The Help-Yourself City

In 1861, one man and a “gas bag” filled with hydrogen sparked America's obsession with going higher, farther, into the unknown. In this episode, Roman and journalist Jack Hitt tell the story of Thaddeus Lowe — showman, scientist, and dreamer — whose balloon flight from Cincinnati ...  Afficher plus

Behind every cheesy karaoke track was a surprisingly ambitious filmmaking experiment. 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 by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Host ...  Afficher plus

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 ...  Afficher plus

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 ...  Afficher plus

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 ...  Afficher plus

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 ...  Afficher plus