Coming October 21st, 2025

From the hosts of The War on Cars podcast, a searing indictment of how cars ruin everything, and what we can do to fight back.

PRE-ORDER NOW

ABOUT THE BOOK

Cars ruin everything. That’s why we need Life After Cars.

When the very first cars rolled off production lines, they were a technological marvel, predicted to make life easier and better for everyone; yet a hundred years later, that dream is running on empty.

Instead of unbounded freedom, the never-ending proliferation of automobiles has delivered a host of costs, among them the demolition of our neighborhoods, towns, and cities to make way for car infrastructure; an epidemic of violent death; countless hours lost in traffic; isolation from our fellow human beings; and the ongoing destruction of the natural world.

That’s why we need Life After Cars. Through historical records, revealing interviews, and unflinching statistics, Sarah Goodyear and Doug Gordon, hosts of the podcast The War on Cars, and former host Aaron Naparstek unpack the scale of damage that cars cause, the forces that have created our current crisis and are invested in perpetuating it, and the way that the fight for better transportation is deeply linked to the fight for a more equitable and just society.

Life After Cars expands on the podcast with new interviews and original content—offering something for everyone, from longtime listeners familiar with the harms of car culture to those just beginning to imagine a world with fewer metal boxes zooming around.

Cars as we know them today are unsustainable—but there is hope. Life After Cars will arm readers with the tools they need to implement real, transformative change, from simply raising awareness to taking a stand at public forums.

It’s past time to radically rethink—and shrink—society’s collective relationship with the automobile.

Together, let’s create a better Life After Cars. Preorder now.

MEET THE AUTHORS ON TOUR

DOUG GORDON AND SARAH GOODYEAR

October 28, 2025

The Bell House

with special guest Janette Sadik-Khan

Brooklyn, NY

TICKETS

October 24, 2025

LitQuake
San Francisco, CA

COMING SOON

October 25, 2025

The Grand Theater
San Francisco, CA

TICKETS

October 30, 2025

Black Cat
Washington, DC

TICKETS

November 5, 2025

Town Hall Seattle w/CityNerd
Seattle, WA

TICKETS

November 8, 2025

Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema
Vancouver, BC

TICKETS

November 13, 2025

Powell’s Books
Portland, OR

COMING SOON

November 16, 2025

Adams Avenue Theater
San Diego, CA

COMING SOON

December 2, 2025

Uptown Theater Providence, RI

COMING SOON

December 4, 2025

Brush Street Commons Austin, TX

COMING SOON

December 5, 2025

Future Front House Austin, TX

COMING SOON

December 10, 2025

MATCH
Houston, TX

COMING SOON

December 12, 2025


Denver, CO

COMING SOON

January 27, 2026


Columbus, OH

COMING SOON

March 13, 2026

Plaza Theatre
Atlanta, GA

COMING SOON

MORE DATES COMING SOON

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Sarah Goodyear is a journalist and author who has covered cities and transportation for publications such as Grist, CityLab, and StreetsblogDoug Gordon is a TV producer and writer who is also a neighborhood safe streets advocate, better known online as Brooklyn Spoke. Aaron Naparstek is the founding editor of Streetsblog, a news site that launched in 2006 and is dedicated to what was then called New York’s “livable streets” renaissance. They live with their families in Brooklyn, and they came together to create The War on Cars podcast in 2018 out of a sense that no one was covering the subject of cars and what they do to culture, society, and the planet in the way they felt it deserved. Doug and Sarah continue to host the podcast.