Podcasts

Urban planners are trying to figure out the future just like everybody else. The 2026 Trend Report for Planners looks at the top issues—from artificial intelligence to the future of work—that planning professionals must keep an eye on as they help guide growth in the world’s cities and towns.

A discussion of the land use implications of data centers, with Jon Gorey, Mary Ann Dickinson, and Chris Miller from northern Virginia.

At a particularly challenging time to work in government, the Lincoln Vibrant Communities fellows program, an initiative of Claremont Lincoln University and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, builds capacity and broadens horizons for local leaders and innovators.

A conversation all about density, on the occasion of the return of an online resource, Visualizing Density, at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy website. Density is in the spotlight as cities and towns seek to build more multifamily housing to help address a stubborn affordability crisis.

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, in an interview for the Mayor’s Desk series, details work on housing affordability, homelessness, and other growing pains amid the city’s increasing popularity. Solutions include reducing building costs, incentivizing new construction, and taking better advantage of the metro region’s extensive light rail network for transit-oriented development.

Demand for walkable urbanism is stronger than ever, according to Mallory Baches, president of the Congress for the New Urbanism, an organization that has been promoting compact, mixed-use, transit-oriented development for more than three decades.

At the helm in Providence, Rhode Island, after the city has seen 30 years of steady revitalization, Mayor Brett Smiley hopes to keep up the momentum while also addressing affordability and fiscal challenges. The latest municipal leader to be interviewed in the Mayor’s Desk series, he also talks bike lanes, nightlife, and the vagaries of community engagement.

Rob Walker, author of City Tech: 20 Apps, Ideas, and Innovators Changing the Urban Landscape, reflects on how artificial intelligence could change urban planning, along with other advances in technology that are poised to improve quality of life in cities.

John Emmeus Davis and Kristin King-Ries, authors of a recently released Lincoln Institute Policy Focus Report about municipal partnerships with community land trusts, join Anthony Flint for a discussion about the promise of this approach to preserving affordable homeownership.