In Episode 1, Rebecca talks to Annalee Newitz about their new book Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age. Four Lost Cities is a journey into the forgotten past, but, foreseeing a future in which the majority of people on Earth will be living in cities, it may also reveal something of our own fate. Here, listen to Rebecca and Annalee talk about what it is that makes urban life urban, what happens in cities, and how people come together in cities. 

2,20 "The delightful chance meetings and life-changing random encounters" of urban life

5,30 Feasts and parties

7,30 Role of farming, city versus country, agriculture as a part of the urban process

11,30 Change and transition in community,

14,30 Early Viking Dublin

18,00 Towns and Cities along travel routes

20,30 Cahokia & its pyramids

25,00 Role of religion in coming together to create urban places

30,00 Populations and comparative sizes of settlements

34,15 Migration to cities & labour forces

38,00 Slavery

40,00 Responses of cities to their environments, resilience and materiality of settlement

47,00 Hinterland relationships

51,30 City at the centre of its network