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The Urbanist
The Urbanist
Author: Monocle
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© 2026 Monocle
Description
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.
896 Episodes
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We report from the World Governments Summit, where we speak to Khalfan Belhoul of Dubai Future Foundation; German minister for digital transformation Karsten Wildberger; and Muhannad Tayem from Deloitte Middle East.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Geetanjali Krishna takes us to Budapest's largest public collection of books to study how its popularity with locals is growing, thanks to recent Hungarian literary success.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
We explore the Melbourne Metro Tunnel, which has recently opened in the Victorian capital. Plus: Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao joins Monocle’s Ed Stocker to discuss how she challenges norms to champion social housing. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Petri Burtsoff takes us to a festival grounds that acts as a lasting symbol of Estonian national pride.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Carlota Rebelo reports from the World Economic Forum in Davos to share some urban lessons from this year’s meeting. Then: Ed Stocker gives us a run-down on the most recent Holcim Foundation Awards for sustainable construction.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Grace Charlton takes us to a literary stalwart and community pillar in Florence.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
We’re joined by former City of Toronto chief planner Gregg Lintern to discuss priorities for Canadian cities. Plus: we visit Cascadia to see what has come from the mega-region’s decade-long formal partnership.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Andrew Mueller takes us to the Australian War Memorial to find out the nature of and reasons for its recent refit.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
We meet Dr Gary Yohe, a Nobel Peace prize recipient for his work on the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Then: we discover the stories behind Britain’s cooling towers, a brutalist structure that once dominated our skylines.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Tomás Pinheiro explains how an act of urban erasure in the Thai capital stole the charm from one of the city’s iconic structures.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Monocle’s editor in chief, Andrew Tuck, rounds up his favourite episodes of ‘Tall Stories’ from 2025.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Monocle’s editor-in-chief Andrew Tuck recalls some of his favourite interviews and reports from the year on ‘The Urbanist’.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
We assess how the design of healthcare facilities can improve not just the experience of treatment but also the neighbourhoods in which these centres stand.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Gregory Scruggs tells us the tale of the oldest existing synagogue in the United States.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
We speak to Jeremy Till and Tatjana Schneider – two of the authors behind ‘Architecture is Climate’ – a new book rethinking the industry and its foundations in an age of ecological crisis. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Alexei Korolyov visits an air-raid bunker that has laid empty for decades but is now being brought back to life through art.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
We report from MIPIM Asia in Hong Kong, where delegates from across the APAC region and beyond discussed solutions to meet the rapid pace of urbanisation. Plus: a city reeling from a devastating fire in Tai Po.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Paul Logothetis takes us to an iconic feature of Athens’ urban fabric – covered walkways offering much needed shade and a space for socialising.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
JLL’s Sue Asprey Price joins us to discuss the findings from the Workforce Preference Barometer 2025. Then Charlotte McDonald-Gibson reports on the challenges of training for combat in urban environments.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jessica Bridger marvels at the tallest dam in Europe, which was constructed in the 1950s and supplies about 20 per cent of Switzerland’s stored energy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.




