We are thrilled to announce a new d@w podcast: Cities After…

Hosted by Professor and Urbanist Miguel Robles-Durán, Cities After... is a bi-monthly podcast about the future of cities; grounded in our daily urban struggles, it is part dystopian and part utopian. The intention is to entice civic imagination into action, because a more just and sustainable urban future is possible.

Our culture is filled with dystopian work in almost every genre, but presenting "utopian" images is all too often downplayed as unrealistic. We believe Cities After… is a thoughtful and thought provoking show that tackles both of these aspects of our imagination, and provides not only deep, quantitative analysis, but also grounded visions of what is possible. We think it is an excellent fit into the work that Democracy at Work produces, which analyzes capitalism critically as a systemic problem and advocates for democratizing workplaces as part of a systemic solution. 

Watch a one minute video introduction to Cities After...

Who is Miguel Robles-Durán?

Miguel Robles-Durán is an urbanist with expertise in the design and analysis of complex urban systems and urban political-ecology. He is an associate professor of urbanism and director of the graduate urban programs at The New School / Parsons School of Design in New York City. Robles-Durán is a founding member of Urban Front, a transnational consultancy focused on helping progressive public and social sectors address critical urban issues including housing rights, environmental justice, public health, cultural action, sustainable infrastructure and political strategy.

And that’s not all. Read Robles-Durán’s full bio on our website. 

What is available to be listened to now?

To start this exciting new show, we’ve released the first two episodes together.

Episode 1: Urban Emptiness and the Pandemic
In the first episode, Prof Robles-Durán explores the urban shifts surrounding the dramatic rise of commercial and residential vacancies during the global pandemic.
Robles-Durán: “The empty cities that we learn to navigate in 2020 were in many ways already empty… Having vacant spaces didn't mean that there was no economic output out of those spaces. A lot of people were making money out of them.”

Episode 2: David Harvey on Urban Emptiness
In this episode, Prof Robles-Durán and his guest, the Marxist geographer David Harvey, have a conversation about possible futures to the new empty spaces that now permeate our cities.Harvey: “There's a great deal of loss and a great deal of devaluation, but it also is a tremendous investment opportunity. This is an externally imposed creative destruction. And one of the things that it seems to me we should be thinking about is there some way in which social movements can collectively get together and say, 'No, we want to guide this process.'”

When will the next episode be released?

Cities After... will be released every other Tuesday, with the next episode available on May 25th. It’s audio only for now, and is available not just on our website, but also on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and most podcast player apps. 

We hope you enjoy this new addition to the d@w roster, and welcome your thoughts and feedback. 

Producing new content like Cities After... has always depended on audience donations. Consider donating to Democracy at Work with a monthly or one-time gift. Our monthly supporters are invaluable to us, in that they allow us to plan for the future, and commit to bringing you more media from an anti-capitalist and pro-workplace democracy perspective. Thank you.