In PX128 our guest is architect and author Jorge Almazan. Jorge is a Tokyo-based architect and associate professor at Keio University. He holds a degree in architecture from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and a PhD from the Tokyo Institute of Technology. His practice focuses on ecologically responsible and socially inclusive design, ranging from urban to interior projects. His built work has earned significant recognition in Japan, including the Ota City Urban Landscape First Prize (2019) and selections by the Japan Institute of Architects (2018, 2022) and the Architectural Institute of Japan (2023). Almazán's research on Tokyo has been published in numerous academic journals, and his book, Emergent Tokyo: Designing the Spontaneous City (Oro Editions, 2021), was a finalist for the 2023 Pattis Family Foundation Global Cities Book Award. ‘Emergent Tokyo: Designing the Spontaneous City’ was mentioned in a recent article in the Wall Street Journal about visiting Tokyo on a budget, using the book as a guide https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/travel/how-far-does-1-000-take-you-on-a-trip-to-tokyo-we-found-out-dd76a5af?st=TeyNL7&reflink=article_copyURL_share In podcast extra / culture corner, Jorge recommends two Netflix programs that feature Tokyo. These are ‘Midnight Diner’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Diner_(Japanese_TV_series) and ’Tokyo Swindlers’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Swindlers. Jess recommends getting back into tennis as she returns to the court. Pete recommends the ‘New Books’ podcast series https://newbooksnetwork.com. PX is proud to be a contributor to the UBC. Episode PX128 was released on 3 March 2025.

In PX127 our guest is architect, former academic and author Dr Derham Groves.  He studied architecture at Deakin University and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and art history at the University of Minnesota. He taught architecture at RMIT from 1985 to 1997 and the University of Melbourne from 1999 to 2019 and was a Senior Fellow in the Faculty of Architecture, Building, and Planning at the University of Melbourne from 2020 to 2024. Derham is the author of many articles and books about popular culture, architecture, and design, including, Feng-Shui and Western Building Ceremonies (1991), You Bastard Moriarty (1996), Mail Art: The D-I-Y Letterbox from Workshop to Gatepost (1998), TV Houses: Television’s Influence On the Australian Home (2004), Mask: Pro Hart’s Frankenstein Monsters (2006), There’s No Place Like Holmes: Exploring Sense of Place Through Crime Fiction (2008), Victims and Villains: Barbie and Ken Meet Sherlock Holmes (2009), Anna May Wong’s Lucky Shoes: 1939 Australia Through the Eyes of an Art Deco Diva (2011), Out of the Ordinary: Popular Art, Architecture and Design (2012), Hopalong Cassidy: A Horse Opera (2017), Monkeemania in Australia: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of The Monkees’ Australian Tour in 1968 (2019), Arthur Purnell’s “Forgotten” Architecture: Canton and Cars (2020), Sherlock in the Seventies: A Wild Decade of Sherlock Holmes Films (2021), Australian Westerns in the Fifties: Kangaroo, Hopalong Cassidy on Tour, and Whiplash (2022), and Homicide on Hydra: George Johnston’s Crime Novels (2023). His latest book, Walt Disney’s Forgotten Australia: From Mickey’s Kangaroo to Outback At Ya! has been released in February 2025. Derham agrees with the Austrian architect Hans Hollein that ‘Everything is architecture,’ and the American designer Charles Eames who said, ‘Eventually everything connects—people, ideas, objects.’  Episode released 10 February 2025. PX is proud to be a contributor to the UBC.

Our guest is Sara Bronin a Mexican-American architect and attorney whose interdisciplinary research focuses on how law and policy can foster more equitable, sustainable, well-designed, and connected places. She is the author of 'Key to the City: How Zoning Shapes Our World', and she founded and directs the National Zoning Atlas, which aims to digitize, demystify, and democratize information about zoning in the United States. She has advised the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Sustainable Development Code, has served on the board of Latinos in Heritage Conservation, and founded Desegregate Connecticut. Previously, she led the award-winning, unanimously adopted overhaul of the zoning code and city plan of Hartford, Connecticut. Bronin holds a juris doctor from Yale Law School, a master of science from the University of Oxford (Rhodes Scholar), as well as a B.Arch. and B.A. from the University of Texas–Austin. In the interview Sara outlines her experiences including being a Commissioner at the City of Hartford which helped shape the book and the array of issues covered in ‘Key to the City’. In podcast extra / culture corner Sara recommends ‘Climate Change and Historic Preservation ‘ (Sept 2024) https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/llglrd/2024555212/2024555212.pdf. Jess recommends the Martha Stewart documentary on Netflix (https://www.netflix.com/au/title/81479059) and Pete recommends two books and making omelettes. Episode released 19 January 2025. PX is proud to be part of the Urban Broadcasting Collective.

In this episode, Jess and Pete reflect on the tenth anniversary of the PlanningxChange podcast. This discussion occurs before an Ai review of the planningxchange podcast series. A rather indulgent episode to mark the anniversary! For podcast extra / culture corner, Jess recommends making pizzas at home with the family. Her New Year resolution is to have more interesting podcast extra recommendations. Pete recommends doing background research about books you like. He also discusses film locations and the potential for cultural tourism. On YouTube there are various films about film locations. The film Pete mentions is Mad Max. There are now transcripts for the episodes. These will progressively be included for previous editions. The transcripts generally reflect what is said in the episode (they are altered to improve grammar etc). Audio production by Jack Bavage. Podcast released on 27 December 2024. PlanningxChange is proud to be a member of the Urban Broadcast collective.

Katherine is a social planning practitioner with over 14 years’ experience working for a range of government and non-government organisations in Australia and the Pacific. Katherine has considerable experience in developing and implementing community plans, programs and policy to improve social inclusion and participation. Katherine was awarded the 2018 Rodney Warmington Churchill Fellowship to increase inclusion and accessibility in public toilets by researching taboos, design, policy and legal barriers. The Churchill Fellowship consolidated previous work with planners, institutions and community members identifying public toilets as essential to support the participation of a wide section of our communities. Photos of many toilets Katherine has visited are documented via Instagram @Public_Toilets_Anonymous. Katherine appears on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh7UQziutv8 talking about her work.  Discussion mentions the film ‘Perfect Days’ which is set amongst Tokyo’s public ‘art’ toilets (https://www.archdaily.com/1018293/perfect-days-an-ode-to-tokyos-public-toilets). Mention is also made about Singapores ‘Happy Toilet Program’ (https://www.toilet.org.sg/docs/HTPBrochure.pdf) For podcast extra / culture corner, Katherine recommendations ‘Birnam Wood’ by Eleanor Catton https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60784757-birnam-wood. She also recommends the ‘Public Toilet’ app. Jess recommends outsourcing at home in times of stress relying upon the ‘diner lady’. Pete recommends the ‘Transit maps’ app, and secondly, YouTube Premium. Audio production by Jack Bavage. Podcast released on 7 December 2024. PlanningxChange is proud to be a member of the Urban Broadcasting Collective.

In PX123 our guest is Bryan Caplan. Bryan is Professor of Economics at George Mason University and a New York Times Bestselling author. We interview him about his ground breaking graphic novel ‘Build, Baby, Build - The Science and Ethics of Housing Regulation’. The book is described: 'In Build, Baby, Build: The Science and Ethics of Housing Regulation, economist Bryan Caplan makes the economic and philosophical case for radical deregulation of this massive market―freeing property owners to build as tall and dense as they wish. Not only would the average price of housing be cut in half, but the building boom unleashed by deregulation would simultaneously reduce inequality, increase social mobility, promote economic growth, reduce homelessness, increase birth rates, help the environment, cut crime, and more. Combining stunning homage to classic animation with careful interdisciplinary research, Build, Baby, Build takes readers on a grand tour of a bona fide “panacea policy.” We can start realizing these missed opportunities as soon as we abandon the widespread misconception that housing regulation solves more problems than it causes.’ The book should be a must read for planning undergraduates and all policy makers involved in the housing sector. Other books he has written include The Myth of the Rational Voter, named "the best political book of the year" by the New York Times, Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids, The Case Against Education, Open Borders (co-authored with SMBC's Zach Weinersmith), Labor Econ Versus the World, How Evil Are Politicians?, Don't Be a Feminist, Voters As Mad Scientists, You Will Not Stampede Me, and Self-Help Is Like a Vaccine. He is now writing Unbeatable: The Brutally Honest Case for Free Markets. In Podcast Extra / Culture Corner Bryan recommends 

‘The problem with political authority’ by Michael Huemer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Problem_of_Political_Authority). He also recommends the Youtube series 'Ride with Gabi' https://www.youtube.com/@ridewithgabi Jess has gone back to duolingo, learning Italian (https://www.duolingo.com). Pete recommends Netflix K drama ‘Business Proposal’. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Proposal) Audio produced by Jack Bavage. Podcast released 12 November 2024.
 PlanningxChange is proud to be part of the Urban Broadcast Collective.

In PX122 our guest is Rafael Mangual a distinguished writer and researcher on crime issues in cities and regions. He is the Nick Ohnell Fellow at the Manhattan Institute (MI), a contributing editor of City Journal, and a member of the Council on Criminal Justice. His first book, Criminal (In)Justice, was released in July 2022. He has authored and coauthored a number of MI reports and op-eds on issues ranging from urban crime and jail violence to broader matters of criminal and civil justice reform. His work has been featured and mentioned in a wide array of publications, including the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, New York Post, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer and City Journal. He regularly appears on TV and radio. In a wide ranging interview, Rafael explains various criminology theories about urban environments and how design measures can reduce crime. He talks about how crime reduces urban amenity, the consequences for the most disadvantaged and if unchecked how lax civic and legislative standards create a doom loop. Rafael presents an inspiring and well thought out approach to addressing a very serious urban issue that rarely receives any attention in urban planning circles. In Podcast Extra / Culture Corner Rafael recommends Fitness accounts and trackers. Jess recommends attending professional conferences. Pete recommends ‘The Passage of the Damned’ by Elsbeth Hardie https://scholarly.info/book/the-passage-of-the-damned/’.
 Audio produced by Jack Bavage. Podcast released 23 October 2024. PlanningxChange is proud to be part of the Urban Broadcast Collective.

Calvin Po, a strategic designer at Dark Matter Labs, dives into the complexities of urban planning and governance systems. He discusses how decentralized technologies can empower communities to enhance democracy, while also addressing the challenges within the UK's planning system. Calvin reflects on post-war British planning, the balance between public good and community needs, and the vital role of architectural criticism. Additionally, he shares insights on the film 'Tar,' revealing its exploration of power dynamics in the creative industry.

In PX120 our guest is Assistant Professor Akane Bessho, Ph.D of the Housing and Urban Analysis Laboratory, Department of Engineering, The University of Tokyo. Information about Akane’s work is at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Akane-Bessho-2 and her website is: https://www.akanebessho.com Akane has a wide range of research projects and field work including schemes that seek to reverse depopulation in Japan’s rural areas, assisting people with disabilities into the agricultural sector (see for example Coco Farm & Winery) (https://cocowine.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/cocofaw-pr-eng.pdf), new approaches to food production and creating community gardens and centres specifically designed to aid those with dementia. Her work ranges from densely populated metropolitan centres to small rural towns and villages. Akane describes her faculty at the the Tokyo University and the excellent work it produces. Details at https://www.due.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/english/ The interview discusses many issues confronting Japanese society. From this we can draw lessons that can be applied to other countries. An engaging and inspiring interview about new methods to create better societal outcomes. In Podcast Extra / Culture Corner, Akane has two recommendations, music by Ren (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnbXfRACsVM) and a book The Essence of Language: How Words Were Born and Evolved? (by Mutsumi Imai & Kimi Akita):  https://amzn.asia/d/00SRoMrL Jess has taken up tennis lessons and recommends this to listeners. Pete has two recommendations both Japanese; The TV series Golden Kamuy on Netflix https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6DmjhcSt8Q and 'Design X Stories' a program on NHK (https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/shows/design_stories/) in p[articular ’Shared Living, Shared Spaces' (https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/shows/2101025/) Audio produced by Jack Bavage. Podcast released 10 August 2024. PlanningxChange is proud to be a contributing member of the Urban Broadcasting Collective.

In PX119 our guests is Kylie Legge of Place Score (https://www.placescore.org/about-place-score/).
Kylie is a leading voice in placemaking, an architecture graduate, planner, place maker, author, facilitator, curator and entrepreneur. She is founding Director of Place Partners, a multidisciplinary placemaking consultancy based in Sydney, Australia and Place Score – the world’s first place experience measurement company. An engaging interview about new methods to find out what citizens seek in their local area. In Podcast Extra / Culture Corner, Kylie Legge recommends The National Gallery of Victoria ‘Triennial’, an exhibition featuring 120 artists with contemporary works (see https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/triennial/home/). 
J Jess recommends Turning Point on Netflix (https://www.netflix.com/au/title/81614129) Pete recommends the WSJ 'Free Expression' Podcast episode - ‘Is Modern Technology Ruining Our Children’ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/is-modern-technology-ruining-our-children/id1609730284?i=1000651467872 which features Jonathan Haidt author of ‘The Anxious Generation’ - How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing and Epidemic of Mental Illness’. Details at https://www.anxiousgeneration.com/book - and he also recommends the Ford Ranger Youtube clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPxo7siqjIo Audio produced by Jack Bavage. Podcast released 20 July 2024. PlanningxChange is proud to be a contributing member of the Urban Broadcasting Collective.