In this episode of Challenger Cities, Iain Montgomery is joined by urban designer, filmmaker, and author Mikael Colville-Andersen for a wide-ranging conversation about why cities so often know what works, yet struggle to act on it.

We start with train stations and the importance of arrival, before moving through cycling, design, experimentation, Nordic urbanism, and finally Mikael’s recent work in Ukraine, where urbanism takes on a very different meaning.

We cover:

• Why train stations are still one of the clearest signals of a city’s confidence and priorities
• What cities lose when arrival becomes a throughput problem rather than a civic moment
• Why Copenhagen doesn’t have “cyclists,” only people on bikes
• How removing friction works better than persuading or moralising
• Why design create ...