Yeoman

Grant Broggi, founder of The Strength Co., joins Geoff to talk about strength, entrepreneurship, and the Marines.I love Grant’s story: from a homeschooled teenage window cleaner in the South Carolina Lowcountry, to the Citadel then Marines, to a strength coach, to the (pandemic inspired) manufacturer of gym equipment, to balancing the obligations of his new business with his reservist commitments, to his year-long deployment and return late last year. “Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome!”Show notes on the Yeoman website.

Russ Greene discusses Total Boomer Luxury Communism, the burden it shoulders on young people and future generations, the existential threat it poses to America, and prospects for reform. Russ is the Executive Director of the Prime Mover Institute. Show notes on the Yeoman website. You can find Yeoman on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Youtube, and elsewhere.

Justin Owings and Ty Abernathy joined Geoff to discuss Paul Kingsnorth’s latest book, Against the Machine.Our two-hour, fire-side, dog-accompanied conversation covers a lot of territory—raising children in the age of the Machine, entrepreneurship, globalism and financialization, corporate bureaucracy, technocracy, rootedness, homelessness, skin-in-the-game, limits, GenZ—and we hardly scratched the surface.Show notes on the Yeoman website.

Charles "Chuck" Marohn is the president of Strong Towns, a national organization he started in 2008 as a blog and grew into a widespread movement advocating for financially resilient, prosperous cities and towns through bottom-up, incremental development. Chuck is the author of countless articles and three books: Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity (2019), Confessions of a Recovering Engineer (2021), and Escaping the Housing Trap (2024), and he hosts the Strong Towns Podcast while speaking widely across North America. Chuck lives in Brainerd, Minnesota, with his family.Show notes at the Yeoman website.

Zak Slayback joins Geoff to discuss Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum, the context in which it was written, and its relevance to today. Topics include the emergence of nationalism and industrial-scale capitalism, the subsequent fracturing of cottage industries, the rise of socialist reactionary movements, the obligations employers have to workers (and vice versa), subsidiarity, and the moral challenges investors face in our hyper-financialized consumer economy.Zak is a venture capital partner at 1517 Fund and an occasional author.Show notes here.

Vince Graham joins Geoff to talk about the early days of developing I’On in Mount Pleasant, SC. Vince and Geoff commonly hear people wrongly assume the neighborhood’s success resulted from strict controls and prescriptions, and they felt that misconception is so widespread that it merited a conversation. They discuss setting the stage, vision, rallying key players around that vision, recruiting builders, and cutivating the neighborhood’s early culture.Geoff has spoken with Vince and their late father Tom in prior episides. Visit theionco.com to learn more about the history of the neighborhood’s development.Shownotes at the Yeoman website.

Dr. Clay Routledge is an existential psychologist who specializes in nostalgia. He is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Human Flourishing Lab at the Archbridge Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. Clay is the author of Supernatural: Death, Meaning, and the Power of the Invisible World (published in 2018), Past Forward: How Nostalgia Can Help You Live a More Meaningful Life (2023), and many other books and articles. You can find his work at clayroutledge.com and he regularly posts on X at @clayroutledge.This episode is sponsored by Periodical.ink. Show notes at the Yeoman website.

Steve Mouzon and Geoff discuss the evolution of Steve's practice, the role of a town architect, vernacular construction, sustainability, beauty, lovable buildings, and the "Original Green".Show notes on the Yeoman website.

Seth Harris & Patrick Lemon of Orthodox Masonry to discuss what it's like to build a company that builds things that last. To my great embarrassment, I transposed two of the letters in Patrick's last name when I introduced him.Show notes: https://yeomanpodcast.com/2025/07/25/orthodox-masonry-24/

Professor W. Matthew J. Simmons, Sr. is the Assistant Director of the Institute for Southern Studies at the University of South Carolina and a self-described old-school humanist academic. He teaches courses on Southern culture and literature, as well as an immensely popular new course on barbecue. In this episode, Geoff and Matt discuss the identity of the South, changing cultures and places, barbecue, and more.Show notes at the Yeoman website:https://yeomanpodcast.com/2025/06/27/matt-simmons-23/

Lenny Wells is a pecan grower, writer, and Professor of Horticulture and Extension Pecan Specialist at the University of Georgia. Show notes: https://yeomanpodcast.com/2025/06/12/lenny-wells-22/

Ari Bargil is a senior attorney with the Institute for Justice and a co-lead of the Zoning Justice Project, a campaign to protect and promote the freedom to peacefully and productively use property. Ari frequently represents property owners battling aggressive zoning regulations and excessive fines in state and federal court nationwide. Ari’s work has been featured by USA Today, NPR, Fox News, Washington Post, Miami Herald, Dallas Morning News and other national and local publications.Vince Graham is Geoff’s brother and business partner with the I’On Company, as well as the owner of Loci, a developer in the Charleston, SC area. Vince has also appeared previously on the Yeoman Podcast.In this episode, Geoff, Vince, and Ari discuss the changing legal landscape of zoning, the history behind key court decisions, issues raised across cases, and more.Shownotes:https://yeomanpodcast.com/2025/05/13/ari-bargil-with-vince-graham-21/

Emily Hamilton is a Senior Research Fellow and Director of the Urbanity Project at the Mercatus Center, where she focuses on urban economics and land-use policy. She publishes both academic research and policy work, contributes to outlets including the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, and writes an occasional column at Governing. Emily also advises state and federal policymaking and has testified before several state legislatures and the U.S. House of Representatives. In this episode, Geoff and Emily discuss building code reform, case studies on housing policy, the potential for progress around the country, and more.Show notes:https://yeomanpodcast.com/2025/04/07/emily-hamilton-20/

Geoff is joined by two good friends, Craig and CBQ, to discuss how people are feeling about the current state of the world.Craig is the co-founder and CEO of Matchstic. CBQ is the co-founder and CEO of Greenzie. Geoff is the co-founder of Periodical.ink, a partner in the development of I'On, the developer of Big Ridge Mountain Club, and the shepherd of the Yeoman podcast.Shownotes at https://yeomanpodcast.com/2025/03/12/vibes-with-craig-cbq-and-geoff-19/

Kevin Klinkenberg is an urban designer, architect, planner, and writer. He is the Executive Director of Midtown KC Now, a nonprofit in Kansas City working on effective community development and management in Midtown Kansas City. Kevin is also the host of the Messy City Substack and podcast, where he dissects work on design, development, planning, and placemaking around the country. In this episode, Geoff and Kevin discuss localism, effective municipal governance, New Urbanism, the human-scale, and more.Show notes on the Yeoman website: https://yeomanpodcast.com/2024/11/27/kevin-klinkenberg-18/

Geoff Graham is joined by Saifedean Ammous, Austin Tunnel, and Jaime Izurieta-Varea to discuss how monetary policy, hard money, fiat currency, time preference, and the regulatory environment impact the quality of our built environment. https://yeomanpodcast.com/2024/11/01/saifedean-ammous-austin-tunnel-jaime-izurieta-varea-time-preference-beauty-episode-17/

Michael Buckley is the owner and operator of The Ventura Meat Company, the first full-service, sustainable butcher shop in Ventura, California. They exclusively offer grass-fed beef and other pastured, free range meat products in the Ventura area. Michael is a butcher-philosopher changing the way people think about meat, what sustainable production means, and how we consume it. In this episode, Geoff and Michael talk about his business, food as medicine, barbell training, the USDA, and more. Show notes: https://yeomanpodcast.com/2024/10/22/michael-buckley-the-butcher-episode-16/

Don Boudreaux of cafehayek.com joined Geoff on Constitution Day. Geoff's first question for Don: Is Constitution Day to be celebrated or mourned? Show notes on the Yeoman website: https://yeomanpodcast.com/2024/09/22/don-boudreaux-constitution-day-freedom-of-speech-regulatory-capture-voting-15/

Jaime Izurieta is the founder of Storefront Mastery, a creative agency that helps Main Street districts and retailers succeed in a world tilted towards big box competitors. Jaime is also the author of several books, including Storefront Mastery and Main Street Mavericks: Innovation, Leadership, and a Bright Future for Main Street Businesses. In this episode, he discusses the unique opportunities for small business, the effects of monetary policy and regulation, the experience economy, and more. https://yeomanpodcast.com/2024/08/24/episode-14-jaime-izurieta-varea/

Aaron Lubeck is an urbanist, land planner, and builder in Durham, North Carolina. He’s also the founder of Southern Urbanism, an action-tank committed to building better cities in the South. Aaron writes about housing, urbanism, placemaking, and politics on his own Substack, onHousing. In this episode, Aaron discusses incrementalism, local development, New Urbanism, and more, sharing in Geoff’s optimism about the future of urbanism in America. Shownotes: https://yeomanpodcast.com/2024/08/15/episode-13-aaron-lubeck/

Brace yourselves for some rough audio! Something about our cellphone connection caused some problems with Akiva's voice. Our producer got it into a tolerable condition. Akiva is the owner of Twisted Tree Farm, a 20 acre homestead and nursery dedicated to growing healthy trees, food, and family in Spencer, New York. He is also the author of Trees of Power: Ten Essential Arboreal Allies. In this episode, Akiva tells us about his journey to growing trees, his perspectives on nature and ecological history, and his approach to humanity's relationship with its environment. Akiva also generously shares information about his growing practices, his property, and his business. Visit the Yeoman site for the complete show notes: https://yeomanpodcast.com/2024/08/08/episode-12-akiva-silver/

I sat down with Vince Graham in the Winter Hall of his South Carolina beach castle, Mugdock (named after the historic seat of the Graham family in Scotland). We discuss a lot of things: building beautiful places, Ivan Illich, Corbu, Brave New World, HOAs, forces of institutionalization and atomization, books, Supreme Court decisions that have shaped our culture and land patterns. Shownotes: https://yeomanpodcast.com/2024/06/25/episode-11-vince-graham/

I had the pleasure of sitting down with my father, Tom Graham, for a lengthy discussion of his career. The conversation begins with Dad's early life in 1940s and 50s Rock Hill, South Carolina, we continue through his careers in energy and the nascent software industry, his introduction to real estate development, and his work as what one might appropriately call a wildcatter developer in Atlanta multifamily and single family real estate. We wrap things up with the the beginnings of our rezoning effort for the development of I'On in the late 1990s in Mount Pleasant, SC. This could have been several different podcasts—Management Science America and the early software industry, deal structure and financing for the yeoman developer, and the origins of I'On—and I encourage you to check out the shownotes for links to specific sections: https://yeomanpodcast.com/2024/06/25/episode-10-tom-graham/

For the last two decades years, Chris Smaje has been a small-scale vegetable grower in Somerset in South West England. Prior to that, he was a researcher and teacher in political science and policy. Chris has authored two books: 2020’s A Small Farm Future and 2023’s Saying No to a Farm Free Future. Visit yeomanpodcast.com for show notes.

Geoffrey Long is the owner of Long Story Farms in Newberry, SC. We discuss his farm, his roots, what brought him to farming, and how his farm connects him to his community. Please pardon the awkward delay. That left Geoffrey and I stumbling over each other a bit, hence the decision to continue the conversation face-to-face in the near future. So much more to discuss! Their soon-to-open retail location, Farms on Main. Southern Agrarians. Wendell Berry. Earl Butz. We’ll reconvene for more soon. Buy from Long Story Farms: https://app.barn2door.com/5PmxB Long Story Farms on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/longstoryfarms/ On Insta: https://www.instagram.com/longstoryfarmsc/ John Kempf’s Regenerative Agriculture Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/14s0owdUUxjTYUeNXpWnv8?si=833cc155eb3a44a8 Dorito Effect, by Mark Schatzker: https://www.markschatzker.com/doritoeffect-home-page Fred Provenza, Sheep, and Nutritional Awareness: https://www.amazon.com/Nourishment-Animals-Rediscovering-Nutritional-Wisdom/dp/1603588027 History of USDA: https://www.fsis.usda.gov/about-fsis/history Gunthorp Farm’s processing facility: https://gunthorpfarms.com/pages/our-processing-plant White Oak Pastures’ processing facility: https://whiteoakpastures.com/pages/on-farm-processing Jake Wolki on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JakeWolki Prime Act https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2814?s=1&r=59 CT Summer Hardware Store in Newberry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTTYPGxZzhE Ivan Illich / Counterproductivity https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Counterproductivity

Charlie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/OldUrbanist Charlie's bio at Mercatus: https://www.mercatus.org/scholars/charles-gardner Some court decisions referenced in our conversation: Euclid v. Ambler, 1926 https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/272/365/ Spann v. City of Dallas, 1921 https://casetext.com/case/spann-v-city-of-dallas-1 Buck v. Bell, 1927 https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/274/200/ Kelo v. City of New London, 2005 https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/545/469/ Wilson v. Shaw, 1907 https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/204/24/ Other things worth noting, in the order that they came up: Ilya Somin discusses the constitutional case against exclusionary zoning on Yeoman #4: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Mh7i33XU2NCLcb5n8uVeq?si=3860a9cb143347a3 Brett McKay and author Louis Menand discuss the philosophy of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. and his contemporaries on the Art of Manliness podcast: https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/knowledge-of-men/podcast-752-the-metaphysical-club/ Charlie referenced "Town and Country Planning" in the UK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_and_country_planning_in_the_United_Kingdom "Fee tail" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fee_tail The fee tail as featured in Downton Abbey: https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1432&context=wlulr&httpsredir=1&referer= Arbitrary Lines, Nolan Gray https://islandpress.org/books/arbitrary-lines#desc Land Use without Zoning, by Bernard Siegan https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538148631/Land-Use-without-Zoning-New-Edition "Right to Roam: In Scotland, Hikers Can Go Anywhere", by Ken Ilgunas (I mispronounced Ken's last name in the podcast; my apologies, Ken!) https://www.backpacker.com/stories/issues/scotland-right-to-roam/ It's worth noting that I probably overstated existing right-to-roam protections in Pennsylvania. "Landowner will close access to two Colorado 14ers after lawmakers rejected legislation limiting liability" https://coloradosun.com/2023/03/03/landowner-closing-14ers-mount-lincoln-democrat/ Other great resources on zoning reform and housing: https://twitter.com/ebwhamilton https://twitter.com/salimfurth "Cutting Zoning Down to Size: Reevaluating the Legal Vulnerability of Urban Minimum Lot Sizes", by Charlie (currently in draft, full version will be published in May): ⁠https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4619301⁠

Ashley on Twitter Rizoma Field School Ashley's writings Doomer Optimism podcast I open our conversation quoting from this article by Ashley in Front Porch Republic. Ashley referenced Andrew ⁠Szasz's Shopping our Way to Safety⁠. "Spreadsheet Brain"

Coby's guest post on Noahpinion: "Why small developers are getting squeezed out of the housing market" Coby on Twitter Coby's website Coby's business Coby's interview on Building Culture

Ilya Somin joins Geoff to discuss the newly published paper, The Constitutional Case Against Exclusionary Zoning, that he co-authored with Joshua Braver. What's the big deal about exclusionary zoning and what does it have to do with the overarching Yeoman theme? Glad you asked! Geoff answered that question in this thread. Professor Somin is a Professor of Law at George Mason University and the B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute. His research focuses on constitutional law, property law, democratic theory, federalism, and migration rights. Ilya Somin’s bio and twitter Josh Braver’s bio and twitter Some things that came up in the conversation: The Anti-oligarchy Constitution Emily Hamilton's work on Houston Edward Glazer's work on zoning and affordability Pacific Legal Foundation Institute for Justice

Michael Tavani is the founder and CEO of Switchyards, the world's first neighborhood work club. He joins Geoff to talk about creating a new—and much needed—type of "third place", his love of third places, the inspiration he took from Oldenburg's book The Great Good Place, building with soul, the advantages of being an owner operator, and the growth of the business. Some relevant links: Switchyards The iconic sign The Great Good Place Bowling Alone

Austin Tunnell joins Geoff for a conversation about his business Building Culture. They talk about getting started as a mason and a homebuilder, small scale real estate development, structural masonry, apprenticeships, living in a place like Carlton Landing, and creating beauty. Some relevant links: Austin on X Build Culture on X, Instagram, YouTube, and Spotify Build Culture's new Townsend project We discussed this Build Culture interview with Matt Hayes about the architecture profession Clay Chapman on X and on Instagram Here's the Samuel Hughes article that Austin mentioned (and Samuel on X) Shop Class as Soulcraft (Austin mentioned this in passing)

Geoff Graham introduces the Yeoman podcast.