Nate Hagens is a systems thinker and educator focused on a concept he calls The Great Simplification. He has spent the last 20 years studying the systems we live in like energy, ecology and economics. He teaches at the University of Minnesota and speaks widely on these topics, including on his youtube channel called Nate Hagens and his podcast called The Great Simplification.

We discuss:

• The Great Simplification and what that means for cities
• What the end of fossil fuels means for the world
• The importance of scenario planning for the future of cities
• Why electric vehicles and renewables are not the answer to climate change
• Why a post-growth economy is inevitable in the coming decades

We discuss some ideas for what post-growth cities might look like. I will follow up with an episode of more ideas, inspired by this conversation with Nate.

Nate is extremely honest and clear about the direction he sees the world going. Some of you listening will likely disagree with his conclusions and may even feel defensive. Of course we're all free to disagree with each other, but I urge you to keep an open mind and consider seriously what he says and follow up with the resources in the episode description. He goes into these ideas in a lot more depth on his youtube channel and podcast, which are really worth checking out.

More of Nate's content:
https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@thegreatsimplification

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The Green Urbanist podcast is created by Ross O'Ceallaigh.

Climate change is here and now cities and communities must adapt for safety, health and quality of life. In this episode I discuss a useful model for thinking about climate adaptation in three levels: resilience,  transition and transformation.

I also provide some examples and ideas for bringing adaptation thinking into the work of urbanists.

Relevant episodes:
#68: Urban Rewilding
#59: Why cities need Transformational Adaptation and what it could mean for urban ecosystems
#38: Dr Morgan Phillips - Climate Adaptation  

Bibliography
The ideas in this episode were largely inspired by the book Adaptation to Climate Change by Mark Pelling.
Blythe et al. (2018) The Dark Side of Transformation

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The Green Urbanist podcast is created by Ross O'Ceallaigh.

This episode is a conversation with Tara and Lanre of Gbolade Design Studio, sustainable architects and urban designers based in London. Reflecting on their 5 years in practice, we discuss a range of topics and projects including:

• City-shaping with masterplans and design codes
• Retrofitting existing buildings
• Zero carbon and regenerative design
• Community-building and co-creating with communities
• Innovation in design, including the use of AI
• Their recent exhibition, ‘Breaking Ground’, and contribution to the Venice Biennale 2023

See the companion blog post for images of the projects we discuss.

Learn more about Gbolade Design Studio here: https://www.gboladedesignstudio.com/

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The Green Urbanist podcast is created by Ross O'Ceallaigh.

What is urban rewilding? Can it be done in cities? Is anyone doing it? 

In this episode, we explore:

• History of the rewilding concept
• Current best practice in rewilding
• How rewilding can be applied to cities
• Case studies of active and passive rewilding in urban areas around the world

Companion Blog Post - See visuals of the stuff we talk about plus sources and bibliography.

Corrections:
We made a few small errors in this podcast. Around 24:00, Giulia says Sequoia tree seeds come in 'pine nuts' when she meant to say 'cones' (you can see how her mind was working...). 
Around 40:00, Ross says Rewilding Enfield is along the River Lea, when it is actually on the other side of the Borough in Enfield Chase (sorry, Londoners...). 

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The Green Urbanist podcast is created by Ross O'Ceallaigh.

Subscribe via Substack: https://greenurbanist.substack.com/

Give a donation via my website: https://greenurbanistpod.com/support

When you donate/subscribe to the Green Urbanist Podcast, 50% of income goes to funding climate action in cities via partner organisations. The rest covers the podcast's operating costs and invests in its growth. 

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This episode is a conversation with Jane, Lydia and Tom of architecture and urban design studio DSDHA. We discuss their research project 'Towards Spatial Justice: A guide for achieving meaningful participation in co-design processes'.

We explore what co-design really means, why it’s important and how they have applied co-design processes at their projects: White Horse Square in Wembley Park, London and the extension of the British Library.

Learn more about DSDHA here: Link

Download the Towards Spatial Justice research report here: Link

See images of the projects we discuss on the Substack companion post: Link

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The Green Urbanist podcast is created by Ross O'Ceallaigh.

Xavier Smales is an Architect and Andy Tugby is Head of Sustainable Construction at Human Nature, a developer based in the south of England. They join me to discuss their approach to designing sustainable neighbourhoods and how they're putting this into action with a development called The Phoenix.

We discuss urban design principles for sustainable lifestyles, low carbon architecture, circular economy and more.

Click here to see the companion blog post on Substack for visuals of the project!

Find out more about Human Nature and The Phoenix here:
https://www.humannature-places.com/phoenix

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The Green Urbanist podcast is created by Ross O'Ceallaigh.

Joe Morris is Founding Director of Morris+Company architects, based in London and Copenhagen. In this episode, he gives me a tour of their newly refurbished London office while we discuss their philosophy and approach to architecture, sustainability, circularity and connection between food and urbanism.

I have collated images of all the projects we talk about in this episode in a companion blog post on my Substack. Check it out while you listen!

https://morrisand.company/

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Civic Square is a Public Square, a Neighbourhood Economics Lab and a Creative + Participatory Ecosystem. They have been doing amazing work around systems change at the neighbourhood level in Ladywood, Birmingham, where they are based. Their main projects to date include creating a Neighbourhood Doughnut based on Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics concept and exploring the invisible infrastructure needed to transition their neighbourhood towards a sustainable future.

In this episode, we also have a long chat about how they are funded and the difficult reality of engaging in meaningful systems change work that doesn’t come with a blueprint. 

Civic Square website: https://civicsquare.cc/

Ladywood Neighbourhood Doughnut: https://doughnuteconomics.org/stories/213

Listen to episode #33: Doughnut Economics Explained and What it Means for Cities

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Read the companion blog post to his episode on Substack.

Israa Mahmoud is Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at Politecnico di Milano, Italy. Her research interests include nature-based solutions, co-design and urban governance. Her recent publications include The book Placemaking for Green Urban Regeneration, published by Springer. She is the research team leader together with Prof. Eugenio Morello on CLEVER Cities Project as an expert of Co-creation guidance for cities to implement Nature-based solutions in socially inclusive urban regeneration processes.

We talk about:

• Nature-based solutions
• The need to take a place-based approach to NbS
• Co-designing by immersion with communities
• The sweet spot between top down and grassroots approaches to urban change
• CLEVER Cities project and case studies in Milan 

Learn more about Israa and her publications here.
Learn more about the CLEVER Cities project here. 

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The Green Urbanist podcast is created by Ross O'Ceallaigh.