What’s an opportunity zone and how do you create one? On this episode of The Future City Podcast we speak with campaigner, lawyer and investment analyst Courtney Cardin about how civic leaders create economic and social opportunities in our neighborhoods. Courtney shares stories about Tulsa, Oklahoma, how public private partnerships can work and that playing to our urban quirks, not bland corporate and government expectations, is our strategic urban advantage.

What would it mean if a city was conscious? Today we speak with architect, researcher and founder of the Conscious Cities movement Itai Palti. Itai is Director of Hume, an architecture and urban design practice and Director of the Centre for Conscious Design, a think tank focused on using design to address urban challenges facing society today and in the future. Itai shares how cities can be healed, how metrics shape what we design and how space can be intentionally designed to include or...

How is love and dating changing how we experience our cities? On this episode of The Future City Podcast we speak with dating coach, author and behavioral scientist Logan Ury. Logan is the author of How to Not Die Alone and is the Director of Relationship Science at the dating app Hinge. Logan speaks with us about our relationship tendencies, her favorite city and why the spark is useless and sometimes even destructive. 

What if children designed our cities? Today we speak with play consultant, experience designer and creative strategist Leticia Lozano. Leticia is the Co-founder and Director of MACIA Estudio, an applied research and design studio, and also the head of Playful City at LabCDMX, Mexico City’s civic innovation lab. Leticia speaks with us about the rules adults play by, a child’s first five years and why play-filled moments are the best ones of our lives.

What if we invested in technology for our cities as much as we invest in our search engines? In this episode of The Future City Podast, we speak with investor, political advisor and govtech industry builder Daniel Korski CBE. Daniel was an adviser to UK Prime Minister David Cameron and is the co-founder and CEO of PUBLIC, a venture capital firm focused on technology companies which are transforming public services. He also Chairs and co-founded the GovTech Summit.

What happens when you slow down? You start to care about where you live. Today we speak with Scott Martin, Executive Director of the River Heritage Conservancy, a non-profit organization dedicated to preservation of the Ohio River. Scott is a conservationist and kayaker with a deep understanding of how our connection to place may be the way we create strong community despite our differences. Scott speak about the importance of connection, environmental history and why our vocabulary matters...

What if cities are the greatest opportunity we have to redesign the rules we live by? Today we speak with Pia Mancini, co-founder of Democracy Earth and Open Collective. Pia is an activist, technologist and serial impact entrepreneur working at the intersection of technology and policy making. Pia speaks with us about how we can reorganize how we govern so we are not bound by old rules tied to the places we are born and how decentralizing funding gives us the agility to do the work we love.

What would a city be like if citizens were emotionally aware of themselves and how they impacted others? On this episode we speak with Futureye Consultancy Founder and Managing Director Katherine Teh. As a corporate executive, management consultant and specialist in social licence to operate, Katherine shares stories about how we can be more acutely aware of how our decisions affect people in our cities and why the protests of 2020 were a unique moment for cities to change.

What happens when there is no more water? On this episode of The Future City podcast, we speak with Professor Sarah Bell. Sarah speaks with us about our complex yet simple relationship to water, why engineers need to roll-up their sleeves and get involved with water users when designing water systems and how we can no longer just turn on the tap. Professor Sarah Bell is the City of Melbourne Chair in Urban Resilience and Innovation at University of Melbourne.

Imagine a city where corporations used their brands for public good? On this episode of The Future City Podcast, we speak with expert brand strategist Sergio Brodsky. Sergio is a corporate leader, marketing guru and founder of the concept of Urban Brand Utility. Sergio shares his own story of getting robbed over 10 times in his hometown of Sao Paulo as well as examples of how brands are lighting up dark alleyways, filtering polluted waterways and fixing potholes so we can live in safe and...

What does it mean to have a city which regenerates itself? On this episode of The Future City Podcast, we speak with City of Sydney Councillor Jess Miller, an environmental activist and equity advocate. Jess shares about the power of urban ecology, why diverse representation matters and how equity is the lens to look through when studying our cities. Councillor Jess Miller was first elected to Council in 2016, and is one of the youngest people to hold elected office at the City of Sydney.

How do you feel right now? Understanding and regulating emotions is one of the key aspects to living a good life. This week we share an episode from our friends at The Learning Future Podcast, a podcast on all things learning hosted by Louka Parry. In this episode, he speaks with Professor Marc Brackett, the Foundation Director of the Centre for Emotional Intelligence at Yale University, on why our workplaces, our schools, and our society will be better if we give ourselves permission to feel.

How do cities attract and retain the best talent, and therefore the best industries? On this episode of The Future City Podcast, we speak with Shelley Danner, community activator, Adjunct Professor of Design Thinking, and Co-founder and Program Director of Challenge Detroit. Shelley shares with us the dynamic talent generation and urban impact model she’s been working on for the last 9 years. Her model has proven a new way for cities to develop economically while tackling social and...

How do we truly discover and showcase the different cultures in our cities? On this episode of The Future City Podcast, we speak with Anya Shani, The most recent CEO of Hansen House, Jerusalem’s Public Cultural Center. Anya is a convenor of creatives and embodies the essence of entrepreneurship in our cities. Whether we are going to a community-led theater performance or just getting lost in our cities, Anya shares the importance of experiencing hyper local, raw and real cultural experiences. 

What would it be like to design a city from the perspective of justice? On this episode we speak with Yassmin Abdel-Magied, a London-based,  Sudanese-Australian writer, engineer and award-winning social advocate. Yassmin shares her thoughts about forgiveness, inclusive leadership and what it means to live in a city where each resident feels self-expressed and without fear. Yassmin trained as a mechanical engineer and worked on oil and gas rigs before becoming a writer and broadcaster.

How would you describe the way you experience your city? On this episode of The Future City Podcast we speak with Dominic Regester about the benefits of leveraging a city’s ecology as well as what happens when city makers design for emotional and educational city experiences. Dominic is Program Director, Salzburg Global Seminar where he is responsible for designing, developing and implementing programs on education, sustainability and innovation, including a series entitled Parks for the Planet.

How do we know if the air in our cities is clean enough to breathe? On this episode of The Future City Podcast, we speak with Reecha Upadhyay, an international clean air activist based in one of the most air-polluted cities on earth, Delhi, India. Reecha is a campaigns and program leader at the Clean Air Fund, which is dedicated to building and strengthening the global clean air movement. 

One day might we just fly our way around our urban environment? Drones already deliver items to consumers at home, and as we are the midst of the third aviation revolution where might this technology take us? On today’s episode we speak with Dr. Newton Campbell Jr., a NASA computer scientist and cyber security expert that is working on self-driving aircraft. Newton currently serves as an Artificial Intelligence expert with the NASA Langley Research Center and leads several cutting-edge...

On this week’s episode of The Future City Podcast we speak with Dr. Julian Waters-Lynch about how remote working in response to the COVID19 pandemic is changing us and our cities. Dr. Waters-Lynch is a lecturer at RMIT University. He is an expert in the future of work in this “new normal.” Julian shares with us how work-life balance is evolving and that a migration of workers from major cities to second tier cities and regional areas may not be such a bad thing.

How are we celebrating, catalyzing and amplifying black joy? This, in itself, is a radical act. On this week’s episode of The Future City podcast we speak with Kyra Assibey-Bonsu, an urbanist and a storyteller who is on the board of Black Space Urbanist Collective - an organization which demands a present and future where Black people, Black spaces and Black culture matter. Kyra shares about how focusing on a manifesto and staying curious about food are key for marginalized groups to thrive...

What does it mean to have a city that is truly self-sufficient, where the only thing coming in and out is people? In this episode, we speak with Ross Harding, a designer, engineer and finance guy with a special power - designing self-sufficient cities. Ross shares his financially and technically-sound design for a reimagined capital city, one already endorsed by the local mayor, as a way to shift resource flows to creates cities with regenerative abundant resources.

How can we increase people’s connection to nature, and make our cities greener, healthier and more sustainable? In today’s episode we speak with the Honorable David Speirs MP. He is the Minister for Environment and Water and serves as a Member of Parliament in South Australia, Australia’s 4th Largest state. We discuss practical ways to change our cities for the better. He has led multiple reforms focused on the environment, including the ban on single use plastics and policies to connect...

In this episode we speak with Lucinda Hartley, an urban designer, entrepreneur and co-founder of Neighbourlytics, a social analytics platform for neighbourhoods that measures the quality of life and wellbeing in cities using big data. Named as one of Melbourne’s Top 100 most influential people, Lucinda is redefining how we measure what makes cities successful and we explore how we can evolve our neighbourhoods towards social prosperity.

Daniel Raven-Ellison is a Guerrilla Geographer, National Geographic Emerging Explorer and is leading the campaign to make London the world’s first National Park City. A former secondary school Head of Geography, Daniel’s work focuses on exploring and thinking about places in creative ways. Daniel shares brilliant insights from his adventures having explored some of the world’s largest cities to understand critical themes about the way we live and how we all be a part of positive change.

What makes a city livable? Transport? Splendid Coffee? Hip people? On this episode of the Future City Podcast we speak with Clare Shine about how access to the natural world inside our cities is what makes them desirable, equitable and even commercially successful. Clare speaks about the importance of trees, how London is becoming a National Park City and the unexpected benefits of a “new normal.”