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Carol Coletta of CEOs for Cities stopped by to talk with The Real Story during the Pacific Coast Builders Conference last June. Carol, a passionate proponent of creating the next generation of American cities, says that the image of the American Dream has to be reworked because the underpinnings of the idea either no longer exist or need more relevance to today’s lifestyles. Her question is: with so little money available today for investment in our cities, do we keep investing in America’s past, or start looking toward the future?

Her attitude is that we need to get comfortable with risk taking, and our leaders need to start a discussion about our next steps, not our past glories. She asks, “Do we have a day to lose in getting on with the future?”

More on how Carol defines the roles of cities in our lives tomorrow, and every day this week. Our  conversation is available on iTunes.

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Nate Garvis would like to inspire us all to have fun, be cool and make a difference—and not wait for the government to come up with a program to balance and institutionalize the same kind of creative force for change that a neighborhood can make happen in a weekend.

In today’s talk with The Real Story, Nate talks about some of the great disconnects in American life and culture—the way we spend money on health care that supports the idea that aging and death are optional; the number of “food deserts”—places where it is easier to purchase fast food than green groceries; and the fundamental problem with a national health care system that is actually a sick-care system. “You weren’t born broken,” says Nate, “so how can we keep you that way” might be a better conversation with a public to raise awareness of healthy behaviors—and how to integrate them into our lifestyles.

Nate’s notion of naked civics is to encourage and inspire people to create accessible pathways to civic action. It’s quite revolutionary, in that it’s simple, doesn’t take an election or bond money, and helps binds communities together, making them stronger while enriching the people in them and the people who interact with them. Simple ideas for profound change can be found on Nate’s website, www.nakedcivics.com.

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Nate Garvis (www.nakedcivics.com), lecturer and consultant in the field of practical civic behavior, talks to The Real Story in a series originally posted last summer about public policy and the public good. Just because they sound like they’re from the same family doesn’t mean that public policy delivers the goods to create public good. In fact, public policy is more about managing dilemmas than solving problems… taking on the big, snarly issues and reducing their monstrous bulk, one bite at a time.

Nate is the first to admit that, for most people, the process is exhausting. The problem it creates is that the solution isn’t often built so that folks can reconvene and check in with each other, tweak the solution, and compare notes on how things are moving. Like many a daunting task, just getting over the first hurdle may mean the end of the race; Nate encourages us to keep the conversation interesting, useful and entertaining—and keep it alive.

Much more from Nate Garvis today on the subject of the common good, and how everyone does better…when everyone does better.

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Nate Garvis wants to talk to you about civics; his website www.nakedcivics.com discusses how we might engage more in broad-based conversations and less in political arguments. When he reminds us that “no political party has the market covered on good ideas”, he is at his most engaging—all the while inviting us to become more engaged in discussion about how we live, where we live.

He disabuses the notion that we are living in an Information Age, when in fact we are living in a Content Age—where data is available, and one can choose the data the best aligns to one’s own belief set for easy consumption of self-reinforcing information.

In today’s The Real Story discussion, Nate takes on the “anger-tainment” industry, in which pundits from both sides offer their viewers a steady diet of anger instead of a listening platform for both sides of the conversation. Nate calls listening—simply listening—“free R&D”, and suggests that we make our own choice as to whether we get a seat at the table—or end up on the menu of public discourse.

More from the profound and funny Mr. Garvis all week; you can download each podcast on iTunes.

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Nate Garvis is on a mission to make the subject of civics cool. His web site, www.nakedcivics.com, encourages people in the conversation about the rights, duties and opportunities we share as citizens. For those who think of civics as a product of the government instead of a path to the common good, Nate will set you straight: “No one does well in a bad community. Building the kind of world we want to live, work and play in, to raise and educate our children in—that cannot be the job of just one sector. It is an opportunity in which everyone can participate.”

Nate talks today about putting people first and giving them an opportunity to play a role in their own civic space. Somewhere in recent history, the barriers of institutional thinking have kept people out of the conversation about their very way of living. According to Nate, we created a mindset about the government that in exchange for taxes, the common good would be served. As Nate would be the first to ask: How’s the working for you?

The Real Story is observing Presidents’ Day today. Watch for another podcast tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s some food for thought in a quote from Woodrow Wilson, who was President from 1913 through 1921:

“Some people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know am an American.”