Yeoman

Jaime Izurieta is the founder of Storefront Mastery, a creative agency that helps Main Street districts and retailers succeed in a world tilted towards big box competitors. Jaime is also the author of several books, including Storefront Mastery and Main Street Mavericks: Innovation, Leadership, and a Bright Future for Main…

Aaron Lubeck is an urbanist, land planner, and builder in Durham, North Carolina. He’s also the founder of Southern Urbanism, an action-tank committed to building better cities in the South. Aaron writes about housing, urbanism, placemaking, and politics on his own Substack, onHousing. In this episode, Aaron discusses incrementalism, local…

Brace yourselves for some rough audio! Something about our cellphone connection caused some problems with Akiva’s voice. Our producer got it into a tolerable condition and our editor pulled together a great transcription (below). Akiva Silver is the owner of Twisted Tree Farm, a 20-acre homestead and nursery dedicated to…

I sat down with Vince Graham in the Winter Hall of his South Carolina beach castle, Mugdock (named after the historic seat of the Graham family in Scotland). We discuss a lot of things: building beautiful places, Ivan Illich, Corbu, Brave New World, HOAs, forces of institutionalization and atomization, books,…

I had the pleasure of sitting down with my father, Tom Graham, for a lengthy discussion of his career. The conversation begins with Dad’s early life in 1940s and 50s Rock Hill, South Carolina, we continue through his careers in energy and the nascent software industry, his introduction to real…

For the last twenty odd years, Chris Smaje has been a small-scale vegetable grower in Somerset in South West England. Prior to that, he was a researcher and teacher in political science and policy. Chris has authored two books: 2020’s A Small Farm Future and 2023’s Saying No to a…

Geoffrey Long is the owner of Long Story Farms in Newberry, SC. We discuss his farm, his roots, what brought him to farming, and how his farm connects him to his community. Please pardon the awkward delay. That left Geoffrey and I stumbling over each other a bit, hence the…

Charles Gardner is a research fellow at the Mercatus Center, where he focuses on planning law and housing affordability. He’s the author of the Old Urbanist blog and has worked on zoning and land use issues as a local elected official. He’s also been an active participant in state policy…

Ashley Fitzgerald is an environmental sociologist, a writer, a teacher, and the cofounder and co-director of the Rizoma Field School. Rizoma leads experiential field learning trips to Uruguay and the midwestern United States and offers courses on homesteading and homeschooling. Ashley is also the cofounder and cohost of the Doomer…

Coby Lefkowitz is a developer who lives in NYC and is building in Southern California, with a deep interest in the human capacity to create beauty in the modern world. Geoff and Coby talk about real estate finance, why it matters, and how it shapes what gets built, as well…

Ilya Somin is a Professor of Law at George Mason University and the B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute. His research focuses on constitutional law, property law, democratic theory, federalism, and migration rights. Professor Somin joins Geoff to discuss the newly published paper, The Constitutional…

Michael Tavani is the founder and CEO of Switchyards, the world’s first neighborhood work club. He joins Geoff to talk about creating a new—and much needed—type of “third place”, his love of third places, the inspiration he took from Oldenburg’s book The Great Good Place, building with soul, the advantages…

Austin Tunnell joins Geoff for a conversation about his business ⁠Building Culture⁠. They talk about getting started as a mason and a homebuilder, small scale real estate development, structural masonry, apprenticeships, living in a place like ⁠Carlton Landing⁠, and creating beauty

Geoff introduces the podcast, provides a historical and practical definition of the yeoman, and tells us about the types of conversations he’ll be having