This week's episode of Burning Down the House is a response to last week's interview with Elizabeth Heider of the U.S. Green Building Council. On this episode, Curtis B. Wayne discusses the dichotomy between faith and science in the field of architecture- specifically green building. Curtis highlights the empirical nature of the LEED system, and how it has made energy efficiency quantifiable. Also, Curtis discusses three different architectect types- the academic, the practitioner, and the technician- and how a syncretic worldview of the built environment could improve civilization. Curtis also explores the idea of embodied energy, and how it could affect the future of architecture and conservation. This episode has been sponsored by White Oak Pastures.

"I disagree with categorization that being 'green' is as being religious because being religious involves issues of faith, which cannot be based on science, but rather are based on belief."

"Most of the materials that go into the waste stream that say they are recyclable are not [recycled]."

-- Curtis B. Wayne on Burning Down the House

Food literature legend Peter Kaminsky talks pigs, fire and flavors on the first hour, and Mike Edison defends Manhattan against the Williamsburg hipsters on the second hour.