Talking Headways Special Episode: Walt Disney, City Planner

While most people know Walt Disney as the creator of lovable characters like Mickey Mouse and movies like "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and "Fantasia," Disney doesn't get as much credit for his design of Disneyland. Turns out Disney made himself an expert on the subject.

By Tanya Snyder

3:39 PM PDT on July 1, 2014

In the 1950s, Walt Disney became more interested in making places than making movies. Photo: ##http://blogs.disney.com/insider/articles/2014/04/06/60-years-ago-disneyland-starts-journey-from-dream-to-reality/##Disney Insider##

While most people know Walt Disney as the creator of lovable characters like Mickey Mouse and movies like “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and “Fantasia,” Disney doesn’t get as much credit for his design of Disneyland. Turns out Disney made himself an expert on the subject.

This podcast isn’t a typical Talking Headways conversation. It’s a 45-minute special feature episode, produced by Jeff for the Overhead Wire, on one topic: the history and ideas of Walt Disney the planner. Guests Sam Gennawey, an urban planner and author of three books on Walt Disney, and Tim Halbur, director of communications for the Congress for the New Urbanism, discuss in detail Walt’s focus on planning places for people in Disneyland, Disney World, and even Celebration, Florida.

We hope you’ll take a listen and enjoy. We’ll be back next week with your regular dose of news and banter from Talking Headways.

As always, you can subscribe to the Talking Headways Podcast on iTunes or Stitcher or by signing up for our RSS feed, and we always love hearing from you in the comments.

Tanya Snyder

Tanya became Streetsblog's Capitol Hill editor in September 2010 after covering Congress for Pacifica Radios Washington bureau and for public radio stations around the country. She lives car-free in a transit-oriented and bike-friendly neighborhood of Washington, DC.

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