Spaces Podcast

In this episode of SPACES, Joe Menchefski shares his journey from chemical engineering to sustainable design and highlights the importance of daylighting in architecture.

He discusses the challenges of glare and thermal discomfort in buildings, and explains innovative solutions like diffused glazing that enhances natural light while minimizing discomfort.

Joe identifies the health implications of natural versus artificial light, the ...

In this episode, Dimitrius breaks down why California housing costs are so high, exploring systemic drivers beyond just impact fees, contractor fees, and material prices.

He reflects of the 2026 California Governor candidates housing platforms, dives into policy and structural factors influencing housing costs, and shares insights from his new guidebook, Before You Build, offering valuable guidance for homeowners and builders alike.

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This episode of SPACES features David Sellers, Principal Architect and co-founder of Hawaii Off-Grid, a pioneering firm committed to designing only net-zero new buildings.

David shares his journey from Texas to Hawaii, detailing the experiences that shaped his commitment to sustainable architecture.

He discusses the evolution of off-grid architecture, the importance of net-zero buildings, and the innovative materials and technologies...

In this episode of SPACES, Dimitrius shares practical insights on avoiding common pitfalls in construction projects, emphasizing the importance of clear scope, accurate budgeting, strategic team assembly, and proactive planning to prevent costly reactive problem solving during construction.

If you enjoy our content, you can check out similar content from our fellow creators at Gābl Media.

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In this episode of SPACES, I learn how Vallist is revolutionizing office design by creating high-quality shared spaces that cater to modern work needs. Discover insights from expert Alex Passler.

In today’s rapidly evolving work environment, the design of office spaces is more crucial than ever. With the rise of hybrid work strategies, companies are reevaluating how their office spaces function.

Alex Passler, founder of Vallist, offe...

In this powerful season finale of Built to Divide, Dimitrius Lynch dismantles the myths that have kept America’s housing crisis misunderstood for decades. Drawing from personal experience, economic history, and policy analysis, the episode reveals how housing transformed from shelter into one of the most powerful vehicles for wealth extraction in modern society.

From restrictive zoning and financial deregulation to labor shifts, pol...

What if the future of America doesn’t resemble a democracy — but a modern form of feudalism?

In this gripping episode of Built to Divide, Dimitrius Lynch traces a chilling throughline from 19th-century “other-ism” to the emerging architecture of concentrated power shaping today’s housing markets, financial systems, and governance models.

Beginning with the displacement of Chinese and Japanese laborers and the weaponization of fear fo...

In this episode of Built to Divide, Dimitrius Lynch traces how crisis becomes opportunity — not for everyone, but for those positioned to acquire when others are forced to let go.

From psychological influence campaigns and the weaponization of belief to pandemic-era wealth acceleration, this episode reveals how instability reshapes ownership itself. Lynch connects redlining to modern rent burdens, shows how algorithmic pricing may b...

In this episode of Built to Divide we dissect the collision of NIMBY politics, Proposition 13 in California, environmental law, rising construction costs, and cultural status signaling that defined housing in the 2010s.

Dimitrius Lynch takes listeners inside the community meeting rooms where projects die quietly, tracing how California’s tax revolt rewired local incentives, how CEQA evolved from environmental shield to procedural w...

In this episode of Built to Divide, we pick up where the post-2008 housing machine left off—and show how the subscription economy (SaaS, streaming, “pay forever”) migrated into the built environment.

Dimitrius Lynch traces the privatization movement from Milton Friedman’s voucher logic and post–Brown v. Board backlash to modern power brokers like ALEC, corporate bill-writing, and the quiet reframing of citizens into customers.

Then ...

October 13, 2008: behind closed doors in Washington, the U.S. government forces Wall Street’s biggest banks to take rescue money—no opt-outs, no stigma, no time for debate. What follows isn’t just a bailout. It’s a quiet rewrite of capitalism: stabilize the banks first, let homeowners and workers fight for air.

Dimitrius Lynch traces how the TARP bailout, near-zero interest rates, and weak homeowner relief accelerated a new housing ...

What do a 1970 psychology experiment and the 2008 housing crash have in common? In Episode 6 of Built to Divide, Dimitrius Lynch traces how social identity theory—the instinct to form “us vs. them” groups—became a political weapon that helped sell a bipartisan push for mass homeownership, weaken skepticism, and pave the way for subprime mortgages, mortgage-backed securities (MBS), CDOs, and a crisis engineered by incentives.

We move...

In August 1971, Richard Nixon went on television and detonated the global financial system. By severing the U.S. dollar from gold, the Nixon Shock ended Bretton Woods, ushered in fiat money, and unleashed a new era of credit, speculation, and inequality. What followed wasn’t just inflation and currency volatility—it was a fundamental rewiring of housing, wealth, and power.

In this episode of Built to Divide, Dimitrius Lynch traces h...

In the summer heat of Birmingham, children faced police dogs and fire hoses. On a bus in Montgomery, a 15-year-old refused to stand. From Claudette Colvin to Rosa Parks, from Greensboro counters to the March on Washington—the Civil Rights Movement shook America awake. Yet, even as laws changed, maps and mortgages quietly redrew the lines of belonging.

In this episode of Built to Divide, Dimitrius Lynch tracks what happened after the...

What happens when the machinery of war is turned loose on the home front? In this episode of Built to Divide, host Dimitrius Lynch traces how the end of World War II, the GI Bill, and federal housing policy combined to build the largest middle-class expansion in U.S. history—while quietly deepening racial and economic division.

Beginning with the surrender in Tokyo Bay and the massive demobilization of Operation Magic Carpet, Lynch ...

At the dawn of the 20th century, American finance looked modern—telegraphs, syndicates, Wall Street empires—but it had no brakes. In this episode of Built to Divide, host Dimitrius Lynch follows the chain reaction from the Panic of 1907 to the creation of the Federal Reserve, revealing how crises, central banking, and policy choices concentrated power at the top and quietly reshaped who gets to own a home in America.

We move from J....

Why does housing in America feel so unattainable—and why does it seem designed that way? In this sweeping opening chapter of Built to Divide, host Dimitrius Lynch traces the origins of today’s housing affordability crisis back more than 100,000 years, revealing how our primal instincts around territory, ownership, and status have been shaped—and exploited—over millennia.

From the campfire rituals of early humans to feudal Europe’s e...

Built to Divide is a cinematic audio documentary that unearths how America’s homes became the front lines of inequality. From land giveaways to red lines, gated communities to algorithmic rent hikes—each episode reveals the forces that shaped not only where we live, but who gets to belong.

Guided by host Dimitrius Lynch Jr., an award-winning architect with a storyteller’s eye for systems and design, this series traces how policy, ps...

In this SPACES Recheck, we're revisiting a standout episode from the archive that you may have missed...

The incarcerated population has ballooned over the last 50 years and public attitudes have slowly shifted towards active pursuit of criminal justice reform. However, we can't forget about prison design itself. In this episode we highlight key points of criminal justice reform and discuss the evolution of prison design and potenti...