Building Local Power

Building Local Power Host Zach Freed is joined by ILSR's Stacy Mitchell to discuss the team's most recent efforts in fighting monopolies.… Read More

In this episode of Building Local Power, host Nick Stumo-Langer sits down with Energy Democracy initiative director John Farrell to discuss John's latest report on solar and storage. … Read More

Host Nick Stumo-Langer is joined by researchers Stacy Mitchell and Olivia LaVecchia to discuss their new guide to policy tools that strengthen independent businesses. … Read More

Guest host Nick Stumo-Langer and ILSR co-director Stacy Mitchell discuss two recent Supreme Court cases that have vast implications for the state of our economy and the role of the court as a centralized entity in ILSR's decentralized worldview.… Read More

Three of our researchers (Christopher Mitchell, John Farrell, & Brenda Platt) sit down together to discuss how small cities across America are innovating in the ways they are supporting their local economies. Mitchell discusses this innovation in Idaho; Farrell details the discussions in Decorah, Iowa; and Platt portrays many different home composting programs.… Read More

Sarita Gupta of Jobs With Justice joins us to discuss the state of labor rights in the "gig economy" and how the care sector presents a huge opportunity to change both work and aging. … Read More

In this episode of the Building Local Power podcast, ILSR co-director and Community-Scaled Economy initiative director Stacy Mitchell sits down with Laura Flanders to discuss the disturbing trend toward a calcified and monopolistic media landscape.… Read More

Experts Stacy Mitchell, Christopher Mitchell, and John Farrell discuss the impact that concentrated economic power has in state legislatures in topics as wide-ranging as high-speed broadband access, electric utilities, and Facebook's recent Congressional foibles.… Read More

Dan Knapp and Mary Lou Van Deventer sit down with long-time friend and ILSR co-founder Neil Seldman and Communications Manager Nick Stumo-Langer to discuss their successful reuse business and how they fit into the wider Berkeley community.… Read More

Vanessa Williamson of the Brookings Institution joins Christopher Mitchell to discuss her new book, Read My Lips: Why Americans Are Proud to Pay Taxes, and the changing American attitudes in regard to taxation.… Read More

Economics writer Brendan Greeley joins Stacy Mitchell and Christopher Mitchell to discuss what we all get wrong when we talk about economic indicators and how he's working to change that.… Read More

Steve Fenberg (D-Boulder) talks with John Farrell about his history as a renewable energy activist and local control advocate and how he translates that work into his role in the state legislature.… Read More

Jacqui Patterson, the director of the NAACP’s Environmental and Climate Justice Program, talks with ILSR’s Neil Seldman and Nick Stumo-Langer about the practical implications of environmental justice.… Read More

In this episode of ILSR's Building Local Power podcast, Chuck Marohn of Strong Towns sits down with Stacy Mitchell to discuss why the conventional wisdom about economic growth often leads communities down a dark path of decay. … Read More

This roundtable discussion between ILSR's Stacy Mitchell, John Farrell, and Christopher Mitchell delves into the growing movement against monopoly power in the political economy.… Read More

Zero waste activist Paul Connett joins ILSR's Neil Seldman and Nick Stumo-Langer to detail how to move communities across the world to a zero waste reality as well as how this activism fits within the grassroots landscape. Along with Paul's insights on zero waste policies -- from corporate redesign to community fun in participating in sustainability policies -- he regales listeners with a version of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, zero waste edition.… Read More

Matt Rantanen, Director of Technology at the Southern California Tribal Chairmen’s Association, and Hannah Trostle, an ILSR research associate talk with Christopher Mitchell about the challenges to better Internet connectivity on tribal lands across America.… Read More

Joe Maxwell of the Organization for Competitive Markets details how our economy is tilted against family farms and rural communities, and how he’s working to build a political movement to change that.… Read More

John Ikerd, an agricultural economist, sits down with Stacy Mitchell to discuss the consolidation of our food system and why he supports family farms as opposed to corporate mega-farms.… Read More

San Francisco has one-third as many chain stores as the national average. That's thanks in large part to a city ordinance that restricts "formula" businesses. We talk with AnMarie Rodgers, senior policy advisor to the city’s planning department, about how the city implemented the policy, how it works, and what advice she has for other cities that want to do it too.… Read More

In this episode of the Building Local Power podcast, ILSR co-director Stacy Mitchell sits down with Barry Lynn, head of the Open Markets Institute, to talk about how we fight concentrated corporate power and its impact on our liberty and democracy.… Read More

Electric vehicles are enabling energy democracy. That's the takeaway from the latest Building Local Power podcast episode, a discussion between guest host and Communications Manager Nick Stumo-Langer, Energy Democracy initiative director John Farrell, and Energy Democracy initiative researcher Karlee Weinmann. The conversation features a number of topics, including: the trajectory electric vehicles hold in renewable energy technology, generally; the ways that cities in the wake of recent hurricanes can rebuild to better weather the storms thanks to energy resiliency; and how residents of cities, large and small, can pressure their communities to enact better policies.… Read More

Gina Schaefer, the founder and owner of several local hardware stores in Washington, D.C., joins us to talk about starting and growing a neighborhood business and how her stores are faring in the age of Amazon.… Read More

This week, our Building Local Power podcast contains a conversation between guest host Nick Stumo-Langer and ILSR researchers Hannah Trostle and Christopher Mitchell to discuss the importance of connectivity in rural America and the barriers high quality local investment. The group discusses a number of topics, including how electric cooperatives are changing the dynamic on who … Read More

This week's episode of Building Local Power is a great conversation with a close ally and friend of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Niaz Dorry, coordinating director of the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, sits down with hosts Christopher Mitchell and Stacy Mitchell to talk about the growing privatization of the fishing industry, how she organizes her fishing community, and the damage that large-scale fishing does to the environment and her local economy. … Read More

In this week's episode of Building Local Power we interview Debbie Dooley, President of Conservatives for Energy Freedom and co-founder of the Green Tea Coalition in the southern United States. Dooley's organizations promote "consumer choice in the energy field" to "provide competition" and stop monopolies from limiting their customer's options in renewable energy. The Green Tea Coalition features a collaboration between members of the Tea Party Movement and progressives in the Green Party and the Democratic Party in Georgia and other southern states.… Read More

In this episode of our podcast, Building Local Power, ILSR's Stacy Mitchell interviews Greg LeRoy of Good Jobs First about the tax incentive packages that governments give to big corporations, and how local governments can do economic development better.… Read More

This week in Building Local Power, we’re discussing how concentrated economic power responds to communities that are supporting their own local economies. Guest host Nick Stumo-Langer discusses how these corporations fight against local communities with a number of ILSR’s experts. He speaks with Stacy Mitchell, John Farrell, Christopher Mitchell, and Lisa Gonzalez in order to get a … Read More

This week in Building Local Power, we’re discussing independent businesses and the communities that support them. Host Christopher Mitchell and ILSR co-director and Community-Scaled Economies initiative director Stacy Mitchell interview Katrina Scotto di Carlo from Portland, Oregon. di Carlo is the co-founder of Supportland (now called Placemaker), which work to bolster independent businesses by offering new marketing and technological solutions. … Read More

In Building Local Power this week, we're delving into the potential community-based composting holds to empower historically marginalized communities in cities across the United States. … Read More

This week in Building Local Power, we are focusing on what makes and breaks markets – market power, monopoly, and antitrust. As we discuss with noted antitrust Silicon Valley lawyer Gary Reback, markets require intelligent intervention to prevent power from becoming too consolidated. Let’s be blunt – if you are happy with the Internet access choices … Read More

Welcome to episode seventeen of the Building Local Power podcast. In this episode, Andrew Gillum, Mayor of Tallahassee, Florida and founder of the advocacy group, Campaign to Defend Local Solutions joins Christopher Mitchell, the director of ILSR’s Community Broadband Network’s initiative and Nick Stumo-Langer, ILSR’s Communications Manager for the latest episode of the Building Local Power podcast. The trio go … Read More

In this episode of the Building Local Power podcast, our guest is Justin Dahlheimer, president of a community bank in west-central Minnesota. Justin and our hosts discuss the benefits of community banking, and how banks lend differently when they have a vested stake in their community.… Read More

Welcome to episode fifteen of the Building Local Power podcast. In this episode, Christopher Mitchell, the director of ILSR’s Community Broadband Networks initiative, interviews John Farrell and Karlee Weinmann, researchers for ILSR’s Energy Democracy initiative on the prospects of renewable energy given President Trump’s executive orders undermining the Clean Power Plan. The group discusses how the strong market … Read More

John Farrell, Director of ILSR’s Energy Democracy Initiative, Stacy Mitchell, Director of Community-Scaled Economies, and David Morris join host Christopher Mitchell to reflect on the role and nature of local policies and politics and the innovative economic structures communities are building.… Read More

In this episode, Christopher Mitchell, the director of ILSR’s Community Broadband Networks initiative, interviews Hannah Trostle and Karlee Weinmann, Research Associates for the Community Broadband Networks and Energy Democracy initiatives, respectively. The three discuss the cooperative model of ownership and how this model can enable investment in gigabit Internet connections for their member-owners, but also how they are subject to a low participation rates in their elections.… Read More

In this episode, Christopher Mitchell, the director of ILSR's Community Broadband Networks initiative, interviews Brenda Platt, ILSR co-director and director of our Waste to Wealth initiative. The two discuss the history of ILSR's Zero Waste work and how the conversation around composting and waste has changed in her 30 years at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.… Read More

In this episode, John Farrell, the director of ILSR's Energy Democracy initiative, interviews Christopher Mitchell (our usual podcast host) and Lisa Gonzalez of our Community Broadband Networks initiative. The three discuss the power of municipal broadband networks, how the power held in cities is integral to these projects, and the barriers put in place by cable monopolies to prevent these networks.… Read More

In this episode, Chris Mitchell, the director of our Community Broadband Networks initiative, interviews David Morris, a co-founder of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and the director of the Public Good initiative. The two discuss the climate surrounding privatization in our economy and how the incoming Trump administration will bolster these efforts nationwide. Morris delves deep into the history of public infrastructure including explanations of how our language around the subject has changed over the years, privatization in other countries, and hope for the future.… Read More

In this episode, Chris Mitchell, the director of our Community Broadband Networks initiative, interviews a roundtable of ILSR staff members. Participants are: Olivia LaVecchia of the Community-Scaled Economies initiative, Karlee Weinmann of the Energy Democracy initiative, and Nick Stumo-Langer, ILSR's Communication Manager.… Read More

In this episode, Chris Mitchell, the director of our Community Broadband Networks initiative, interviews Linda Bilsens, Project Manager of ILSR's Neighborhood Soil Rebuilders Program. … Read More

In this episode, Chris Mitchell, the director of our Community Broadband Networks initiative, interviews Lisa Gonzalez, Senior Researcher for the Community Broadband Networks initiative about the recent election and what it means for municipal broadband networks across the nation. In this podcast, Gonzalez delves into the election results coming out of Colorado regarding the two dozen communities who voted to reclaim their broadband connectivity future. 26 additional Colorado cities and counties opted out of a restrictive, cable monopoly-supported state law, passed in 2005, that prevents these entities from providing service or partnering with the private sector.… Read More

In this episode, Chris Mitchell, the director of our Community Broadband Networks initiative, interviews John Farrell, the director of our Energy Democracy initiative about the concept of energy democracy and about his latest report, Is Bigger Best in Renewable Energy? John specifically outlines some of the key concepts that make up the principles of energy democracy and how locally-owned renewable energy continues to shape our electric grid in new and exciting ways.… Read More

In this episode, Chris Mitchell, the director of our Community Broadband Networks initiative, interviews Neil Seldman, ILSR co-founder and senior staff member of the Waste to Wealth initiative about the hidden value in our waste stream and, specifically, some recent comments made by the CEO of Waste Management, Inc. disparaging the value of recycling.… Read More

In the first episode of our new podcast series, "Building Local Power," Chris Mitchell, the director of our Community Broadband Networks initiative, interviews Olivia LaVecchia, a research associate with our Community-Scaled Economy initiative, about her work on the "dark store" strategy that big-box retailers have been using to slash their property tax assessments.… Read More