Brick, Grass (&) Steel

Brick, Grass & Steel returns with a conversation about how cities can prepare for the impact of climate change – not “after the disaster” but, hopefully, in anticipation of it. Jesse Keenan, PhD, author of North, and Jane Gilbert, Miami’s first Chief Resilience Officer, talk about how communities can prepare and the challenges that go along with that effort.

Hurricane Katrina reshaped New Orleans — and reshaped how America thinks about disaster recovery. In this episode, Andrew Kopplin of the Greater New Orleans Foundation joins Collete English Dixon to reflect on the long shadow of Katrina, the realities of displacement, and the hard lessons about equitable recovery.

In the Season 2 premiere of Brick, Grass (&) Steel, we explore how schools and libraries became anchors of recovery after the 2025 LA fires—and what communities everywhere can learn about social infrastructure, trust, and resilience.

In the Season 1 finale of Brick, Grass and Steel, host Collete English Dixon is joined by urban planner and equity advocate Dr. Nina Idemudia to reflect on the major themes of the season. Together, they revisit key insights from conversations on segregation, urban renewal, social infrastructure, environmental injustice, and climate resilience — and discuss how these threads set the stage for Season 2. This wrap-up brings clarity, connection, and a forward-looking vision for what it takes to build communities that are equitable, sustainable, and resilient by design.

Climate change doesn’t strike evenly – scholars Brandon Derman and Lesa Johnson join me to explore how the crisis exposes and deepens the inequalities built into our cities and what is means to build a just response to the climate crisis. 

Why is environmental justice essential to resilience? Dr. Robert Bullard reveals the history, the fights, and the urgent need for equity in every community. View materials from Dr. Bullard's recent report, "Green Light to Pollute in Texas... Again."