We had an interview with Mustafa Sherif, urban planner and architect, about the situation of communities in recent urban contexts. According to Mustafa’s professional experience, next to the use of architecture as the “hardware” of community building, it needs the “software” of social organization, the “orgware” for bringing people together to make a change. According to Mustafa, this makes the difference between a true community and a mere audience. The prevailing mode today is to have only an audience - people fed with information. But this is not enough to create communities. In this respect, we also addressed critical success factors for building communities.

This saying from Eileen Muriel Tasca can be seen as an epitome for the podcast we made with her. Eileen is active in the international film business, member of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (International Emmy® Awards), and president of two cultural initiatives, the CRÉARTS Rome and the Associazione Caput New Mundi, Rome.

Through CRÉARTS Rome and Associazione Caput New Mundi, Eileen Tasca develops initiatives that connect heritage, creativity, innovation, education, and public space. Her work seeks to build sustainable cultural ecosystems where artists, institutions, entrepreneurs, and citizens collaborate to create lasting social, cultural, and economic value. For her, culture is not an accessory to civic life; it is one of the principal forces that shapes the identity, vitality, and future of communities. She believes culture can serve as a catalyst for urban regeneration, civic engagement, international dialogue, and the re-imagination of public spaces as living environments that inspire participation, inclusion, and creativity.

We spoke with Eileen about all these issues in our podcast, also addressing critical factors and conditions that shape life in today’s cities; taking two exemplary cases, Rome and New York.

In concluding our series about the younger generation, we had a podcast with Ieva Bykova. 19-year-old Ieva, an aspiring singer and event manager, shared her thoughts on social media, the future, and communication among young people.