What is The Future for Cities?

Are you interested in urban conscious evolution and a hopeful future? What do you think about the saying: the future is here just not evenly distributed? How can we move towards better urban futures? Trailer for special reflective episode (462B) with Ben Vass, senior research engineer and yours truly, Fanni Melles, future of cities researcher, discussing what the last five years of the podcast and...

Are you interested in how to build better cities based on 5 years of conversations? Summary of the book titled Building Better Cities from 2026, by yours truly, Fanni Melles. This is a great summary of what we have learned during the first five years of the What is The Future for Cities? Podcast. Since we are investigating the future of cities, I thought it would be interesting to see how we can c...

Are you interested in urban conscious evolution and a hopeful future? What do you think about the saying: the future is here just not evenly distributed? How can we move towards better urban futures? Trailer for special reflective episode (462B) with Ben Vass, senior research engineer and yours truly, Fanni Melles, future of cities researcher, discussing what the last five years of the podcast and...

Are you interested in urban conscious evolution and a hopeful future? What do you think about the saying: the future is here just not evenly distributed? How can we move towards better urban futures? Trailer for special reflective episode (462B) with Ben Vass, senior research engineer and yours truly, Fanni Melles, future of cities researcher, discussing what the last five years of the podcast and...

“When we rightsize and right site our energy like nature does, not wasting it, using what’s really necessary, we can actually enjoy the benefits of ubiquitous low-cost energy availability.” Are you interested in distributed energy systems? What do you think about energy as one of the crucial layers for urban anatomy? How can we leverage economies of energy for better urban futures? Interview with...

Are you interested in distributed energy systems? What do you think about energy as one of the crucial layers for urban anatomy? How can we leverage economies of energy for better urban futures? Trailer for episode 460 - interview with Karl R Rábago, the Principal of Rábago Energy LLC. We will talk about his vision for the future of cities, distributed energy systems, sustainability history, cheap...

Are you interested in how distributed energy systems can work in practice? Our debate today works with the report titled National Standard Practice Manual: For benefit-cost analysis of distributed energy resources from 2020, by Tim Woolf, Courtney Lane, Melissa Whited, Chris Neme, Mike Alter, Steve Fine, Karl Rábago, Steven R. Schiller, Kate Strickland and Brenda Chew, published on the National As...

Are you interested in distributed energy systems? What do you think about energy as one of the crucial layers for urban anatomy? How can we leverage economies of energy for better urban futures? Trailer for episode 460 - interview with Karl R Rábago, the Principal of Rábago Energy LLC. We will talk about his vision for the future of cities, distributed energy systems, sustainability history, cheap...

Are you interested in distributed energy systems? What do you think about energy as one of the crucial layers for urban anatomy? How can we leverage economies of energy for better urban futures? Trailer for episode 460 - interview with Karl R Rábago, the Principal of Rábago Energy LLC. We will talk about his vision for the future of cities, distributed energy systems, sustainability history, cheap...

“Cities are simultaneously the fastest-growing, most economically important areas in the world, and also the most strained and fiscally strained layer of government in the world. And so the future of cities is really resolving some of that tension.” Are you interested in technology helping us making better decisions? What do you think about innovation as a relative term? How can we have discussion...

Are you interested in technology helping us making better decisions? What do you think about innovation as a relative term? How can we have discussions about the urban tension points? Trailer for episode 458 - interview with Ruthbea Yesner, Group Vice President at IDC. We will talk about her vision for the future of cities, technology and innovation, urban tension points, the individual’s role, ai...

Are you interested in the evolution of urban digital twins? Debate of the article titled What have urban digital twins contributed to urban planning and decision-making? From a systematic literature review toward a socio-technical research and development agenda from 2025, by Shervin Azadi, Dena Kasraian, Pirouz Nourian, and Pieter van Wesemael, published in the MDPI Smart Cities journal. This is...

Are you interested in technology helping us making better decisions? What do you think about innovation as a relative term? How can we have discussions about the urban tension points? Trailer for episode 458 - interview with Ruthbea Yesner, Group Vice President at IDC. We will talk about her vision for the future of cities, technology and innovation, urban tension points, the individual’s role, ai...

Are you interested in technology helping us making better decisions? What do you think about innovation as a relative term? How can we have discussions about the urban tension points? Trailer for episode 458 - interview with Ruthbea Yesner, Group Vice President at IDC. We will talk about her vision for the future of cities, technology and innovation, urban tension points, the individual’s role, ai...

“I believe humans can be keystone species once again… What does it look like when human presence on a land regenerates that land and brings more life to it?” Are you interested in regenerative development? What do you think about healthy living as being more locally connected? How can we become keystone species for regeneration? Interview with Caroline Howell, CEO and Co-Founder of Canopy. We will...

Are you interested in regenerative development? What do you think about healthy living as being more locally connected? How can we become keystone species for regeneration? Trailer for episode 456 - interview with Caroline Howell, CEO and Co-Founder of Canopy. We will talk about her vision for the future of cities, regeneration, sovereignty, technology vs nature, healthy living, humans as keystone...

Are you interested in the relationship between urban biodiversity and ecosystem services? Debate of the article titled Understanding biodiversity-ecosystem service relationships in urban areas: A comprehensive literature review from 2017, by Nina Schwarz, Marco Moretti, Miguel N. Bugalho, Zoe G. Davies, Dagmar Haase, Jochen Hack, Angela Hof, Yolanda Meleroj, Tristan J. Pett, and Sonja Knapp, publi...

Are you interested in regenerative development? What do you think about healthy living as being more locally connected? How can we become keystone species for regeneration? Trailer for episode 456 - interview with Caroline Howell, CEO and Co-Founder of Canopy. We will talk about her vision for the future of cities, regeneration, sovereignty, technology vs nature, healthy living, humans as keystone...

Are you interested in regenerative development? What do you think about healthy living as being more locally connected? How can we become keystone species for regeneration? Trailer for episode 456 - interview with Caroline Howell, CEO and Co-Founder of Canopy. We will talk about her vision for the future of cities, regeneration, sovereignty, technology vs nature, healthy living, humans as keystone...

“A city can have a perfect transit, the perfect architecture, housing and energy - and still be one supply shock from empty shelves.” Are you interested in making our food chain more resilient? What do you think about our food foot prints? How can we improve the circularity of our food systems? Interview with Kamogelo Thumankwe, founder and CEO of Tsarona. We will talk about her vision for the fut...

Are you interested in making our food chain more resilient? What do you think about our food foot prints? How can we improve the circularity of our food systems? Trailer for episode 454 - interview with Kamogelo Thumankwe, founder and CEO of Tsarona. We will talk about her vision for the future of cities, urban food prints, circularity of food systems, diversity of crops for resilience, and many m...

Are you interested in making our food chain more resilient? Our debate today works with the article titled Does crop diversification lead to climate-related resilience? Improving the theory through insights on practice from 2022, by Ronnie Vernooy, published in the Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems journal. This is a great preparation to our next interview with Kamogelo Thumankwe in episode...

Are you interested in making our food chain more resilient? What do you think about our food foot prints? How can we improve the circularity of our food systems? Trailer for episode 454 - interview with Kamogelo Thumankwe, founder and CEO of Tsarona. We will talk about her vision for the future of cities, urban food prints, circularity of food systems, diversity of crops for resilience, and many m...

Are you interested in making our food chain more resilient? What do you think about our food foot prints? How can we improve the circularity of our food systems? Trailer for episode 454 - interview with Kamogelo Thumankwe, founder and CEO of Tsarona. We will talk about her vision for the future of cities, urban food prints, circularity of food systems, diversity of crops for resilience, and many m...

"We never can abandon freight as long we have demand for products and services… We are the blood vessels for a healthy society, and that, that's very important.” Are you interested in how logistics influences urban planning? What do you think about pilots of collaborative logistics? How can we rethink logistics in regards to resilience? Interview with Ron van Duin, applied research profes...