Mark Richardson is the Chief Technology Officer at Rich Analytics. He is also the Founder and Technical Lead of the HousingNowTO.com affordable-housing tracking and transparency project.

Nicole Rodriguez is the President of the board of Urban Phoenix Project, an organization that is working to create a more livable city where people can comfortably walk, bike, take transit, and enjoy quality urban spaces. She has a varied background in urban planning, urban forestry and sustainability.

Matt Martin is the alderman for the 47th Ward, an office that he has held since 2019. Prior to being elected alderman, Matt worked as a civil rights lawyer at the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, where he focused on important issues including police reform, immigration, healthcare, and worker’s rights.

Emmanuel Nunez is a biomedical engineer who is advocating for improved pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure in Houston. He is currently focused on the preservation of recent pedestrian and bicycling infrastructure improvements on a portion of 11th Street that goes through the Houston Heights neighborhood. These improvements are under threat as Mayor John Whitmire who was elected in 2023 has expressed disdain for similar projects across the city.

Carrie Shepherd is a reporter for Axios Chicago. She was previously a reporter, producer, and editor at WBEZ, Chicago's National Public Radio station and a producer at City Cast Chicago.

Becca and James are an English couple who've lived in a number of countries. They are currently living in Philadelphia. I met them when I gave them a personalized tour of Chicago during their visit in 2023.

Paige Saunders is a Montreal-based video journalist who focuses on opportunities to improve our government and cities. His work ranges from urban issues like transit and housing to digital government and electoral reform.

Jay Foreman is an English comedian, YouTuber, cartography and urban planning enthusiast, educator, and singer-songwriter. He grew up in north London, and continues to live in London.

Kristin Fehrman is an artist and writer who has lived a car-free life for the last 10 years. She is passionate about sharing her experience of car-free living with others. After living for several years in San Francisco, New York, and Boston, Kristin moved back to her hometown in northern Michigan before moving to Detroit.

Alan Fisher produces the Armchair Urbanist, a YouTube series about urban planning, transportation, and history, primarily focused on North America. He had the unique experience of growing up in a walkable American small town, and this contributed to his interest in cities and urbanism.

Jeremy Glover's interest in cities began while he was a college student in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and his passion for cities blossomed while living in New York City. This led Jeremy to pursue a career as a transportation planner. His focus is on rebalancing streets to provide more opportunities for active transportation while promoting density in areas that are well-served by public transportation.

Maddy Novich is a New Yorker who uses a cargo bike to get around the city. You can find her on Instagram at cargobikemomma where she shares her experience of riding a cargo bike, answers questions, and posts advice for people who are new to riding a cargo bike.

Rachel Aldred is a Professor of Transport at the University of Westminster and Director of the University's Active Travel Academy. Her research focuses on sustainable mobilities and especially active transport.

Leah and Iman are friends who grew up in the Chicago community of Rogers Park. In 2020, they started an Instagram account called Residents of Rogers Park where they post profiles of Rogers Park residents whom they've interviewed.

Lea Pinsky is the Executive Director of Art Encounter, an organization whose mission is to educate, empower, and connect people of all ages and backgrounds through interactive encounters with visual art. Along with her husband, Dustin Harris, she also founded the Evanston Mural Arts Program which pairs professional artists with community groups to create large-scale public works of art.

Lisa Degliantoni lived in a number of cities, including San Franciso and New York, before moving to Evanston. She is the founder and co-director of Evanston Made, a community arts initiative supported by a volunteer corps advocating for visibility and awareness of Evanston artists. Evanston Made designs and builds programming, exhibitions, and professional development to support Evanston artists.

Amanda and Christina are two friends, who along with their friend Sarah, love to explore Chicago and other cities that they visit. Along the way, they admire the architecture while also stopping to enjoy local coffee shops, restaurants, and bars. You can find photos of their adventures on Instagram at Quaint Cuties.

David Leroy Thomas is a cinematographer who grew up in a small town in the Midwestern United States. His interest in cities led him to move to a series of increasingly larger cities, culminating in a move to London in 2019.

Brian Lee is the founder of Roamli, a platform that helps organizations create experiences, including scavenger hunts, walking tours, and interactive maps, that introduce both locals and visitors to the sights and sounds in their community.

Deborah Maris Lader is the founder and director of the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative. She exhibits her prints, drawings, photography, and mixed media artwork internationally. Deborah set up the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative to foster dialogue, collaboration, and community among Chicago’s printmakers, as well as to educate and share the beauty of the medium with the broader public, both locally and internationally.

Miles Taylor is the creator of Miles in Transit, a YouTube channel where he makes entertaining videos about his adventures on public transportation, both in the United States and abroad. These include taking a cross-country Greyhound trip, taking local public transportation from Washington, DC to Boston, and attempting to visit the least-used Amtrak station in each state.

Anna is an artist who grew up in Russia and is based in New York City. She loves to travel and to explore cities around the world. Anna has worked as a tour guide in New York and has volunteered with Big Apple Greeter.

Kevin O'Neil is a retired journalist who loves exploring Chicago on foot. In 2020, he moved to McKinley Park on Chicago's Southwest Side. Prior to that, Kevin lived for many years in Rogers Park on Chicago's Far North Side.

Lauren Viera is a professional writer and communications consultant with over 25 years of experience. She loves Chicago so much that she wrote a book called The 500 Hidden Secrets of Chicago.

Josh Val Martin is a tour guide, and he writes for theater and television. Josh runs Free Manchester Walking Tours, and he and his other tour guides provide a daily free walking tour of Manchester.

Joe Schwieterman is a Professor at DePaul University in the School for Public Service, Department of Public Policy, and Sustainable Urban Development​ program and Director of DePaul’s Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development, which promotes effective urban planning. He is an expert in the fields of public policy, transportation and urban planning, and is the author of numerous books and peer-reviewed articles on the development of cities and transportation.

Reece is the creator and host of RMTransit, a YouTube channel focused on transit, infrastructure, and development around the world. He lives without a car and relies on public transportation and walking for almost all of his trips.

Paul is a lifelong Londoner and the head of London Greeters, one of more than 130 greeter organizations around the world that offer visitors free private walks with a local. London Greeters was born out of a desire to build on the legacy of the 2012 Olympics. Their greeters are volunteers who share their love of London with visitors.

Karl Florczak is a proud Manucunian who will gladly tell you why Manchester is a great place to live. He is also a big fan of trains and public transportation. If you’re a regular viewer of Geoff Marshall’s YouTube channel, you will recognize Karl from his appearance in several videos as Geoff’s “Northern Correspondent.”

Urmee Dasgupta grew up in Bangladesh and moved to Winnipeg, the city that she still calls home, to pursue a Master's Degree. She enjoys music, particularly the blues, and appreciates Winnipeg’s active music scene. Urmee is passionate about travelling to experience new places and to learn about different cultures.

Jasmine and Patrick are the Montreal-based creators of Oh the Urbanity, a YouTube channel about cities and urbanism. They traverse cities by foot, bike, and public transit and aim to make informative and entertaining videos combining streetscapes and demographic data.

Ron Swinson is the President of Peach Properties, a real estate development firm located in Columbia, South Carolina. His firm was responsible for restoring the Equitable Arcade, a shopping arcade built in 1912 by a group of businessmen in Columbia including Edwin Wales Robertson, a prominent banker and developer.

In this episode, I talk with a panel of three people involved in historic preservation in Columbia, South Carolina. Janie Campbell is a Preservation Consultant at the law firm Rogers Lewis Jackson Mann & Quinn. Meg Syms is the Marketing Director for the architecture firm Garvin Design Group. John Sherrer is the Director of Preservation at Historic Columbia, a non-profit organization that preserves places and shares complex stories from the past that connect us in the present and inspire our future.

Tom Babin is the creator of the YouTube channel Shifter and the author of Frostbike: The Joy, Pain and Numbness of Winter Cycling, an exploration of getting around on two wheels throughout the year. His work is committed to furthering the conversation about the ways bicycles can make our lives better, for smart and thoughtful people who care about urban transportation and the future of city life.

Alderwoman Maria Hadden is the first Black, queer woman elected to the Chicago City Council. She represents the 49th Ward, sometimes called "Little Chicago," because of the racial, ethnic, and economic demographics that most reflect Chicago's diversity. Maria has a background in community organizing and participatory democracy.

Emily Talen is an urban planner who directs the Urbanism Lab at the University of Chicago. The Urbanism Lab studies the built environment and its meaning and impact. Its research focuses on social, cultural, and political movements aimed at improving the quality of the built environment. Of particular interest is the notion of sustainable urbanism and the ability of cities to be places of vibrancy, social diversity, and neighborhood identity.

Natalie Dalea is a Creative Writing Fellow who is working on a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Minnesota with a focus on creative nonfiction writing. She also worked as an intern for Curious City, a podcast from Chicago Public Media that answers questions about Chicago, the surrounding region, and its people.

Mary Wisniewski has 32 years of experience as a reporter in Chicago, most recently as transportation columnist for the Chicago Tribune. "Algren: A Life," her biography of Chicago writer Nelson Algren, won the Society of Midland Authors 2017 award for best biography and the Chicago Writers Association award for best non-fiction. Mary has taught creative writing at the Newberry Library and creative nonfiction at Northwestern University's graduate program. She continues to write stories and essays about Chicago neighborhoods and people, and review books and plays.

Angel Montalvo is the Manager of the city of Chicago SAFE Ambassadors Program. SAFE stands for Streets Are For Everybody. Their mission is to educate and encourage bicyclists and pedestrians in order to make Chicago a safer place for active transportation. Angel has worked for and managed this program for the past 10 years, and he has worked in transportation since he was 16. He is a a proud husband and father of a 2-year-old, and he enjoys taking bike rides with his family.

Jennifer Lizak is passionate about supporting the cultural community in Chicago, particularly in the areas of music, community radio, literacy, and education. She is also concerned about social justice, especially in the areas of healthcare, civil rights and economic equality. Jennifer is the Coordinator of Special Projects for Cultural and Civic Engagement at the Chicago Public Library where she plays a lead role in cultural and civic programming for adults, including the One Book, One Chicago program. She is a board member for the Chicago Independent Radio Project (CHIRP) where she also hosts a weekly show.

Robbie Ellis is a presenter and producer for Chicago's classical music station, WFMT. He’s been a teaching artist with The Second City, Chicago Opera Theater, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; and he’s composed and MC’d musical comedy concerts for the Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago and Fourth Coast Ensemble. He is a music director for comedy theater, works as an event MC around town, and performs his comedy songs from the piano.

Genna Contino is a graduate of the University of South Carolina who reports on local government for the Charlotte Observer. She has also covered gentrification and affordable housing for the Greenville News and growth and development for the Spartanburg Herald-Journal. As part of her reporting on public transportation in Charlotte, Genna attempted the challenge of going car-free in Charlotte for a week.

Joel Muller is a Psychologist who grew up in Australia before moving to the United States when he was in high school. He lived and worked in New Orleans prior to relocating to Chicago.

Rick Harnish co-founded the High Speed Rail Alliance in 1993 and has been its Executive Director since 2001. The Alliance builds the political will for systemic change by advocating for integrated rail and transit networks connected by 200+ mph high-speed lines. By connecting cities, towns and airports, the high-speed trains will dramatically expand economic opportunities and slash carbon emissions.  Harnish’s work is informed by his strong commitment to researching and learning from global best practices

Ben Adams grew up in the Elmwood Park neighborhood of Columbia, South Carolina. As a child, he couldn't wait to move to a larger city. Ben went to college in Washington, DC and then moved to New York City. During visits back to Columbia, he was impressed by the revitalization happening in Columbia's downtown. Eventually, Ben decided to move back to Columbia to pursue his dream of opening a bookstore. In early 2020, he opened Odd Bird Books in The Arcade Building, a recently restored shopping arcade on Columbia's Main Street that was built in 1912. In 2023, Odd Bird Books will be replaced by All Good Books, a bookstore in Columbia's Five Points neighborhood that Ben will be opening in partnership with Clint and Jenna Wallace.

Molly Fleck lives in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood with her husband and son. She serves on the Sheffield Neighborhood Association’s Board of Directors and Oscar Mayer Magnet School’s Local School Council. You will often find Molly riding her bike around Chicago.

Rachel Hyman moved to Chicago to attend the University of Chicago and has continued to live in Chicago after graduation. She is the founder of Anthology of Chicago, a project that has collected poetry, fiction and nonfiction about Chicago neighborhoods. Rachel has also hosted a reading series called Welcome to the Neighborhood in collaboration with Paul Dailing, the creator of 1,001 Chicago Afternoons. Her latest venture is Bitza Press, the publisher of a series of zines, currently focused on people's experiences using social media.

Nathan grew up in the London Borough of Lewisham. As a child, he developed an interest in public transportation. This led him to start the YouTube channel NetworkNathan. He is currently a student at the University of Leeds where he is pursuing a BA in Geography with Transport Studies.

Joanna Moncrieff is a native Londoner who loves to share her knowledge of the city's history as well as its best historic pubs, hidden gardens, unusual museums, quirky shops, and other lesser known treasures. She has been leading guided walks in the City of Westminster, the West End, Clerkenwell, and Islington since 2009. Joanna also leads walks closer to where she lives in Walthamstow and Chingford. A couple of her most popular walks are her Walthamstow walk, ‘From Monoux and Morris to Beer and Bacon Jam’ and her ‘Foodie themed Christmas Lights’ walk in the West End.

Laura grew up in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin and now lives in Chicago's Rogers Park Neighborhood. She has a Bachelor's Degree in Music from Ripon College and a Master's Degree in Music Business from Columbia College Chicago. Laura is the Marketing Manager for the Concert Management Office at Northwestern University's Bienen School of Music. Bienen hosts a variety of concerts including student and faculty recitals, student ensembles, and visiting artists.