Howard Husock interviews four remarkable leaders of nonprofit groups who were recently honored as part of Manhattan Institute's Civil Society Awards and Civil Society Fellows Program.

Manhattan Institute and City Journal have long sought to support and encourage civil-society organizations and leaders who, with the help of volunteers and private philanthropy, do so much to help communities address serious social problems. In this edition of the 10 Blocks podcast, Husock speaks with:

• Luma Mufleh (2:00) is the founder and CEO of Fugees Family, an award-winning, national nonprofit organization and independent school network with a customized academic approach for refugee children. Mufleh is a 2019 Civil Society Fellow.
• Reid Porter (18:25) is the founder and president of Act, Advocates for Community Transformation, a group which takes an innovative approach to creating safer neighborhoods in Dallas. Porter is a 2019 Civil Society Fellow.
• Megan Rose (35:00) is the CEO of Better Together, an organization that strengthens communities by promoting work, protecting children, and supporting families in crisis. Rose is a 2019 Civil Society Award recipient.
• Steve Shelton (51:30) is the founder and executive director of the Trade Institute of Pittsburgh, an organization committed to working with those reentering society following incarceration as well as those who need a “hand up” to get their lives on track. Shelton is a 2019 Civil Society Award recipient.

If you know individuals or organizations that deserve a Civil Society Award, please visit our nomination page and tell us about them.

Charles Marohn joins Michael Hendrix to discuss why the current approach to suburban development isn't working—the subject of his new book, Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity.

"Strong Towns," notes Aaron Renn in his review of the book for City Journal, "resulted from [Marohn's] discovery that the highway projects he designed showed a negative return on investment." Marohn has dedicated his career to helping the country's older suburbs avoid such costly mistakes by founding the book's namesake organization, Strong Towns. "Whether or not one agrees with his many observations and prescriptions," Renn writes, "Marohn provides a valuable analysis of sprawl-based development."

Kay S. Hymowitz joins City Journal editor Brian Anderson to discuss Pennsylvania’s Williamson College of the Trades, a three-year school for young men offering a debt-free path to high-paying work—and the life skills to help them get there.

“Trade schools” have long had a stigma in American culture, but Williamson is no ordinary trade school: students wake up early to the sound of reveille and attend academic classes in coats and ties. As Hymowitz writes in City Journal’s autumn issue, “With its old-timey rituals, rigorous scheduling, and immersive culture, Williamson has a military-school feel.” But according to the students she interviewed, the prospect of a good-paying career makes the strict rules more than worth it.

Music critic and historian Ted Gioia joins City Journal editor Brian Anderson to discuss the 4,000-year history of music as a global source of power, change, and upheaval—topics explored in his new book, Music: A Subversive History.

The music business is a $10 billion industry today. But according to Gioia, innovative songs have always come from outsiders—the poor, the unruly, and the marginalized. The culmination of his decades of writing about music, Gioia's new book is a celebration of the social outcasts who continue to define this art form.