Monocle 24: The Urbanist Monocle

This podcast keeps me motivated and keeps reminding me why I'm studying urban design.

This is a superb podcast for anyone interested in hearing adroit, informed and completely engaged discussion about all things urban. It’s funny too. Presenter Andrew Tuck, Editor of Monocle, is clearly passionate about his subject but not pompous with it, declaring “The Urbanist is for the people who believe the countryside is best left to cattle and bugs and who find being rammed up against all humanity a good thing”. Whimsy dispensed, he quickly rolls up his city shirtsleeves and gets down to gritty business.

The first episode features three main stories. First up is Jan Gehl, Danish Architect and Urban Planner whose career has focused on improving the quality of urban life by re-orienting city design towards the pedestrian and cyclist.

Next is independent filmmaker Gary Hustwit who joins Tuck in the studio to talk about his new film Urbanised, a documentary about the design of cities in which he features the world's foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders, and thinkers.

Finally, the programme talks to Tim Fendley, Co-Founder of Applied, a company that designs wayfinding information. Fendley’s fixation is to make sense of cities and create “eureka moments” when people work out how different parts of a city connect and that they can walk from A to B in far less time they had ever thought possible.

If the first episode is any indication, this podcast series is sure to impress again and again, subtly scratching away the often grimy and one-dimensional perceptions we have of cities and offering a far clearer looking glass to observe our rich metropolises in all their glory.

The Urbanist. The big, bad city just got a whole lot nicer.