Most New Yorkers and many of the 63 million people who visit New York each year as tourists will connect the words "Cookshop," "Shuka," and "Vic's" as outstanding restaurants and part of a chain owned by Marc Meyer. But Meyer admittedly is more than a cook. His vision of community, food and the people who prepare and serve it drove him to not only engage his workers at a deeper level than most owners, but to write a fascinating book: Voices from the Kitchen: Personal Narratives from New York's Immigrant Restaurant Workers. (Beacon Press). In this episode of "Soul of the City" Meyer talks about this and his commitment to sourcing locally, seasonally and sustainably – and the importance of immigrants to it all! In this edition of The INTELLIGENT Community Interview, ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla speaks with Marc Meyer, author, "Voices from the Kitchen."

David Staley has been described as an "avant garde scholar." A professor in the departments of History and Design at The Ohio State University in the USA he is the author of several books including Knowledge Towns: Colleges and Universities as Talent Magnets. In 2022 he was named the "Best Freelance Writer" by the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists for his Next futures column with Columbus Underground. With the ICF Summit being held in Columbus this October and because of Staley's long relationship with ICF, we invited him to chat with Lou about "the knowledge enterprise" and whether it can be built even in places where this is in university. In this edition of The INTELLIGENT Community Interview, ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla speaks with Dr. David Staley, Associate Professor of History, The Ohio State University.

In this edition of the Intelligence Test podcast, ICF co-founder Robert Bell has a conversation with Bryan Paterson, Mayor, Kingston, ON, Canada and Kelly Rowe, Fellow, Canadian Urban Institute. How can you grow a city's economy if the best and brightest keep leaving town? That was the challenge facing Bryan Paterson when he was elected as mayor of Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Kingston is a government town, a university town and a tourist town – but had stagnated for years. Hear the story of its journey to opportunity and growth. 

For most cities and regions the idea of a real circular economy and stable, sustained innovation in every detail of business and life remains a goal to be chased. In the Brightlands-Limburg region of The Netherlands however, a region of 1.1 million people, the goal is being achieved. With multiple "innovation campuses" producing products and services focused on sustainability in areas as diverse as chemical engineering and food (it is home to a company that produces 80,000 beefburgers without killing a single cow!) Brightlands-Limburg has gotten on the radar! It is wonderful place to see, visit and study what a future of Intelligent Communities and collaboration are ushering in to the economy. Lou speaks with two of the people there who are driving this forward in a conversation that will again show what the Dutch have been giving the world for over 400 years! In this edition of The INTELLIGENT Community Interview, ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla speaks with Ronald Otten, Strategy Advisor and Brand Manager, Brightlands-Limburg and Maurice Olivers, Manager PR & Communications, Brightlands-Limburg.

In this edition of THE INTELLIGENT COMMUNITY: The Soul of the City,  Lou speaks with fellow ICF Co-Founder John Jung. In response to requests from ICF podcast listeners the two dive into a robust conversation about the connection between the world's Intelligent Communities, the history of ICF and the world-famous awards program. The two also discuss ICF's ongoing VIP tours and delegations to Asia and in June, Europe.  If you want to get "under the hood" about how seemingly average cities become world award winners, this is the conversation for you.

In this edition of THE INTELLIGENT COMMUNITY: The Soul of the City, ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla gives speaks with Dr. Karen Sutherland, SFHEA, Senior Lecturer, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia. Across Australia, young people under 16 were from social media use after the Government passed the Online Safety Amendment. The law took effect in November 2025. We ask an Australian Intelligent Community how it's going in its early stage and why they thought it was or was not a good idea.

The 2015 Intelligent Community of the Year will celebrate the anniversaries of its award and its hosting of the 2016 ICF Summit this October. Since it was named Intelligent Community of the Year the city of Columbus has built on its prowess as representative of the rise of the American Midwest. The State of Ohio, inspired by the Intelligent Community movement in Columbus has since produced several Intelligent Communities thanks to the ICF Institute, located in nearby Dublin, Ohio. The Institute has been working with communities in Ohio and around the world to share best practices and accelerate development. All of this comes together this year at the Summit. Lou interviews two people who have been instrumental in bringing the Summit program back to Ohio. You will want to attend! In this edition of The INTELLIGENT Community Interview, ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla speaks with Doug McCollough, Executive Director of The Beta District and Moez Chaabouni, Managing Partner and CEO, Summit Technologies LLC.

In this edition of THE INTELLIGENT COMMUNITY: The Soul of the City, ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla gives speaks with Dario Paixão, CEO of the Curitiba Agency for Economic Development and Innovation, Curitiba, Brazil. The ICF trilogy of conversations with the three cities that will host this year's Awards announcements and conferences begins in Brazil, where Curitiba's former City Secretary for Economic Development, Innovation, and Artificial Intelligence talks to Lou about the remarkable success and innovations (yes, they really have had fast buses for years!) in the first Brazilian location to be named Intelligent Community of the Year (2024).

The 200+ Intelligent Communities in the world are conservative and liberal. Rich and poor. Large, medium and small. They are located in Asia, South America, North America, Europe and Australia. Despite their vast differences culturally they share something which ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla identifies as being core to their energy and success. It is the thing which, in the long run, makes their smart city or Intelligent Community policies successful economically too. They understand reality as it is but are fearless in applying their moral imagination to their experience.  What does that look like? Lou gives us his view.

In this edition of THE INTELLIGENT COMMUNITY: The Soul of the City, Lou speaks with Rachael Cain, Founder of Pick Up Pigeons, a volunteer club with hundreds of participants who nightly during the week scour the five boroughs of New York City picking up volumes of trash and collecting data. The group was recently named "New Yorker of the Week." Rachael is a New York resident, lawyer and urban planner who works on some of the biggest construction projects in America.  She also gets very animated and activated by trash. Where does this passion for her community (and its waste) come from? What does it tell us about people, the built environment, the neighborhood, the city, and the ability to activate communities within our Intelligent Communities?