# Aaron Renn: Heartland urbanism and leaving Left Behind behind

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/razib-khan-s-unsupervised-learning-4024133/aaron-renn-heartland-urbanism-and-leaving-left-behind-behind
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/razib-khan-s-unsupervised-learning-4024133/aaron-renn-heartland-urbanism-and-leaving-left-behind-behind.md
Podcast: [Razib Khan's Unsupervised Learning](https://stenobird.com/podcast/razib-khan-s-unsupervised-learning-4024133)
Published: 2026-02-20T05:38:47+00:00
Episode link: https://www.razibkhan.com/p/aaron-renn-heartland-urbanism-and
Audio file: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/188407663/0ca3c51dd3b8b27de5f8c63eb7a15e6c.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/razib-khan-s-unsupervised-learning-4024133/episodes/aaron-renn-heartland-urbanism-and-leaving-left-behind-behind
Duration seconds: 1799

## Resource

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.razibkhan.com On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib talks to Aaron Renn . Renn is a writer , consultant, and urban analyst known for his work on the challenges facing American cities and religious institutions in the 21st century. He is a contributor to The American Reformer and the author of Life in the Negative World , a book exploring the cultural shifts regarding Christianity in America. Renn previously served as a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute for five years and as a contributing editor for City Journal , having established his voice on urban policy through his widely cited blog, The Urbanophile . Prior to his career in public policy and journalism, he spent 15 years in management and technology consulting, including a tenure as a partner at Accenture. Before getting into the meat of the discussion, Renn and Razib discuss management consulting and the value that a firm like Accenture provides a corporation. Razib wonders whether consultants are simply brought in to rubber-stamp what management has already concluded, but is aiming to pin the blame on an external actor (e.g., layoffs). Renn argues that this is not the case, and in fact, though he acknowledges that management consultants provide an outsider view unencumbered by internal politics that allows them to be taken more seriously. They also discuss the impact of AI on some services that management consultants provide, and the future of white-collar work. Then Renn goes on an extended riff on the rise and fall, and possible new rise, of the Midwestern social and economic landscape. A native of southern Indiana, Renn has spent time in Chicago and New York before settling down in the affluent suburb of Carmel, Indiana. Razib a…

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