In August 2025, Johannes sat down with Caroline Paulick-Thiel and Indy Johar deep in the Austrian Alps. During the European Forum Alpbach they discussed nothing less than the future of European (urban) civilisation.

Looking for a way to make sense of the daily news, current geopolitical shifts, climate catastrophe, and general what feels like insanity around the world? Then, this is an episode you cannot afford to miss.

If you like the episode, make sure to subscribe to Cities Reimagined or drop Johannes a line on LinkedIn or at johannes@anthropocene.city .

In this episode:

• Why Europe, in between authoritarian superpowers, can lead the way to new societies.
• Why this is a post-war-like moment for Europe, demanding structural rebuilding.
• Why we need to rewire the metabolism of everything.
• How to reimagine urban economies for a secure Europe.
• Why we need more honesty in the scope of the current crises.
• How to embrace insanity and what knowledge our bodies hold.

Caroline is a Berlin-based strategic designer and public policy expert, specialising in transformative innovation within the public sector. She is the Director and Co-founder of Politics for Tomorrow, an organisation dedicated to democratising systems change and fostering responsible public innovation. With a background in Design and Public Policy, she focuses on developing participatory processes and innovative frameworks to address complex public challenges.

Indy is a London-based architect, social innovator, and serial entrepreneur. He is best known as the co-founder of 00 (Project00.cc) and Dark Matter Labs, organisations focused on systemic change, urban innovation, and sustainable urbanisation. Indy is also a Senior Innovation Associate with the Young Foundation and a Visiting Professor at the University of Sheffield.

If you have ever been to Bruges, or seen it in films or photos, chances are you have noticed at least one of the following: canals, swans, water, tourist boats. What often goes unnoticed is that Bruges, and the wider region of Flanders in Belgium, regularly suffers from droughts.

In this episode, we meet Astrid Stroobandt from the City of Bruges and Simon Thys from the non-profit organisation Waterland, who are currently running the Blue4Green project, an Innovative Action funded by the European Urban Initiative. Astrid and Simon explain how the project aims to change the city’s relationship with water in multiple ways, and how children’s dreams can inspire change just as much as data and technological innovation. We also hear how the city is experimenting with medieval infrastructure as water buffers, and how green and blue algae are cutting summer fun short.

If you would like to find out more about the project, have a look at the links below, connect with Astrid, Simon and Johannes on LinkedIn and follow Blue4Green on Portico.

· European Urban Initiatives: https://www.urban-initiative.eu

· Portico - Gateway to urban learning: https://portico.urban-initiative.eu

· Article: From smart sensors to medieval cultural heritage: A new chapter in Bruges' water identity with Blue4Green

· Article: A hot summer’s wake-up call to the City of Bruges: A blue-green algae crisis and what comes next

I have to start with an apology. To the guest of this episode, Kristijan Radojcic. After we had this conversation in a wild hotel room with tacky wallpaper in Wroclaw, Poland, the raw version of the recording was sitting unedited on my notebook for much too long.

Finally, I am more than happy to share this episode with you, where Kris takes on a deep dive into his childhood in Slovenia and how a trip to Southeast Asia changed everything.

If you are around urban EU programmes, you might have bumped into Kris on various occasions as he is working with URBACT, a programme that helps cities to develop an integrated set of actions for sustainable change. He and his family live in Paris.

Connect with Kristijan and Johannes on LinkedIn and take a look at URBACT.

In this episode:

How did growing up in 1980s Ljubljana shape everyday urban life?

How do music and architecture intersect in shaping cities and communities?

How can encounters beyond Europe reshape ideas of sustainable urbanism?

How do European cities learn from each other in practice, not theory?

How do paradox economies shape our societies?

Why does neighbourhood-level community matter for urban resilience?