Talking Transformation Podcast: Bulletin February 2020

Talking Transformation

It’s been a busy month of planning for the Talking Transformation Podcast.

We’ve taken a recording breather after the successful FutureCast panel collaboration with the Architects, Planners, Engineers and Surveyors society. If you haven’t yet caught that episode it makes for interesting listening. It was a very special event with passionate speakers and an audience who came out to Hout Street, cape Town in big numbers. It was a lively event with strong ideas and perspectives on where we need to go and what lessons we should take head from.

The planning throughout February has sought to secure an exciting programme of guests to assist with a deep dive series on housing and human settlements.

Few issues in South Africa are as emotive as housing and the progressive rights enshrined in the Constitution determining that “Everyone has a right to have access to adequate housing”.

Together with health and education the housing programme has been a foundation of post-democratic governance and a yardstick against which we measure the country’s progress.

In our first episodes of the TTPod we have already considered questions of informal settlement upgrading, infill housing and housing markets. The intention is to broaden this foundation and to look at a structured set of conversations looking back at the historical context, case studies, contemporary issues and the future of the housing and accommodation “game” in the coming decade.

Madiba's vision for housing,; the RDP; social housing; homelessness; integration and housing activism, each of these themes and others will be covered in the coming weeks series titled: “We’ve GOT to talk about housing – 26 years and counting”. Beyond the interviews we will be working towards a round-table, panel discussion to reflect on the main take home points of the series - the "SO WHAT!?" part.

It promises a lot and has taken a lot of behind-the-scenes work – so apologies for the delay in content and episodes in February. Rest assured there’s more to come.

Finally, a quick word on accreditation for those listeners who are registered with professional bodies. The South African Council for Planners (SACPLAN) has recently officially endorsed the Talking Transformation podcast and members registered, requiring constant and development programme (CPD) points can now generate points for reviewing, contributing our producing podcasts. Reviews of episodes – each worth 3 points - can for the time being be submitted via Survey Monkey. The link can be found via our twitter feed - @talkingtransfo1

Guests on the podcast are able to gain 5 points. That WAS a driving ambition of this podcast and we hope we can extend this reach into other professional bodies in the months to come. Again watch this space…

We are looking to recruit agents of change and thought-leaders into the podcast. Got an idea you want to explore? Want to support the content? Have a guest in mind? Let us know through that same twitter feed.

Coming up soon…our first episodes in the deep dive series (planned for release 27-29th March 2020. Enjoy.