Conversations: Scott Graves - Went to the Crossroads: What Really Matters in our Towns and Cities

Scott Graves is a fellow Gardner-ite, head of SM Graves Associates, and hosts two very interesting podcasts, "Are We Here Yet?," and "Scotts on the Rocks" about local business and politics.

Today we have in mind our local post-industrial community and local life in general. We talked about the history of our country's financialization, the closing of once-thriving factories, the great skill and intelligence of everyday working people, and breaking the cycle of social and political disengagement. In the end, it was all about the life, death, and possibility of life again for small cities and towns like ours.

Sources mentioned in the conversation: - Scott's "Are We Here Yet?" podcast, featuring local business leaders

- Scott's "Scotts on the Rocks" podcast with a second Scott Graves, about local, state, and national politics

- Scott's article on Ray Carey and democratic capitalism

- The Worcshop makerspace