Freeing ourselves from cars is simpler (and healthier) than we may think

Sarah Goodyear, Doug Gordon and Aaron Naparstek realized that no one was discussing the many cultural factors that have played a role in humanity's car dependency, or the negative impacts this reliance on motor vehicles has on human health and the planet. So they started their own show to do exactly that, The War on Cars.

Gordon joins Mongabay's podcast to discuss just how human society got here — and how we might get ourselves out of it — which is also the subject of a new book he co-authored with Goodyear and Naparstek, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile.

"We felt that nobody was really covering the car as this overwhelming determinative force in the life of you as an individual, the life of society and nature, politics, culture, everything," he says.

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The Mongabay Newscast is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple and Spotify, and all previous episodes are accessible at our website's podcast page.

Mike DiGirolamo is a host & associate producer for Mongabay based in Sydney. He co-hosts and edits the Mongabay Newscast. Find him on LinkedIn and Bluesky.

Image Credit: Cover art for the book 'Life After Cars'. Artwork by Alissa Rose Theodor. Courtesy of Penguin Random House.

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Timecodes

(00:00) The War on Cars

(05:48) The unseen impacts of cars (25:30) Imagining 'Life After Cars' (33:42) How to decrease car dependency