Announcing Third Wave Urbanism: A Podcast on the New Normal of Livable Cities

I am so excited to announce the launch of my first major project in a long time - a new podcast hosted with Kristen Jeffers of TheBlackUrbanist.com. We're deciding to call it Third Wave Urbanism based on the notion that in today's globalized world the "new normal" of livable cities for everyone is not something that should be kept silent.

We are young female urbanists a part of the millennial generation, and we consider ourselves to be a part of this third wave of urbanism. Years ago, pioneering urbanists looked at our cities and realized something was wrong. Whatever perspective they came from, they took those observations and did what they could to fight back against the top-down urban planning and lack of human-scale development. The next wave saw advocates in every city-making sector, from planning to traffic engineering, to everyday citizen urbanism, working to improve the status quo. The 21st Century is normalizing all of these elements of cities that they fought so hard for, bringing in the third wave of active transportation, public space as a fundamental right, and our biophilic needs as a species living in our (strange) urban environments to the forefront of cities everywhere.

As a part of this third wave, we don't see this as a fight - we see this as normal, expected, and the future of our cities - and if it isn't that way already, it should be. We expect our cities to be walkable and bikable, to offer equitable choices in public transportation, and for public spaces to be safe environments in our diverse communities.

Some of the topics we hope to cover range from the privatization of public space to the Black Lives Matter movement, the role of women and people of color in urban planning fields to urban anthropology. We plan on having guests from around the world, starting with our many amazing fellow female urbanists, to bring their global and personal perspectives on the issues at hand.

So long as our intention is good, and our goal is to improve the lives of the urban population, we believe we should speak up. As women, we also see and experience cities in a way that we hope will bring a unique perspective to the kinds of conversations we intend to have.

Our Preview episode introduces the two of us, where we come from, and what we hope to achieve with this platform. The Pilot: Pokemon Go and Public Space, discusses the contentious debate around what augmented reality means for our city's open spaces.

You can listen to both of these episodes and learn more about us and our respective blogs at ThirdWaveUrbanism.com. We would also love to hear from you on our Twitter @thirdwaveurban. In the future, you'll be able to find us on iTunes and other audio platforms, but for now you can subscribe to us on Soundcloud or keep following our respective social media accounts to be notified of new episodes. And if you'd like to support us doing what we love to do, you can also sign up for a small monthly donation of your choice at our Patreon page.

Welcome to the 21st Century of cities. We hope you like it!