America is Addicted to Cars, with Sarah Goodyear and Doug Gordon

Factually! with Adam Conover

Headgum

Comedy

4.4 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2025

⏱️ 99 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

While we think of automobiles as an integral part of American life, the fact is that they’re just objectively a bad form of transportation. They’re costly, they don’t scale well, and they’re a leading cause of death in the country. The oil and automobile lobbies have done a lot of work to make it feel like there’s no way we could live without cars, but the fact remains that it’s very possible to take significant steps to diminish the relevance of cars in everyday life. This week, Adam sits with Sarah Goodyear and Doug Gordon, hosts of the War on Cars podcast, and the authors along with Aaron Naparstek of the new book LIFE AFTER CARS: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile. Find their book at factuallypod.com/books

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a headgum podcast.
0:05.0	I don't know the truth.
0:08.3	I don't know the way.
0:10.9	I don't know what to think.
0:13.6	I don't know what to say.
0:16.6	Yeah, but that's all right.
0:19.4	That's okay.
0:22.0	I don't know anything.
0:26.2	Hey there, welcome to Factually.
0:28.0	I'm Adam Conover.
0:28.9	Thank you so much for joining me on the show again.
0:31.3	You know, I'm on record as loving public transit.
0:35.7	I'm a public transit advocate.
0:40.8	I, in Los Angeles, didn't drive and exclusively rode public transit for many years. And that's because I know that public transit is
0:46.0	simply objectively better than car-based transportation. It's cheaper, it's safer, it's better
0:53.1	for the environment.
0:57.6	It is more efficient in every way.
1:02.9	And if we had more transit and less cars, the world would be better.
1:07.1	If you've lived somewhere with good public transportation that dominates over car culture,
1:08.5	you know what I'm talking about. If you visited a place that has that, like Amsterdam or even New York City, depending on
1:13.5	what neighborhood, you've experienced it.
1:16.1	And that love of public transportation is part of why I actually refused to drive for most
	...

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