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Cityspeak

by Urbanize Media

Cityspeak features the visionaries who are designing, building, and reimagining cities as we know them today. From the shimmering skyscrapers of Hong Kong to the stuccoed bungalows of Los Angeles, cities across the globe develop through a familiar pattern. Like the cell cycle of an organism, buildings are constructed, demolished, and reconstructed in a chaotic choreography performed to the rhythm of each city. Join host Max Masuda-Farkas as he interviews the people shaping the cities we love, right down to the parcel, block, and neighborhood. Follow Cityspeak on Twitter @cityspeak_pod.

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Episodes

  1. Marwa Al-Sabouni: The Architecture of Peace

    Marwa Al-Sabouni is an architect born, raised, and presently living in Syria. Despite the outbreak of the civil war in 2011, Al-Sabouni chose to remain in her home country, a decision which has shaped her philosophy as an architect. Al-Sabouni explains how architecture can influence whether a...

  2. Brad Hargreaves: The Co-Living Movement

    Living with roommates is no longer a lifestyle reserved for college students. In the last five years, as many as one in five individuals aged 40 and above lives with roommates, depending on the location. Capitalizing on this trend are companies like Common, a real estate developer and operator of...

  3. Emily Hamilton: Inclusionary Zoning and Its Exclusionary Effects

    Inclusionary zoning is a policy born of good intentions. On its face, inclusionary zoning policies mandate that real estate developers allocate a certain percentage of new residential units to affordable housing. But do these policies achieve their intended aim? Emily Hamilton, a senior research...

  4. Viggy Ganapathy: If R2-D2 Delivered Pizza

    Famed urbanist Jane Jacobs once compared the city sidewalk to a ballet, calling it a "complex order...always replete with new improvisations." Soon, this ballet will feature a new dancer: robots. Viggy Ganapathy is the head of government relations at Serve Robotics, a company designing small,...

  5. Alex Israel: The Shape of Parking to Come

    Alex Israel is the CEO and founder of Metropolis, a mobility technology company that has set its sights on the one of the largest, but frequently overlooked fixtures of the modern city: parking.

  6. Dylan Casey: Suing Cities for Housing

    What does one do when cities stop permitting housing? Sue them. Dylan Casey is the Executive Director of the California Renters Legal Advocacy and Education Fund, an organization that has set out to compel cities through legal action to permit new housing in California.

  7. Anne-Claire Binter: Urban Design and Child Cognitive Health

    Any parent knows that it is during a child's earliest years that one ought to be the most careful. What they eat, what they watch, even what they listen to are all factors known to have an effect on a child's development. Now, according to a new study, there is yet another factor to add to the...

  8. Jordan Justus: Decongesting the Curb

    The rise of e-commerce and on-demand delivery has jammed up the curbside with delivery vehicles. Frequently, these vehicles are left double-parked as their drivers race to drop off everything from large packages to personal-size pizzas. Jordan Justus is the founder and CEO of Automotus, a company...

  9. Bjarke Ingels, Roni Bahar, Nick Chim: Homes Should Be Products, Too

    How to solve as stubborn a problem as housing affordability? Perhaps start by putting an entrepreneur, a technologist, and a world-famous architect in the same room. Bjarke Ingels, Roni Bahar, and Nick Chim talk about their latest venture Nabr, a startup on a mission to put more people on a path…

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  10. Ritu Narayan: Upgrading the Yellow School Bus

    The design of school buses in the U.S. has remained mostly unchanged for decades, yet school buses make up the largest public transportation system in the country, moving 27 million children every day. Hear from Ritu Narayan, the founder and CEO of Zūm, a startup that has set out to give the…

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  11. Joel Klein: Why Public School Is the Best Place to Learn from Others (Especially in NYC)

    Joel Klein graduated from public high school in Queens in 1963. Nearly 40 years later, he was appointed Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education. Tune in for the former Chancellor's views on public education in the nation's biggest cities.

  12. Bert Kaufman: Make Way for the Self-Driving Cars

    Bert Kaufman is the head of corporate and regulatory affairs at Zoox, the autonomous vehicle arm of Amazon. He discusses what's in store for cities when self-driving cars eventually roam the earth.

  13. U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy: Infrastructure, Infrastructure, Infrastructure

    U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana was part of a coterie of ten Senators largely responsible for getting the $1 trillion infrastructure package to the President's desk. In this special edition of Cityspeak, he discusses the importance of infrastructure spending for U.S. cities and towns and…

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  14. Sheila Foster: A Fresh Approach to Urban Governance

    Professor Sheila Foster is the Scott K. Ginsburg Professor of Urban Law and Policy at Georgetown University Law Center, where she researches and lectures on environmental law and justice, urban land use law and policy, and state and local government. In her upcoming book, Co-Cities, she proposes…

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  15. William Butler-Adams: How the Brompton Bicycle Redefined City Living

    Will Butler-Adams is the CEO of Brompton Bicycle, the manufacturer of the world-renowned Brompton folding bike. The Brompton is beloved by urban cyclists around the world and is for many the embodiment of city living.

  16. Vince Bertoni: How to Plan the City of Angels

    In the season finale of CitySpeak, Los Angeles City Planning Director Vince Bertoni shares some of the joys and challenges of running one of the largest urban planning organizations in the nation.

  17. Yan Krymsky: Gas Stations in the Age of Electric Vehicles

    With nearly 600 gas stations dotting the Los Angeles landscape, the rise of the electric vehicle presents an opportunity for the city to repurpose a significant portion of its urban fabric. Yan Krymsky, a design director at Perkins&Will, discusses some of his ideas for what L.A.—and other...

  18. Eric Jaffe: Sidewalk Labs and Its Vision for Urban Innovation

    Eric Jaffe is the Editorial Director at Sidewalk Labs, an urban innovation company with a plan to tackle sustainability and affordability in cities around the world. Eric joins Max to highlight some of the company’s revolutionary technologies.

  19. Ken Steif: Data and Decision-Making in the Public Sector

    Ken Steif is a data scientist, city planner, and professor at the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design, where he leads the school’s Master of Urban Spatial Analytics program. In his new book Public Policy Analytics, he explains how the public sector can catch up to private…

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  20. Saskia Sassen: The City’s Sociologist

    Saskia Sassen is the Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology at Columbia University where she researches globalization and migration in the context of global cities, a term which she coined in her 1991 book of the same name. Professor Sassen looks back on the three decades since the publication of...

  21. Tyler Duvall: Roads Become Autonomous

    Tyler Duvall is the CEO of Cavnue, a company that is designing and building roads optimized for autonomous vehicles. He joins Max to answer a central question: What will the infrastructure of the future look like?

  22. Carlo Ratti: Where the Digital and Physical Worlds Collide

    In the season premiere of CitySpeak, Max Masuda-Farkas is joined by engineer, architect, and inventor Carlo Ratti. Ratti is the head of MIT’s Senseable City Lab, where he leads a team of researchers designing technologies for the cities of tomorrow.

  23. Karin Liljegren: Restoring the Past Through Adaptive Reuse Architecture

    Karin Liljegren is the founder and principal of Omgivning, an architecture and interior design firm that specializes in taking old buildings and giving them a new life. This practice is known as adaptive reuse architecture, and a quick glance at Omgivning’s portfolio will reveal that it is at the...

  24. Jonathan Lee: Mortgage Banking and Lending During the Pandemic

    Jonathan Lee is a Principal and Managing Director of George Smith Partners, a national provider of capital market services to the commercial real estate industry. Jonathan joins Max to discuss the impacts that the pandemic has had on real estate lending and the changes he foresees for the wider...

  25. Samantha Millman: The L.A. City Planning Commission, Where Developers and Neighbors Square Off

    Samantha Millman is the President of the Los Angeles City Planning Commission, the central forum for members of the public to voice their opinions on the real estate development projects under consideration in their city. Tensions run high at the Commission—the casual observer could easily…

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  26. Doane Liu: COVID-19, Convention Centers, and Our New Fear of Flying

    Doane Liu is the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Department of Convention and Tourism Development. His sole mission—to raise up Los Angeles’ status as a convention and tourism destination—has been dealt a serious setback ever since the coronavirus spread across the Southland. Max and Doane...

  27. James Arnone: Regulating Land Use During a Housing Crisis

    Jim Arnone is in his thirtieth year as a partner at international law firm Latham & Watkins. As the firm’s Global Chair of the Environment, Land & Resources Department, Jim has helped his clients navigate the uncertain and treacherous terrain that is California land use law. Over the course of…

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  28. Bruce Katz: The Local Economy Meets the Global Pandemic

    In the season premiere of CitySpeak, Max Masuda-Farkas is joined over Zoom by Bruce Katz, co-author of The New Localism and Executive Director of the Nowak Metro Finance Lab. Bruce has spent his career churning out new ideas for how cities can maintain their preeminence as the engines of economic...

  29. Eric Owen Moss: The Architect Who Reads the Classics

    Eric Owen Moss is the principal and lead designer of his eponymously named architecture firm Eric Owen Moss Architects. Alongside his formidable portfolio of international projects, Mr. Moss is widely known for almost single-handedly designing the Culver City neighborhood known as the Hayden…

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  30. Carolina Miranda: Writing about Architecture Is Like Dancing about Music

    Carolina Miranda is an arts and architecture writer for the Los Angeles Times and has had her work featured in a wide range of national and international publications. Ms. Miranda’s writing embodies what art historian Barry Bergdoll defined as the purpose of architecture criticism to be “a bridge...

  31. William Witte: The Mind of an Urban Planner in the Real Estate Industry

    William Witte is the Chairman and CEO of Related California, the West Coast arm of the Related Companies and one of the largest real estate developers in the state. Mr. Witte’s profile defies easy classification—his over 30 years leading Related California’s extensive development portfolio of…

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  32. Frances Anderton: Design and Architecture on the Radio

    Frances Anderton is the host of the popular radio program DnA: Design and Architecture, a weekly show on KCRW public radio. Born and raised in the ancient, historic city of Bath, England, Ms. Anderton chose her decidedly less ancient home of Los Angeles after visiting LA in 1987 on a story for…

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  33. Antonio Villaraigosa: Becoming the "Subway Mayor" in Car-Centric Los Angeles

    In the debut episode of CitySpeak, Max Masuda-Farkas interviews the 41st Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa. Dubbed by LA Weekly as “the Subway Mayor,” Mayor Villaraigosa was mayor from 2005-2013, promoting a new vision for Los Angeles as “a city of smart growth,” the fruits of which are...

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ABOUT THIS SHOW

Cityspeak features the visionaries who are designing, building, and reimagining cities as we know them today. From the shimmering skyscrapers of Hong Kong to the stuccoed bungalows of Los Angeles, cities across the globe develop through a familiar pattern. Like the cell cycle of an organism, buildings are constructed, demolished, and reconstructed in a chaotic choreography performed to the rhythm of each city. Join host Max Masuda-Farkas as he interviews the people shaping the cities we love, right down to the parcel, block, and neighborhood. Follow Cityspeak on Twitter @cityspeak_pod.

HOSTED BY

Urbanize Media

Frequently Asked Questions

How many episodes does Cityspeak have?

Cityspeak currently has 33 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.

What is Cityspeak about?

Cityspeak features the visionaries who are designing, building, and reimagining cities as we know them today. From the shimmering skyscrapers of Hong Kong to the stuccoed bungalows of Los Angeles, cities across the globe develop through a familiar pattern. Like the cell cycle of an organism,...

How often does Cityspeak release new episodes?

Cityspeak has 33 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.

Where can I listen to Cityspeak?

You can listen to Cityspeak on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.

Who hosts Cityspeak?

Cityspeak is created and hosted by Urbanize Media.
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