Sustainability conversations tend to focus on carbon. But what about the social cost of how we build cities? Urban designer Nico Larco joins Erin to explore how the design of our streets, suburbs, and cities shapes our capacity for connection — and what truly sustainable urban design looks like when social health is part of the equation.

Can a street make you more likely to trust your neighbor? Can public space design foster romance, civic participation, or basic human warmth? Urban planner Mitchell Reardon joins Erin to explore the surprising science of happy cities — and why the design of our public realm is one of the most underestimated levers we have for social health.

Three in five working Americans report feeling lonely. Most of us look inward for the cause. But what if the design of our cities — the streets we can't walk, the stores that closed, the parks that were never built — is one of the least-examined contributors to that loneliness? This episode explores the built environment's role in the loneliness epidemic.