We reconnect with Jasmine Palardy almost eighteen months after our very first conversation to reflect on what has changed in how we think and talk about cities, and what hasn’t.

Exploring why real progress in cities comes not from imposing control but from embracing uncertainty, loosening the grip of over-planning and letting “accidental urbanists” and informal city builders shape change on the ground.

Jasmine reframes urbanism as a messy, lived practice rather than a rigid discipline, and highlights how everyday friction and irritation are often the beginning of meaningful change.

This episode reframes control, imagination and experimentation in the design of cities.

Ruchita Bansal discusses what happens when modern infrastructure projects are built at speed but don’t connect with the deep, informal systems that make cities work.

Drawing on her experience across Indian urban planning and large-scale delivery, we explore how cities in India are being transformed rapidly with metros, highways and ambitious timelines, yet often miss the connective tissue of everyday life such as first-mile/last-mile walking, informal transport, street life and safety.

We dig into whether building faster actually deepens resilience or erodes memory, how imported models can misfit local context, and what it means to design infrastructure that truly serves people rather than object-centric headlines.

Chris Fair, CEO of Resonance and publisher of "World's Best Cities" talks about what really separates the world’s cities.

As Chris explains, obsessively measured performance isn’t enough to explain why some cities feel magnetic and others feel interchangeable.

We unpack the World’s Best Cities framework and how liveability, prosperity, and a often-overlooked dimension of lovability shape both the experience of place and its global perception.

We explore the gap between performance and perception, why most cities lack resonance on the world stage, and how the interplay between infrastructure and experience may determine the future of urban success

https://www.worldsbestcities.com/