v [mikael colville-andersen] whenever i think about milan, i've always thought about a diva. a classy, respectable, aging opera singer who's led a long life and has so many stories to tell. this city is standing at a crossroads, just like every other city in the world, in this growing age of urbanism. but here, the conversation is amplified. there is a growing hunger for real urban change. i want to find out which path milan is choosing and how it will future-proof itself using the power of urbanism and community engagement. milan, show me what you've got. - let's be clear. milan isn't rome or venice. there are no gondolas here and no never-ending lines of tourists waiting to visit the colosseum. but something is happening here: a newly found desire to stand out, a quest for a modern way of developing a city. once considered the bland financial capital of the country, milan is now proving its capacity to redefine itself. its industrial past left almost indelible scars on the urban fabric, but the 2015 world expo sparked change. skyscrapers, new public and private initiatives,

[mikael colville-andersen] at the heart of a challenged but fiercely proud nation lies its capital. this is mexico city. this is a megacity. the fifth largest in the world: 21 million inhabitants. it's also the eighth richest city in the world, and yet 30% of the population live in poverty. what a vast spectrum in which i get to work in my search for the life-sized city. but i know that there are people here, like in cities everywhere around the world, who are working positively to force urban change. i want to hear, see and experience what they're doing to improve urban life in this vast arena of contradictions. - this is a city that is flood-prone. it's polluted. it's a hotbed for earthquakes, and it struggles with its fair share of inequality. but man! mexico city's got that thing you just can't explain. a thing that sets it apart, that makes you want to keep on coming back. because although this city fights every day with the elements, so many elements, it's also a place that is rooted in ingenuity and creativity. you certainly can't tell it now, but this was once an island city

[mikael colville-andersen] the story of detroit has been told countless times all over the world. the rise and the fall are part of the narrative, but it is especially the renewal, the phoenix rising, that has captured people's imaginations. and yeah, i get it. what a story! i know that most of the renewal, most of the hype, is focused on downtown. the renewal of detroit has not reached most of the people who live here. here in detroit, 90% of the population are not white, they rarely go downtown. i want to move past the headlines, i want to find the reality that is detroit. i want to meet the citizens of this city who are working hard, struggling insistently on making this city more life-sized, and perhaps, great once again. in a matter of just a few decades, detroit plummeted from being one of america's most prosperous cities to one of its most dilapidated. the decline of the automobile industry was compounded by various financial crises and municipal mismanagement and it all pushed the city towards a total collapse, both economic and demographic. the city declared bankruptcy in