In the spring of 2021, War on Cars co-host Aaron Naparstek started noticing lots of big loud muscle cars rumbling around New York City emblazoned with Instagram accounts. He began following cars on social media, immersing himself in a world of burnouts, donuts, street races, and takeovers. What happens when car culture meets social media and a city’s street network becomes the infrastructure for thousands of clout-seeking muscle car enthusiasts’ social network? To find out, Aaron brought The War on Cars to New York City’s “biggest, craziest car meet” of the year. 

This is the second of a three-part series. You might want to listen to Part 1, “Welcome to Muscle Car City,” before you listen to this.

You can find the full transcript of this episode here.

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This episode is sponsored by Cleverhood. Receive 15% off anything in the Cleverhood store using the special coupon code in this episode. Good for a limited time only! 

Support The War on Cars on Patreon and receive exclusive access to ad-free bonus content.

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***This is a preview of a Patreon-exclusive, ad-free bonus episode. Become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars for access to this and all of our bonus content. As thanks, we’ll send you stickers!***

Advice columnist and activist Dan Savage was our guest for episode 95, “Make Love Not Cars with Dan Savage.” We had some fun side conversations that didn’t make their way into the final edit so we’re presenting them here for our Patreon supporters. Hear Dan’s thoughts on driving in Los Angeles and how he feels about the rise of e-bikes. Subscribe for access!

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***This is a preview of a Patreon-exclusive, ad-free bonus episode. Become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars for access to this and all of our exclusive ad-free bonus content. As thanks, we’ll send you stickers!***

Major League Soccer player Tesho Akindele, a star forward who most recently played for the Orlando City Soccer Club, is also an outspoken urbanist who has used his social media presence to promote walkability, bikeability, density and affordable housing to sports fans in Florida, across the country and around the world. In this ad-free bonus episode just for Patreon supporters, Tesho talks about his journey to the soccer field, his first exposure to War-on-Cars-adjacent issues and his favorite neighborhoods in Orlando and the US. He also offers some thoughts on why cars are such potent status symbols among his fellow pro athletes.

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Dan Savage, the writer and activist behind the long-running advice column Savage Love, does not have a driver’s license. In fact, he pretty much hates cars. Dan tells us what the early days of ACT UP and the fight for marriage equality can teach other social movements, including the worldwide movement against car dominance. Ever the advice columnist, Dan answers real questions from listeners. If we win the war on cars, where will teenagers go to get it on? Why do drivers frequently scream homophobic slurs at cyclists? And what’s the relationship between polyamory and having too many bikes?

You can find the full transcript of this episode here.

This episode is sponsored by Cleverhood. Receive 15% off anything in the Cleverhood store using the coupon code in the episode. Thanks also to Transit Center. Listen to their new podcast, High Frequency, wherever you get your podcasts.

***Support The War on Cars on Patreon and receive exclusive access to ad-free bonus content.***

LINKS:

Learn more about Dan Savage.

Read Savage Love in The Stranger.

Listen to Dan’s podcast, Savage Lovecast.

Buy The Committment by Dan Savage and other books by podcast guests in our official Bookshop.org store.

Follow and review The War on Cars on Apple Podcasts. It really does help people find us!

This episode was recorded by Josh Wilcox at the Brooklyn Podcasting Studio. It was edited by Ali Lemer. Our theme music is by Nathaniel Goodyear. Our logo was created by Dani Finkel of Crucial D Designs.

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Jonathon Stalls doesn’t approach the streetscape as a planner or as a journalist or as a politician. He approaches it — and this is his term — as a “walking artist.” Jonathan is the Denver-based author of a new book called Walk: Slow Down, Wake Up, and Connect at 1-3 Miles per Hour. For years, he has been leading urban walking excursions that have included planners and elected officials, inviting them to feel for themselves what it’s like to walk the car-centric streets of the communities they serve. Sarah spoke with Jonathon about his book, his Pedestrian Dignity project, which connects with people around the country on social media platforms, and about a shared passion for helping others explore the world outside the confines of the metal boxes known as cars.

You can find the full transcript of this episode here.

LINKS:

Visit Jonathon’s website to connect with him on social media and find out more about the work that he does.

Buy Walk and books by other podcast guests at Bookshop.org.

This episode is sponsored by the ModeShift podcast from PostScript media, and by Cleverhood.

Support The War on Cars on Patreon for exclusive access to ad-free bonus content and fun stickers!

Grab some official War on Cars merch at our store.

Follow and review us on Apple Podcasts. It helps people find us.

This episode was produced, recorded and edited by Sarah Goodyear. Our theme music is by Nathaniel Goodyear. Our logo is by Dani Finkel of Crucial D Designs.

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Late last summer, Doug headed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and decided to see if anything bikey was going on. As luck would have it, a kids’ ride organized by local advocates was scheduled for the same weekend he was there. You’ve heard of a pub crawl? This was a playground crawl that took parents, caregivers and kids from one park to another using a combination of city streets and separated trails. In this episode, we hear directly from the tireless volunteers and advocates working to make Milwaukee better for bicycling. Events like this are where the rubber meets the road, literally and figuratively, when it comes to building the kinds of connections and culture that leads to a safer city for people who aren’t in cars.

You can find the full transcript of this episode here.

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Tickets are on sale now for The War on Cars LIVE at Caveat on Tuesday, November 1st @ 7 PM.

This episode is sponsored by Cleverhood. For 20% off anything in the Cleverhood store, listen for the special coupon code in this episode. Good for a limited time only!

Support The War on Cars on Patreon for exclusive access to ad-free bonus content and fun stickers!

LINKS:

Enjoy Milwaukee’s Oak Leaf Trail and Hank Aaron Trail.

Grab some official War on Cars merch at our store.

Follow and review us on Apple Podcasts. It helps people find us.

This episode was produced, recorded and edited by Doug Gordon. Our theme music is by Nathaniel Goodyear. Our logo is by Dani Finkel of Crucial D Designs.

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You see a lot of muscle cars on New York City streets these days. And with their modified mufflers and overpowered engines, you hear them too. Co-host Aaron Naparstek began noticing that a lot of the muscle cars he was seeing around town had stickers on them with the names of car clubs and their own Instagram accounts. He was intrigued. The Instagram account was, after all, an invitation to see inside the car — to pierce that bubble of privacy and anonymity that lets drivers get away with so much. So, Aaron began following muscle cars on social media. Pretty soon, he was immersed in New York City’s underground car club scene. And his once-sedate Instagram feed was transformed into a barrage of burnouts, donuts, takeovers, car meets, and crashes. Then Aaron decided he wanted to do more than just watch on his phone. He wanted to bring The War on Cars to the biggest car club event of the summer. If you thought Driving Under the Influence was a problem, wait until you meet the guys who are Driving to Become Influencers.

You can find the full transcript of this episode here.

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Tickets are on sale now for War on Cars LIVE at Caveat on Tuesday, November 1 @ 7 PM. 

This episode is sponsored by Cleverhood. Receive 20% off anything in the Cleverhood store using the special coupon code in this episode. Good for a limited time only! 

Support The War on Cars on Patreon and receive exclusive access to ad-free bonus content.

Read More

Summer is over, but honking season is just getting started. After a short delay — due to circumstances described in this episode — The War on Cars is back to celebrate our fourth anniversary and describe why the show’s title seems to be in the news a lot these days, partly thanks to one U.S. Congresswoman. The hosts also catch up with each other and provide updates on what we did on our summer vacations, including treks through idyllic European landscapes, e-scooter rides in Charlottesville, and a visit to the Most Magical Place on Earth. Plus, as New York debates a plan to toll drivers entering Manhattan, what will the success or failure of congestion pricing mean for transportation in other cities across the United States.

You can find the full transcript of this episode here.

This episode is sponsored by Radpower Bikes and Cleverhood.

Support The War on Cars on Patreon and receive exclusive access to ad-free bonus content.

LINKS:

Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) really thinks there’s a war on cars. (YouTube)

Randall O’Toole thinks we should give up the war on cars. (Colorado Springs Gazette)

In Canada, the suburbs strike back against the war on cars. (Financial Post)

This British columnist thinks the war on cars is a war on ordinary people. (Spiked)

Pick up official War on Cars merch at our store.

Follow and review us on Apple Podcasts. It helps people find us.

This episode was recorded by Josh Wilcox at the Brooklyn Podcasting Studio and edited by Ali Lemer. Our theme music is by Nathaniel Goodyear. Our logo is by Dani Finkel of Crucial D Designs.

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Photo: Dmitry Gudkov

Our first episode of the month is running late so here’s a bonus from earlier this year to tide you over. We’ll be back soon!

It’s kind of hard to pin George Hahn down. He’s a fashion icon, design aficionado, actor, social media star and a fearless defender of cities. The man the New York Times calls an “urban raconteur” joins The War on Cars to talk about efficient living by bicycle, how driving into a densely populated area is a loser’s game and why giant SUVs need to be decoupled from conventional notions of masculinity.

You can find the full transcript of this episode here.

***Support The War on Cars on Patreon for access to more bonus content like this.***

LINKS:

Learn more about George Hahn and follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

“How George Hahn, Urban Raconteur, Spends His Sundays.” (New York Times)

George to motorists: “Stop driving your car in the city.” (Streetfilms)

Scott Galloway asks George Hahn about what it means to be a man. (CNN+)

Pick up some official War on Cars merch at our store.

Follow and review us on Apple Podcasts. It helps people find us!

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***This is a preview of a bonus episode for our Patreon supporters. Become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars for ad-free access to this and all our exclusive content. And we’ll send you stickers!***

We talked with essayist Garnette Cadogan, currently the Tunney Lee Distinguished Lecturer in Urbanism at MIT,  about his essay “Walking While Black.” Some of that conversation was featured in Episode 83, “The Pedestrian,” inspired by the classic Ray Bradbury story of the same name. In an extended edit of our full talk, Garnette talks about how walking in the United States as a Black man forced him to radically recalibrate his mindset as he moved along the street, dismantling his innocent pleasure in wandering. He talks about fearing the police, who so often assume that he is the one at fault in any situation. But the most insidious and poisonous thing he encounters is the way that white people in American cities so often fear him, just because of the color of his skin—a color too often judged, as he says, to be “the shade of trespass.”