The Urbanist
Monocle
With an influential audience of city mayors, urban planners and architects, this is Monocle’s guide to making better cities, be it new technology, state-of-the-art subways or compact apartments. Nominee in the Smartest Podcast category of the 2019 British Podcast awards.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Aug 7, 2025 • 28min
Earning the commute – how do we get city centres humming again?
We chair a roundtable conversation on the future of the office and how good design can bring people back to our city centres.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Aug 4, 2025 • 6min
Tall Stories 470: Szimpla Kert, Budapest
Geetanjali Krishna takes us to Budapest’s pioneering “ruin bar” to see how urban environments persevere through destruction.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jul 31, 2025 • 37min
How citizens stay informed: why strong city journalism matters
We review some strong city journalism to see how these publications and productions are helping city residents to stay informed about the environments that they live, work and play in.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jul 28, 2025 • 6min
Tall Stories 469: Tyra: the World’s Largest Dinosaur, Drumheller
Sheena Rossiter tells us the story of Tyra, the world’s largest dinosaur, and how the community and the rest of Canada are reacting to news of her removal.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jul 24, 2025 • 29min
Rethinking streets as third spaces in the car-dependent US
We are in the United States this week to see how one of the world’s most car-dependent nations can make its streets more pedestrian friendly.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jul 22, 2025 • 34min
Live from the Brookfield x Monocle liveable cities celebration
To celebrate the release of Monocle’s Quality of Life Survey 2025, we record a special edition of the programme in association with Brookfield from the rooftop of their smart new offices in Mayfair, London. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jul 21, 2025 • 7min
Tall Stories 468: SoMA Residences, New York
Naomi Xu Elegant investigates the largest office-to-residential conversion in American history, which was recently completed in New York.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jul 17, 2025 • 32min
Adaptive reuse, shaping cities through retail and Vienna’s climate neutrality
We look at adaptive reuse through two lenses: a blockbuster case in the UK capital and an attempt to get European cities to legislate for less demolition.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jul 14, 2025 • 9min
Tall Stories 467: Shanghai’s urban transformation
Tomas Pinheiro explores how the millennia-old settlement of Shanghai has grown into China’s most populous urban area.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jul 10, 2025 • 31min
Rebuilding Ukraine, forensic architecture and the Yongsan Garrison
We look at the effects that war and conflict can have on our cities, and how we go about rebuilding our urban areas better than before.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
