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. Journalist Alissa Walker of Torched 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 Yorkers, all of them brilliant and talented. So why is it that otherwise intelligent people often say unintelligent things about bikes? Why do nearly all conversations about transportation, even one that’s not about bicycles, devolve into NIMBY-style complaints about cyclists? What can advocates learn from a conversation that, if you strip away the big stars and the studio audience, was indistinguishable from a community board meeting?

***Our new book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, will be published on October 21, 2025 by Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Pre-order now.***

Support The War on Cars on Patreon and receive exclusive access to ad-free versions of regular episodes, Patreon-only bonus content, Discord access, invitations to live events, merch discounts and free stickers!

This episode was produced with the generous support of the Helen & William Mazer Foundation.

This episode was also supported by Cleverhood. Listen to the episode for the latest discount on the best and most stylish rain gear for walking and cycling.

Learn more about how an electric cargo bike can change your life and save $500 off a new bike with code WARONCARS500 at Xtracycle.

LINKS: 

Support Alissa Walker’s outstanding journalism by becoming an annual subscriber to Torched… and save $10!

Follow Alissa on Instagram.

Read Doug Gordon’s take on the Everybody’s Live episode in Streetsblog.

Watch Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney on Netflix.

Read the reaction to the episode on Reddit.

thewaroncars.org / lifeaftercars.com

This 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, pre-sale tickets to live shows and more, become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars.

And don’t miss our new book, “Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile,” 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 Wedge Live.

Patreon subscribers can hear the entire episode. Sign up today and help support our independent podcast.

Charles T. Brown is a longtime friend of the podcast who was last with us in 2023. We welcomed him back to talk about his important new book, Arrested Mobility: Overcoming the Threat to Black Movement, out now from Island Press.

Charles is the founder and principal of Equitable Cities, a minority- and veteran-owned urban planning, public policy and research firm focused at the intersection of transportation, health and equity. He is also an adjunct professor at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. 

In Arrested Mobility, Charles applies his years of experience in the field to examine how what he calls “the four Ps”—policing, public policy, polity, and planning—come together to hold Black people back in fundamental ways, limiting their literal and figurative mobility. We talked about how to repair our cities, the importance of Black leadership, and what it truly means to “love thy neighbor”—as an urban planner and as a member of a community.

***Our new book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, will be published on October 21, 2025 by Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Pre-order now.***

Support The War on Cars on Patreon and receive exclusive access to ad-free versions of regular episodes, Patreon-only bonus content, Discord access, invitations to live events, merch discounts and free stickers!

This episode was produced with the generous support of the Helen & William Mazer Foundation.

This episode was also supported by Cleverhood. Listen to the episode for the latest discount on the best and most stylish rain gear for walking and cycling.

Learn more about how an electric cargo bike can change your life and save $500 off a new bike with code WARONCARS500 at Xtracycle.

LINKS: 

Buy Charles T. Brown’s book, Arrested Mobility: Overcoming the Threat to Black Movement, at our Bookshop page.

Check out Charles’s Arrested Mobility podcast and find out more about his work.

thewaroncars.org / lifeaftercars.com

NOTE: This episode was originally released as a Patreon-exclusive bonus. For more episodes like this, please join The War on Cars on Patreon. We’re an independent podcast and rely on listener support. Thanks!

Marco te Brömmelstroet, also known as “The Fietsprofessor,” returns to The War on Cars to discuss a new study he co-authored with Dr. Ian Walker, another former guest of the podcast. The study takes a look at a phenomenon where people accept the harms and risks associated with cars in ways they wouldn’t in other areas of life. But unlike Dr. Walker’s previoius study — and that of Dr. Tara Goddard, another friend of The War on Cars — this new study asks where motonormativity comes from and examines the ways in which it manifests itself differently depending on factors such as where a person lives or their perceptions of the beliefs of their friends and family. The results are fascinating.

Marco also studies language and how it affects people’s perceptions of mobility and had a lot to say about how we can tell better stories about who and what our streets are for.

***Our new book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, will be published on October 21, 2025 by Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Pre-order now.***

This episode was produced with the generous support of the Helen & William Mazer Foundation.

This episode was also supported by Cleverhood.

Save 15% on the amazing Arclight Pedals and everything from Redshift Sports with code WARONCARS at checkout.

LINKS:

• “Why Do Cars Get a Free Ride? The social-ecological roots of motonormativity,” a study by Marco te Brömmelstroet and Ian Walker.
• Read Marco’s book, “Movement: How to Take Back Our Streets and Transform Our Lives,” co-authored with journalist Thalia Verkade.
• Follow the Urban Cycling Institute on Bluesky.

thewaroncars.org / lifeaftercars.com

“Why are so many trans people into urban planning?” That’s the question independent journalist and co-host of the Cancel Me, Daddy podcast Katelyn Burns asked her Bluesky followers, and she got an overwhelming response. 

Katelyn wrote up some of those answers in a recent piece on The Flytrap, the feminist media outlet she recently co-founded and launched. It’s a thought-provoking read. We talked with Katelyn about the safety that trans people can find in dense cities, the “trans on trains” meme, and what the game Cities: Skylines has to do with all of this. And she discusses how the trans perspective can illuminate problems and solutions within urban systems.

You can find the full transcript of this episode here.

***Our new book, Life After Cars, will be published on October 21, 2025 by Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Pre-order now.

Support The War on Cars on Patreon and receive exclusive access to ad-free versions of regular episodes, Patreon-only bonus content, Discord access, invitations to live events, merch discounts and free stickers!

This episode was produced with the generous support of the Helen & William Mazer Foundation.

This episode was also supported by Cleverhood. Listen to the episode for the latest discount on the best and most stylish rain gear for walking and cycling.

Save 15% on the amazing Arclight Pedals and everything from Redshift Sports with code WARONCARS at checkout.

LINKS:

Read and subscribe to The Flytrap.

Check out Katelyn’s piece on how you can tell that cities are designed for (and by) men.

Find Katelyn Burns on Bluesky.

Listen to the Cancel Me Daddy podcast.

thewaroncars.org / lifeaftercars.com

Protesters at a Tesla showroom in Gowanus, March 8, 2025.

This 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, pre-sale tickets to live shows and more, become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars.

This is an excerpt from our interview with Ed Niedermeyer, the author of Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors. Ed has been writing about Elon Musk for years, and he’s been one of the billionaire’s most astute critics since way back.

We talked with Ed for our recent episode “Inside the Tesla Takedown Movement,” about his involvement with the protest movement that has sprung up around the country at Tesla showrooms, targeting the destructive alliance between Musk and Donald Trump. Ed believes the protests are quite possibly the most effective tool we have right now to diminish Musk’s influence and power, and to counter the Trump regime.

Subscribe on Patreon for access to the entire episode.

Since early February, a protest phenomenon has been building steadily across the United States, springing up at scores of Tesla dealerships from coast to coast. Organizers call it Tesla Takedown. It’s remarkable in part because in today’s United States, we have engineered an environment that prioritizes automotive convenience and speed—and in the process deadens civic life and makes protest difficult. So it’s ironic that Tesla dealerships, many of them located in the worst kind of automotive sprawl, have emerged as crucial nodes in a decentralized network of resistance to Elon Musk and Donald Trump. 

In this episode, we talk to participants and organizers about what is motivating them. We also caught up with  journalist Ed Niedermeyer, return guest of The War on Cars and author of Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors, about what effect this could have on Tesla’s bottom line, and why it’s an effective tactic to weaken the hold that the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has on the United States government.

Note: This episode was recorded before the huge Hands Off protests of April 5th, 2025. Clearly, American protesters are starting to find their voice, and their space.

You can find the full transcript of this episode here.

*** Support The War on Cars on Patreon and receive exclusive access to ad-free versions of regular episodes, Patreon-only bonus content, Discord access, invitations to live events, merch discounts and free stickers! ***

This episode was produced with the generous support of the Helen & William Mazer Foundation.

This episode was also supported by Cleverhood. Listen to the episode for the latest discount on the best and most stylish rain gear for walking and cycling.

Save 15% on the amazing Arclight Pedals and everything from Redshift Sports with code WARONCARS at checkout.

LINKS:

Find a #TeslaTakedown protest near you.

Check out Ed Niedermeyer’s Autonocast podcast.

Pick up official podcast tees and other merch in our online store. 

This episode was edited by Ali Lemer. It was recorded by Justin Fernandez at the Brooklyn Podcasting Studio. Our theme music is by Nathaniel Goodyear. Transcriptions are by Russell Gragg. 

TheWarOnCars.org

This 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, pre-sale tickets to live shows and more, become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars.

You may remember Marco te Brömmelstroet, also known as “The Fietsprofessor,” from episode 65, “Where Are the Bike Lanes In Lego City?”  Marco returns for this special bonus episode to discuss a new study he co-authored with Dr. Ian Walker, another former guest of the podcast.

The study, “Why Do Cars Get a Free Ride? The social-ecological roots of motonormativity,” takes a look at a phenomenon where people accept the harms and risks associated with cars in ways they wouldn’t in other areas of life and asks where motonormativity comes from and examines the ways in which it manifests itself differently depending on factors such as where a person lives or their perceptions of the beliefs of their friends and family. The results are fascinating.

Marco te Brömmelstroet holds the Chair on Urban Mobility Futures at the University of Amsterdam. He is the founding academic director of the Urban Cycling Institute and uses Dutch cycling culture as a lens to study the two-way relations between mobility, the city and society. He also the co-author, with journalist Thalia Verkade, of an excellent book, “Movement: How to Take Back Our Streets and Transform Our Lives,” which challenges readers to radically rethink how we use public spaces and even the language to describe the change we want to see in the world.

Subscribe on Patreon for access to the entire episode.

Trump’s on-again-off-again tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico are causing chaos across the entire economy, but they’re hitting the auto industry especially hard. The big three U.S. automakers rely on an integrated supply and manufacturing process that sees raw materials and parts crossing international borders multiple times before each finished car rolls off the assembly line. The tariffs come at a time when the cost of car ownership is already sky-high, and when trying to find an affordable sedan from a domestic manufacturer is essentially impossible. David Zipper, a Senior Fellow at the MIT Mobility Initiative, returns to the podcast to discuss the effects Trump’s economic “policies” (if you can call them that) are having on one of the nation’s most important industries. Needless to say, this isn’t how anyone should want to win the war on cars.

*** Support The War on Cars on Patreon and receive exclusive access to ad-free versions of regular episodes, Patreon-only bonus content, Discord access, invitations to live events, merch discounts and free stickers! ***

This episode was produced with support from the Helen and William Mazer Foundation and Cleverhood. Listen to the episode for the latest discount on the best and most stylish rain gear for walking and cycling.

Save 15% on the amazing Arclight Pedals and everything from Redshift Sports with code WARONCARS at checkout.

LINKS:

• Learn more about David and read his writing at DavidZipper.com.
• “Detroit killed the sedan. Trump’s trade war will make them wish they hadn’t” (David in Fast Company)
• “Why car companies should fear the golf cart” (David in Fast Company)
• “One of the Biggest Victims of Trump’s Metals Tariffs: The Ford F-150” (WSJ)
• “Dealer Tells Fox Business ‘Nobody Is Gonna Buy’ Trucks Thanks to Tariffs”(Motor1.com)

Pick up official podcast tees and other merch in our official store. 

This episode was edited by Doug Gordon. It was recorded by Josh Wilcox at the Brooklyn Podcasting Studio. Our theme music is by Nathaniel Goodyear. Transcriptions are by Russell Gragg. 

TheWarOnCars.org

Laura Laker exploring the infrastructure of the UK’s National Cycle Network. Photo courtesy of Laura Laker.

Laura Laker is a London-based freelance journalist who specializes in writing about cycling and urban transport. We talked with her about the year she spent riding around Britain on the United Kingdom’s 13,000-mile National Cycle Network—an enlightening and often hilarious odyssey that she documents in her first book, Potholes and Pavements: A Bumpy Ride on Britain’s National Cycle Network. We also got into her work in formulating and promoting the UK’s first Road Collision Reporting Guidelines, which detail best practices for the media and planning professionals to talk about road crashes and their prevention. 

You can find the full transcript of this episode here.

*** Support The War on Cars on Patreon and receive exclusive access to ad-free versions of regular episodes, Patreon-only bonus content, invitations to live events, merch discounts and free stickers! ***

This episode was produced with support from the Helen and William Mazer Foundation and Cleverhood. Listen to the episode for the latest discount on the best and most stylish rain gear for walking and cycling.

Save 15% on everything from Redshift Sports, including the amazing Arclight pedals, with code WARONCARS. Use this link for access.

LINKS:

• Find out more about Laura Laker’s work.
• Buy Laura’s book, Potholes and Pavements: A Bumpy Ride on Britain’s National Cycle Network, at our official Bookshop.org page.
• Check out the Road Collision Reporting Guidelines that Laura helped write.
• Learn more about the UK’s National Cycle Network and Sustrans, the nonprofit that promotes and maintains it.

Pick up official podcast tees and other merch in our official store. 

This episode was edited by Ali Lemer. It was recorded by Josh Wilcox at the Brooklyn Podcasting Studio. Our theme music is by Nathaniel Goodyear. Transcriptions are by Russell Gragg. 

TheWarOnCars.org