Debra Lam: The Future of Innovation Is Low-Tech, Local, and Community-Led
The Century of Cities welcomes Debra Lam, Founding Executive Director of the Partnership for Inclusive Innovation, a regional public-private partnership driving innovation, workforce development, and economic opportunity. Debra challenges the long-held belief that innovation must be high-tech, making the case for low and no-tech approaches that prioritize people, process, and place. Debra offers a bold vision for the future of cities. She shares a powerful case study from Thomasville Heights in Atlanta, where drones and collaborative design helped alleviate energy poverty, and she unpacks the kind of decentralized, inclusive leadership needed to scale this work. Her insights remind us that the future of urban innovation lies not in flashy tech but in thoughtful partnerships, empowered communities, and a relentless focus on equity and access.
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24:13
Victor Santiago Pineda: Rewiring Cities for Radical Inclusion
In this episode of The Century of the Cities, we are grateful to be joined by Victor Santiago Pineda, a global human rights expert, serial founder, UC Berkeley lecturer, and lifelong advocate for inclusive urban futures. Born into a city that wasn’t built for him, Victor shares a deeply personal story of growing up in Caracas in the 1980s, where architectural barriers and social neglect nearly robbed him of an education. Through radical resilience and a commitment to structural change, Victor not only rewrote his future but is also reshaping the future of cities worldwide. From advising the United Nations to launching the Smart Cities for All initiative, Victor has become a leading voice in making accessibility a legal, economic, and design imperative. Victor shares how inclusive innovation isn’t a fringe benefit but the very foundation of a thriving city. He explores how technologies initially designed for people with disabilities, such as speech synthesis or alt-text, have powered today’s generative AI and digital tools. He also lays out a five-pillar framework for meaningful change, urging city leaders to move beyond compliance and into radical intentionality. By redefining participation, policy, and leadership, Victor explains how to build cities that are barrier-free, frustration-neutral, and rich with untapped human potential.
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Eleanor Sharpe: Redesigning Cities for Equity and Imagination
Eleanor Sharpe, founder of Sharpe Solutions and former interim Deputy Mayor and Director of Planning and Development for the City of Philadelphia, joins us on The Century of Cities. In this bold and deeply personal conversation, Eleanor reflects on Philadelphia’s transformation from the post-industrial 1980s to a city defined by “eds and meds,” creative resurgence, and continued racial inequities. Drawing from her own life, she unpacks how systemic design, not individual choice, shapes our cities and our neighbourhoods, often in ways we don’t realize. Eleanor raises hard questions about education, equity, and who cities are built for. From redlining and racialized land use to calls for planners to actively redress past harms, Eleanor makes the case for a new kind of planning, deliberate, transparent, and deeply community-rooted. As she turns her attention toward her hometown of Kingston, Jamaica, she calls for a bold cultural and civic renaissance built not just on money, but on shared vision.
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Angelica Nunez: Financing, Flexibility, and the Fight for Inclusive Cities
The Century of Cities welcomes Angelica Nunez, Practice Manager of the Global Programs Unit in the Urban, Resilience, and Land Global Department of the World Bank. With decades of experience in affordable housing and urban finance, Angelica shares a hopeful yet grounded vision for the future, where connectivity, better planning, and smarter housing policies can help cities live up to their promise of opportunity for all. From the explosive growth of cities like Mexico City to the rising urbanization of Africa, Angelica discusses how jobs, housing, and the private sector must work together to shape inclusive, livable, and resilient urban futures. Along the way, she reflects on land value capture, urban mobility as a social equalizer, and what it will take to move from fragmented cities to ones where prosperity is widely shared.
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Hiroo Ichikawa: What Tokyo and the World’s Top Cities Reveal About 2080
Hiroo Ichikawa, Dean at the Professional Graduate School of Governance Studies, Meiji University, and the visionary behind the Global Power City Index, joins us on The Century of Cities. He reflects on Tokyo's extraordinary arc, from the high-growth optimism of the 1980s through economic stagnation and revitalization to its current role as a quiet powerhouse of global urbanism. As Tokyo prepares for the demographic and economic tests of 2080, we discuss what other cities can learn from its balancing act of growth, resilience, and reinvention. We also explore the inner workings of the GPCI, what it takes to measure urban power, why global rankings shift, and how international events, start-up ecosystems, and cultural connectivity reshape the urban leaderboard.
Welcome to The Century of Cities, a captivating journey fueled by curiosity into humanity’s most profound transformation: urban evolution. By 2100, 10 billion people will live in over 10,000 cities. What shape will that world take? This 100-episode series explores the forces driving this shift through illuminating interviews and compelling stories, revealing how cities can lead us toward a sustainable, inclusive, and resilient world.
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