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Ever Forward Radio with Chase Chewning

EFR 938: How Your City is Making You Lonely, Keeping You Sick and the Future of Wellness Communities with Tony Cho

Ever Forward Radio with Chase Chewning

Chase Chewning

Education, Health & Fitness, Self-improvement

5.0 • 947 Ratings

🗓️ 4 May 2026

⏱️ 70 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This episode is brought to you by Timeline and Caldera Lab.

Modern cities may be quietly damaging our mental health, relationships, and overall well-being—and most people don't even realize it. Tony Cho breaks down how urban design, capitalism, and disconnection from nature have created a loneliness epidemic, rising depression, and a life that works against human biology. From the loss of community and "third spaces" to the dangers of car-centric living and profit-driven development, Tony challenges everything we think we know about success, environment, and happiness—while offering a powerful vision for regenerative living, healthier cities, and a more connected future.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL LEARN

  • Why loneliness is actually a design problem—not a personal failure
  • How modern cities are engineered for profit, not human well-being
  • The real reason behind rising anxiety, depression, and disconnection
  • How environment shapes behavior more than discipline or willpower
  • What "regenerative living" means—and how it could reshape the future
  • Why the American Dream may actually be making us miserable
  • Simple ways to change your environment to improve your life immediately

Follow Tony @_tonycho_

Follow Chase @chase_chewning

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00:00:00 – Intro

00:01:02 – Tony Cho Introduction & Regenerative Thinking

00:01:23 – Is Loneliness a Design Problem?

00:02:29 – Cities Optimized for Profit, Not People

00:03:19 – Capitalism, Cars & Disconnection

00:04:07 – The Death of "Third Spaces" & Community

00:05:26 – Why Environment Shapes Your Life

00:06:18 – Loneliness, Mental Health & Longevity

00:07:43 – Biophilic Design & The Irony of Modern Development

00:09:18 – Purpose, Meaning & Connection to Place

00:10:07 – Can Capitalism & Humanity Coexist?

00:12:11 – The "American Dream" vs The "American Nightmare"

00:14:59 – Real-World Example: Jacksonville विकास

00:17:11 – Gentrification & Losing Community Culture

00:18:13 – Is There a Better Way to Develop Cities?

00:20:19 – Regenerative Finance & Supporting Small Business

00:22:19 – What Makes a City Thrive or Fail

00:24:31 – Walkable Cities & European Influence

00:26:14 – What Makes a Place Feel Alive

00:27:18 – Why Diversity Creates Resilience

00:28:48 – "We Paved Over Paradise"

00:32:12 – The Economics of City Development

00:33:55 – Design That Impacts How You Feel

00:37:08 – Winning Over Communities & Co-Design

00:40:22 – Profit + Purpose: Can You Have Both?

00:41:36 – Public vs Private Sector Collaboration

00:43:17 – Infrastructure That Changes Lives

00:45:26 – Smart Homes, Health & Future Living

00:48:23 – The Future of Wealth, AI & Society

00:50:13 – Utopia vs Dystopia: What Future Are We Building?

00:52:02 – Why the U.S. Is Falling Behind

00:55:56 – Learning from History & Indigenous Wisdom

00:57:04 – "What Kind of Ancestor Do You Want to Be?"

00:58:04 – Tony's Childhood: Growing Up in a Commune

01:00:51 – Loss, Death & Perspective on Life

01:03:48 – What "Ever Forward" Means

01:06:43 – Letting Go, Trust & Living Fully

01:07:19 – Regeneration Starts Within

01:09:09 – Where to Find Tony & Final Thoughts

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Episode resources:

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

The following is an Operation Podcast production.

0:04.7

Well, you look at Latin cultures, you look at Asian cultures, you look at how people live next to their

0:10.7

family, to their grandparents, to their children. There's this intergenerational connectivity

0:15.3

and this thread that we don't have here in the U.S. We've lost that. The amazing thing about

0:20.6

regenerative thinking

0:21.7

in general is that everything has potential. Any place can be reinvented, no matter, you know,

0:27.3

matter what stage of its development it's in. It can be reimagine and reinvented and revitalized.

0:33.7

That's why I always say the three co-create, co-design, and co-evolve.

0:38.9

So it's something that you do with, for, and by the community.

0:42.5

Ultimately, the owner has to make the decision, but decisions can be informed or they can be

0:48.6

uninformed.

0:49.3

It's about alignment and coherence.

0:51.2

It's about listening enough for long enough to understand the place.

0:56.9

What is what makes it move and beat? And what are the needs of that community? And that only comes

1:03.6

from deeply listening. And, you know, community is the new guru. Hi, everybody. I'm Tony Cho, CEO and

1:10.4

founder of the future of cities and author of Generation Reg Hi everybody. I'm Tony Cho, CEO and founder of the future of cities and author

1:12.8

of Generation Regeneration. I'm here on Everford Radio.

1:21.0

Kind of woven throughout your work here. Loneliness is a design problem, not really a personal one, or rather it's kind of seeping into the world of both. So where does that line kind of get blurry?

1:37.6

Well, you look at Latin cultures, you look at Asian cultures, you look at how people live next to their family, to their grandparents, to their

1:45.6

children. There's this intergenerational connectivity and this thread that we don't have here in the

1:51.1

U.S. We've lost that. We put our kids in schools. We put them in boarding schools. We keep them

1:55.6

away. Put our elderly in elderly care facilities and many of them die alone. And that's a design flaw.

...

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