She’s joined for this one by author Joel Kotkin, the Roger Hobbs Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University and director of its Center for Demographics and Policy as well as senior research fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas in Austin.

He’s been asking the same question for decades, highlighting Americans’ demonstrated preference for suburban life and the waning of “urban supremacy.” The two dig into New York City at the latest of its many historic crossroads, at a moment when the high cost and scarcity of housing mask troubling signs of decline and a need for grassroots renewal.