This week on pplpod, we dive into the life of Jane Jacobs, the journalist and activist who revolutionized our understanding of how cities work without ever earning a college degree. We explore how her seminal 1961 book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, challenged the "pseudoscience" of mid-century urban planning and introduced enduring concepts like "mixed primary uses" and "eyes on the street".

In this episode, we cover:

• The Battle for Greenwich Village: How Jacobs organized grassroots efforts to stop "Master Builder" Robert Moses from destroying her neighborhood and the area now known as SoHo with the Lower Manhattan Expressway.

• Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up: Why Jacobs believed that "urban renewal" and "slum clearance" destroyed essential social capital and community networks, arguing instead for cities as living ecosystems.

• The "Housewife" Critic: How she faced sexism and ad hominem attacks from the male-dominated establishment, who dismissed her as a "militant dame".

• Life in Toronto: Her 1968 departure from the U.S. to protect her sons from the Vietnam draft, where she continued her activism by helping to stop the Spadina Expressway.

• Economic Theories: Her later work on "import replacement" and the role of cities as the primary drivers of economic expansion.

Join us to learn how a woman who simply observed the "ballet of the sidewalk" changed the way we build and live in cities forever.