The Help-Yourself City

One man rejected nationality and dared the world to recognize him anyway. Listen to Far From Home wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or ...  Show more

This is the ninth episode of our ongoing series breaking down the U.S. Constitution. This month, Roman and Elizabeth discuss Article VI and VII, which include some odds and ends like the Debts Clause, the No Religious Test Clause, and the process for ratification. But tucked into ...  Show more

What should urban planners design, and what should they leave to citizens and markets? To answer that question we summon none other than Alain Bertaud, an urban planner who has worked in major cities across multiple continents. He is a senior fellow at NYU's Marron Institute of U ...  Show more

Arterial roads lead to the heart of a city, parks are a city's lungs; as for it's bowels… let's not go there. But why do we continue to speak of the city in bodily terms? Marco Amati, author of The City and the Super-Organism: A History of Naturalism in Urban Planning, joins Blue ...  Show more

Computational models of urbanism—smart cities that use data-driven planning and algorithmic administration—promise to deliver new urban efficiencies and conveniences. Yet these models limit our understanding of what we can know about a city. A City Is Not a Computer: Other Urban ...  Show more

The Boston Mayor’s Office was having a problem: Not enough residents were reporting their own problems into the city. Sure, the 311 phone line had its old school devotees. But Boston decided they could reach a whole new population by creating a brand new 311 mobile app. The only ...  Show more