Quiet Engine for Affordable Housing in Red and Blue States

April 30, 2025 • 32 mins
The CDFI Fund is a proven driver of affordable housing in every state—red and blue alike. But now, this vital source of financing is at risk of federal cuts. In this episode, we highlight a project in Nashville, Tennessee, made possible by BlueHub Capital, a community development financial institution based in Massachusetts.

In today's episode, we speak to Oscar Perry Abello, the author of "The Banks We Deserve," and with Karen Kell...
Mark as Played
Transcript

What Happens When Wildfire Relief Inspires Too Many Donations

April 23, 2025 • 27 mins
When wildfires hit Los Angeles in January, people did what they always do in a crisis: They stepped in to help. And many of them donated clothes. Lots and lots of clothes. Volunteers were quickly overwhelmed as bags of clothes began piling up at relief centers.

“What happens is the help that's being offered actually clogs the ability for those cities and the community to help, because it's a mismatch of what the community and the ci...
Mark as Played
Transcript

The First Draft of Pandemic History

April 10, 2025 • 34 mins
Five years after the start of the COVID pandemic, we revisit journals from the nurses who lived through it. The stories are part of a first draft of history being remembered by the official Manhattan Borough Historian in his new book on New York’s essential workers, “When the City Stopped: Stories from New York's Essential Workers.” 
Mark as Played
Transcript

In Conversation with the Former NEA Chair on What’s Next for the Arts

April 2, 2025 • 30 mins
Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson is the former chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, having resigned when President Trump took office. She talks about how the arts are shaping urban policy, including by “healing, bridging and thriving” in communities. 
Mark as Played
Transcript

Popular Podcasts

    On Purpose with Jay Shetty

    On Purpose with Jay Shetty

    I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!

    Stuff You Should Know

    Stuff You Should Know

    If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

    The Joe Rogan Experience

    The Joe Rogan Experience

    The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.

    True Crime Tonight

    True Crime Tonight

    If you eat, sleep, and breathe true crime, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT is serving up your nightly fix. Five nights a week, KT STUDIOS & iHEART RADIO invite listeners to pull up a seat for an unfiltered look at the biggest cases making headlines, celebrity scandals, and the trials everyone is watching. With a mix of expert analysis, hot takes, and listener call-ins, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT goes beyond the headlines to uncover the twists, turns, and unanswered questions that keep us all obsessed—because, at TRUE CRIME TONIGHT, there’s a seat for everyone. Whether breaking down crime scene forensics, scrutinizing serial killers, or debating the most binge-worthy true crime docs, True Crime Tonight is the fresh, fast-paced, and slightly addictive home for true crime lovers.

    The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

    The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

    The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.

Advertise With Us
Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

Explore

iHeart

Live Radio

Podcasts

Artist Radio

Exclusives

News

Features

Events

Contests

Photos

Information

About

Advertise

Blog

Brand Guidelines

Contest Guidelines

Subscription Offers

Jobs

Get the App

Automotive

Home

Mobile

Wearables

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.