The Freedom Series

With John C. Kennedy, Greg Williams, and Dan Bowen

Aaron Renn is a writer, urban analyst, and one of the most closely watched voices reframing what American cities can be beyond the coastal "superstar" model. Based in Indianapolis, he is a Senior Fellow at American Reformer, a former Senior Fellow in urban policy at the Manhattan Institute and contributing editor at City Journal, and a former Managing Director at Accenture. He is the author of Life in the Negative World: Confronting Challenges in an Anti-Christian Culture (Zondervan, 2024).

Renn built his reputation writing The Urbanophile, a widely cited blog examining what makes cities genuinely thrive rather than merely look the part — arguing that America's growth story has too long been told through a handful of coastal "superstar" metros, while cities across the Midwest and Heartland hold underappreciated advantages in affordability, civic institutions, and human-scale community. His work challenges leaders in places like Grand Rapids to stop measuring success against San Francisco or New York, and instead build a distinct, sustainable model of urban life rooted in local culture, strong civic leadership, and durable economic fundamentals. His writing and research have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Atlantic, and First Things, and he is regularly consulted by journalists, scholars, and civic leaders working through America's shifting urban and cultural landscape.

Speaking under the theme "A New Urban Vision for America," Renn will bring his heartland-focused perspective directly to a Grand Rapids audience — making the case that mid-sized, legacy American cities like ours are not consolation prizes to the coasts, but the next frontier for building places where families, businesses, and civic life can genuinely flourish.

The Freedom Series is a Grand Rapids speaker series advancing American Principles.