Celebrate World Radio Day with the Global Future Cities Podcast

Radio is a powerful medium for celebrating humanity in all its diversity. Although the invention is over a century old, radio remains one of the most trusted, popular and democratic media forms in the world given the relatively low cost of radio equipment. From low-power transmitters that communicate information across an informal settlement to state-of-the-art audio production studios in the world’s media capitals to popular music broadcast over the airwaves on public transport, radio plays a unique and vital role in all urban life.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, radio broadcasts and digital audio recordings known as podcasts have been innovative tools noteworthy for their accessibility. For example, physically distant school lessons transmitted over the radio or uploaded to the web as podcasts have been used to support basic education needs for children worldwide. In honor of World Radio Day, which focuses this year on “Radio and Trust,” UN-Habitat embraces this powerfully accessible medium by distributing evidence-based and expert-informed urban knowledge to a broader audience that includes visually impaired persons through the Global Future Cities Podcast. 

This three-part podcast series, which will be released in March, shares insights and key learnings about how multi-partner urban projects can be designed and implemented to better achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The podcast is based on the three-year Global Future Cities Programme (GFCP), which UN-Habitat’s Urban Lab conducted in partnership with the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (UKFCDO). The podcast launch will coincide with the launch of two normative reports on the Global Future Cities Programme, following a series of Expert Group Meetings in 2021. 

The trailer provides a snapshot of the Global Future Cities Podcast, which brings together experts in urban planning and design, local and regional government and international development project financing to discuss how programme partners are implementing projects that align with SDGs in areas like transport, data and environmental resilience. The trailer includes excerpts from interviews with Peter Oborn, a chartered architect representing the UK’s Built Environment Advisory Group (UKBEAG), Carol Koh, Prosperity Future Cities Advisor with the UKFCDO in Malaysia, and Kamisa Ghazali, Senior Vice President with the Iskandar Regional Development Authority.

Please listen to the trailer: