Welcome to Our Towns

Our journey is your journey. We want to support and connect you: those who are working on the front lines to renew your communities.

Our journey began in 2013, with curiosity about what was going on in American towns as the recession was waning. We visited Holland MI, where we had friends, and then Sioux Falls SD, where we made friends. We went on to Burlington VT and then Eastport ME and Greenville SC, all of which were wildly politically different but shared a progressive, enthusiastic attitude to build or rebuild their towns.

For four more years, we traveled to 50 towns around the US, reporting and writing for The Atlantic as we went. In 2017, we went to Jim’s hometown of Redlands CA to write a book about what we had seen and learned. That became the New York Times best-selling book Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America. 

As the book was in production, we had the good fortune to meet with HBO and the incomparable team of Steven Ascher and Jeanne Jordan, documentary filmmakers extraordinaire. Together we spent 100 days over the next few years filming in eight of the towns where we had reported. HBO premiered the film on Tuesday, April 13, and it is now streaming on HBO Max. 

This week, the Washington Post's film critic Ann Hornaday concluded her review of the film by saying, "it might be the most subversive movie in circulation now." And film critic George Wolf of Columbus Underground began his review by saying, "If all politics is local, then Our Towns is the most political film you'll see this year."

Watch the trailer below:

Our reporting will continue, and we also want to amplify the message of community strength and ingenuity with stories from you. And we want to connect you to each other, you who are working to help your communities thrive in areas of governance, health, the environment, education, the arts, civic organizations, leadership, economics, journalism, and so much more. To that end, we are launching a foundation, called the Our Towns Civic Foundation.
 

We invite you to be part of this movement. The Our Towns Civic Foundation website rolls out here. It will be a home for reports, news, ideas, and models of local initiatives from us and from you. We are also launching the Our Towns Civic Foundation Newsletter, to keep you connected, informed, and excited about all that is happening in communities around the country. 

Thank you, and we hope you join us.

 

Deb and Jim Fallows