Dear Friends,
(01:25) Addressing the housing crunch, with Mark Clipsham;
(23:29) Walking across the Mojave Desert;
(39:50) Our survival demands another long march;
(53:19) Five veggies susceptible to pesticide residue, with Kathy Byrnes Fallon.
Last week, I cleaned our chicken coop. It was a dirty, dry, dusty deal. An intelligent person would have worn a mask. Me, I chose to land a sinus infection.
Why am I telling you this? I barely had enough voice to manage two segments of this week’s program. Thus, the other two segments are reruns: conversations about walking across the Mojave Desert, and why America needs another coast-to-coast march to address the twin perils of climate change and nuclear war.
I was glad to have architect Mark Clipsham as my guest during the first segment of this week’s program. One reason: It’s easy to get Mark to do most of the talking. That gave my voice a bit of a break. (Full disclosure: Mark promotes his business, Architecture by Synthesis, on this platform.)
Second, and more substantively, Mark knows a ton about housing. We both have thoughts to share on the growing lack of affordability. Here are a few of mine:
— Some developers and homebuilders have gotten greedy.
— Climate change is driving up insurance rates.
— Local regulations are occasionally burdensome and get bogged down with red tape.
— Earnings can’t keep pace with the rising cost of housing (and food, too).
— Building materials are increasingly expensive to source, since many come from non-renewable resources.
I really appreciate that Mark uses recycled materials as much as possible in his work. That includes grain bins! For fun, Mark put together the above unsolicited image of Kathy and me decked out in our American Gothic garb in front of one of Mark’s grain-bin mansions. It’s not the traditional Gothic farm house in Eldon, but heck, I’d live there — and I bet my piano would love the acoustics.
Thanks for reading, listening, and doing your part for a better world.
Ed Fallon
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Ed Fallon