About Me

Hi! I’m Vanessa M. Quirk, a podcaster and editor who spends much of my days writing and speaking about cities’ past, present, and future.

You may have heard me as the co-host on a few podcasts: Urban Roots, where historic preservationist Deqah Hussein-Wetzel and I preserve the stories of places significant to people of color in story; Uncertain Things, where my journalist roommate Adaam James Levin-Areddy and I talk to the thinkers who are navigating us through this current, chaotic moment;City of the Future, where fellow cities journalist Eric Jaffe and I explored the ideas and innovations that will transform cities; and the Sidewalk Weekly, where Eric and I covered the week’s top stories in urban tech.

Born in Spain to a Northern Irish father and a Peruvian mother, I begrudgingly grew up on Long Island, pursued English literature and Music at the George Washington University in Washington D.C. and Oxford University in the U.K., left the northern hemisphere to volunteer teach English in Chile, and then moved back to New York in 2014 to pursue an M.S. in Arts & Culture Journalism from Columbia University. I currently call Queens home. And when I’m not making podcasts, I’m probably making music, failing to learn the ukulele, or squealing over adorable animals on Instagram.