99% Invisible: "U Is for Urbanism"

Original Air Date: December 2, 2025
Host: Roman Mars
Guests: Anna Codet, Alexandra Lange

Overview

This episode of 99% Invisible explores how Sesame Street—a children’s television landmark—has helped to shape not only educational lives but also our collective vision of what good urban neighborhoods can and should be. Roman Mars and his guests analyze the show's real and fictional roots in urban design, its alignment with the principles of influential urbanist Jane Jacobs, and how its aspirational depiction of community remains relevant—and even radical—today.
The second half of the episode broadens the lens to focus on design for children and teens in urban spaces, in conversation with Pulitzer-winning critic Alexandra Lange.

Key Themes and Discussion Points

1. The Neighborhood of Sesame Street: More than a TV Set

[01:01–03:10]

• Roman Mars and Anna Codet introduce the premise that Sesame Street's value isn’t just its lessons in ABCs and sharing, but its subtle education in what a thriving, healthy neighborhood looks like.
• Anna Codet: “It’s actually shaped not only children’s education, but also our physical built environment. Like, at this point, there are actual streets that are renamed Sesame street in cities across America.” [02:12]

Memorable Quote:

• Roman Mars: “A good neighborhood keeps people safe. A good neighborhood makes you feel like you're a part of something. A good neighborhood makes the lives of its residents just generally good.” [01:01]

2. The Origins: Joan Ganz Cooney and Social Intent

[03:10–06:05]

• Introduction of Sesame Street’s creator, Joan Ganz Cooney, and her background in media and social documentary.
• She saw TV as an accessible tool for societal change, aiming to close educational gaps in underprivileged communities.

Notable Quotes:

• Joan Ganz Cooney: “Research is woven into the total fabric of the show. Every segment is being tested and evaluated by the toughest critics of all, the children themselves.” [03:58]

3. Setting Sesame Street: The Real City as Inspiration

[06:05–09:18]

• John Stone, another early creator, was inspired by the gritty realities and positive possibilities of New York City.
• The set designers purposefully didn’t erase the “rougher details”—there’s visible litter, weathered brownstones, and authenticity, not just TV gloss.
• Anna Codet: “There's trash. There's like wheat paste posters...the brownstone is not this, like, pristine brownstone. It has soot on the sides.” [08:51]

4. Urbanism by Design: Who Sesame Street Was For

[09:18–10:06]

• The show was intentionally aimed at inner city, underserved children. The street was designed to look like “home” for them, aspirationally showing a harmonious, safe, supportive city block.

5. The Jane Jacobs Connection: Sesame Street as Urbanist Blueprint

[10:06–13:07]

• Roman Mars and Anna Codet outline how Sesame Street wasn’t just idealistic—it directly embodies Jane Jacobs’ four-part theory of what makes urban neighborhoods thrive (The Death and Life of Great American Cities):
  • Mixed-use neighborhoods (stores, homes, laundromats, etc.)
  • Short city blocks for more interaction.
  • Mixture of old and new buildings (“survivor of gentrification”)
  • Dense concentration of people for vibrancy and safety.
• Anna Codet: “Sesame street ends up being this blueprint for a Jane Jacobsian utopia almost.” [12:44]

Essential Quote:

• Jane Jacobs: “Suppose we actually let the sidewalks do the job that they can do best, and suppose we stop trying to provide poor substitutes for them.” [12:12]

6. The “Sidewalk Ballet” in Practice

[16:04–18:24]

• Roman Mars and Anna Codet discuss “sidewalk ballet”—those organic, everyday public encounters Jacobs observed and praised—which Sesame Street sharply dramatizes.
• The very first episode includes a tour of the block, spontaneous greetings, and invitations for milk and cookies, illustrating this concept.

Key Moment:

• Anna Codet: “You're seeing children play on the street, and it's like the quintessential sidewalk ballet. Just little moments of human interaction that are unplanned and pretty minor, but altogether they make you feel like you're part of something greater.” [18:06]

7. Defending Urban Idealism: Grumpy Developers and Culture Wars

[18:24–22:59]

• The show’s utopian vision was deliberately at odds both with top-down urban planners (Robert Moses) and pop culture antagonists (like the Trump-parody “Ronald Grump” played by Joe Pesci).
• Sesame Street’s depiction of diversity and urban life is sometimes treated as political, especially in recent culture wars.
• Anna Codet discusses right-wing criticism: “Unlike other children’s shows, Sesame street took place in a dingy setting, an urban neighborhood street... he says [Ben Shapiro] that the show is about legitimizing urban liberal lifestyles.” [20:55]

Notable Quote:

• Roman Mars: “At a time when Americans increasingly don’t know their neighbors and communities feel more fractured than ever, Sesame street still shows us something different. A block where people of all backgrounds actually talk to each other, look out for each other, share space, not just peacefully, but joyfully.” [21:21]

8. Radical Imagination and Representation

[22:14–22:59]

• Loretta Long (Susan on Sesame Street) reflects in her memoir on the quietly radical choice to make Susan and her husband Black homeowners and landlords, which pushed the bounds of racial representation on TV for its time.
• Anna Codet: “It's already a show that has little monsters running around, right? Why not show something like Black Home Ownership?” [22:59]

9. Designing Cities for Children and Teens (with Alexandra Lange)

[26:31–41:18]

Playground Independence and Subtle Empowerment

• Lange highlights the importance of city design that gives children—and especially teens—real independence.
• Favorite moment: Sesame Street’s “loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter” errand cartoon.
• Alexandra Lange: “So much of what I write about is giving children independence... giving them opportunities like this, to be independent, like, that's it illustrates it perfectly.” [27:21]

Hostile Design for Teens

• Playgrounds are usually for ages 0–12; teens are often excluded from public space by both design and adult attitudes.
• The Annecy Verna Playground’s “mega swing” in Philadelphia is a rare park that invites teenagers as well as younger kids and adults to play and socialize together.

Key Quotes:

• Alexandra Lange: “When people are thinking of park provisions for teens, usually they're thinking about, like, sports courts...not every teenager wants to ball or wants to skate. And the swings really open up another avenue for physical activity, but also for social activity.” [32:59]
• Roman Mars notes that playground color choices—bright for kids, “coded” out for teens—subtly push older youth out.
  Alexandra Lange: “If you're a teenager...you don't necessarily want to go and play on those things.” [34:24]

Playground Trends, Risky Play, and All-ages Appeal

• Seesaws and sandboxes are fading from playgrounds; new rope structures and creative climbing equipment are increasingly popular and safer, while still allowing “risky play”—important for child development.
• Alexandra Lange: “It's really important for kids to engage in risky play, which does not necessarily mean dangerous play. But if you think about how we learn to do things, you usually have to try to do something and fail...” [38:05]
• Roman Mars recalls his own nerves letting kids use challenging playground equipment, acknowledging the essential balance between safety and learning.

Memorable Story:

• Alexandra shares the “viral cop on the slide” story from Boston City Hall playground: The problem wasn’t the playground, but an adult’s inexperience. “Plenty of children had used the slide safely... it became this kind of viral moment, like, oh my god, what are they doing to the children with these new playgrounds? And it was just that it was the cop's error, not the playground error.” [40:07]

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• On Neighborhood Design
  “A good neighborhood makes you feel like you're a part of something.”
  — Roman Mars, [01:01]

• On Sesame Street's Mission
  “The show was very much aimed at closing the achievement gap...the way to do that, according to Stone, is to create this environment that they're familiar with.”
  — Anna Codet, [09:28]

• On Urban Idealism
  “The stories we tell our children shape what they believe is possible. So whether those stories are that they deserve to own a home one day, or that they have the power to build better cities, or that kindness matters, luckily we have Sesame street to tell them.”
  — Roman Mars, [22:59]

• On Playgrounds and Teens
  “Playgrounds by and large are designed for children from 0 to 12...people keep saying teenagers in America are having a mental health crisis and don't exercise enough and...it's just like, really, like, what do you want the teenagers to do?”
  — Alexandra Lange, [29:08]

• On Risky Play
  “It's really important for kids to engage in risky play, which does not necessarily mean dangerous play...if they don't do it, they will never learn how to do it safely, and then you're actually inhibiting their growth and independence.”
  — Alexandra Lange, [38:05]

Segment Timestamps

• Sesame Street as aspiration and urban blueprint: [01:01–13:07]
• Jane Jacobs’ influence and urban design theory: [10:31–13:07]
• “Sidewalk ballet” and the fabric of community: [16:04–18:24]
• Urbanism as political/culture war debate: [18:24–22:59]
• Playground and public space design for older children/teens: [26:31–41:18]

Conclusion

“U Is for Urbanism” vividly connects how a fictional street on a children’s TV show became one of society’s clearest and most tenacious refutations of urban pessimism. The episode ties Sesame Street’s hopeful vision to the most influential ideas in city planning, while also interrogating present-day challenges of inclusivity in cities and play. Both children’s shows and city design, the episode argues, have the power to nurture not just individuals, but community—and, at their best, to make us believe in better.

For more resources and episode links, visit 99percentinvisible.org.