Byzantium And The Crusades - The Decline of the Crusaders Episode 3 “Byzantium, Antioch and Jerusalem”

In this episode, we hear about the Prince of Antioch, Reynald, who invaded Byzantine Cyprus and provoked the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I to intervene in Syria. At first, it seemed as if there would be war between the Byzantines and the Crusaders, but a carefully constructed marriage alliance was to provide a very different and unexpected outcome. 

Please take a look at my website nickholmesauthor.com where you can download a free copy of The Byzantine World War, my book that describes the origins of the First Crusade.

City of the Future - Generative Design

Generative design is the process of automatically producing thousands of designs based on goals and constraints you feed into a computer. In this episode, we ask: could you apply generative design to something as complex as the urban planning process? Could it reveal better designs for buildings, neighborhoods, districts — showing us options we didn’t even know were possible? And, in the future, could this new emerging field even empower urban development teams to create better, more human cities?

In this episode:

  • [0:06 - 4:13] Hosts Vanessa Quirk and Eric Jaffe on the unintended consequences of the 1915 Equitable Building (the “monstrosity” that influenced New York City’s first zoning laws)
  • [4:15 - 11:42] Sidewalk Labs’ Senior Product Manager Violet Whitney and Senior Design Lead Brian Ho on Delve, a product that uses generative design to reveal unexplored urban design options for any given development project
  • [11:43 - 18:13] Carnegie Mellon University’s Associate Professor of Ethics & Computational Technologies Molly Wright Steenson on the history of architecture and computing — and the contributions of thinkers like Cedric Price, Christopher Alexander, and the MIT Architecture Machine Group
  • [18:14 - 20:16] Geographer and City Planner Evan Lowry on how visualization software could transform community engagement in Charlotte, North Carolina
  • [20:19 - 22:42] Violet and Brian return to explain why it’s important for cities to visualize how urban designs could impact their communities.

To see images and videos of topics discussed in this episode, read the link-rich transcript on our Sidewalk Talk Medium page.

City of the Future is hosted by Eric Jaffe and Vanessa Quirk, and produced by Benjamen Walker and Andrew Callaway. Mix is by Zach Mcnees. Art is by Tim Kau. Our music is composed by Adaam James Levin-Areddy of Lost Amsterdam. Special thanks to Violet Whitney, Brian Ho, Molly Wright Steenson, and Evan Lowry.

The Right to Drink - Murdering Fun: The War on Happy Hour

What happens when happy hour is illegal? You cry. That’s what. Who doesn’t love a drink discount when unwinding from another day at the office? Massachusetts doesn’t. And neither does North Carolina, or New Mexico, or Virginia, or …. the list goes on. Because if there’s anything the government hates more than fun, it’s people having fun at a discount. So pour a drink and brace yourself for outrage.

Byzantium And The Crusades - The Decline of the Crusaders Episode 2 “The Rise of Nur ad-Din”

In this episode, we hear about the rise of the Crusaders' new enemy, Nur ad-Din, meaning "Light of the Faith" in Arabic. Nur ad-Din was the son of Zengi, who had united the Emirates of Mosul and Aleppo, and captured the Crusader city of Edessa, which had in turn caused the Second Crusade. Nur ad-Din's reign marked another step towards the unification of Islam against the Crusaders.

Please take a look at my website nickholmesauthor.com where you can download a free copy of The Byzantine World War, my book that describes the origins of the First Crusade.