PREVIEW: The Cars of TikTok
The War on Cars
This is a preview of a . For complete access to this and all of our bonus content, plus ad-free versions of regular episodes, merch discounts, presale tickets to live shows, and more, . If you spend any time at all on social media, you’ve seen countless videos of all kinds of different people talking about all kinds of different things with one setting in common: the car. We got together in the studio with journalist and author Mathew Rodriguez to discuss the way cars have become our nation’s premier social media content studios—and all the weirdness that entails. We...
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Political Courage with Brad Lander
The War on Cars
Brad Lander has been a fixture in New York’s progressive political scene for nearly two decades now, and has earned a reputation as a strong advocate for bike lanes, bike share, driver accountability, and congestion pricing. This year, though, he’s become known in a new way. As a candidate in a crowded Democratic mayoral primary, Brad cross-endorsed Zohran Mamdani, who eventually won the race with a margin that shocked the Democratic establishment. And in June, mere days before the primary ended, Brad was escorting a man named out of an immigration hearing . Brad joins us to explain how...
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TEASER: Cars Drive Us Apart, Subway Takes Unite Us
The War on Cars
This is a preview of a . For complete access to this and all of our bonus content, plus ad-free versions of regular episodes, merch discounts, presale tickets to live shows, and more, . In this bonus episode, Doug and I discuss a couple of recent studies that look at just how destructive cars are to the social fabric of our communities, how they decrease life satisfaction, and how walkable neighborhoods with public gathering places are an important resources for combating the loneliness epidemic. As we often say, we have custom-built our communities for cars, in the name of...
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Should the Bus Be Free? With Yonah Freemark
The War on Cars
Should the bus be free? That’s the question everyone following the New York City mayoral race is asking, with Democratic primary winner Zohran Mamdani promising to focus on fast, free buses if he’s elected to City Hall. Eliminating bus fares is a big idea, but is it a good one? Like a lot of things in politics, there’s no simple answer. That’s why we asked Yonah Freemark — a researcher in cities, land use, and transportation at the Urban Institute — to walk us through the pros and cons of making the bus free for everyone. Whatever you think about it, the good news is that everyone...
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PREVIEW: We Know What We Read Last Summer
The War on Cars
This is a preview of a . For complete access to this and all of our bonus content, plus ad-free versions of regular episodes, merch discounts, presale tickets to live shows, and more, . While we were researching and writing last year, we read and pulled information from dozens upon dozens of books. There were also a handful of books that caught our attention but that, try as we might, didn't quite warrant inclusion in our own. In this Patreon exclusive, we talk about two of these books: "Road Safety: How to Reduce Accidents" by T.S. Skillman (1965) and an anthology called "He Rides...
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BUILDING SOLIDARITY WITH BICYCLES AT VELO-CITY
The War on Cars
At this year’s Velo-city conference in Gdansk, the theme was “Energizing Solidarity,” in honor of the city’s history as the cradle of the Solidarity labor movement that helped bring down Communism in Poland. Velo-city is an incredibly good-mood event put on each year by the European Cyclists’ Federation, where people come from all over the world to share best practices in urban cycling, and to connect with their fellow advocates, elected officials, and other members of the wider cycling community. Sarah talked with advocates, government officials, and researchers how bicycles...
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PREVIEW: Are Cyclists Too Mean Online?
The War on Cars
This is a preview of a . For complete access to this and all of our bonus content, plus ad-free versions of regular episodes, merch discounts, pre-sale tickets to live shows and more, . Are cyclists too mean online? To read some of the headlines about a recent study, you'd think the answer was yes. blared the headline in The Guardian. The subhead said that "toxic" online debates can make officials and other people in government reluctant to pursue cycling-related transportation projects. Adding one and one together, any reader would likely assume that it's those "forceful bike...
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What Makes a City a Cycling City?
The War on Cars
Why have some cities become places where it's easy to hop on a bike for daily transportation needs while others have languished or even been left behind? Is there some sort of magical combination of forces that separate the best cycling cities from basically everywhere else? Those are the questions asked by , a research project headed by Dr. Ruth Oldenziel, a Professor in The History of Technology at Eindhoven University of Technology. Nthoki Dorcas Nyamai, an Urban Development Researcher at International Planning Studies, TU Dortmund University, also joins us to talk about her research into...
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John Mulaney, Natasha Lyonne and the Battle of the Bike Lanes
The War on Cars
Recently, on an episode of the Netflix show Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney, the subject turned to bike lanes. Or rather, the subject was turned to bike lanes by Natasha Lyonne. The actress, writer, director and producer said that bike lanes should be “shut down” and claimed that there is no space for them in Manhattan. was on Everybody’s Live as a “public transit expert” to talk about Uber, but soon found herself — as a public-transit-riding Los Angeles resident — defending bike lanes and explaining the rational apportionment of urban space to some pretty famous New...
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TEASER: Live from Minneapolis!
The War on Cars
This is a preview of a . For complete access to this and all of our bonus content, plus ad-free versions of regular episodes, merch discounts, pre-sale tickets to live shows and more, . And don't miss our new book, now available for pre-sale wherever you purchase books. Enjoy this preview of our live show, recorded before a sold-out crowd at The Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis and presented by Our Streets on April 24th, 2025. Our guests included Minneapolis City Council member Robin Wonsley, State Representative Samantha Sencer-Mura, filmmaker D.A. Bullock, and John Edwards of...
info_outlineThis is a preview of a Patreon-exclusive bonus episode. For complete access to this and all of our bonus content, plus ad-free versions of regular episodes, merch discounts, presale tickets to live shows, and more, become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars.
If you spend any time at all on social media, you’ve seen countless videos of all kinds of different people talking about all kinds of different things with one setting in common: the car. We got together in the studio with journalist and author Mathew Rodriguez to discuss the way cars have become our nation’s premier social media content studios—and all the weirdness that entails.
We talked drive-thrus, “Who the F*** Did I Marry,” monetizing the school pickup line, and the way that cars have become the backdrop for the great unscrolling American self-documentation effort.
Become a Patreon supporter of the podcast for access to the entire episode.
Pre-order our new book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, coming in October from Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. And catch us on tour this fall and beyond. Tickets for live shows are on sale now!