The Future City

Louka and Eyal reminisce about the first 50 conversation of The Future City Podcast.

We've all heard about affordable housing, but what is affordable retail? Charlie and Anthony say that entrepeneurial start ups are creating immense value by creating businesses and organisations that are focussed on affordable retail, leading to fulfilled sustainable communities. Charlie has over 30 years' experience of advising on commercial property investment development and asset management. Clients include owner-managed property companies, international trustees/private offices and prominent UK institutions including charities and livery companies. Charlie's practice particularly covers equity-share investment leases in the City/West End, community developments and capital projects for charities and institutions. Anthony is a Senior Associate in the Planning and Environmental team. Anthony focuses on compulsory purchase order (CPO) and development planning work as well as advising parties affected by major and Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects. His clients include private individuals, institutions and companies looking to develop land or those affected by CPO proposals, Development Consent Order (DCO) applications and those affected by the proposed Hybrid Bill for Crossrail.

Are green gardens allowed, or encouraged on rooftops in most metropolitan areas? In a high-density low-parkland environment; are there really no spaces for greenery and plant-life? Elizaveta Fakirova says that parks, natures, and green spaces can be on walls, rooftops, inside, and designed into other creative areas. Ingenuity and policy can enable a city of smart gardens, and will hopefully increase as we have more free-time. Elizaveta is the 2020/21 German Chancellor Fellow with the Humboldt Foundation, where she is conducting a research-based project about green roof and facade policy implementation in Europe, aimed at transferring and applying that knowledge to a Russian context. Originally from Saint-Petersburg, Russia, she is also an interdisciplinary project manager with experience developing urban, cultural and educational projects. Practical working experience in two Russian urban consultancies, Strelka KB and Citymakers, as a project manager has established her as a professional who is able to take care of the full project circle - from initial idea to project implementation and further maintenance. Elizaveta has experience living, studying and working in Saint-Petersburg, Moscow and Berlin. She speaks fluent English, advanced German and native Russian. She has traveled around 26 Russian cities in three months from Saint-Petersburg to Vladivostok. Elizaveta was among 15 national participants (out of 200+) in the UNESCO Young Professionals Programme in 2018. Elizaveta has a degree in architectural environmental design (Saint-Petersburg) and a master's degree in urban management from Technical University (Berlin). Biography from World Urban Parks.

How valuable is the purpose of a space? What happens when you combine a meditation trainer and an engineer? Nitin Govila says that the importance and design of spaces for reflection, meditation, and just to unwind are extremely important human-centred considerations in design, capable of being achieved efficiently by being a part of practical planned construction and supply. Nitin is a management leader, entrepreneur, engineer, and meditation trainer. He is the APAC MENA MD for the French manufacturing group Serge Ferrari, a leader in the flexible composite material sector. His scope of operations covers: Japan, Korea, China, Hongkong, India, ASEAN, Australia-NZ, Middle-East & Africa. Nitin was born in India, educated and worked in France, and is currently based in Singapore. In addition to overseeing business operations and management of 7 Legal distribution entities (and a newly acquired Taiwanese company) across the Asia Pacific, Middle East & African regions. Nitin is a member of the Group Executive Committee helping define the company's long-term strategy and key decisions for the future growth of the organisation. Nitin manages a 175-member global team. Part of Nitin's accomplishments include his first Asian expansion, with the acquisition of a Taiwanese manufacturing plant; completed within 9 months during the beginning of the global pandemic. He was instrumental in managing a smooth transition and integration of a newly acquired company in the MEA region with a multinational team, into the existing organisational infrastructure. Also Nitin significantly increased APAC + MEA region's worldwide contribution through multiplication of revenue, volume and profitability.

Architect and public art strategist Samuel Mayze says every city needs an Artist-in-Residence. Mayze says public art is another piece of infrastructure which brings people together and cities are in dire need of creative curation of their public spaces. On this episode of The Future City Podcast we speak with Samuel Mayze, Director of Strategic Projects at Urban Art Projects (UAP) where he has led multi-million dollar public art, cultural master planning and complex fabrication projects in Australia and the Middle East. Samuel shares knowledge about the public art curation process, why cities are caring more about this, and the afterlife of public art.

The Long Island Railroad's chief technologist Will Fisher says remote work will keep going if the commute sucks. According to Fisher “If you don't have competitive commuting options, you will resort to virtual work.” On this episode of The Future City we speak with Google and Palantir-trained technologist and Chief Innovation Officer for the Long Island Railroad Will Fisher. Will has a degree in Computer Science from Princeton and an MBA from Stanford. Will speaks with us about the service information spectrum, why having great service means less realtime information is required and the need to mix up your commute to work by focussing on human-powered machines.

Economist Donnie Maclurcan says there are ways city dwellers can be encouraged to share more readily. In this episode of The Future City Podcast we speak with Executive Director of the Post-Growth Institute Donnie Maclurcan. Donnie has spent over 15 years investigating how to re-teach people in cities to feel safe enough to share their offers and needs. Donnie says capitalism has traumatized us but that there are powerful ways many people are rebuilding a more just economic system from the ground up. Donnie speaks with us about how we are conditioned to feel like consumers rather than producers and why getting people to give to their neighbors offers an opportunity to work through some of the trauma capitalism embeds in our lived experience. Donnie Maclurcan is a facilitator, author and social entrepreneur, passionate about all things not-for-profit. He is Executive Director of the Post Growth Institute and as a consultant, has worked globally helping more than 500 not-for-profit projects start, scale and sustain their work. An Affiliate Professor of Economics, Donnie holds a Ph.D. in social science and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. He is working on his fourth book: How on Earth: Our future is not for profit.

The Untold City with Dr. Dominique Somda Slave trade researcher Dr. Dominique Somda says monuments which honor colonisers should not be removed from our cities. They should be spectacularly subverted. In this episode of The Future City Podcast we speak with anthropologist and author Dr. Dominique Somda about why keeping slave histories a secret suppresses the evolution of our cities and their inhabitants. Somda outlines how people in cities interact based on what they know and ignore about each other and secrecy and hidden memories make city dwellers uncomfortable to engage in their shared history. Somda says digital humanity and subversion of monuments which are partially removed or marked with new interpretations can transform the glory of the coloniser to one which is more grotesque and shameful. This is how we initiate a new dialogue in the public space about our secret past. Without this, she claims, secrecy is the enemy of liberation.

What if doctors and educators prescribed nature? On today's episode of The Future City Podcast, Eyal and Louka speak with Dr Melissa Lem and not-for-profit educator and leader Jennie McCaffrey about how nature can be prescribed for health and education. Dr Melissa Lem is a Vancouver family physician. A board member of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment and strategic advisor to the BC Parks Foundation, she is a passionate advocate for the health benefits of time spent in nature. She is currently a clinical faculty member at the University of British Columbia. Jennie McCaffrey is an experienced educator, facilitator, and project manager who leads environmental protection initiatives at the intersection of schools, non-profits, industry groups, and regional and federal governments. Jennie works with the British Columbia Parks Foundation's Healthy By Nature initiative, the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation Education, and the Invasive Species Council of British Columbia.

How does our space influence us? On this episode of The Future City Podcast, we speak with property development innovator Michael McCormack.  Michael is a registered building practitioner with education in law, architecture, and construction. With over ten years of experience working at several firms, including a premier property consultancy and a national luxury developer and building company, Michael now runs the B-Corporation Milieu, one of Australia's most-awarded and boundary bending firms focussed on how we can use design and architecture to influence behaviour in our buildings, spaces, and cities. Michael speaks with us about how design and architecture infused with purpose can inspire communities to form; and how firms building our cities must think about their long-term impacts.

Why is police accountability critical for our cities?  On this episode of The Future City Podcast we speak with entrepreneur, management consultant and public sector innovator Tony Rice II. Tony is a top tier management consultant specialising in public sector innovation. He is the founder of Unarmed, a platform where compliments and complaints about law enforcement are managed.  Tony shares why now is the leadership moment for police chiefs, the impact of deeply entrenched policing methods, and the role of citizens in holding our law enforcement to account.

What if we looked at our cities through the lens of time? What ideas might emerge?  On this episode of The Future City Podcast, we speak with futurist, entrepreneur and researcher Eddie Harran. Eddie is the Founder of Temporal Labs, a futurist at Huddle Design and was explorer in residence at the Centre for the edge at Deloitte.  Eddie challenges us to think about the timescape of our city, the ‘speed' of a city, and how focussing on ‘time spent' in our cities can unlock solutions to deeply entrenched problems our city executives face.

Is the economic model of your city regenerative and inclusive? On this episode of The Future City Podcast, we speak with executive, entrepreneur and CEO of BLab Australia and New Zealand, Andrew Davies. Andrew speaks with us about redefining the foundations for good businesses and how solving urban challenges sits at the intersection of public and private partnerships. BLab is a movement of people using business as a force for good.

The Inclusive City  What does it mean to design a culturally inclusive city?  On this episode of The Future City Podcast, we speak with linguist, urban planner and designer Ali Estefam. Ali is a multilingual community outreach specialist at Melissa Johnson Associates. She has worked on people-centred approaches to design and urban planning at New York City Department of Design and Construction, New York City's Economic Development Corporation, the International Development Bank, and the World Monuments Fund.  Ali speaks with us about engagement beyond language, tactical urbanism and the behavioural science and psychology of engagement.

What turns a space into a place you want to be a part of?  On this episode of The Future City Podcast, we speak with property director and entrepreneur Beth Hampson. Beth is Commercial Director at The Argyll Club, which manages 38 premium flexible workspaces at the heart of London's office market. Beth shares with us the importance of urban hubs and what the future of coworking looks like as we emerge from this global pandemic.

What if you got paid to learn for the rest of your life?  On this episode of the Future City Podcast we speak with storyteller, learner, and technology architect Jacksón Smith.  Jacksón is Co-Founder and the CTO of the Learning Economy Foundation, a U.S. based non-profit organization with a global mission to prepare citizens to be future-skilled, address inequity with student and employee centric models and put innovation at the centre of our communities.  Jacksón speaks with us about having a vested interest in the place that educated you, carrying a learner “wallet” and envisioning what a learning economy might look like beyond the university years.

What is the magic solution to revive human vitality?  On this episode of the Future City Podcast, we speak with global behaviour change expert Dr. Ting Jiang. Dr. Jiang was a Principal at the Duke University Center for Advanced Hindsight, founded by best-selling Professor Dan Ariely. Ting coined the term "Behavioral Tech" and claims it will become the next innovation breakthrough after AI and IOT. Dr. Jiang guides us through a meditative conversation about why science-driven lifestyle change is the key to human vitality in our cities. Take a slow breath and enjoy.

What can your city teach you? On this episode of The Future City Podcast we speak with executive, curator and researcher Sébastien Turbot. Sébastien is the CEO of eko6, a creative learning consultancy and a Research Fellow at Qatar Foundation's World Innovation Summit for Education, leading a global hub on Learning Ecosystems. Sébastien speaks with us about the value of learning to learn, how urban space shapes our learning journey and how becoming a global “hub” means investing in student and citizens' 21st century skills

Is your university alma mater a city?  On this episode of The Future City Podcast, we speak with Jay Deshmukh, an award-winning architect and Associate Manager in Architecture at IBI Group; a global technology-driven design firm focused on the future of cities. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees at the Textile Museum of Canada.  Jay speaks with us about the social nature of learning, how university campuses have become intrinsic to places and the value of integrated campus life.

How might international relations and diplomacy affect the future of our cities? On this episode of The Future City Podcast we speak with professor, political scientist and diplomat Juan Battaleme. Professor Battaleme is the Secretary of CARI, the Argentine Council on International Relations (CARI) as well as the Director of the Government and International Relations at Universidad Argentina de la Empresa (UADE) based in Buenos Aires. Battaleme speaks with us about why connectography trumps geography, how foreign government soft power can be developed through infrastructure investments and how biometrics may be the key to crime prevention.

What would it mean for our cities if equity and resilience were the metrics of success? On this episode of The Future City Podcast we speak with Harvard and MIT-trained Associate Vice President of Economic Development for the New York City Economic Development Corporation Jonathan Lane. Jonathan speaks with us about the power of targeting new industry to tackle equity issues in a city, the need to challenge the status quo and why resilience is the key to urban economics.

What are the likely futures for our cities? On this episode of The Future City Podcast we speak with futurist, urban planner and architect Jonelle Simunich. Jonelle is the Senior Strategist at Arup's Foresight Research and Innovation team. She specialises in sustainability, regenerative urban systems and advanced technologies that will shape the future of the build environment in our cities. Jonelle speaks with us about regeneration, the role of technology and the 2050 scenarios for our society and planetary health.

What would it mean if every citizen was a revolutionary optimist? On this episode of The Future City Podcast, we speak with singer, songwriter, activist and racial justice educator Sonny Singh. Sonny is the original member of the Brooklyn Bhangra outfit Red Baraat and also co-founded the political rock band Outernational and recorded an album produced by Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine. Sonny speaks with us about institutional racism, the power of digital spaces for activists and why he is a revolutionary optimist through and through.

How might we discover stillness in the spaces we design? On this episode of The Future City Podcast we speak with architecture professor and Mumbai-based design thought leader Prachi Sharma. Prachi is an Assistant Professor at the Lokmanya Tilak Institute of Architecture & Design Studies. She speaks with us about breaking the silos of architecture, the value of in-between spaces and why you should design so people can discover stillness in a city.

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 was Senior Counsel on the US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and has gone on to advise and analyze companies working to improve our cities. 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.  Courtney is the Managing Partner of BC Global Partners which works with start-ups, impact investors and venture capital funds to develop targeted impact investing and growth strategies. Prior to this, Courtney was the Director of Entrepreneurship and Independent Business at the American Economic Liberties Project and Director of Partnerships at Power the Polls. Courtney has served as Senior Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs where she spearheaded a series of drug pricing and healthcare investigations, promoted bipartisan legislation to address the opioid crisis, and oversaw matters relating to the U.S. Census.

What would it mean if a city was conscious? On this episode of The Future City Podcast we speak with architect, researcher and founder of the Conscious Cities movement Itai Palti. Itai is Director of Hume, a science-informed 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 exclude people in our cities. 

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.  Logan is a Harvard trained behavioral scientist turned dating coach. She is the author of How To Not Die Alone and is the Director of Relationship Science at the dating app Hinge. In a former life, she ran Google's behavioral science team—the Irrational Lab.

What if children designed our cities?  On this Episode of The Future City Podcast 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 studio seeking to enhance human experiences through the practices of architecture and behaviour design. She is 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, an event for the government technology sector. Daniel speaks with us about customizing civic technology, transforming government into a curator of public and private datasets and the true cost of the status quo. 

What happens when you slow down? You start to care about where you live. On this episode of The Future City Podcast, 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 speaks with us about the third largest river in the United States, how the environmental history of a place can speak to a range of communities and why our vocabulary is critical for enrolment.    Scott Martin is the Executive Director of River Heritage Conservancy, a non-profit committed to the establishment of a 500+ acre park along the North Shore of the Falls of the Ohio. Scott has been fortunate to be a part of teams in Idaho, Virginia, and Kentucky that have built some of our nation's largest new public park and urban open space conservation systems over the last twenty years. Scott is the North American Chair for the World Urban Parks Congress.

What if cities are the greatest opportunity we have to redesign the rules we live by? On this episode of the Podcast 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.   Pia is the co-founder of Democracy Earth, a foundation dedicated to incorruptible digital governance for organizations, and Open Collective, a platform for organizations to collect and spend transparently. She is the Chairwoman of The DemocracyOS Foundation, a Y Combinator backed collaborative decision-making platform. In the city of Buenos Aires, she co-founded Partido de la Red (The Net Party) one of the world's first political parties to be fully informed and powered by internet participation. Pia is a representative of the World Economic Forum Social Media Council, a member of The World Fix, and former Chief Advisor to the Deputy Secretary of Political Affairs of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires.

What would a city be like if citizens were emotionally aware of themselves and how they impacted others? On this episode of The Future City podcast, we speak with Futureye Consultancy Founder and Managing Director Katherine Teh. Katherine is 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, why the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 were a unique moment for cities to change and that outrage is something we should pay attention to.  Katherine Teh-White is the managing director and founder of Futureye – a firm which provides market research, public policy, public affairs, risk communication, foresight and strategy and change management for Fortune 500 companies in Australia, Asia and Europe. She worked actively for a decade to engage Australian companies to sign on to the UN Global Compact. Katherine currently sits on the Advisory Board, Masters of Politics and Policy at Deakin University and is a board member of the Castan Centre for Human Rights at Monash University.

What happens when there is no more water? On this episode of The Future City podcast, we speak with Professor Sarah Bell. Sarah is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management and Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers who has worked across a number of cities on their water issues. 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. Prior to this, Professor Bell was the Steering Committee member, and Co-Director of the University College London's Urban Laboratory as well as Director of the UCL Engineering Exchange.

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, healthy and enjoyable cities.    Sérgio Brodsky (L.LM, MBA) is an internationally experienced brand, media and innovation strategist who has worked in senior leadership roles at some of the world's top brand agencies including Starcom, Omnicom and Initiative. He is the Founder and Principal at strategy and innovation consultancy SURGE and Co-Founder at Tik My Day - Australia's first dedicated TikTok agency. Sérgio is a Columnist and Editorial Board Advisor at Marketing Magazine and has been widely published beyond the trade press by the likes of Vice, The Conversation, Museum-iD, Berlin Marketing Journal, Journal of Futures Studies and many others.

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. Jess served as Deputy Lord Mayor from 2017-2018. Jess is currently Deputy Chair of the Environment Committee, the Cycling Advisory Committee, and a member of the Southern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils.

How do you feel right now? Understanding and regulating emotions is one of the key aspects to living a good life, and in fact it's never been more important than at this moment in our human history. This week we doing something different as 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 urban social and environmental issues.

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.   Anya is a Director of Culture, an entrepreneur and a farmer. She is the most recent CEO of Hansen House and was the Director of Culture and Events at the Jerusalem International YMCA, where Jews, Muslims, and Christians come together for cultural events, sports, and other activities. She is also overseeing Yitzhakale Farm, her late father's farm, which she is licensing to be one of Israel's first fully organic farms.

What would it be like to design a city from the perspective of justice? On this episode of The Future City Podcast 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 around Australia for years before becoming a writer and broadcaster.  She published her debut memoir, Yassmin's Story at age 24, and followed up with her first fiction book for younger readers, You Must Be Layla, in 2019. Yassmin founded her first organisation, Youth Without Borders, at the age of 16, leading it for nine years. Yassmin has spoken in over 20 countries on unconscious bias and inclusive leadership and today she joins us from London, UK.

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 and what happens when city makers take the time to consider the emotional experience city dwellers have when they trounce around their favorite parks and gallivant in their beloved city pockets. 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. He is a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Commission on Education and Communication and is an Executive Committee Member for Karanga – The Global Alliance for Social Emotional Learning and Life Skills.

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.  Reecha's work is about backing a range of interventions such as air quality monitoring and supporting ambitious policymakers and campaigners to keep air quality high in all cities, but with a focus on India, Eastern Europe and the United Kingdom.

What does the future of flight mean for our cities? 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. Dr. Campbell Jr. currently serves as an Artificial Intelligence expert with the NASA Langley Research Center and leads the development of several programs in urban air mobility, geomagnetism, virtual reality, and high-performance computing for Earth Sciences. Self-aware aircraft will be game changers in urban-air mobility.

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.  Dr. Julian Waters-Lynch is a lecturer in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Organizational Design at the School of Management at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. His research focuses on the impact of emerging trends on the future of work and ways of organising.

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, a Brooklyn based urbanist and 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 in our cities.

What does it mean to have a city which is truly self-sufficient where the only thing coming in and out is people? On this episode of The Future City podcast, we speak with Ross Harding, a designer, engineer and finance guy with a special power - designing self-sufficient cities. Ross shares his financial and technically-sound design for a self-sufficient capital city, which was endorsed by the local mayor. 

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. As you'll hear, Dave is a passionate advocate for the environment and we discuss practical ways to change our cities for the better. As one of Australia's youngest Government Ministers, he has led multiple reforms focused on the environment, including the ban on single use plastics, an Australian first, and enabling people to more easily experience the environment in their neighbourhood.

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, including our urban environments. Daniel shares brilliant insights from his adventures having explored some of the world's largest cities to understand critical themes including violence, depression and green space. He walked the height of Mount Everest over 10 days by only using London's buildings and also completed an expedition with National Geographic and Cisco to explore the internet of everything, where he walked 1,686km across national parks and cities wearing an EEG that tracked his emotions.

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.”

What's the difference between a good night and a wicked night? Incredible food and amazing cocktails. On this episode of The Future City Podcast, we speak with Ryan Chetiyawardana about how to design magical culinary experiences, where the future of restaurants is heading and why being weird is the key to being cool.

The future of living in cities is in question. How will we experience our cities in the future? In this episode we introduce the Future City Podcast and the big questions we will explore as the episodes unfold.