The Way We Live Now | Karen Christensen | Substack

Recent posts

41:20

Career women, wives and mothers, and presidents chosen by God

A conversation with Carl Rollyson about the author's role in biography

Dec 16, 2025 • Karen Christensen

39:03

What should we call the places we love?

If they're not third places, what are they, and does it matter if they have a name?

Dec 11, 2025 • Karen Christensen and Kathy Giuffre

38:58

How Cars Make Life Worse and What to Do about It

Daniel Knowles of the Economist talks about his book Carmaggedon

Dec 6, 2025 • Karen Christensen

Third Place Summit, Melbourne radio, & the Sidewalk Ballet

Third place talk around the globe

Dec 4, 2025 • Karen Christensen

Thanksgiving: memories of community

Recipes from around the world for this most American holiday

Nov 27, 2025 • Karen Christensen

Do you have a third place: And why would you need one?

Examples from around the world, a couple of lists, and a favorite London pub

Nov 21, 2025 • Karen Christensen

The rest of life

Diary: quick & personal takes

Videos: from BBC 1989 till today

Things I do

BerkshirePubGrp

My company, my day job

Books & Journalism

Recommendations

Train Time

Karen Christensen

The Way We Live Now

The Way We Live Now

Community, democracy, and a search for the good life.

third places

Bacalao and tortillas ¡Feliz Navidad!

A Christmas story from many years ago as I return to Mexico City to speak at Placemaking México after the Third Place Summit in Rotterdam

Dec 24, 2025 • Karen Christensen

What should we call the places we love?

If they're not third places, what are they, and does it matter if they have a name?

Dec 11, 2025 • Karen Christensen and Kathy Giuffre

39:03

Third Place Summit, Melbourne radio, & the Sidewalk Ballet

Third place talk around the globe

Dec 4, 2025 • Karen Christensen

Do you have a third place: And why would you need one?

Examples from around the world, a couple of lists, and a favorite London pub

Nov 21, 2025 • Karen Christensen

Indivisible is here

Here, actually here in real life, at my house

Nov 9, 2025 • Karen Christensen

China

Do you have a third place: And why would you need one?

Examples from around the world, a couple of lists, and a favorite London pub

Nov 21, 2025 • Karen Christensen

Polyethnicity is the human norm

Right-wing calls for "cultural cohesion" don't reflect historical realities

Nov 19, 2025 • Karen Christensen

Sign up for History Lessons

A new Substack learning newsletter from Berkshire Publishing

Aug 17, 2025 • BerkshirePubGrp

Why travel anyway?

Exploring our world, come what may

Jul 16, 2025 • Karen Christensen

16 days in China, back in the USA

Travels in China along the Silk Road and Great Canal

Jun 15, 2025 • Karen Christensen

sustainability

41:55

Let's make leaving home a New Year's resolution

Urbanist Diana Lind explains a worrying trend and what we can do to make our cities, towns, and neighborhoods more sociable

Dec 30, 2025 • Karen Christensen

Hard data for Climate Week

It's science we need now, and open eyes

Sep 24, 2025 • Karen Christensen

Walking in the Silicon Valley

Kids need robust, vital, physical places that they can claim for themselves

Sep 16, 2025 • Karen Christensen

Why the vegans lost

Have we really lost hope for a better world? Can we find it again?

Sep 9, 2025 • Karen Christensen

The secret to great cities and towns

And how traffic engineers get it wrong

Aug 11, 2025 • Karen Christensen

49:55

You can choose to get posts only on the topics you care about when you

#nojs-banner { position: fixed; bottom: 0; left: 0; padding: 16px 16px 16px 32px; width: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; background: red; color: white; font-family: -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 13px; line-height: 13px; } #nojs-banner a { color: inherit; text-decoration: underline; } This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please turn on JavaScript or unblock scripts