Realtopia - Real Estate for Teens

Can a dead mall, an empty office park, or a sea of parking become a place where people actually belong?

Naomi sits down with Ellen Dunham-Jones, architect, urban designer, and co-author with June Williamson of Retrofitting Suburbia. Her database now tracks more than 2,500 suburban retrofits across the country.

Ellen explains how postwar suburbs separated people and everyday life through zoning, and what it takes to turn aging suburban properties into places where people actually want to stay. Her answer goes beyond walkability: a programmed town green, small blocks, active storefronts, bike access, and even simple things...

Can a place actually make strangers talk — or does design only set the stage?

Naomi sits down with Kevin Kelley, architect, co-founder of Shook Kelley, and author of Irreplaceable: How to Create Extraordinary Places That Bring People Together. For more than 30 years, Kevin has studied how physical environments influence behavior and how places can convene people around shared experiences. His clients have ranged from Whole Foods and Harley-Davidson to orchestras and universities.

Kevin explains why he stopped thinking mainly about architectural style and started focusing on behavior, and why he worries about the "replacement economy" — apps and...

Can you actually create a third place — or can you only create the conditions that allow one to emerge?

Naomi sits down with Rik Adamski, president of Ash+Lime and co-founder of the Storefront Renaissance League, to talk about the everyday places where people gather — cafés, bookstores, bars, shops, and sometimes places you would never expect.

Rik explains why third places have become harder to sustain, from rising costs and changing business models to phones and new social habits. He argues that the best ones depend on much more than design: the owners and staff who k...

Can one piece of infrastructure reconnect a city — and what happens when that idea becomes more successful than anyone expected?

Naomi sits down with Ryan Gravel, the urban designer whose graduate thesis became the Atlanta BeltLine, a 22-mile loop connecting 45 neighborhoods around Atlanta.

Ryan explains how a year in Paris inspired the idea, why he calls the BeltLine “catalyst infrastructure,” and how abandoned rail corridors became a new way for neighborhoods to connect. He also speaks candidly about what the project got wrong: missing transit, affordability challenges, and why he believes stronger commitments should have come before...

Most cities were designed as if everyone were 30 years old, athletic, healthy, and able to drive. What would change if every street, park, library, and neighborhood had to work for an 8-year-old and an 80-year-old?

Naomi sits down with Gil Peñalosa, founder of 8 80 Cities and one of the world's leading voices on public space. As Commissioner of Parks in Bogotá, Colombia, Gil built or rebuilt more than 200 parks and helped transform the city's Ciclovía from a struggling Sunday bike event into more than 75 miles of open streets where over a million people can walk, bike, run, and...

Can something as personal as loving where you live actually be measured?

Naomi sits down with Dr. Katherine Loflin, known as The City Doctor and a pioneer of place science. At the Knight Foundation, Katherine led the Soul of the Community study with Gallup — three years of research across 26 communities and more than 40,000 interviews asking two deceptively simple questions: What makes people love where they live, and why does it matter? 

The results were remarkably consistent. The strongest drivers of attachment were not jobs, schools, or basic services, but three softer qualities: social offerings, aesthetics, and ope...

Can you learn to love where you live — or are some places simply a better fit than others?

Naomi sits down with Melody Warnick, journalist and author of This Is Where You Belong and If You Could Live Anywhere. After moving six times by her mid-30s, Melody arrived in Blacksburg, Virginia — and initially wanted to leave. Instead, she began experimenting with what researchers call place attachment: the feeling of being deeply at home where you live.

She tried walking more, buying local, meeting neighbors, volunteering, exploring nature, and becoming a regular at a local restaurant — an exp...

What turns a space into a place — and can belonging actually be designed?

Naomi sits down with Ethan Kent, Executive Director and co-founder of PlacemakingX, a global network of more than 1,500 placemakers in over 85 countries. Before that, Ethan spent more than 20 years at Project for Public Spaces and has worked in and studied places across more than 1,000 cities around the world.

From the cheap beach chairs that helped transform Times Square to markets, main streets, and neighborhood gathering places, Ethan explains why great places are built around purpose, meaning, and people — not just architecture.

They...

Can the places we live actually make us trust each other more?

Naomi sits down with Charles Montgomery — journalist, author of Happy City, founder of Happy Cities, and author of the new book The Trust Experiments: Rebuilding Connection in a World Designed to Divide Us.

More than a decade after Happy City, Charles explores how cities shape not just our happiness, but our relationships with one another — and why housing, public spaces, screens, transportation, and even the people we encounter every day can influence whether we feel connected or alone.

In this episode:
• How ci...

What if the reason your neighborhood looks the way it does — who lives there, what gets built, and how expensive it feels — isn't random?

In this episode of Realtopia, Naomi sits down with Nolan Gray — city planner, Research Director at California YIMBY, and author of Arbitrary Lines — to unpack the invisible rules shaping our cities.

Together, they explore one of the biggest questions facing this generation: if we build more housing, do people actually feel more connected to where they live?

In this episode:
What zoning really controlsThe ideas behind the YIMBY movementHousing, affordab...

Why does one city feel instantly recognizable while another could be almost anywhere?

In this episode of Realtopia, Naomi sits down with Professor Greg Clark — advisor to more than 400 cities across six continents, author, and co-host of The DNA of Cities — to explore what gives places their identity and why the most successful cities of the future may not be the ones that grow fastest, but the ones that become more fully themselves.

Together, they unpack the idea of a city’s DNA — the combination of inherited geography, historical choices, culture, institutions, and new adaptations that shape ho...

Why do some spaces instantly feel right — while others never quite do?

In this episode of Realtopia, Naomi sits down with Dr. Toby Israel — environmental psychologist, founder of Design Psychology, and author of Some Place Like Home and Designing Women's Lives — to explore how our earliest experiences of place quietly shape the homes we choose, the spaces we create, and even what makes us feel like we belong.

Together, they unpack the idea of an environmental autobiography: the hidden story of childhood places, family environments, and memories that can still influence our design choices decades later. Instea...

What if the housing crisis isn’t just about prices — but about a century of rules that quietly erased some of the most affordable ways people used to live?

In this episode of Realtopia, Naomi speaks with Professor Marc Norman, Associate Dean of NYU Schack, about what’s broken in the housing system — and what it would take to fix it.

Marc explains why affordable housing is often misunderstood, how postwar zoning rules made duplexes, fourplexes, and other “missing middle” housing nearly illegal, and why those choices helped shape today’s homeownership crisis. They explore new ideas like nei...

In this episode of Realtopia, Naomi sits down with Dr. Colin Ellard, professor at the University of Waterloo and author of Places of the Heart, to explore how the spaces around us shape our emotions, behavior, and sense of belonging. 

From city streets to living rooms, Dr. Ellard explains how our environment directly impacts our brains—sometimes in ways we don’t even notice. The conversation dives into the science of psychogeography, revealing how design choices like building facades, density, and access to nature can influence mood, stress, and even long-term health.

They discuss:What psychogeography is an...

In this episode of Realtopia, Naomi speaks with Majora Carter about urban revitalization, environmental justice, and what it takes to build communities where residents can stay and thrive.

Drawing from her experience in the South Bronx, Majora shares a powerful perspective on rebuilding neighborhoods from within. The conversation explores how perception shapes opportunity, the difference between regenerative and extractive development, and why creating real economic pathways within communities is essential.


They discuss:What urban revitalization looks like when it truly improves people’s livesThe difference between regenerative and extractive developmentHow perception influences investment and opportunity in...

In this episode of Realtopia, Naomi speaks with Carlos Moreno, creator of the 15-minute city, about how cities can be redesigned around people, proximity, and everyday life.

From his early work in technology to his shift toward a more human-centered vision of cities, Carlos explains why the future of urban living depends less on infrastructure and more on accessibility, local services, and quality of life. The conversation explores how cities can address climate change, social inequality, and disconnection by rethinking how neighborhoods are organized.

They discuss:
What the 15-minute city is and the problems it...

What if you could invest in real estate the same way you buy shares in a company?

In this episode, I talk with Jerry Chu, founder of Lofty, about real estate tokenization — a new way of buying and owning property through digital shares.
We break down how it works, how it’s different from traditional real estate investing, and why some people believe it could make real estate more accessible to a wider group of investors. 
We also talk about the risks, the role of blockchain, and what still needs to happen for this to become more...

What if your home could move with you?

This week I'm talking to Eli Rouimi, founder of Plad Homes — a company that's completely rethinking how homes are designed, built, and owned.

We get into modular and prefab housing, and why it might be one of the most realistic solutions to the affordability crisis that nobody is talking about enough.

We dig into what a modular home actually is (and what people get wrong about them), whether you could someday own your home but lease the land and take it with you when you move, an...

What does it take to shape a skyline — and what responsibility comes with it?

This week I sat down with Kobi Karp, one of the most recognized architects in the world, whose projects span over $120 billion in iconic buildings across South Florida and beyond.

But this conversation goes way deeper than design. We talked about the housing affordability crisis and why it keeps getting worse. We got into AI and how it's already changing the way architects think about buildings. We debated zoning laws that might actually be making things worse, and we explored wild but re...

Realtopia | Season 2 Trailer — "The Blueprint for Tomorrow"

Two years ago, I was a 12-year-old with a microphone and way too many questions about how houses got bought and sold. Now I'm in 9th grade — and honestly? The questions got bigger.

Housing is unaffordable. Cities are overcrowded. The planet is warming. And everyone keeps talking about these problems like teenagers aren't the ones who are going to have to actually solve them.
So this season, we're not just watching the market. We're here to disrupt it.

Season 2 of Realtopia is a completely new level. I'm...

In this Episode of Realtopia, we're diving into the exciting world of architecture. Our guest is Ruben Jimenez, architect and owner of R-Method. Ruben has over 25 years of experience in the Design and Architecture field, working in different firms in Los Angeles, California and in South East Florida, before founding his own studio. In this episode, Ruben tells us a lot about what it means to be an architect, his experience and stories and his best advice to become one!

Hello everyone. In today’s episode of Realtopia, I am interviewing Leon Azicri of Universal Group, a General Contractor, also called “Builder” in Miami. Leon is more than a contractor; he is also an engineer and understands a lot about what it takes to build different kinds of real estate buildings.
And the best part: he once built Jennifer Lopez's house!

In this episode, Leon tells us all about what it means to be a General Contractor and gives us his best insights.

Welcome back to Realtopia, the podcast for teenagers where we explore the real estate industry. Today, I’m happy to be joined by Michael Young, a real estate investor in Miami Beach, known for his luxury home developments and house renovations. Michael has a lot to teach us about how to buy land, build luxury houses and sell them! A great lesson on how to invest in real estate for all of us.

Welcome, Realtopians! Today, we're diving into the exciting world of real estate agencies with the amazing Jennifer Rosenfeld, a real estate agent with Sheridan Realty in Miami Beach. Jennifer tells us all about being a real estate agent and her experiences. She has a lot of interesting stories to tell and lots of good advice for us teenagers! I am sure you will be inspired!

In today’s episode of Realtopia, we dive into the world of interior design. 
Think about colors, textures, aesthetics but also functionality!
Our guest is Stephanie Perez from SHD Studio. She is a successful entrepreneur who designs dream houses in Miami. She is known for creating memorable, warm, loving spaces that reflect her clients personalities.

Realtopia is the first podcast about real estate for teenagers by teenagers! Each episode will introduce you to someone amazing from the industry—be it an interior designer who's transforming spaces into lively homes, or an investor who's building tiny apartments. They'll share their stories, tips, and, of course, their secrets. So, whether you're here to explore a future job in real estate or just for some fun facts to impress your friends, there's something in Realtopia for everyone!