Brad Weed
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Brad Weed
@bradweed.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Geography writer at interplace.io. Sustainable transportation + land use advocate. Pragmatic Interactionist.
Former thirty-year Microsoft Interaction Design […]

[bridged from https://mastodon.social/@bradweed on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/ ]
If the U.S. really wants high-speed rail, it needs more than trainsets. It needs new rules for land, value, and movement. Spain offers clues. @geography @DialoguesHG @Geopolitics @geospatial
https://interplace.io/p/trains-planes-and-paved-over-promises
Trains, Planes, and Paved-Over Promises
Why Spain gets smooth speed and America stays stuck
interplace.io
December 20, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Fast trains, slow change: Spain shows that better infrastructure alone will not save us from car dependence. But it can reshape the odds. @geography @DialoguesHG @Geopolitics @geospatial
https://interplace.io/p/trains-planes-and-paved-over-promises
Trains, Planes, and Paved-Over Promises
Why Spain gets smooth speed and America stays stuck
interplace.io
December 20, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Chicago’s vanished interurbans and Spain’s HSR belong to the same family tree. One led to highways, the other to rail revival. Here’s why that matters. @geography @DialoguesHG @Geopolitics @geospatial
https://interplace.io/p/trains-planes-and-paved-over-promises
Trains, Planes, and Paved-Over Promises
Why Spain gets smooth speed and America stays stuck
interplace.io
December 19, 2025 at 5:14 PM
“Why can’t we have nice things?” is the wrong question. This essay asks what kind of growth HSR actually locks in—and who benefits. @geography @DialoguesHG @Geopolitics @geospatial
https://interplace.io/p/trains-planes-and-paved-over-promises
Trains, Planes, and Paved-Over Promises
Why Spain gets smooth speed and America stays stuck
interplace.io
December 18, 2025 at 5:14 PM
From interurbans to interstates, America rebuilt its geography around cars. Spain doubled down on trains. The results are not as simple as they look. @geography @DialoguesHG @Geopolitics @geospatial
https://interplace.io/p/trains-planes-and-paved-over-promises
Trains, Planes, and Paved-Over Promises
Why Spain gets smooth speed and America stays stuck
interplace.io
December 18, 2025 at 12:08 PM
High-speed rail does not kill the car; it reorganizes growth. Spain shows both the promise and the paradox. The U.S. should pay attention. @geography @DialoguesHG @Geopolitics @geospatial
https://interplace.io/p/trains-planes-and-paved-over-promises
Trains, Planes, and Paved-Over Promises
Why Spain gets smooth speed and America stays stuck
interplace.io
December 17, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Madrid–Barcelona in 2.5 hours; Chicago–St. Louis in nearly 5. Same distance, different choices. How did we get here, and can we change course? @geography @DialoguesHG @Geopolitics @geospatial
https://interplace.io/p/trains-planes-and-paved-over-promises
Trains, Planes, and Paved-Over Promises
Why Spain gets smooth speed and America stays stuck
interplace.io
December 17, 2025 at 12:09 PM
The U.S. once had “nice things”: dense rail, walkable suburbs, fast interurbans. Spain’s HSR shows what we gained and what we lost. @geography @DialoguesHG @Geopolitics @geospatial
https://interplace.io/p/trains-planes-and-paved-over-promises
Trains, Planes, and Paved-Over Promises
Why Spain gets smooth speed and America stays stuck
interplace.io
December 16, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Spain’s high-speed trains feel like the future. But they also sit on top of rising car use and familiar sprawl. What does that mean for U.S. rail dreams? @geography @DialoguesHG @Geopolitics @geospatial
https://interplace.io/p/trains-planes-and-paved-over-promises
Trains, Planes, and Paved-Over Promises
Why Spain gets smooth speed and America stays stuck
interplace.io
December 16, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Next time you're following your phone through unfamiliar streets, notice: which city are you seeing — the one that exists, or the one the algorithm wants you to see? And which one are you helping to create? @geography @DialoguesHG @Geopolitics @geospatial […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
November 27, 2025 at 5:15 PM
30 years ago UCSB, we were democratizing cartography with GIS. The critical questions — about what maps might do *to* us and our cities — were less discussed. Now we're living those questions. @geography @DialoguesHG @Geopolitics @geospatial […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
November 27, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Watched locals navigate their Lisbon while tourists followed algorithmic recommendations to the next Instagrammable spot. Same streets, different maps. Platform algorithms don't just show the city. They actively produce it. @geography @DialoguesHG @Geopolitics @geospatial […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
November 26, 2025 at 5:14 PM
There's something dizzying about studying a system from within its grasp. Like trying to map a maze while still lost inside it. On critically existing inside the platforms we use and critique. @geography @DialoguesHG @Geopolitics @geospatial […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
November 26, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Who decides what gets mapped? Whose reality does the map represent? What work does the map do in the world? These questions question my geography undergrad...especially as I follow blue dots through ancient streets. @geography @DialoguesHG @Geopolitics @geospatial […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
November 25, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Got lost in Lisbon following Apple Maps while attending a digital geography conference. The irony? We were there to critique the very platforms reshaping the city beneath our feet. On complicity, maps, and the worlds we create. @geography @DialoguesHG @Geopolitics @geospatial […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
November 25, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Systems reproduce through relationships that shape identities. New piece on how capitalism locks in—and how alternatives from land trusts to buffalo restoration interrupt the spirals. @geography @DialoguesHG @Geopolitics @geospatial https://interplace.io/p/spirals-of-enclosure
Spirals of Enclosure
How Capitalism Locked In
interplace.io
October 9, 2025 at 4:14 PM
How does theft become structure? How does violence become normal? New essay traces feedback loops from enclosure to contemporary debt extraction. @geography @DialoguesHG @Geopolitics @geospatial https://interplace.io/p/spirals-of-enclosure
Spirals of Enclosure
How Capitalism Locked In
interplace.io
October 9, 2025 at 11:09 AM
Path dependencies aren't neutral—they're maintained by those who benefit. New essay on how geographic hierarchies persist through active enforcement, not inertia. @geography @DialoguesHG @Geopolitics @geospatial https://interplace.io/p/spirals-of-enclosure
Spirals of Enclosure
How Capitalism Locked In
interplace.io
October 8, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Capitalism spreads by destroying alternatives. What got displaced? English commons, indigenous economies, African land systems. New essay on geographies of dispossession. @geography @DialoguesHG @Geopolitics @geospatial https://interplace.io/p/spirals-of-enclosure
Spirals of Enclosure
How Capitalism Locked In
interplace.io
October 8, 2025 at 11:08 AM
How did English commons destruction become global extraction? New piece on capitalism's geographic origins—violence as emergent property, not externality. @geography @DialoguesHG @Geopolitics @geospatial https://interplace.io/p/spirals-of-enclosure
Spirals of Enclosure
How Capitalism Locked In
interplace.io
October 7, 2025 at 4:16 PM
New essay: capitalism emerged through centuries of accumulated violence creating self-reinforcing patterns. Traces enclosure → plantations → global lock-in using complexity geography. @geography @DialoguesHG @Geopolitics @geospatial https://interplace.io/p/spirals-of-enclosure
Spirals of Enclosure
How Capitalism Locked In
interplace.io
October 7, 2025 at 11:08 AM
Complexity will continue, with or without us. The wager is no longer whether to master the wave. It is whether we can learn to inhabit it without denying the unequal costs it exacts. @geography @DialoguesHG @Geopolitics @geospatial https://interplace.io/p/masters-of-mess-making-and-meaning
Masters of Mess Making and Meaning
The human wager in the age of turbulence
interplace.io
August 28, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Nazaré’s canyon turns swells into monsters. Some ride them, others drown. So too with the Anthropocene: complexity persists, but justice demands asking whose lives are lifted, and whose are pulled under. @geography @DialoguesHG @Geopolitics @geospatial […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
August 28, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Speculative realism reminds us the world is indifferent. Metamodernism asks us to oscillate—between cosmic order and human mess, between despair and tragic optimism. @geography @DialoguesHG @Geopolitics @geospatial https://interplace.io/p/masters-of-mess-making-and-meaning
Masters of Mess Making and Meaning
The human wager in the age of turbulence
interplace.io
August 27, 2025 at 4:14 PM
The Holocene’s “safe operating space” is behind us. Talk of looming risks obscures reality: destabilization is already here, and its costs are unevenly borne. @geography @DialoguesHG @Geopolitics @geospatial https://interplace.io/p/masters-of-mess-making-and-meaning
Masters of Mess Making and Meaning
The human wager in the age of turbulence
interplace.io
August 27, 2025 at 11:08 AM