Speaking
Karen Christensen has been doing radio, television, and public speaking since her first book was published in London when she was 31. Her subjects have ranged from ecology to publishing, public transport to gastrodiplomacy. These days she speaks about third places, the answer to climate change, loneliness, and political polarization. She was the keynote speaker at the Luxor Theater’s Third Place Summit in Rotterdam in 2026.
The Way We Live Now (over 12,000 subscribers)
What is a ‘Third Place’ and Can You Find (or Start) One?
Park or pub? Bar or bookstore? Sauna or sento? During pandemic, we found out just how limited screen life could be, and how sad and unhealthy it made us. But when you’re looking for real-life face-to-face connections, it’s hard to know where to start. Karen Christensen has written a sequel to Ray Oldenburg’s landmark The Great Good Place, in which he coined the term “third place,” after working with Oldenburg for over 20 years. She provides a rundown of third places around the world—a list far more varied than most Americans imagine. She explains the creative community-based approaches that are bringing diverse people together in affordable new third places.
The Power of Third Places: A cure for loneliness, climate change, and political polarization
Karen Christensen tells the story of how the subject she was writing about—third places—turned out to have unique potential for a kind of social alchemy. By bringing us face to face, in walkable neighborhoods where we could get to know a diverse group and learn to talk to one another again, she saw how third places play a vital role in solving three big problems: loneliness, climate adaptation, and political polarization. She explains how the seven characteristics of third places—the things that make them so enduringly vibrant—can help us design towns and neighborhoods, libraries and bookstores, and even online activities to be life-enhancing.
Background
Karen Christensen is a writer, publisher, and environmentalist who grew up in the Silicon Valley and has traveled the world since running away to a commune when she was fourteen. She was the senior editor of the 4-volume SAGE Encyclopedia of Community (“Incredibly, this is the first encyclopedia to focus on community as concept and experience, so stands alone in its field. Essential for all readerships.” –CHOICE) and is the author of popular environmental handbooks, which have been translated into French, German, Swedish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Thai. Karen corresponded with Ray Oldenburg, who coined the term third place in 1989, for 20 years before finally meeting. Before Ray’s death in 2022 they had agreed that she would finish a new version of The Great Good Place. A recording Karen made when they met in 2012 is available here.
The Great Good Place II: Havens and Hangouts at the Heart of Community
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Karen Christensen and Ray Oldenburg
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https://greatgoodplace.org/
Playlist (TV and speaking engagements)
- This playlist includes BBC Television, Discovery Television, an event at the London Book Fair with China Publishing Group, and a press conference with US Senator Ed Markey.
Podcasts
- Podcast: The Way We Live Now
- Podcast: Train Time
Other speaking engagements
- Organization of American Historians; Simon’s Rock College; Wolfson College, University of Oxford; American Historical Association; Beijing Book Fair; Digital Now Conference; Green Data Centres Conference; Society for Scholarly Publishing; Global Information Industry Summit; Online Communities Conference; Charleston Conference.
- What is a Third Place?, Placemaking Week Mexico, January 2026.
- “What is a ‘Third Place’ and Why Do They Matter?”, University of Massachusetts Amherst UMass, September 2024.
- “The Economics of Third Places,” American Institute for Economic Research, March 2025.