The Aching Brains of Urban Dwellers

Picture yourself on a crowded thoroughfare in any big city. Cars honking, neon lights flashing, the smell of hot dog carts and thousands of people crammed onto subway trains -- the city can be an exhausting place! Now scientists are looking at how that urban landscape affects our brains. Jonah Lehrer joins us on the show today to explain. He’s author of Proust Was a Neuroscientist and his new book How We Decide is coming out next month.

We’re also joined by Andrew Blum, a contributing editor for Wired and Metropolis magazines, where he covers architecture and urban design. He’s been reporting on a serious transformation happening in the field of landscape architecture. Attempting to make cities greener is not a new trend (In the late 1800’s landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted sought to create vibrant natural spaces like New York’s Central Park and Boston’s Emerald Necklace), but leaders in the field are now rethinking how to integrate nature into urban life, not simply create it as a refuge.

Related Links:

How the city hurts your brain...And what you can do about it, by Jonah Lehrer (Boston Globe)

The Long View: By embracing the city’s industrial past, James Corner has helped reinvent the field of landscape architecture, by Andrew Blum (Metropolis Magazine)

(Photo by sandcastlematt)