The CityAge Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

What started as a childhood soaking up the Florida Everglades turned into a passion for the outdoors and eventually a purpose for Chris Castro, Chief of Staff of the Department of Energy's new office of State and Community Energy Programs (SCEP).

"I realized that my passion and purpose was doing everything in my power to make this switch to a sustainable future," Chris tells CityAge in describing his "A-HA!" moment while studying at University of Central Florida.

Chris details his incredible journey from founding a consulting firm and a non-profit to city government to Washington, DC, where his non-stop energy and passion are on full display while growing SCEP since becoming  Employee number one.

With hundreds of millions of dollars available through various DOE initiatives, he shares with Lisa the many ways in which individuals and businesses alike can take part in the sustainability movement and save money, while helping to save the planet, too.

Thank you to our episode sponsor, the University of Victoria's Peter B. Gustavson School of Business. 

From Philadelphia to New York, Detroit to Salt Lake City, Los Angeles to San Diego, cities are experiencing the post-pandemic era very differently. And while there is no one-size-fits-all solution, there are fundamental principles that any city can use to guide its approach to recovery.  

In today's episode of The CityAge Podcast, brought to you by FLO EV Charging, we explore this topic in depth with Tracy Loh. She is a Fellow with the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Center for Transformative Placemaking at Brookings Metro, a part of the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington, DC.

Tracy and Lisa chat about the future of downtowns, commercial real estate and pandemic recovery, as well as picking their own favorite cities to live in.

On this week’s episode of the CityAge Podcast Anna chats with Brian Platt, City Manager for Kansas City, MO, and Caroline Samponaro, Head of Transit and Micro-mobility Policy at Lyft. Brian tells listeners about the exciting moment KC finds itself in after winning the Super Bowl (again), and preparing to host the upcoming World Cup and U.S. Conference of Mayors, and what special events like that mean for a city’s development. We chat about how city managers juggle the day to day of keeping their city running with innovation and visionary plans for their city’s future, and how Brian has learned to do it. With Caroline we get a history on micro-mobility, a look into where it’s going, and how the needle is moving when it comes to women taking leadership roles in transportation. She also tells us about the ‘moment’ that micro-mobility is having in mainstream consciousness.

On this week’s special Earth Day edition of the CityAge Podcast we sat down with Rit Aggarwala, Chief Climate Officer of New York City and the Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection. Anna and Rit discuss recent wins for the city’s climate efforts, some challenges they’re facing, how it feels to lead a city like New York through the climate crisis, and what all of us can do in our own lives to mitigate the worst effects of climate change. 

To learn more about the city's work:

Gowanus Canal cleanup:

https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/186-23/mayor-adams-epa-break-ground-1-6-billion-project-protect-gowanus-canal-sewage

Cloudburst:

https://www.nyc.gov/site/dep/news/023-23/mayor-adams-construction-new-cloudburst-resiliency-projects-better-manage-intense

Local Law 97: 

https://www.nyc.gov/site/sustainablebuildings/ll97/local-law-97.page

https://www.nyc.gov/site/buildings/codes/sustainability.page

On this week’s episode of the CityAge Podcast we chat with Marc Eichenbaum, Special Assistant to the Mayor for Homeless Initiatives at the City of Houston, and Mary Rowe, President and CEO of the Canadian Urban Institute. Marc discusses Houston’s progress so far in addressing homelessness, as well as the city’s next steps, challenges, and the lessons he’s learned. With Mary we discuss the future of Canadian downtowns and what the post-pandemic future for Canadian cities looks like. 

On this week’s episode of the CityAge Podcast Anna chats with Alisia McClain, Executive Director of the Louisville Future of Work Initiative, powered by Microsoft. The Future of Work initiative is a partnership between Microsoft and the Louisville Metro Government, focused on giving historically marginalized people more opportunities to learn digital skills and secure employment in tech, while also making Louisville into a regional hub for Artificial Intelligence, IoT, and data science. Anna and Alisia talk about why it’s important for women and people of color to be involved in the research, development, and deployment of AI, what it feels like to be excluded from it, and what companies like Microsoft can do to help.

For more on the Future of Work Initiative: https://www.futurelou.com/

On this week’s episode of the CityAge Podcast, sponsored by EMILI, we sat down with Ben Almond, CEO of Engineering Services Canada at SNC-Lavalin, and Christine Bergeron, President and CEO of Canada’s largest community credit union, Vancity. 

We talk about SNC-Lavalin’s data-driven solution to decarbonize Canada’s built environment and how Vancity is financing affordable housing in the midst of the country’s housing crisis. We cover everything from what diversity and equity have to do with reaching net zero, whether we’re on track to meet our climate goals, the role that financial institutions must play in solving our biggest challenges, and how Vancity’s business model allows them to prioritize people, profits, and planet at the same time. 

For more on our friends at EMILI, visit https://emilicanada.com/ or follow them on Twitter at @EMILI_Canada.

This week we chat with both Steve Zoegall, the Global Industry Lead for Cities, Transportation, and Infrastructure at Accenture, and Candy Johnson, the President and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Chattanooga. We talk about two very different but equally important issues: the digital underpinnings of reaching net zero and the role of public private partnership, and how to build inclusive economies where people of color drive and achieve prosperity. 

Candy Johnson is a native of Clarksville, Tennessee where she was the youngest member ever elected to public office for the Clarksville City Council, at 25 years old. Johnson’s professional experience includes more than a decade as a leader in nonprofit, education, political and civic related roles. 

Steve Zoegall studied at Harvard and Columbia University. Prior to joining Accenture he worked in biotech marketing, taught at the university level, and worked as a strategy consultant. 

For more on Accenture’s work with the World Economic Forum: https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/strategy/wef-industries#block-urban-transformation

For more on the Urban League:

https://www.ulchatt.net/

On this episode of the CityAge Podcast, Anna sits down with Uber’s Director of Global Policy for Cities and Transportation, Shin-pei Tsay. They talk about how Uber is prioritizing electrification and decarbonization, while also adapting to the realities of climate change (extreme weather), and how they’re increasing accessibility for all kinds of users. That includes business partnerships to make EVs more accessible to drivers, policy work on EV charging, disaster response, and initiatives that help increase transportation options for the people who need it most. 

Check out the Future of Mobility podcast here. 

Welcome to the CityAge Podcast, Season 2! We’re thrilled to be back. Ben McAdams is our first guest and he does not disappoint. He’s a Senior Fellow at the Sorenson Impact Center at the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah and the founder of the Common Ground Institute. The Institute works with local governments to unlock revenue from their publicly-owned real estate. Ben served previously as a Member of the United States Congress, as Mayor of Salt Lake County and in the Utah State Senate. 

We chat with Ben about his Putting Assets to Work incubator and the impact it can have on cities and regions across America. Ben is definitely a thermostat (that will make sense to you in a few minutes). Enjoy!

If you want to know more about Putting Assets to Work, check out Ben’s Podcast, Possible City.