Municipal Equation Podcast

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EP 52: Driverless Cars 2 Jun 26, 2018

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Let's catch up on driverless cars, shall we? Last year, we did a primer on autonomous vehicles and policy implications, but it seems like a lot can change in short time with this technology. What's the latest? How does the public feel about it? What are some example scenarios of how we as people might interact with autonomous vehicles in our day-to-day? Brooks Rainwater of the National League of Cities has the research and joins us to flesh it out. NLC report, "Autonomous Vehicles: Future Scenarios" http://avfutures.nlc.org/ Related news release https://www.nlc.org/article/how-will-autonomous-vehicles-revolutionize-cities Pew Research Center, "Americans' attitudes toward driverless cars" http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/10/04/americans-attitudes-toward-driverless-vehicles/ AAA, "More Americans Willing to Ride in Fully Self-Driving Cars" https://newsroom.aaa.com/2018/01/americans-willing-ride-fully-self-driving-cars/ Municipal Equation Episode 24: Autonomous Vehicles in Your City http://municipalequation.libsyn.com/ep-24-autonomous-vehicles-in-your-city 1971 film clip about driverless car https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ocvNxjN3dc

EP 51 - City Hall Beat Jun 12, 2018

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The local media landscape is pretty fluid right now: extinct or shrunken newspapers, online-only outlets, freshly grown media entities that may or may not be objective. What's all this mean for local government? Is a reliable, objective media purely about watchdog dynamics? What about when local government needs to get its messages out? What happens when the local government IS the news source? It's too big a topic to solve on a podcast episode, but it's worth the talk. Episode 44: Chief Storyteller - http://municipalequation.libsyn.com/ep-44-chief-storyteller Michael Grass, Route Fifty - https://www.govexec.com/voices/michael-grass/8755/ The Source - http://thesource.metro.net/2009/10/20/welcome-to-the-source/ By the Bay - http://bythebay.cool By the Bay featured in Editor and Publisher - https://www.editorandpublisher.com/columns/business-of-news-by-the-bay-dives-deep-to-explain-local-topics-and-elections/ Adweek coverage of The Source - https://www.adweek.com/digital/l-a-metro-launches-blog-local-transit-reporters-contribute/ "To Inform and to Serve," sampled on this episode - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT5DtcPAjZ8

Preview of Episode 51 Jun 05, 2018

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A preview of Episode 51.

EP 50: Talking Dialects May 15, 2018

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For our 50th episode, we're taking a break from the frequent talk of policy, economics and technology to tour the local dialects of the United States, the spoken identifiers of a city or region. Why do people in Chicago, or St. Louis, or the Outer Banks of North Carolina sound the way they do? What's in a voice? And what's happening that's changing those dialects or accents forever? Walt Wolfram and "Talkin' Tar Heel" - https://www.talkintarheel.com/index.php Edward McClelland and "How to Speak Midwestern" - http://edwardmcclelland.com/ Library of Congress, The Center for Applied Linguistics Collection - https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-english-dialect-recordings-from-the-center-for-applied-linguistics/about-this-collection/ Garden & Gun's Whole Hog podcast feat. Walt Wolfram - https://soundcloud.com/garden-and-gun-magazine/episode-5-a-trip-to-s-town-alabama CityLab, Edward McClelland, "Why City Accents are Fading in the Midwest" - https://www.citylab.com/life/2018/04/why-city-accents-are-fading-in-the-midwest/555152/ CityLab, "Techies Are Destroying Raleigh's Southern Accent" - https://www.citylab.com/life/2015/07/techies-have-destroyed-raleighs-southern-accent/399734/ Podcast Engineering Show, Session 91, feat. Ben Brown - https://podcastengineeringschool.com/ben-brown-pes-091/ Atlas Obscura, "How a Fake British Accent Took Hollywood by Storm" - https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-a-fake-british-accent-took-old-hollywood-by-storm Philadelphia Story scene - https://youtu.be/nH2DKZ-2m74

Preview of Episode 50 May 08, 2018

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A preview of Episode 50.

Episode 49: Bee Downtown (Rebroadcast with Updates) May 01, 2018

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***REBROADCAST with UPDATES*** We've all heard about the hard times that honeybees are going through and the huge implications for us all. But how do cities fit into all this? There's a surprising compatibility between cities and bees, and a role local governments can play. This episode comes just ahead of National Pollinator Week (June 19-25, though some honor it all month). To celebrate, we're joined by Bee Downtown, Bee City USA, and other voices covering the North Carolina cities of West Jefferson, Davidson, Asheville, Durham and beyond. Loads of trivia and insights on this one. Bee Downtown - http://beedowntown.org Bee City USA - http://www.beecityusa.org The Town of Davidson Becomes the 37th Bee City USA in the Nation - http://www.ci.davidson.nc.us/CivicSend/ViewMessage/message?id=33089 USDA Colony Collapse Disorder and Honey Bee Health Action Plan - https://www.ree.usda.gov/ree/news/CCD-HBH_Action_Plan_05-19-2015-Dated-FINAL.pdf Agriculture Research Service info on honeybee health - https://www.ars.usda.gov/oc/br/ccd/index/#public Skeptoid episode and transcript, "Colony Collapse Disorder: Science and Pseudoscience" - https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4524 Pollinator Week - http://pollinator.org/pollinatorweek/ News story, "A third of the nation's honeybee colonies died last year. Why you should care." - https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/05/26/third-nations-honeybee-colonies-died-last-year-why-you-should-care/348418001/

EP 48: Bridging the Urban-Rural Divide Apr 17, 2018

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Of all the political, economic and cultural concerns of today, the "urban-rural divide" is no slouch. But sometimes it's oversimplified, devoid of nuance, or turned into an adversarial narrative (i.e. "urban vs. rural"), instead of carefully analyzed for greater-good fixes. On this episode, we delve into a recent report that pulls apart that narrative and gives us a different way of looking at this "divide," and shows us how urban and rural may be more linked than one might think. Christiana McFarland of the National League of Cities joins us. NLC report, "Bridging the Urban-Rural Economic Divide" - https://www.nlc.org/resource/bridging-the-urban-rural-economic-divide Episode 36: Urban Cowboy 2, or Squashing 'Urban Vs. Rural' - http://municipalequation.libsyn.com/website/ep-36-urban-cowboy-2-or-squashing-urban-vs-rural

Preview of Episode 48 Apr 09, 2018

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Out on April 17. Thanks.

EP 47: Leaping the Digital Divide Apr 02, 2018

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The people say it's time to close the broadband gap, and really find a way to make internet speeds adequate for the modern age, for everyone, from areas in cities where the service isn't enough, to rural areas that lack access altogether. A new report shows us how to get there. On this episode, we hear from the report's authors along with state- and local-level leaders who endorse the plan as essential to connect residents with the gigabit pace of the world. Full report this episode was based on: https://www.nclm.org/broadband

Preview of Episode 47 Mar 26, 2018

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A preview of Episode 47. Look for it April 3.

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