“It’s Material - The Pod” is a space to hear from people who are working in creative ways to advance new directions in the built environment, cities, and the economy.

In this episode, Annabel speaks with producer, writer and entrepreneur Dr. Mehret Mandefro.

They speak about the crucial importance of story and language in opening doors for new directions in the built environment. Mehret lifts up opportunities for investment in creative industries as part of cities’ and countries’ economic strategies, and the need for “spaces that feed your mind”.

Having started her career in medicine, Mehret sees strong synergies between science and the arts.

A few highlights from the conversation:

“The best doctors…what they do is kind of read the body like a text - the signs and symptoms, and put a story together. If you are doing your job right, you’re listening to the patient and trying to also understand what’s being said. And then you give that story back to them in a way that will allow them to understand what’s going on.”

“What a lot of technocratic frames do is take lived experience and kind of flatten it. Storytelling is really great for restoring the complexity back. It’s also just the way people learn.”

By 2050, one in four people in the World will be living in Africa. I always tell companies, if you don’t have an Africa strategy, you’re going to miss it all.”

"It’s Material - the pod" is a space to hear from people who are working in creative ways to advance new directions in the built environment, cities, and the economy.

In this episode, Annabel speaks with Alejandra Rivera of Urban Matters. We discuss the vast potential of cities in enabling social and environmental change, the political and economic obstacles that often stand in the way, and inspirational examples of how these obstacles are already being overcome.

We explore recent work through the built environment program at Institute for Human Rights and Business, including:

* The “Building for Today and the Future” global project on just transitions in the built environment. It looked at how climate action (relating to energy, materials, and resilience) in eight cities’ built environments is impacting the right to housing, construction workers’ rights, the right to meaningful participation, and spatial justice. The cities are Athens, Copenhagen, Jakarta, Lagos, Lisbon, Melbourne, Prague and Valparaiso.

* The major differences in per capita CO2 emissions across those 8 cities

* Examples of community-led approaches to climate action, from Belgium, to Bangladesh, and beyond

* And the “Building Transformation StoryMap” a partnership between IHRB and It’s Material sharing stories of new economic thinking and action in the built environment.