Realtopia - Real Estate for Teens
by Naomi Cohen
Real estate. Real conversations. Hosted by a teenager trying to understand the world she’s about to inherit. I’m Naomi Cohen, and I created Realtopia — a real estate podcast for teenagers, by a teenager. What began as a podcast about real estate evolved into conversations about something even bigger: how places shape people, and how people shape places. Because real estate was never just about buildings. It’s about the future of places — cities, housing, belonging, design, community, and the people shaping them. Each episode, I ask architects, developers, researchers, founders, and urban thinkers the questions teenagers are not supposed to ask. Welcome to Realtopia.
Episodes
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Episode 25: Simon Sochas & Jenais Zarlin (Creators of the Vibrancy Index) — Can You Measure Whether a Place Is Alive?
What makes a neighborhood feel alive — not just busy? Naomi sits down with Simon Sochas, Senior Strategist at Gehl, and Jenais Zarlin, co-founder and Chief Impact Officer of SF New Deal. Together, their organizations created the Vibrancy Index, a tool designed to measure public life, public…
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Episode 24: Ellen Dunham-Jones (Co-author of Retrofitting Suburbia) — Can the Suburbs Be Redesigned for Belonging?
Can a dead mall, an empty office park, or a sea of parking become a place where people actually belong? Naomi sits down with Ellen Dunham-Jones, architect, urban designer, and co-author with June Williamson of Retrofitting Suburbia. Her database now tracks more than 2,500 suburban retrofits…
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Episode 23: Kevin Kelley (Author of Irreplaceable) — Can a Place Make Strangers Talk?
Can a place actually make strangers talk — or does design only set the stage? Naomi sits down with Kevin Kelley, architect, co-founder of Shook Kelley, and author of Irreplaceable: How to Create Extraordinary Places That Bring People Together. For more than 30 years, Kevin has studied how…
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Episode 22: Rik Adamski (Storefront Renaissance League) — Can You Create a Third Place?
Can you actually create a third place — or can you only create the conditions that allow one to emerge? Naomi sits down with Rik Adamski, president of Ash+Lime and co-founder of the Storefront Renaissance League, to talk about the everyday places where people gather — cafés, bookstores, bars,...
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Episode 21: Ryan Gravel (Creator of the Atlanta BeltLine) — Can One Idea Reconnect a City?
Can one piece of infrastructure reconnect a city — and what happens when that idea becomes more successful than anyone expected? Naomi sits down with Ryan Gravel, the urban designer whose graduate thesis became the Atlanta BeltLine, a 22-mile loop connecting 45 neighborhoods around Atlanta. Ryan...
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Episode 20: Gil Peñalosa (Founder of 8 80 Cities) — Who Is Your City Really Built For?
Most cities were designed as if everyone were 30 years old, athletic, healthy, and able to drive. What would change if every street, park, library, and neighborhood had to work for an 8-year-old and an 80-year-old? Naomi sits down with Gil Peñalosa, founder of 8 80 Cities and one of the world's...
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Episode 19: Dr. Katherine Loflin (The City Doctor) — Can Love for a Place Be Measured?
Can something as personal as loving where you live actually be measured? Naomi sits down with Dr. Katherine Loflin, known as The City Doctor and a pioneer of place science. At the Knight Foundation, Katherine led the Soul of the Community study with Gallup — three years of research across 26...
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Episode 18: Melody Warnick (Author) — Can You Learn to Love Where You Live?
Can you learn to love where you live — or are some places simply a better fit than others? Naomi sits down with Melody Warnick, journalist and author of This Is Where You Belong and If You Could Live Anywhere. After moving six times by her mid-30s, Melody arrived in Blacksburg, Virginia — and...
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Episode 17: Ethan Kent (PlacemakingX) — How Placemaking Creates Belonging
What turns a space into a place — and can belonging actually be designed? Naomi sits down with Ethan Kent, Executive Director and co-founder of PlacemakingX, a global network of more than 1,500 placemakers in over 85 countries. Before that, Ethan spent more than 20 years at Project for Public...
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Episode 16: Charles Montgomery (Author) — Happy Cities, Trust & the Design of Belonging
Can the places we live actually make us trust each other more? Naomi sits down with Charles Montgomery — journalist, author of Happy City, founder of Happy Cities, and author of the new book The Trust Experiments: Rebuilding Connection in a World Designed to Divide Us. More than a decade after...
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Episode 15: Nolan Gray (Research Director, California YIMBY) — How Zoning Shapes Cities, Housing, and Belonging
What if the reason your neighborhood looks the way it does — who lives there, what gets built, and how expensive it feels — isn't random? In this episode of Realtopia, Naomi sits down with Nolan Gray — city planner, Research Director at California YIMBY, and author of Arbitrary Lines — to unpack...
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Episode 14: Prof. Greg Clark (Advisor to 400+ Cities) — Cracking the DNA of Great Cities
Why does one city feel instantly recognizable while another could be almost anywhere? In this episode of Realtopia, Naomi sits down with Professor Greg Clark — advisor to more than 400 cities across six continents, author, and co-host of The DNA of Cities — to explore what gives places their...
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Episode 13: Dr. Toby Israel (Founder of Design Psychology) — Decoding the Hidden Psychology of Home
Why do some spaces instantly feel right — while others never quite do? In this episode of Realtopia, Naomi sits down with Dr. Toby Israel — environmental psychologist, founder of Design Psychology, and author of Some Place Like Home and Designing Women's Lives — to explore how our earliest...
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Episode 12: Prof. Marc Norman (Associate Dean of NYU Schack) — Solving the Homeownership Crisis
What if the housing crisis isn’t just about prices — but about a century of rules that quietly erased some of the most affordable ways people used to live? In this episode of Realtopia, Naomi speaks with Professor Marc Norman, Associate Dean of NYU Schack, about what’s broken in the housing…
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Episode 11: Dr. Colin Ellard (University of Waterloo, Author) — The Psychology of Home
In this episode of Realtopia, Naomi sits down with Dr. Colin Ellard, professor at the University of Waterloo and author of Places of the Heart, to explore how the spaces around us shape our emotions, behavior, and sense of belonging. From city streets to living rooms, Dr. Ellard explains how our...
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Episode 10: Majora Carter (Princeton University, TED Speaker) — Regenerative Cities
In this episode of Realtopia, Naomi speaks with Majora Carter about urban revitalization, environmental justice, and what it takes to build communities where residents can stay and thrive. Drawing from her experience in the South Bronx, Majora shares a powerful perspective on rebuilding...
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Episode 9: Carlos Moreno (Sorbonne University, Author) — The 15-Minute City: Proximity Is Power
In this episode of Realtopia, Naomi speaks with Carlos Moreno, creator of the 15-minute city, about how cities can be redesigned around people, proximity, and everyday life. From his early work in technology to his shift toward a more human-centered vision of cities, Carlos explains why the…
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Episode 8: Jerry Chu (Lofty.ai) — Real Estate Tokenization
What if you could invest in real estate the same way you buy shares in a company? In this episode, I talk with Jerry Chu, founder of Lofty, about real estate tokenization — a new way of buying and owning property through digital shares. We break down how it works, how it’s different from...
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Episode 7: Plad Homes — Modular Housing & Affordability
What if your home could move with you? This week I'm talking to Eli Rouimi, founder of Plad Homes — a company that's completely rethinking how homes are designed, built, and owned. We get into modular and prefab housing, and why it might be one of the most realistic solutions to the affordability...
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Episode 6: Kobi Karp — Architecture & Climate Responsibility
What does it take to shape a skyline — and what responsibility comes with it? This week I sat down with Kobi Karp, one of the most recognized architects in the world, whose projects span over $120 billion in iconic buildings across South Florida and beyond. But this conversation goes way deeper...
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Season 2 - Pilot
Realtopia | Season 2 Trailer — "The Blueprint for Tomorrow" Two years ago, I was a 12-year-old with a microphone and way too many questions about how houses got bought and sold. Now I'm in 9th grade — and honestly? The questions got bigger. Housing is unaffordable. Cities are overcrowded. The...
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Episode 5 - Architect
In this Episode of Realtopia, we're diving into the exciting world of architecture. Our guest is Ruben Jimenez, architect and owner of R-Method. Ruben has over 25 years of experience in the Design and Architecture field, working in different firms in Los Angeles, California and in South East...
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Episode 4 - General Contractor
Hello everyone. In today’s episode of Realtopia, I am interviewing Leon Azicri of Universal Group, a General Contractor, also called “Builder” in Miami. Leon is more than a contractor; he is also an engineer and understands a lot about what it takes to build different kinds of real estate...
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Episode 3 - Real Estate Investor
Welcome back to Realtopia, the podcast for teenagers where we explore the real estate industry. Today, I’m happy to be joined by Michael Young, a real estate investor in Miami Beach, known for his luxury home developments and house renovations. Michael has a lot to teach us about how to buy land,...
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Episode 2 - Real Estate Agent
Welcome, Realtopians! Today, we're diving into the exciting world of real estate agencies with the amazing Jennifer Rosenfeld, a real estate agent with Sheridan Realty in Miami Beach. Jennifer tells us all about being a real estate agent and her experiences. She has a lot of interesting stories…
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Episode 1 - Interior Designer
In today’s episode of Realtopia, we dive into the world of interior design. Think about colors, textures, aesthetics but also functionality! Our guest is Stephanie Perez from SHD Studio. She is a successful entrepreneur who designs dream houses in Miami. She is known for creating memorable, warm,...
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Season 1 - Pilot
Realtopia is the first podcast about real estate for teenagers by teenagers! Each episode will introduce you to someone amazing from the industry—be it an interior designer who's transforming spaces into lively homes, or an investor who's building tiny apartments. They'll share their stories…
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About this show
Real estate. Real conversations. Hosted by a teenager trying to understand the world she’s about to inherit.
I’m Naomi Cohen, and I created Realtopia — a real estate podcast for teenagers, by a teenager.
What began as a podcast about real estate evolved into conversations about something even bigger: how places shape people, and how people shape places.
Because real estate was never just about buildings. It’s about the future of places — cities, housing, belonging, design, community, and the people shaping them.
Each episode, I ask architects, developers, researchers, founders, and urban thinkers the questions teenagers are not supposed to ask.
Welcome to Realtopia.
Hosted by
Naomi Cohen