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(intro music)

Welcome to What is The Future For Cities podcast; my name is Fanni, and today we will celebrate the second birthday of the podcast! First and foremost, I would like to thank you all for joining me on this adventure. I am really grateful for your support. And I am especially thankful for my interviewees who took the time to appear on the podcast and share their ideas and insights. And as a thank you, there will be a give-away at the end of this episode, so stay tuned to know how to enter! But now, let me give you a summary of what we have achieved and learned throughout this year! So, let’s jump right into it!

Let’s start with the achievements. This is episode is the 155^th episode which in and of itself is amazing. I have some data from Spotify but not from the other platforms, unfortunately. However, even only from Spotify, there are staggering numbers. There are more than 100 downloads per week and we are generally over 5000 downloads, and 82 subscribers. These numbers are unbelievable because this is all due to organic growth, we haven’t played with paid advertisement. Basically, this growth is thanks to you spreading the word about the podcast, and the episode notifications on LinkedIn and Twitter. This was personally a huge year for me as well since I finished my PhD research about – well, it cannot really be a surprise – the future of cities. I shared parts of my findings in the preceding research episode and the next interview will be with a special guest discussing my findings.

What’s probably more important though is what we have learned this year. As a basis, cities are accepted as one of the key places to face our challenges, like climate change and population growth. Interestingly, we learned that cities are these big complex systems and many aspects can be highlighted as a problem-thus-opportunity area. Specific fields, like economics and economic geography were introduced this year to broaden our understanding what the city is and can be. And we also included newer areas, like India and Africa into our thinking about the future of cities. Thus, cities are networks of networks, fields, built infrastructure, nature, and people working together.

The most recurring challenge was climate change, unsurprisingly, with the inability to solve problems or work together as humans. The interviews and panel discussions highlighted the importance of facing these problems instead of diminishing them, but also the importance of seeing them as something to be tackled, not to be sad about. We have very smart people working on these challenges and there are promising signs. Which is a great opportunity.

The other great opportunity was for each and every one of us to take action. For me, the most recurring theme was that we, people are opportunities and strengths for cities – I talk more about this and the most interesting things coming out of the podcast in the interview in episode 156. We are all part of the city, we influence the city and our environment so we just need to be conscious of such effects. We can think of: what is the consequence if I choose this over this? How can I make my opinion heard? How can I engage more with my city and the decisions made in it? How is my environment influencing us? Do we like that influence or would we like to change something? How can we change those things? What things can we collaborate on to establish that better thing? Do we like how we live or are there improvements to make?

We also heard ideas on how to be more conscious of our cities. Interviewees, like Dave Hakkens questioned the need for cities and experiment with the opportunities provided by such a critical stance. Colin Chee introduced us to the small footprint living as an alternative and more mindful way of living in a city. Alan Donegan taught us that indeed we can change the city if we are willing to create something for the needed change. Ana Enache advocated for sustainability from a more lay person perspective. Matt Ferrell talked about renewable energies and the need for the next generation to understand the possibilities of these solutions. And Luis Natera expressed his conscious choice on where to live not just based on what he likes but also where he can contribute to the specific future of the space.

Our researcher guests introduced their specific areas, where they try to achieve difference for the better future for cities. Soheil Sabri talked about digital twins, Morley Muse about education and the need for STEM involvement, and Nataly Arevalo about neurodiversity in design, while Paul Satur advocated for better urban water management. Michael Batty explained what inventing future cities mean with experimentation and data management, Kelly Boucher described a new way of pedagogy as a co-learning experience. Anthony Kent and Matthew McCartney investigated the city from different economic perspectives. And Jeni Paay advocated for research collaborations through her lens of interaction design and human computer interactions.

Industry leaders discussed their specific stances and actions in making the future brighter. Damian Hewitt highlighted smartness as simplicity and the need for planning with the disadvantaged in mind because that gives better products for the majority. Corey Gray connected beauty to the future of cities, Richard Morrison talked about the tasks involved with creating a completely new city, while Jacek Urbanowicz wanted to help designers to communicate better. Noel Tighe, Chris Maher and Paul Brookbanks introduced designer thinking to the conversations with the need for better involvement and sustainable ideas.

The first panel conversation investigated the smart city understanding in the industry in episode 100, where the panellists talked more about what is needed for industry, academia and government than smart cities but we still learned a lot from them. The second panel conversation discussed academia’s role in establishing the future of cities, and the panellists highlighted their wish to have more impact and time to create better research for real life.

And what was the most repeated actions the interviewees said? They asked us to get engaged, to express ourselves in the urban area, to demand more and better from them and from academia, industry and government. They asked us to start talking about these challenges and the possible solutions and the opportunities presented at a place. They asked us to reach out and collaborate through our own means – we don’t have the save and change the world, we just need to be conscious of our roles and responsibilities in the urban context.

I am so excited about what’s coming as well. We had amazing interviewees and fortunately this does not stop. There will be many additional aspects investigated in the urban context, like circular economy and investments. We will have an Aboriginal guest talking about how the aboriginal ideas can be useful for our modern times. More researchers, inventors, politicians and overall overachievers will talk about their perspectives, among others our youngest guest talking about consciously choosing university courses for a better future. During Christmas, my conversation with my father will be published as a festive episode – I am sooo glad that I was able to record this conversation just for myself but also it has really good points for others 😀 So there are so many things coming in our way that I can’t help but feel great and hopeful about our brighter future.

And now, as an appreciation to you, I would like to offer you the chance to get one of the books very connected to this podcast: Antifragile from Nassim Nicholas Taleb, What we owe the future from Will MacAskill or Brighter from Adam Dorr. You only have to answer at least one the questions mentioned later on LinkedIn or twitter below the birthday episodes’ announcements. After a week, I will draw the winners and let you choose from the books whichever you prefer – very exhuberant audience members could even ask for my thesis if wanted, but the give-away is more about the books not my thesis. So answer at least one of the questions on LinkedIn or twitter in the coming week and you can enter the draw!

(music)

As the most important things, I would like to highlight 3 aspects:

1. I am so grateful for your joining me on this adventure either as a listener or an interviewee as well, I thank you for your attention to this topic.
2. Cities need changes for better future and there is no one idea which could fit every city.
3. We, every one of us can create change in cities, even if it is for the smallest impact, because that will influence the city, so make sure that our impacts are for a better future. Let’s take a conscious approach and responsibility creating our improved futures for cities.

And now I would like to invite you to share your experiences and which would give you the chance to win a book if answered on LinkedIn or twitter:

1. What did you learn this year from these episodes?
2. What was the most interesting and important for you?
3. What would you like to learn more about in the future?
4. What action did you take after these episodes?

Let me know on LinkedIn or on Twitter at wtf4cities to enter the giveaway or on the wtf4cities.com website where the transcripts and shownotes are available. I hope this was an interesting summary for you as well, and thanks for tuning in during this year, I highly appreciate all of you! And a final question for today: what action will you take to create a better future for cities, thus humanity?

[outro music]

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