How Cities Decoded is telling the story of AI
Here's to a nuanced, complex, thorny, and above all, balanced, take on AI for 2026 — told by changemakers in America's cities.
Hi Cities Decoded community🙂
What a start to the year.
Since the new year, we have published 10+ posts, 5+ notes, and produced 1000% more energy than this time last year🥳
And now, I’m so excited to announce what’s next.
Livestreams
I’ll be talking to two guests today:
John Hopkins-Gillespie of Trustible: RAISE Act and 2026 AI predictions
The creator of The Era Arc (and latest member of the Cities Decoded team!): Monthly tea roundup
Community
I’m excited we have started publishing our work on the social media platform, Threads.
So far, Cities Decoded has largely existed in the orbit of Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
It’s worked out pretty well for us. We get to host all of our content on the first platform, distribute the podcast on the middle three, and celebrate our very impressive network on the last platform.
But something has been missing: A short form way to consistently keep up with both existing work, and some upcoming ones as well.
Enter: Threads!
You may be wondering, why not X? Isn’t that the bigger and more popular platform?
For some metrics, that is correct. But let me lay out the case for Threads:
It’s built for quick, casual conversation, which makes it easier to turn posts into real back-and-forth.
It’s less “news-cycle dunking,” and more “tell me what you think,” which matches the kind of community we want.
It’s easier to be a multi-format brand (text now, and maybe visuals later) without changing platforms.
Why not go harder on X (for now)
The tone can be harsher, and it often rewards conflict over curiosity.
Keeping conversations healthy can take more moderation effort than we want to spend.
It’s easy for good-faith posts to get pulled into pile-ons or culture-war debates.
Why not make Substack Notes the main short-form channel
Notes is great for readers who already follow you there, but it is not always the best place to reach new people.
Notes conversations tend to stay inside the Substack ecosystem, instead of spreading outward.
It’s not as “conversation-first” as Threads for quick community check-ins.
So what are you going to get?
A real-time Cities Decoded feed: quick updates on new episodes, upcoming projects, and behind-the-scenes context you won’t always see elsewhere.
More conversation (and more access): polls, Q&As, and comment threads where we can actually go back and forth with you.
A chance to shape what we cover next: you can suggest topics, point us to stories, and help steer future episodes.
Why all this content matters
In 2025, Cities Decoded started writing a story about AI from the perspective of people in cities doing great things.
It’s hard to find another creator as consistent as the one behind The Era Arc.
It’s hard to find a responsible AI governance startup that had a better 2025 than Trustible.
And it’s rare to read a voice that is both as kind and as clear as humanbeyondtech who just wrote a beautiful piece on what community and AI mean in 2026 that we posted in our pages.
This year, I want Cities Decoded to continue telling this story of city changemakers in AI because I think it fills a gap.
A gap between the hype and dommerisim of AI. A gap between technical and non-technical folks, all who are passionate about making their own stamp on the progression of AI.
And above all, Cities Decoded fills a gap because it brings together diverse voices in its pages to tell a complex, nuanced, and real story of AI.
If you feel like you are making an impact in the AI space, whatever that may be, I would love to hear from you. I am confident that Cities Decoded’s storytelling is just at the beginning.
Talk soon,
-Sam