Shows
The DNA of CitiesKeynote - Anna Campbell-Jones In today's Keynote episode, we are so excited to meet Anna Campbell-Jones. Anna is an interior designer, broadcaster and educator. She is the founder of residential interior design practice Habitus and she is the founder of her eponymous retail store, annacampbelljones.com. You will also recognise Anna as a judge on BBC Scotland’s Home of The Year. Anna told us how she brings a sense of place, neighbourhood and location into the homes that she interior designs. – What are the Keynotes? These are the episodes where we zoom out from our city-to-city voya...2025-05-0826 min
The DNA of CitiesKeynote - Gonzalo BrujóIn today's Keynote episode, we are joined by Gonzalo Brujó. Gonzalo is Global CEO at Interbrand where he leads the day-to-day operations of the global brand consultancy, spearheading the growth agenda and supporting marketing and consulting efforts in all regions. We spoke to Gonzalo about how he decodes the uniqueness of cities and how a sense of place shapes branding strategy and activation. He also reveals how city branding compares to national branding or corporate branding. – What are the Keynotes? These are the episodes where we zoom out from our city-to-city voyage to meet global expe...2025-04-1027 min
The DNA of CitiesKeynote - Dr Wangui KimariIn today's Keynote episode, we meet the wonderful Dr Wangui Kimari. Wangui is Assistant Director at the American University Nairobi Abroad Program and she is an Honorary Research Associate at the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town. We had a fantastic time learning from Wangui about The DNA of Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city, and she also enlightened us about her starting points for understanding the uniqueness of cities as an urban anthropologist. – Here are a selection of Wangui's recent publications: Kimari, W. (2024) On the police as infrastructure and managers in the...2025-04-0335 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of Sydney - Part III Welcome to the final episode in our mini-series exploring The DNA of Sydney. This is the episode where we attempt to understand identity, mindsets and social behaviours in Sydney and where we might look in the city’s history and evolution to find earliest signs of these traits or characteristics and how they became continuous. Although this is the final part of our mini-series, we know that there is so much more that we could attempt to decode in Sydney’s complex psyche – and we also know that there is no single truth waiting to be discovered. These...2025-03-2749 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of Sydney - Part IIWelcome to the second episode in our three-part mini-series decoding The DNA of Sydney. In this episode, we ask ‘how many Sydneys are there?’ and uncover several distinguishing characteristics that layer together to produce a sense of pride and identity. We explore the geographies of its deep, diverse and continuous Aboriginal lifestyles and how waves of global migration have produced its contemporary cosmopolitanism. To do this, our local experts take us far beyond the Sydney we can all imagine and admire – the harbour icons and the beautiful eastern beaches – to the culturally rich suburbs that make up this vast city of...2025-03-2044 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of Sydney - Part IWelcome to the first episode in our three-part mini-series exploring The DNA of Sydney. The beauty and appeal of Sydney’s dramatic, dreamy, and diverse scenery have always been, and are still, an inspiration for people. Today, the Sydney metropolitan region is home to over five million people in a region whose spatial boundaries are defined by the Pacific Ocean on the eastern coast, the Blue Mountains to the west, the Hawkesbury River to the north and the swampy Woronora Plateau to the south. It's a place of abundance, where an environment of immense lushness and attractiveness combine with a...2025-03-1341 min
The DNA of CitiesKeynote - Dr Gabrielle Bendiner-VianiWe are honoured to have Dr Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani as our second Keynote. Gabrielle is the founder of interdisciplinary design studio Buscada and she is the author of The Cities We Need (MIT Press, 2024). Drawing from over two decades of research and practice in New York, Oakland, London and Buenos Aires, Gabrielle reveals that the: Everyday places in our neighbourhoods and cities are essential for discovering our sense of self People that manage and operate everyday places play a significant but often overlooked role in fostering community and belonging Building of social capital in multi-cultural, multi-faith, multi-lingual, hyp...2025-03-0652 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of São Paulo - Part IIIn our second episode on São Paulo, we explore the rich and irreducibly plural social and cultural fabrics and the unique scales of its global diaspora communities. Through the lenses of various infrastructural fragments (e.g. water and public transportation) and spatial patterning (e.g. the location of homes vs jobs and critical services), we discuss the politics and pervasiveness of inequalities in São Paulo. We also learn about the city’s distinctive roles in Brazil, South America and the world, and we ask how well São Paulo is understood and misunderstood. We are very g...2025-02-2747 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of São Paulo - Part IIn the second decade of the 21st Century, we find on a plateau in Brazil's Serra do Mar mountains São Paulo; a city of 12 million people and the nucleus of a metropolitan region of over 20 million people in a macro-metropolitan region of over 30 million people. We begin our time here exploring the conditions that led to permanent settlement in this location and the multiple drivers for the super-charged transformation that followed as São Paulo became an enormously energetic, globally fluent and magnetic metropolis. We are very grateful to our esteemed local experts Mariana Bar...2025-02-2051 min
The DNA of CitiesKeynote - Ben Wilson - Part IIWe are back with Part II of our conversation with Ben Wilson, our first Keynote guest. Ben is the author of several acclaimed books, including Metropolis which was released in 2020 and Urban Jungle which was published in 2023. In Part II of his Keynote, Ben sets out a compelling case for nurturing nature in cities. We discuss the: Forgotten histories of growing and foraging in cities Opportunities for cities of the future to be defined by how biodiverse and wild they are Requirement for agile, flexible and adaptive urban leadership that combines community energy with a guiding vi...2025-02-1721 min
The DNA of CitiesKeynote - Ben Wilson - Part IWe are honoured to have historian Ben Wilson as our first Keynote guest. Ben is the author of several acclaimed books, including Metropolis which was released in 2020 and Urban Jungle which was published in 2023. In Part I of this global adventure spanning 5,000 years of urbanisation, Ben reveals: How cities rewire humans biologically, culturally and socially both individually and collectively Why the permanence of human settlement in cities catalyses innovation The innate duality of cities as places of opportunity and hardship, brute and beauty, enchantment and horror – What are the Keynotes? These are the episo...2025-02-1346 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of Kyiv - Part IIIn Part II of The DNA of Kyiv, we learn about the people who live in Kyiv and the strong feelings the city stirs within those who choose to make it their home. We discover what it means to be and become a Kyivan, and we explore the manifestations of the common struggle for cultural freedom and self-government in the city's protests and revolutions. Against the backdrop of war in Ukraine and amid possible air-raid sirens, power-blackouts and the threat of Russian missile strikes, our local experts spoke about how Kyiv has been responding to the full-scale...2025-02-0652 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of Kyiv - Part IWe were privileged to be invited by Denys Nazarenko of Kyiv City Council to include his beloved city in The DNA of Cities following the devastating full scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. We might think of Kyiv as an ancient city in a turbulent present in which its citizens have been actively fighting for more than 1,000 days to defend Ukrainian independence, freedom and sovereignty from Russia. In this episode, we explore the birth of Kyiv as a city and its historical role as the main centre in the Kyivan Rus, an extremely large federation that gave rise...2025-01-3058 min
The DNA of CitiesTrailer - Welcome to Season 2 of The DNA of CitiesWelcome to Season 2 of The DNA of Cities. Subscribe and join us fortnightly from Thursday 30th January 2025 as we continue to decode what makes our cities so unique. – Bass Vibes - Rollin at 5 by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100462 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ – Sound design by Dainius Kacinskas. 2025-01-2701 min
The DNA of CitiesWhat does The DNA of Cities not explain?In our final episode of Season 1, we ask our urban experts ‘what does The DNA of Cities not yet explain about how cities evolve?’ We debate the limits of The DNA of Cities and what it is that cannot be explained using this way of exploring, conceptualising and understanding urban identity. Thank you to Professor Michele Acuto, A/Professor Ellie Cosgrave, Gabriella Gómez-Mont, Professor Edgar Pieterse, Dr Jaana Remes, Dr Karissa Sanbonmatsu and Geerte Udo for joining us in this episode. We also hear from Abha Joshi-Ghani, who we dedicate this season to with great respect and af...2024-09-1938 min
The DNA of CitiesHow can we use The DNA of Cities?This is the first of two concluding episodes to our bumper first season of The DNA of Cities. We return to the urban experts we spoke to at the very beginning of this season to understand how, and why, The DNA of Cities might be used. With special thanks to Professor Michele Acuto, Professor Ricky Burdett CBE, Alice Charles, Gabriella Gómez-Mont, Dr Shi Nan, Professor Edgar Pieterse, Dr Jaana Remes, Professor Pete Tyler, Geerte Udo, Natalia Uribe and Dr Alfonso Vergara for joining us in this episode. We also hear from Abha Joshi-Ghani, who we dedicate t...2024-09-0553 min
The DNA of CitiesOur Listeners - Part IIIn this episode, we hear from even more of our wonderful listeners. They tell us about the DNA of a city that they love or find meaningful or inspiring, transporting us to fascinating cities of all sizes around the world. We also begin to crowdsource ideas about the cities we should visit in Season 2 of the podcast. We’d love to hear your thoughts too! Huge thanks to Andrew Boraine, Jessica Bowles, Scott Cain, Carlo Castelli, Billy Cobbett, Jane Cunningham, Angelica Figueroa, Nuala Gallagher, Sadhana Manthapuri and Natalia Uribe for being listeners and for joining us...2024-05-2348 min
The DNA of CitiesOur Listeners - Part IIn this episode, we give the microphone to some of our listeners from around the world who tell us what they have been enjoying from the series so far. How does the idea of the DNA of Cities resonate with the varied work that they do in and with cities around the world? And how might this way of understanding cities be used or applied in practice? We thank Andrew Boraine, Jessica Bowles, Lael Bethlehem, Scott Cain, Carlo Castelli, Jane Cunningham, Gabriella Gómez-Mont and Magali Thompson for being listeners and for joining us in t...2024-05-1643 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of Shanghai - Part IIIn our second episode on The DNA of Shanghai we discover more about the social and cultural factors that make Shanghai, Shanghai. We ask how many Shanghai’s are there? What is the city’s role within China and what is its relationship to other Chinese cities? And we find out how Shanghai’s unique history led it to become the birthplace of the Chinese adaptation of communism. With special thanks to Stella Dong, Dr Hou Li and Professor Jenny Lin. To learn more about the DNA of Cities and sign up for our lat...2023-11-3038 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of Shanghai - Part IWhen we think about The DNA of Shanghai, we almost have to almost think in quantum ideas. This is, of course, the place where one of the longest rivers in the world and one of the world’s largest oceans meet, producing a city of over 26 million people. Shanghai is the largest city in China and the anchor of the Yangtze River Delta; a region that includes over 20 cities and a population of over 235 million people. In this episode, we take a historical perspective to discover how Shanghai has emerged and why it has become almost an ico...2023-11-1640 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of Dubai - Part IIIn this second episode on the DNA of Dubai we explore the distinctiveness of Dubai’s urban form and fabric by asking local experts “How many Dubai’s are there?” We spend time exploring the everyday spaces and rhythms of Dubai. What can the more ordinary, mundane, vernacular aspects of life here tell us about a city often characterised by its iconic urban infrastructure and its globally showcased buildings. We hear from Abdulaziz AlJaziri, Her Excellency Hala Badri and Professor Yasser Elseshtawy. To learn more about the DNA of Cities and sign up for our...2023-11-0233 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of Dubai - Part IDubai is a city that has witnessed a profound transformation over the past century, from a sleepy fishing and pearling village to a globally connected metropolis that showcases boundary-pushing urban development. In this episode, we discover The DNA of Dubai by tracing the influence of water, climate, geography and society on the processes of urbanisation that have moulded it into a distinctive and vivid city. We learn about the different groups that make up Emirati society and we meet the people from all corners of the world who contribute to Dubai’s cosmopolitanism and cultural richness. 2023-10-1945 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of Tel Aviv - Part IIThis coastal location at the meeting point of the Mediterranean sea and the Middle East has experienced rapid change over the past 100 years or so. In our second episode on Tel Aviv, we discover how The DNA of the city manifests itself today. Local experts take us on a journey through Tel Avivian cultures, societies, mythographies, geographies, economies and into the hearts and minds of the leaders who have profoundly shaped the city. In this episode, we hear from Professor Maoz Azaryahu, Professor Rassem Khamaisi, Eytan Schwartz and Sharon Landes-Fischer. To learn more...2023-10-0541 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of Tel Aviv - Part IIn just over 100 years, Tel Aviv has become home to a stock exchange, major global businesses and the highest concentration of start-ups per capita of any city in the world. We explore how this location actually has two genetic structures; one strand beginning with the old city of Jaffa, the second strand comprising the more recent story of Tel Aviv itself. It is a story of how the Jewish diaspora, inspired by the dream of a Jewish, Hebrew-speaking city, established a neighbourhood on the sand dunes next to Jaffa. It was this new neighbourhood which became the...2023-09-2145 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of Philadelphia - Part IIIn the last episode we heard about the arrival of the Quaker settlers and the emergence of Philadelphia between the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers. We heard why the US Constitution was signed in Philadelphia, the role of the city in the Civil War, the rise and fall of industry, and how all of this has shaped the Philadelphia of today. Amongst all of this fascinating history are, of course, human stories of bold individuals and groups of people who have shaped and been shaped by the city. We know for example that Philadelphia’s Quaker society was de...2023-08-0340 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of Philadelphia - Part IIt’s hard to say anything about Philadelphia without talking about the founding of America or the fact that this city is home to the first library, hospital, university, art gallery, stock exchange, and of course, the Philly Cheese Steak, Rocky and Sound of Philadelphia. In this episode we explore the long history behind this Quaker city that emerged between the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers. It is important to take a historic perspective in Philadelphia because its most recent chapter has not been as prosperous as the previous 350 years or so. Philadelphians often ask themselves how they ca...2023-07-2037 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of London - Part IIIn part II of our visit to London we explore how the city’s enormous size gives it the ability to regenerate in the face of shock. We ask how London's diversity creates and contributes to the city's strength, resilience and innovation. We discover the London of freedom - a city that respects individual privacy, encourages freedom of thought and honours freedom of expression. While London’s social contract may be one of live and let live, we ask how these organising ideas about London continue to materially shape the city. Our guests in this episode are Laur...2023-07-0644 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of London - Part ILondon sits in the south-east corner of a temperate and fertile island on the easterly flowing, tidal River Thames. In this episode we discover how London’s endowed assets of island location, river, winds and temperate climate have combined with its inherited and acquired traits of global trade, wealth creation, civic freedom, innovation, creativity, diversity and connectivity. All of this has produced a resilient and diverse metropolis of large scale, high productivity, soft power, self-confidence and reinvention. Many cities compete with London in lots of areas, but very few cities compete with London in everything. We ask wh...2023-06-2246 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of Glasgow - Part IIThis is the second part of our exploration of the DNA of Glasgow. If part one was an economic history of Glasgow, this episode is focused on Glasgow’s social, cultural and civic history. We hear about what it means to be a Glaswegian, the attitudes and sensibilities that are valued and shared right across the city, and we discover Glasgow’s greatest inventions (from TV to tikka). We hear from Councillor Susan Aitken, Professor Rebecca Madgin, Professor Sir Jim McDonald, Michael Meighan, Dr Susie Mitchell and Stuart Patrick CBE. To learn more about the DNA...2023-06-0837 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of Glasgow - Part IGlasgow is an ambitious, entrepreneurial and people-centred city that’s been built on centuries of hard work, migration and humour. The city tells a compelling and sometimes turbulent story of invention and re-invention: first as a Mediaeval religious and knowledge centre; then as a dominant tobacco and sugar entrepôt; then as the world’s leading shipbuilding and locomotive engineering hub. Most recently, as a post-industrial city, Glasgow has galvanised its entrepreneurial spirit and determination to re-assert itself on the world stage as an innovation economy. In our first episode exploring the DNA of Glasgow, we ask local...2023-05-2533 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of Vienna - Part IIIn our second episode on Vienna we explore the acquired traits in the city’s DNA. We’ll hear the stories of Viennese citizens, and explore enduring cultural highlights that have taken on new forms as the city has evolved. And we ask how and why Vienna’s social democratic model of governance has proved so resilient and effective. We continue our conversation with Eugen (Zenja) Antalovsky, Shams Asadi, Prof Matti Bunzl and Maria Vassilakou on gloriousness and tradition, religion and empire, creativity and intellectual world leadership, war and wounding, social democracy and human rights. If you...2023-05-1136 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of Vienna - Part IVienna has been one of the Western Roman Empire’s most easterly strategic strongholds, an imperial capital of the Habsburg Empire, and a melting pot for thinkers and creators from across Europe and the rest of the world. But Vienna was also altered, almost beyond recognition, by the First and Second World Wars. Today, the city’s pendulum is swinging back towards some elements of the Vienna of old: the city is becoming increasingly multicultural, international in outlook and recognised for its unrivalled liveability. In this episode, we hear from Eugen (Zenja) Antalovsky, Shams Asadi, Prof...2023-04-2745 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of Barcelona - Part IIIn this second episode on Barcelona we hear why the city is the place for life’s great ventures. Over the course of history, artists from all over the world have created some of their most influential work in Barcelona. Take Picasso, Miro and Dali for example; they came to Barcelona during the formative years of their careers and in this city they were able to do something extraordinary. But how, and why Barcelona? Well, as we discover, this is more than a city. Creation and creativity run so deeply through its DNA that some even consider th...2023-04-1343 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of Barcelona - Part IWe begin our time in Barcelona by exploring its self-determining “do it yourself” approach to governance, the muse effect the city has in an individual’s life, and its relationships to its region and beyond; all understood, of course, through its identity as a Catalan city in the northern-most point of Southern Europe and the southern-most point of Northern Europe. Part of what makes modern Barcelona such an interesting city from a 'DNA' perspective is the fact that city branding and place marketing have played such a strong part in its post-industrial recovery. The experts we meet have b...2023-03-3038 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of New York - Part IINew York City captures the imagination like few other cities. In this second episode we explore the stories of urban life in the city’s neighbourhoods and the New York City dream that draws people from all over the world to make themselves in the city. We hear how New York has a history of openness because it was the primary gateway to the USA; the largest and fastest-growing economy in the 20th Century. We discuss the famous myths that capture something about the DNA of New York, the expectations that people hold about the city, and whe...2023-03-1640 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of New York - Part IIn the first part of our visit to New York, we reveal how the combination of money, diversity, creativity and density are the traits that make New York, New York. We explore the long history of the city and we discover that the entrepreneurial zeal that one so often associates with the city has very deep roots. We hear how the original raison d'etre for the settlement that became New York was in fact profit-making. But the geography and topography of New York that facilitated this was also the home of indigenous Lenape populations, whose long-established network...2023-03-0241 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of Singapore - Part IIIn the second part of our exploration of Singapore we hear more about the individuals that have moulded and shaped Singapore over the last fifty to sixty years. We discover the distinctly Singaporean approach to governance that has emerged. Compared to some of the other cities we explore in this series, there is a very prominent set of ‘acquired’ traits that came with Singaporean leadership and the people who have chosen to make this place their home. We hear from Professor Cheong Koon Hean, Dr Liu Thai Ker, Professor Khoo Teng Chye and Professor Kishore Mahb...2023-02-1637 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of Singapore - Part IThe second city on our voyage of discovery is Singapore: the little red dot in South East Asia that tells one of the world's most unusual and successful stories of modern nation building. Singapore’s independence in 1965 unleashed five decades of innovation that have resulted in an unforeseeable transformation. In this episode, we learn about the program of rapid problem-solving that was pursued by Singapore's visionary founding decision-makers and the vulnerabilities they were forced to mitigate. We hear from Professor Cheong Koon Hean, Dr Liu Thai Ker, Professor Khoo Teng Chye and Professor Kishore Mahbubani. We...2023-02-0228 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of Istanbul - Part IIIn this episode we explore the identity of Istanbul through the myths and stories that people tell about the city. We also learn about the impact of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire on Istanbul’s sense of itself as a cosmopolitan global city. We reveal the characteristics the city has acquired as a temporary or permanent home to many different populations and cultures, and we hear from Ali Akay, Berkan Özyer, Associate Professor Eda Yücesoy, Associate Professor Ozdemir Sonmez, Avi Alkaş and Murat Belge. To learn more about the DNA of Cities and sign up...2023-01-1939 min
The DNA of CitiesThe DNA of Istanbul - Part IWe now embark on a global voyage of discovery to decode the DNA of 12 cities, taking everything we have learnt in Episodes 1, 2 and 3 with us as we go. We begin in Istanbul. This is the city of three names. It’s the holy city of world religions. It’s the meeting point of two continents. It’s a city that has been the focal point of vast imperial networks, and it is a former capital that has, rather remarkably, outlived the collapse of more than one empire. In this episode we reveal the traits that Istanbu...2023-01-0546 min
The DNA of CitiesHow do cities acquire traits?In this episode, we find out where cities get their traits from by exploring the forces and events that cause them to accumulate their unique DNA. We hear from Abha Joshi-Ghani, Professor Edgar Pieterse, Professor Michele Acuto, Professor Ricky Burdett, Dr Karissa Sanbonmatsu, Shi Nan, Alice Charles and Alfonso Vergara. This conversation is packed with stories about how real cities are endowed with, inherit and acquire their traits. We also confront the question of DNA in new cities and the risk of attempts to ‘copy’ or ‘clone’ successful traits from one city to an entirely new urban context...2022-12-2247 min
The DNA of CitiesDecoding urban identityIn Episode 1, we learnt that thinking about cities as having DNA can help us all to participate in really important conversations about what makes each city so unique. This time, our fantastic panel of urban experts tell us what ingredients they would look for in the genetic code of a city. We are also introduced to the idea that all places share certain qualities as they go through the process of urbanisation. We wish to thank Dr Jaana Remes, Professor Pete Tyler, Geerte Udo, Associate Professor Ellie Cosgrave and Professor Michele Acuto for helping us to decode The...2022-12-0840 min
The DNA of CitiesDo cities have DNA?We begin this series with a simple question “Do cities have DNA?” We ask an expert panel of urban planners, economists and architects what The DNA of Cities means from their personal and disciplinary viewpoints. We also hear from an epigeneticist who helps us understand more about the science behind our endeavour to decode urban identity. We wish to thank Prof Edgar Pieterse, Prof Mike Batty, Dr Jaana Remes, Dr Karissa Sanbomatsu, Abha Joshi Ghani and Prof Ricky Burdett for sharing their insights with us in this episode. This episode is dedicated with love and affect...2022-11-2340 min
The DNA of CitiesTrailer - Welcome to the DNA of CitiesWelcome to The DNA of Cities. Subscribe and join us fortnightly from Thursday 24th November 2022 as we try to decode what makes our cities so unique. 2022-10-2301 min