Ritu Narayan: Upgrading the Yellow School Bus

Marwa Al-Sabouni is an architect born, raised, and presently living in Syria. Despite the outbreak of the civil war in 2011, Al-Sabouni chose to remain in her home country, a decision which has shaped her philosophy as an architect.Al-Sabouni explains how architecture can influence whether a society lives in peace or teeters toward conflict.

Living with roommates is no longer a lifestyle reserved for college students.In the last five years, as many as one in five individuals aged 40 and above lives with roommates, depending on the location.Capitalizing on this trend are companies like Common, a real estate developer and operator of so-called “co-living apartments.” Instead of renting out entire apartment units, co-living companies rent out individual rooms and allow tenants to share apartment common spaces such as living rooms and kitchens.Brad Hargreaves is the founder and erstwhile CEO of Common and joins to discuss this growing trend.

Inclusionary zoning is a policy born of good intentions.On its face, inclusionary zoning policies mandate that real estate developers allocate a certain percentage of new residential units to affordable housing. But do these policies achieve their intended aim?Emily Hamilton, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center, argues that inclusionary zoning may not be so effective after all.

Famed urbanist Jane Jacobs once compared the city sidewalk to a ballet, calling it a "complex order...always replete with new improvisations." Soon, this ballet will feature a new dancer: robots.Viggy Ganapathy is the head of government relations at Serve Robotics, a company designing small, four-wheeled robots that deliver food from local restaurants right to people's homes.

Alex Israel is the CEO and founder of Metropolis, a mobility technology company that has set its sights on the one of the largest, but frequently overlooked fixtures of the modern city: parking.

What does one do when cities stop permitting housing? Sue them. Dylan Casey is the Executive Director of the California Renters Legal Advocacy and Education Fund, an organization that has set out to compel cities through legal action to permit new housing in California.

Any parent knows that it is during a child's earliest years that one ought to be the most careful. What they eat, what they watch, even what they listen to are all factors known to have an effect on a child's development. Now, according to a new study, there is yet another factor to add to the list: where a child grows up. Anne-Claire Binter, a researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, explains the impact of city living on child cognitive health.

The rise of e-commerce and on-demand delivery has jammed up the curbside with delivery vehicles. Frequently, these vehicles are left double-parked as their drivers race to drop off everything from large packages to personal-size pizzas. Jordan Justus is the founder and CEO of Automotus, a company that is helping cities to eliminate curbside congestion through the power of parking cameras and computer vision.

How to solve as stubborn a problem as housing affordability? Perhaps start by putting an entrepreneur, a technologist, and a world-famous architect in the same room. Bjarke Ingels, Roni Bahar, and Nick Chim talk about their latest venture Nabr, a startup on a mission to put more people on a path to homeownership.

The design of school buses in the U.S. has remained mostly unchanged for decades, yet school buses make up the largest public transportation system in the country, moving 27 million children every day. Hear from Ritu Narayan, the founder and CEO of Zūm, a startup that has set out to give the yellow school bus a full system upgrade.