Basak Kus
As part of our Bailey COE Think Tank’s ongoing work on disruption and futures that feel increasingly unpredictable, and more dystopian than hopeful, we (Basak Kus, Mitali Thakor, and Tim Sahay) headed to Mexico for a three-day excursion. The trip was short and intentionally dense. Curated by Tim and Mitali, it involved speaking with people working on climate policy; visiting one of the most discussed municipal experiments in contemporary urban governance—the Utopias initiative, created under the leadership of Mexico City’s widely popular mayor, Clara Brugada; and, last but not least, meeting with the esteemed scholar Paula Ricaurte, whose work on technology, power, and AI has been formative for Mitali’s thinking. As we took off from JFK, we were excited about what lay ahead.