This week on the show, we're kick starting the holiday season with a program about celebrating the holidays in an urban environment. We'll speak with Cindy Gatziolas of the Chicago Mayor's Office of Special Events . She'll tell us about the city's plans for the holidays, and how a city works with private organizations to make the season bright.

Then, what's Christmas in the city without a Christmas carol? We'll speak with sound designer Lindsay Jones about bringing the sounds of Charles Dickens' London to life in the theatre.

All that, plus we'll have a line-up of our own ghosts of Christmas past. We've brought back some of our favorite guests and friends of the show to discuss their holiday plans, and what makes the city such a special place to celebrate this time of year.

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This week on Smart City our guests have advice on how you can make your city greener, healthier and smarter. Lawrence Katz is the co-author of the book The Race between Education and Technology. In it, he describes how the 20th century american education system made this nation the richest in the world. He'll tell us why the third great education transformation, mass universal access to college, is still ahead of us.

We'll also speak with Mitchell Joachim. Mitchell is an architect and thinker who wants to redesign cities from the ground up. He'll tell us about stackable cars, living walls and houses that grow themselves.

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