On August 14th, Greg joined filmmaker and deve­loper Keiichi Matsuda and award-winning author Madeline Ashby for a vir­tual discussion on the uses and abuses of “science fiction proto­ty­ping” in creating the future. Hosted by Threat­cast­ing.ai, they explored how stories offer plausible pathways beyond the present.

The conversation followed Greg’s parti­ci­pation in the Meta­verse Standards Forum’s inaugural Ethics Sum­mit on design­ing for urban XR. He also deli­ver­ed the ope­ning keynote at the Lincoln Insti­tute of Land Policy’s annu­al con­ference on digi­ta­li­za­tion in May, and was quoted in its maga­zine Land Lines about XR’s uses in civic engage­ment.

Watch the Threatcasting discussion
Watch the MSF Ethics Summit
Read the Lincoln Institute column

Greg spoke at the Sustainable Packaging Coalition’s Impact summit in April, where he was interviewed about urban waste streams, circular economies, and recognizing the rights of informal waste­pickers — who have an invaluable role to play in creating more equitable and resilient cities.

Watch the video

What are the energy costs of a future of pervasive AI, aug­men­ted reality, or both? Greg first explo­red this issue in a virtual fireside chat for the Edison Electric Insti­tute’s Global Electrification Forum in May, then revisited it in a podcast for Hydro Ottawa in July. How will “agents,” “digital twins,” and “arti­ficially intelligent reality” vastly increase electri­city demand—and corresponding strain on the grid?

Listen to the podcast
Watch the video

In April, Greg was invited by Cartus—the global work­force relo­ca­tion specia­list—to deliver the clo­sing keynote at its annual client forum, in a sequel to his first appear­ance in 2022. He was then invited to make a return visit to Cartus’ Mobi­lity Matters podcast with Kristi Lund and CEO Matt Tebbe to discuss shifts in the work­place, focusing on the rise of genera­tive AI, the future of remote work, and the evolving needs of a global work­force.

Listen to the episode
Watch the keynote

Zag Daily—the UK’s news source on the business of sustainable mobi­lity—part­ner­­ed with Curbi­vore’s Jonah Bliss to re­launch his podcast with Greg as Zag Talk, a fortnightly series combining their banter with interview guests and dis­pat­ches from Zag Daily editor Ben Hubbard and senior reporter Sela Musa. Tune in to hear the duo mock Tesla, praise transit, and not take themselves too seriously.

Listen to past episodes

Greg and his “Unfrozen” podcast co-host Daniel Safarik devoted a trio of episodes to the opening of the 19th Venice Archi­tec­ture Bien­nale in May. They were join­ed by former Los Angeles Times archi­tecture critic Christopher Hawthorne to dis­cuss the role of archi­tec­ture criticism at the Bien­nale in Episode no. 98.

They also interviewed Biennale curator Carlo Ratti and taped an on-the-ground preview with All Things Urban CEO Anas­tasia Sukho­ros­lova and graphic artist Michele Champagne in no. 99, and assem­bled a host of guest interviews with archi­tect Jeanne Gang, critic Kate Wag­ner, and more for anniversary episode no. 100.

Listen to episodes
No. 98 – with Christopher Hawthorne
No. 99 – The Venetian Scheme

No. 100 – Dancing About Architecture

Greg was invited by Helpful Places CEO and founder Jacqueline Lu to lead a discussion at New York’s Smart City Expo USA titled, “Do You Know What Sensor is Doing? Building Com­mu­nity Trust in Tech.”

They were joined by Nigel Jacob, co-founder of Boston’s Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mecha­nics, and Lea Eriksen, CIO and director of tech­no­logy and inno­va­tion for City of Long Beach, Cali­for­nia, in a dis­cussion of how Digital Trust in Places and Rou­tines can help cities and citizens assert their digi­tal rights in public spaces.

Watch the panel
Read the recap 

At SXSW, Greg helped lead a pair of “threat­casting” work­shops on the inter­sec­tion of climate disasters and mis­infor­ma­tion, inspired by the events of 2024’s Hurricane Helene. The first, atten­ded by festi­val par­ti­cipants, sketched the contours of future catas­tro­phes and the victims caught up in them. The second, hos­ted by the Uni­ted States Conference of Mayors, created a play­book for dam­pe­ning mis­infor­mation while accele­ra­ting response times.

Download the report

Greg flew to Austin for South by South­west, where he hosted sessions at the Fast Company Grill for Lumen, Williams, and Wise (above); and led a fire­side chat at Midwest House with Michi­gan’s chief growth officer Hilary Doe on retaining and attrac­ting talent to the Great Lakes State. 

Watch Lumen
Watch Wise 
Watch Williams

In conjunction with The Augmented City, his land­mark report for the Urban Tech Hub at Cornell Tech’s Jacobs Institute on the pro­mise and perils of AI and aug­men­ted reality at urban scale, Greg com­mis­sioned the award-win­ning author Made­line Ashby to write a collection of short sto­ries illus­tra­ting the report’s findings.

Those stories have been collected as an audio­book—alternately read aloud by Made­line and Greg—and published on You­Tube, with illus­tra­tions by Nana Rausch. For best results, listen while peru­sing the report.

Download the report
Listen to the stories

“What is the next disruptive technology to re­shape the public realm, and how can cities better anti­ci­pate its effects upon arri­val?” asks Greg’s ground­breaking report on the impli­ca­tions of aug­men­ted reality at urban scale, The Aug­men­ted City. Com­pri­­sing two years of re­search and fore­sight, this timely call to action lands just as Google rejoins Apple and Meta in the race to over­lay their pro­prie­tary techno­lo­gies on reality itself.

Read the report, listen to podcasts with No BS Bureaucracy’s Mark Wheeler and Mike Sarasti or The New Urban Order’s Diana Lind, watch a Webi­nar with inCitu’s Nick Kaufmann, or listen to Madeline Ashby’s accompanying stories.