Richard Florida is a professor at the University of Toronto and distinguished visiting fellow at New York University. He is a co-founder and editor at large of CityLab and a senior editor at The Atlantic. 

He is best known for the concept of the creative class and its implications for urban regeneration  expressed in his best-selling book “The Rise of the Creative Class”.

In this very entertaining interview Richard speaks candidly about his personal background, “a kid from Newark”, and how his childhood experiences and passion for rock’n’roll music have influenced his professional career.

We talk about the pandemic and its effects on the future of urban working life, the genius of Jane Jacobs, the Bilboa effect and the importance of intuition in his academic work. We also talk about how the Creative Class’ back to the city movement, finds a home for itself amidst a hotbed of controversial sociocultural topics: gentrification, displacement and inequity, and Richard’s vision for how to choreograph a more powerful dialogue to solve these issues.

Photo by Roshan Nebhrajani