In this episode, I connect with cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Robin Mazumder, Ph.D., for a discussion about how we as humans respond to our built environments and how we make that experience pleasurable and equitable.

Dr. Robin Mazumder, recently (October 2020) received his Ph.D. from the University of Waterloo in cognitive neuroscience studying the impacts of urban design on our health and wellbeing.

Among other things, John and Robin talk about how we as humans respond to our built environments, what role access to nature plays in our cities, and how we can perhaps better understand and work productively to address our dependency on automobiles.

When we think of our cities and public spaces we probably have an intuitive sense as to what places are pleasant, welcoming, and interesting but we probably don’t really think too deeply about it. Well, we hope this conversation with Robin about his work to better understand our urban experience serves to be a thought-provoking and engaging experience.

Additional Helpful Links:

Robin's Website

Twitter

Instagram

Robin's Addicted to Cars post

Dignity and Health Forbes article

Places of the Heart book by Colin Ellard

Cities for People book by Jan Gehl

Happy City book by Charles Montgomery

Curbing Traffic and Building the Cycling City books by Melissa & Chris Bruntlett

Ada County article about bike lanes in Boise and surrounding suburbs

Cognitive Architecture book by Ann Sussman & Justin Hollander

Shinrin-yoku - Forest Bathing

Indy Cultural Trail

Jason Slaughter's Not Just Bikes episode

Jonathan Fertig's Taking Action episode

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All video and audio production by John Simmerman

Various mixes also by John Simmerman

- My awesome recording platform is Ecamm

- Adobe Creative Cloud Suite

For more information about my Active Towns effort or to follow along, please visit my links below:

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Hi Everyone, my name is John Simmerman.

I’m a health promotion professional with over 30 years of experience and my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization of how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.

In 2012 I launched the non-profit Advocates for Healthy Communities as an effort to help promote and create healthy, active places.

Since that time, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be, in order to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."

My Active Towns suite of channels feature my original video and audio content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.

Thanks for tuning in; I hope you have found this content helpful.

Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2021

Advocates for Healthy Communities, Inc. is a nonprofit 501c3 organization (EIN 45-3802508) dedicated to helping communities create a Culture of Activity. To donate, click here.