Devon Zuegel & Janine Leger - Edge Esmeralda, Popup Villages, and New Towns | Edge City Podcast

In this inaugural episode of the Edge City Podcast, host Timour Kosters sits down with Devon Zuegel and Janine Leger to explore Edge Esmeralda, a pop-up village experiment they organized in June 2024 that brought together 1,300 people who believe the future can be better and are actively working to make it happen. Devon is an accomplished writer and thinker with a background in software engineering and a deep passion for cities. She’s currently working on Esmeralda, a new town project that blends the charm of an Italian hill town with the vibrancy of a year-round family summer camp. Janine, Timour’s co-founder at Edge City, previously led the grants program at Gitcoin and was a co-creator of Zuzalu, a pioneering popup city that explored new models of communal living and collaboration. -- Devon Zuegel: ⁠https://x.com/devonzuegel⁠ Janine Leger: ⁠https://x.com/JanineLeger⁠ Timour Kosters: ⁠https://x.com/timourxyz⁠ Edge Esmeralda Recap: ⁠https://edgeesmeralda.com/2024⁠ Esmeralda: ⁠https://esmeralda.org/⁠ -- Edge City convenes people working at the frontiers of tech, science, and society in popup villages across the globe. Follow Edge City on Twitter: https://x.com/JoinEdgeCity Learn more about Edge City: https://edgecity.live/ -- CHAPTERS (00:00) Introduction (02:40) What was Edge Esmeralda? (05:30) Inspiration and historical context (10:37) Building community and culture (17:41) Highlights of Edge Esmeralda (29:03) Challenges and learnings (36:54) Looking ahead: future plans