Better Planners Podcast

Better Planners is a podcast that aims to highlight and facilitate real stories about real solutions from the ground-level work of planners, community development advocates, and allied professions. With an emphasis on amplifying the voices and stories of marginalized communities. The episodes will be a resource and guide to provide insights into planning related topics people face on a daily basis that may be inspiring, challenging, questioning, and/or innovative. 

This podcast is intended for urban, regional, and rural community planners. Or you could be a community advocate, student, newcomer, or seasoned professional, this podcast series will have something for everyone!

So join us as we all become better planners! 

Want to be a part of the podcast? Send us an email!

The team behind the upcoming Better Planners podcast wants to hear from you about the real life issues you handle as a planner. What obstacles do you face? What are the honest, gritty, wicked problems you find yourself managing?

To share your experiences, email us at betterplanners@gmail.com. Your email might end up in one of the upcoming podcast episodes. You can be as anonymous or as identifiable as you want.

Follow us on Social Media:

Instagram: @betterplanners 

Latest Episode - Stories and Advice from Planners Across Oregon

Welcome to another episode of the Better Planners Podcast! This time Mary is joined by four other planners who also happen to be our podcast volunteers! They bring stories and advice from all across Oregon with various backgrounds and expertise. In particular, we focus on the good, bad, ugly, and funny parts of working in urban and rural planning. We also provide some good advice for new planners or folks in planning grad school or people who are looking into planning as a career. We hope this episode brings fun, relevant, and informative stories to new and old planners alike.

Meet the Hosts

The views and opinions expressed through the podcasts are those of the guests hosts, and may not reflect those of the Oregon Chapter of the American Planning Association or any other affiliates of this program.

Mary Heberling-Creighton has been a city planner for over six years in the state of Oregon. She has worked in a variety of planning areas including community visioning, comprehensive planning, housing, and community outreach. Her passion is using storytelling (both verbal and visual) to find out ways to explain complicated or technical planning jargon for the average community member to understand.