Possible
Reid Hoffman
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Jan Sramek on California Forever and the future of cities
What if we could build the ideal sustainable city from scratch? This week’s guest is aiming to do that, and he has unique insight into what making that dream a reality can look like. Jan Sramek is the founder of California Forever, a company aiming to build an affordable, urban community in Solano County, California. Reid—an investor in California Forever—and Aria sat down with Jan to talk about the vision for the city, where it draws inspiration from, and some of the controversy that has sprung up around the initiative since it was announced in 2023. Why build a new city rather than developing existing ones? How will this new city be connected to the surrounding community? And when might the first residents be able to move in? Read the transcript of this episode here. For more about: California Forever/East Solano Plan (https://eastsolanoplan.com/) Zipline (https://www.flyzipline.com/) Living Carbon (https://www.livingcarbon.com/) JFK speech at Rice University (https://www.rice.edu/jfk-speech) For more info on the podcast and transcripts of all the episodes, visit https://www.possible.fm/podcast/ Topics: 03:45 - Hellos and intros 04:25 - Where does Jan draw inspiration from 05:57 - Jan’s journey to real estate 08:18 - What is California Forever’s timeline? 10:44 - AI weighs in on initiatives to refresh existing cities 13:07 - Cities to look to for inspiration 14:48 - How to create economic opportunity in a new city 17:58 - The importance of local jobs 21:23 - Responding to criticism 24:30 - Most exciting developments 25:55 - Most common misconceptions 27:04 - Community feedback and climate efforts 30:53 - How to connect to public infrastructure 32:38 - How feasible is California Forever, exactly? 35:14 - Learning from past and present initiatives 39:52 - Nonprofit and government stakeholders 42:24 - Why is building from scratch greener? 45:08 - Rapid-fire questions Possible is an award-winning podcast that sketches out the brightest version of the future—and what it will take to get there. Most of all, it asks: what if, in the future, everything breaks humanity's way? Tune in for grounded and speculative takes on how technology—and, in particular, AI—is inspiring change and transforming the future. Hosted by Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger, each episode features an interview with an ambitious builder or deep thinker on a topic, from art to geopolitics and from healthcare to education. These conversations also showcase another kind of guest: AI. Whether it's Inflection’s Pi, OpenAI’s ChatGPT or other AI tools, each episode will use AI to enhance and advance our discussion about what humanity could possibly get right if we leverage technology—and our collective effort—effectively.
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