On August 14th, join Greg, 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 imagining the future. Hosted by Threat­casting.ai, we’ll explore how fiction creates the affor­dan­ces to ima­gine poten­tial futures.

Greg was recently invited to present at 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, and was quoted in its maga­zine Land Lines about XR’s uses in civic engage­ment.

Register for the Webinar 
Watch the MSF Ethics Summit
Read the Lincoln Institute column

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 find out.

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.

In his essay “Drones, Meals, and Auto­mobiles,” Greg explores the delivery- and automation-driven fusion of retail and indus­­trial real estate in the latest edition of the Urban Land Insti­tute’s and PwC’s Emer­­ging Trends in Real Estate. He’ll dig deeper into these trends in his workshops and keynotes for 2025. Get in touch if you’d like him to do the same for your orga­ni­zation.

Read the essay – Download the report