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Recent posts

Articles & News

The science building at Central Oregon Community College, in Bend, Oregon (James Fallows / The Atlantic)
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  • Community Colleges & Technical Training

The Power of a Community College

  • James Fallows
  • August 12, 2019
Last week I reported on a conference of community-college leaders that Deb Fallows and I attended in Michigan, and about some of the reasons we’ve come to believe that community colleges are…
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  • Media

Interviewed on Arkansas Education Television Network

  • Michelle Ellia
  • August 9, 2019
Barnes and a Conversation with…” in production for more than 20 years, is a cutting-edge current affairs program featuring conversations with a variety of prominent individuals from many interests and…
The campus of Dodge City Community College, in western Kansas (James Fallows / The Atlantic)
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  • Community Colleges & Technical Training

The Choices Facing Community Colleges

  • James Fallows
  • August 9, 2019
Decisions critical to the future of these institutions so crucial to this economic and political moment
Murals on the wall of the teen space in the Brownsville Public Library's main branch (Courtesy of Deborah Fallows)
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  • Libraries

A Public Library of, by, and for the People

  • Deborah Fallows
  • August 6, 2019
A "how to" on staying relevant through invention and reinvention
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  • HBO Documentary

Featured in Sioux Falls.Business

  • Michelle Ellia
  • July 31, 2019
Sioux Falls.Business reports on the Fallowses recent return visit to the city with an HBO film crew to film a segment of their upcoming documentary on Our Towns. As an…
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  • Press

Referenced in Fair Observer

  • Michelle Ellia
  • July 31, 2019
In his July 29, 2019 article, Fair Observer Editor-in-Chief Atul Singh discusses Antoine van Agtmael and Fred Bakker’s 2016 book The Smartest Places on Earth. The authors make the case that many of the…
The new 'Arc of Dreams' sculpture over the Big Sioux River in downtown Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in July 2019, shortly before its formal unveiling. (James Fallows / The Atlantic)
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  • Civic Life

How a City Talks About Itself: Sioux Falls

  • Deborah Fallows
  • July 29, 2019
In June 2013, my husband, Jim, and I first landed our small, single-engine Cirrus propeller airplane at the main airport, Joe Foss Field, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It was the first…
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  • Press

Featured in The Christian Science Monitor

  • Michelle Ellia
  • July 28, 2019
Editor Mark Sappenfield‘s July 28, 2019 Christian Science Monitor column features Our Towns. The story references the trend among some young people to go back to rural America amid a pursuit…
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  • Press

Recommended Reading by The Presbyterian Outlook

  • Michelle Ellia
  • July 26, 2019
The Presbyterian Outlook invited a variety of people they admire to share books that made an impression on them and that they think others will find meaningful. Our Towns tops their recommended summer…
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  • Press

Featured in Nonprofit Quarterly

  • Michelle Ellia
  • July 23, 2019
Steve Dubb’s July 23, 2019 column in Nonprofit Quarterly highlights Jim and Deb Fallowses’ efforts to illustrate effective economic development activities in Danville, VA. The city’s focus on investing in building…
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  • Events

Featured in the Elk Rapids News

  • Michelle Ellia
  • July 21, 2019
Barb Mosher of the Elk Rapids News features Jim and Deb’s upcoming appearance in Elk Rapids, Michigan, July 25 at 5:30 p.m., sponsored by Green Elk Rapids. Said Royce Ragland,…
View Post
  • Events

See Jim and Deb in Elk Rapids, MI

  • Michelle Ellia
  • July 18, 2019
More information here.
The headquarters of the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, in Danville, Virginia (Courtesy of the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research)
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  • Economic Development

Three Big Lessons From One Small Town

  • James Fallows
  • July 18, 2019
Connections, parallel themes, and lessons from Danville
What Deb Fallows discovered in the children's museum at the Washington Pavilion, in Sioux Falls (James Fallows / The Atlantic)
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  • Economic Development

Sioux Falls is Ready for Tom Hanks

  • James Fallows
  • July 16, 2019
A year ago, America’s Favorite Actor™, Tom Hanks, triggered a series of reports on TV and in the Argus Leader newspaper in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He did so with one little…
From the Brownsville side, the wall. On the other side is the Rio Grande, whose centerline marks the official border between the United States and Mexico in this part of Texas. (James Fallows / The Atlantic)
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  • Economic Development

‘A River, Not A Border’: Report from Brownsville

  • Deborah Fallows
  • July 14, 2019
Striving together for good health and well being in a Texas border town.
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  • Press

Featured on WDTN Dayton

  • Michelle Ellia
  • July 13, 2019
WDTN TV’s BJ Bethel summarized a recent Ohio State University/Carnegie Endowment for Peace report with 10 takeaways. Number 10, “Microbreweries = Healthy City” was taken from the Our Towns list of 11…

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