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KunstlerCast in the News
Articles and notable blog posts about the KunstlerCast
The podcast ‘prequel’ for those obsessed with S-Town
Stylist
June 1, 2017
In search of a new podcast?
If you devoured S-Town as soon as the episodes dropped in March (and you probably did – the show from the makers of Serial was downloaded an unprecedented 16 million times in the first week of release alone) you may be interested in an earlier series – one that John B McLemore himself was a fan of.
KunstlerCast is a show featuring author James Howard Kunstler, who was named in S-Town protagonist McLemore’s suicide note, and who discusses themes of suburbia, urban sprawl and American culture – all topics McLemore was interested in.
And Kunstler says the horologist used to contact him regularly, resulting in the author even trying to persuade him to move away from Woodstock, the place McLemore had dubbed S*** Town.
Podthoughts by Colin Marshall: The KunstlerCast
MaximumFun
May 20, 2012
If you wish to know more about precisely why Kunstler thinks suburbia sucks, allow me to suggest The KunstlerCast. Taking a more unusual form than it might at first seem, the podcast presents a weekly conversation — more formal than a two-sided gab session, but looser than an interview — between Kunstler and co-host Duncan Crary. Aside from the occasional field trip to real streets and malls and such, each episode has Crary asking Kunstler for his thoughts on a certain subject, be it a city he’s recently visited like, say, Portland; the work of another urbanist like, say, Jane Jacobs; or even the very definition terms as basic as “urban.” This may sound a tad technical or academic, but Kunstler, neither an academic nor a technician, seems constitutionally unsuited to letting conversations go dry. The man comes armed with judgments, often swift and harsh, about which cities he finds livable, which cities he finds hellish, and which cities he feels certain that energy crises will simply sweep away.
The Story Of Sprawl: How Cars Ate America (Video Review)
TreeHugger.com
Oct. 3, 2011
Jim Kunstler is an extremely funny man, and he is handed such a gift, commenting on Lewis Mumford’s 1939 film The City. I tried to watch it with Kunstler turned off (the default option, you have to change audio tracks to get the commentary) and it was unbearable. But turn on Kunstler and Duncan Crary’s commentary, and it becomes 31 minutes of fun.
Kunstler and Heinberg chew the peak oil fat
Transition Voice
Sept. 6, 2011
Kunstler’s friendly banter offers relief to the difficult subject while eliciting very personal remarks from Heinberg. It’s a rare opportunity to listen to the inner thoughts of these two post-petroleum sherpas.
The tragic comedy of suburban sprawl in audio
Evolution Green
Sept. 17, 2010
Jim is easy to listen to and certainly knows his stuff. If you are going to download an episode of the podcast to listen to, you may as well grab a couple as it is likely you will listen to them back to back.
My Parking Problem
Prairie Dog
March 25, 2010
One of the best points was raised by show host, Duncan Crary: when you build massive surface parking lots around box stores, the stores are so distant from one another people won’t walk between them and drive instead. You wind up with a situation where you have to double or triple your parking allotment because every shopper needs multiple spots just to get from store to store.
Do New Technologies Hinder Sustainability?
eOculus
Oct. 27, 2009
As design becomes more individualized, with technologies such as rapid prototyping and CNC laser cutting gaining in popularity, a recent discussion with James Howard Kunstler made me question the sustainability of technological advances. In KunstlerCast #85, “The last major renovation of Manhattan,” posted 10.22.09, he voices suspicion about what will happen to the new generation of buildings when they reach the end of their “design life.” He claims that high-tech buildings are made of exotic, modular materials fabricated with soon-to-be outdated technology. In the future, components will either be hard to get, unavailable, no longer made, or too expensive to repair. Buildings of this generation will not be able to be subjected to adaptive re-use.
Kunstler: LA Almost Completely Hopeless
Curbed LA
Sept. 28, 2009
James Kunstler came back, people. He came back to LA even though he thinks the city is hopeless and tragic and Kazakhstanish! In this week’s KunstlerCast, the anxiety attack-generating urbanist discusses his recent trip to Los Angeles, and can you believe he had one nice thing to say?
Can Prophets of Doom Awaken Us from Comfortable Lifestyles?
Ethics Daily
April 24, 2009
The person I have been reading and listening to lately is James Howard Kunstler. After reading his impressive fictional account of post-apocalyptic America called “A World Made by Hand,” I have been drawn into some of his other nonfiction works such as “The Long Emergency,” which discusses the history and dangers of our reliance upon peak oil; “The Geography of Nowhere,” a social commentary and criticism of suburban sprawl; and more recently, his weekly podcast with host Duncan Crary.
Technology and Planning
Plan2Plan
April 2009
Recently, Jim and Duncan fused two of the best internet-based technologies together to create a truly unique product: a virtual walking tour of Paris.
The two writers walk and talk listeners through Google’s Street View version of Paris.
Programming for pod people
Times Union
March 3, 2009
Kunstler and Crary are unlikely podcasters. Kunstler, for one, often warns of technology’s dubious benefits and our overdependence on its pleasures. And Crary, a 30-year-old former newspaper reporter, doesn’t own a television and still uses a rotary phone. He doesn’t even own an iPod.
The American Nightmare
Columbia Journalism Review
Oct 16, 2008
Two weeks after the bailout heard round the world, and with three weeks to go until one of the most anticipated presidential elections in American history, journalist-turned-novelist James Howard Kunstler’s got a lot to say. He loves sermonizing about the cause-effect relationship between suburban sprawl and everything from obesity to American dependence on oil. And he’s saying it all via the Web, through a weekly podcast that offers some of the smartest, most honest urban commentary around—online or off.
James Kunstler insists suburbs are done for
Writer airs views on gas, housing during locally-produced podcast
The Daily Gazette
July 27, 2008
This spring, Kunstler, who is probably best known for his 1993 book, “The Geography of Nowhere,” added a locally produced podcast to air his views. The KunstlerCast, as it’s been dubbed, lets him discuss everything from peak oil to “the end of suburbia.”
A funny tragedy
San Diego Union-Tribune
March 30, 2008
Author James Howard Kunstler is podcasting a funny weekly talk show about “the tragic comedy of suburban sprawl.
James Howard Kunstler Spares No One in New “KunstlerCast”
TreeHugger
March 29,2008
Billed as “a weekly conversation about the tragic comedy of suburban sprawl,” the KunstlerCast delivers the goods, with inspired rants on a variety of subjects related to American places (and non-places) and the coming peak oil reality.