Today, Doug Gordon explains how America almost stopped cars in their tracks.

In Life After Cars: A Guide to Getting Around Without Driving, Doug Gordon and Sarah Goodyear (along with Aaron Naparstek)—hosts of The War On Cars podcast—trace the automobile’s rise from the first car death in 1899 through the 1920s, when mothers built plaster reliefs of mangled children’s bodies to protest “murder machines.” Doug’s argument? That we came close to stopping cars—until “Motordom” (automakers, dealers, parts manufacturers) began to fight back, and the country chose speed over safety.

Doug also connects this history to the present, showing how a Prohibition-era Supreme Court case gave cops unchecked power to approach and search cars—a ruling that directly enables the pretextual stops and violence we still see today. I can’t help but note that the murder of Renee Good occurred in a car, a detail that’s gone far too unmentioned.

And yet, as Doug insists, there’s life after cars. The conversation shouldn’t be about taking cars away, he says. It should be about what we actually want: choices, freedom, and places built for humans, not just machines. (Also, vape pens. I talk about vape pens a lot.)

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