Writing & talking
How cities evolve
The simulations on this site come out of a longer argument about cities as evolutionary systems. That argument lives in a book in progress, a podcast and a video essay.
Book, 2018 – present
An Evolutionary History of the City
Thirty-eight chapters online, from the sanctuary and the granary to suburban sprawl and the skyline, written as a theory of why cities take the shapes they do.
Read the introductionPodcast, 2016 – present
Banal Smasher 陳腐粉碎機
A Mandarin-language podcast on urban history. One hundred and twenty episodes, around one million accumulated listens.
Listen on Ximalaya