Documenting life in small towns project announced by The Atlantic and APM’s Marketplace

This week The Atlantic and APM’s Marketplace announce a new joint reporting project, “American Futures,” documenting life in small towns and cities across the country, spearheaded by James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic and a pilot, and his wife, the linguist and author Deborah Fallows. The couple has traveled extensively both abroad and in the U.S. with particular interest in small towns and areas that are not necessarily tourist destinations. Fallows spoke about the project at the Esri User Conference 2013 in San Diego in July.

James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic

For this project, they will travel from one small-town airport to the next in their propeller-driven Cirrus SR-22 airplane, spending time in towns and cities that are off the beaten path of most people. Kai Ryssdal, host and senior editor of Marketplace, and his team will report from various legs of the trip.

The couple will be using Esri mapping technology to chronicle in maps the people, communities, companies, and trends that are emerging out of the past decade’s economic, technological, and demographic disruption. The Atlantic and Marketplace have partnered with Esri to provide a collection of interactive maps that merge real-time statistics, demographic information, text, pictures, audio, and video. The trip kicks off in Holland, Michigan, a site of traditional American manufacturing with plans to visit South Dakota, Wyoming, Missouri, and Indiana in the coming weeks, with more stops to be announced as the journey progresses.

“During our years of living outside the United States, Deb and I have always learned a lot by getting on a bus or train and reporting what we find as we travel across a place,” James Fallows said. “There is a long and honored American tradition of similar voyages of discovery. Every time we’ve made a ‘road trip by air,’ we’ve been fascinated to spend time in places that are far from interstates or big cities but have their own small airports as connections to the world. With the help of Esri’s innovative software for planning and recording our trip, and with Marketplace as the ideal partner for chronicling changes in the fabric of America’s commercial and cultural life, we’re excited to update an American reportorial tradition with new explanatory tools.”

Among the topics the project will explore are:

*   The ways immigration is transforming communities across the American interior;
*   How shifts in world markets for food and energy have changed opportunities in America’s farmland;
*   How both new and established businesses have found ways to serve global customers from small towns; and
*   How certain cities have made themselves centers of innovation and livability.

Siemens is the exclusive launch sponsor of “American Futures” across The Atlantic’s digital platforms.

Tags: American Futures, APM Marketplace, ESRI, Esri User Conference 2013, James and Deborah Fallows, mapping software, The Atlantic

Categories: Esri, location based services, mapping

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