Leah and Iman are friends who grew up in the Chicago community of Rogers Park. In 2020, they started an Instagram account called Residents of Rogers Park where they post profiles of Rogers Park residents whom they've interviewed.

Lea Pinsky is the Executive Director of Art Encounter, an organization whose mission is to educate, empower, and connect people of all ages and backgrounds through interactive encounters with visual art. Along with her husband, Dustin Harris, she also founded the Evanston Mural Arts Program which pairs professional artists with community groups to create large-scale public works of art.

Lisa Degliantoni lived in a number of cities, including San Franciso and New York, before moving to Evanston. She is the founder and co-director of Evanston Made, a community arts initiative supported by a volunteer corps advocating for visibility and awareness of Evanston artists. Evanston Made designs and builds programming, exhibitions, and professional development to support Evanston artists.

Amanda and Christina are two friends, who along with their friend Sarah, love to explore Chicago and other cities that they visit. Along the way, they admire the architecture while also stopping to enjoy local coffee shops, restaurants, and bars. You can find photos of their adventures on Instagram at Quaint Cuties.

David Leroy Thomas is a cinematographer who grew up in a small town in the Midwestern United States. His interest in cities led him to move to a series of increasingly larger cities, culminating in a move to London in 2019.

Brian Lee is the founder of Roamli, a platform that helps organizations create experiences, including scavenger hunts, walking tours, and interactive maps, that introduce both locals and visitors to the sights and sounds in their community.

Deborah Maris Lader is the founder and director of the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative. She exhibits her prints, drawings, photography, and mixed media artwork internationally. Deborah set up the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative to foster dialogue, collaboration, and community among Chicago’s printmakers, as well as to educate and share the beauty of the medium with the broader public, both locally and internationally.

Miles Taylor is the creator of Miles in Transit, a YouTube channel where he makes entertaining videos about his adventures on public transportation, both in the United States and abroad. These include taking a cross-country Greyhound trip, taking local public transportation from Washington, DC to Boston, and attempting to visit the least-used Amtrak station in each state.

Anna is an artist who grew up in Russia and is based in New York City. She loves to travel and to explore cities around the world. Anna has worked as a tour guide in New York and has volunteered with Big Apple Greeter.

Kevin O'Neil is a retired journalist who loves exploring Chicago on foot. In 2020, he moved to McKinley Park on Chicago's Southwest Side. Prior to that, Kevin lived for many years in Rogers Park on Chicago's Far North Side.

Josh Val Martin is a tour guide, and he writes for theater and television. Josh runs Free Manchester Walking Tours, and he and his other tour guides provide a daily free walking tour of Manchester.

Joe Schwieterman is a Professor at DePaul University in the School for Public Service, Department of Public Policy, and Sustainable Urban Development​ program and Director of DePaul’s Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development, which promotes effective urban planning. He is an expert in the fields of public policy, transportation and urban planning, and is the author of numerous books and peer-reviewed articles on the development of cities and transportation.

Reece is the creator and host of RMTransit, a YouTube channel focused on transit, infrastructure, and development around the world. He lives without a car and relies on public transportation and walking for almost all of his trips.

Paul is a lifelong Londoner and the head of London Greeters, one of more than 130 greeter organizations around the world that offer visitors free private walks with a local. London Greeters was born out of a desire to build on the legacy of the 2012 Olympics. Their greeters are volunteers who share their love of London with visitors.

Karl Florczak is a proud Manucunian who will gladly tell you why Manchester is a great place to live. He is also a big fan of trains and public transportation. If you’re a regular viewer of Geoff Marshall’s YouTube channel, you will recognize Karl from his appearance in several videos as Geoff’s “Northern Correspondent.”

Urmee Dasgupta grew up in Bangladesh and moved to Winnipeg, the city that she still calls home, to pursue a Master's Degree. She enjoys music, particularly the blues, and appreciates Winnipeg’s active music scene. Urmee is passionate about travelling to experience new places and to learn about different cultures.

Jasmine and Patrick are the Montreal-based creators of Oh the Urbanity, a YouTube channel about cities and urbanism. They traverse cities by foot, bike, and public transit and aim to make informative and entertaining videos combining streetscapes and demographic data.

Ron Swinson is the President of Peach Properties, a real estate development firm located in Columbia, South Carolina. His firm was responsible for restoring the Equitable Arcade, a shopping arcade built in 1912 by a group of businessmen in Columbia including Edwin Wales Robertson, a prominent banker and developer.

In this episode, I talk with a panel of three people involved in historic preservation in Columbia, South Carolina. Janie Campbell is a Preservation Consultant at the law firm Rogers Lewis Jackson Mann & Quinn. Meg Syms is the Marketing Director for the architecture firm Garvin Design Group. John Sherrer is the Director of Preservation at Historic Columbia, a non-profit organization that preserves places and shares complex stories from the past that connect us in the present and inspire...

Tom Babin is the creator of the YouTube channel Shifter and the author of Frostbike: The Joy, Pain and Numbness of Winter Cycling, an exploration of getting around on two wheels throughout the year. His work is committed to furthering the conversation about the ways bicycles can make our lives better, for smart and thoughtful people who care about urban transportation and the future of city life.

Emily Talen is an urban planner who directs the Urbanism Lab at the University of Chicago. The Urbanism Lab studies the built environment and its meaning and impact. Its research focuses on social, cultural, and political movements aimed at improving the quality of the built environment. Of particular interest is the notion of sustainable urbanism and the ability of cities to be places of vibrancy, social diversity, and neighborhood identity.

Natalie Dalea is a Creative Writing Fellow who is working on a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Minnesota with a focus on creative nonfiction writing. She also worked as an intern for Curious City, a podcast from Chicago Public Media that answers questions about Chicago, the surrounding region, and its people.

Mary Wisniewski has 32 years of experience as a reporter in Chicago, most recently as transportation columnist for the Chicago Tribune. "Algren: A Life," her biography of Chicago writer Nelson Algren, won the Society of Midland Authors 2017 award for best biography and the Chicago Writers Association award for best non-fiction. Mary has taught creative writing at the Newberry Library and creative nonfiction at Northwestern University's graduate program. She continues to write stories and...

Angel Montalvo is the Manager of the city of Chicago SAFE Ambassadors Program. SAFE stands for Streets Are For Everybody. Their mission is to educate and encourage bicyclists and pedestrians in order to make Chicago a safer place for active transportation. Angel has worked for and managed this program for the past 10 years, and he has worked in transportation since he was 16. He is a a proud husband and father of a 2-year-old, and he enjoys taking bike rides with his family.

Jennifer Lizak is passionate about supporting the cultural community in Chicago, particularly in the areas of music, community radio, literacy, and education. She is also concerned about social justice, especially in the areas of healthcare, civil rights and economic equality. Jennifer is the Coordinator of Special Projects for Cultural and Civic Engagement at the Chicago Public Library where she plays a lead role in cultural and civic programming for adults, including the One Book, One...