The Human Side of Transit with Author and Artist Nathan Vass

Nathan Vass has been sharing his observations as a bus driver with The Urbanist for nine years. From the first conversation chronicles and desaturated photos, he has been building an honest and nuanced portrait of a living Seattle. There’s no Instagram filters here, and that’s fine. Not because the city’s bumps and bruises are beautiful, but because they’re evidence of human lives and interactions.

And that’s the quiet part of what makes Nathan’s columns and artwork so touching. We come to hear about the tons of steel that he navigates through the city streets. We stay for the empathic eye of the artist who is observing the city coming and going from this “mobile living room.” 

For this podcast, I got to talk with Nathan about the hard work of transit, art, living in a city, and what it means to move people across a city.  It was a conversation full of insights and surprises.

We want to know your thoughts, opinions, and sites you have seen from a transit window. Reach out to us at podcast [at] theurbanist.org.  

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