Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Skylines, the CityMetric podcast
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 150. So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish | 26 May 2020 | 02:04:32 | |
Casablanca is 102 minutes long. Citizen Kane runs for 119. This, the 150th and final episode of Skylines, the CityMetric podcast, is longer than either, at 124. You lucky, lucky people. I’ve loved doing this show over the last four and a bit years – it’s been a great opportunity to chat to interesting people about everything from transport and housing to smart cities and regional identities, with the odd argument about the tube or episode about ancient history thrown in for flavour. But for all sorts of reasons – not least of which is that I’ve stepped down as editor of CityMetric – this felt like the right time to stop. I wanted to go out with a bang, though, and to hell with worrying about self-indulgence. So in this final, feature-length episode of Skylines you will hear:
All that, plus some clips from listeners, and some previously unreleased bits of my entirely excellent former co-host Stephanie Boland. Thanks for tuning into Skylines these last few years. I’m gonna miss you guys. Skylines is the podcast from CityMetric, the New Statesman’s cities site. It’s presented by Jonn Elledge and produced by Nick Hilton. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 149. No Exit | 10 May 2020 | 00:37:49 | |
Partly because of the crisis, partly for reasons we’ll come to in a moment, our production schedule on Skylines has got a bit lax. So the first of this week’s interviews – with my pal Claire Cocks in Palermo, about what lockdown, Italian-flavour, looks like – is already a little out of date. Italy, unlike the UK, has begun lifting its lockdown. But it’s still a fascinating insight into both what a stricter lockdown looks like, and also into how great Palermo would be if she were allowed to see it at all – so I’ve kept the interview, but added a brief update from Claire about what the situation there is like now. Our second interview is with Hala El Akl, a senior associate at PLP Architecture and chair of the ULI’s UK Urban Art Forum. She tells us exactly why cities should be paying more attention to the role of arts and culture, and what she hopes to do with the role. Before I go – the explanation for the lax schedule I mentioned. In case you’ve missed the announcements on social media: Skylines is coming to an end. I’ve handed over the reins at CityMetric to the new editorial team, led by the outstanding Sommer Mathis, and the next episode will be number 150. For those and a host of other reasons, this felt like the right time to stop. But don’t worry, because our final episode is going to be an absolute monster, in which I speak to all sorts of people who’ve been involved in the show in some capacity over the last four and a bit years years, about their favourite episodes, what they would have liked to have spoken about but didn’t, and also, inevitably, the tube. It’s the messy self-indulgent send off this podcast deserves, and I hope the final product is as much fun to listen to as it was to record. Incidentally – as part of that I’m going to include some clips from listeners, being nice and/or mocking me in an amusing fashion. If you’d like to be one of them, email me your clip to jonnelledge at gmail dot com under the subject line “Final Skylines”. Skylines is the podcast from CityMetric, the New Statesman’s cities site. It’s presented by Jonn Elledge and produced by Nick Hilton. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 140. So This Is Christmas, with Jay Foreman | 20 Dec 2019 | 00:37:53 | |
I realised earlier that this is the fourth Skylines Christmas Special, which apart from being a marker of quite how long I've been doing this thing now, presumably explains why there are giant steampunk robots marching across Victorian London again. Anyway. On this week's show, we're not going to talk about the election result – partly because I'm too depressed, partly because we've now got about four and a half years to think about that, but mostly because this episode was recorded 10 hours before the exit poll came out so we had no idea what the result was even going to be. (If you've just joined us: the left lost.) Instead, we're going to have a lovely conversation with Jay Foreman, distinguished host of such YouTube series as Unfinished London, Map Men and other things that frankly I wish I'd thought to do before he got there first. Jay tells me how he came to make a career making videos about London; how he and his co-host Mark Cooper-Jones had a blazing row about their favourite map projections; and why he's now six months into an online argument with a man who wrongly believes that Woking is in Greater London. It was, frankly, tremendous fun to record, so I can only hope it’s as fun to listen to. Not least because I realised afterwards I’d screwed up the recording and am nervous about how it sounds. Anyway. Happy Christmas, everybody – we’ll see you in 2020. Skylines is the podcast from the New Statesman’s cities site, CityMetric. It’s hosted by Jonn Elledge and produced by Nick Hilton. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 51. The slightly delayed 50th episode special | 19 Jul 2017 | 00:49:12 | |
Why is Leeds is better than Manchester? Where should Crossrail 3 go? Can cities escape their economic destiny? And why are British seaside towns so terrible? All these questions and more are answered, badly, in our slightly late 50th episode special, as Stephanie and Jonn answer a selection of reader questions about high speed trains, city status, and the Redcliffe-Maud report, all the while working their way through an unexpectedly acidic bottle of cava. It all seemed like a good idea at the time.No podcast next week, because Jonn is off on his holidays. We'll be back in a fortnight. Skylines is the podcast from the New Statesman's cities site, CityMetric. It's hosted by Jonn Elledge and Stephanie Boland. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 50. Gimme Shelter | 13 Jul 2017 | 00:29:38 | |
This is, somehow, the 50th episode of Skylines. That seems quite a lot, doesn’t it? Well done to both you and I for making it this far. This is not, in all honesty, what I intended for this episode: originally, I had hoped Stephanie would come back and we could answer listener questions, possibly while getting slightly drunk. But best laid plans did what best laid plans do, and we couldn’t make our diaries work, so we’ll do that in some future show. This week, instead, I’ve got a very special guest: myself. On Wednesday night I gave a speech on the politics of housing following the general election to a group of people working in the sector (who, if I’m absolutely honest with myself, know far more about the subject than I do). In that speech I pulled together much of what I’ve been thinking about this topic for a while – why we have a crisis, why it’s hard to solve, what I think the government is likely to do about it.And so, since I found myself facing a gap in the podcast schedule, I thought you guys might like to hear it. In other words: this episode is 20 minutes of me talking about housing, bookended up a few more minutes of me talking about the podcast and then reading some tweets. If you’ve always enjoyed Skylines but don’t much like my voice, this is probably an episode you should skip.Next week, we’ll be back to regular service with some real people joining me to talk about things. I promise.Skylines is the podcast from the New Statesman's cities site, CityMetric. It's hosted by Jonn Elledge. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 49. The strange death of municipal England | 05 Jul 2017 | 00:38:05 | |
A hundred years ago, England’s municipal governments were the envy of the world. Every city ran its own trams, power and water systems, and the town hall was often the best looking building in town. Today, CityMetric’s excitement about the rise of the metro mayor notwithstanding, England is one of the most centralised countries in the western world. So what went wrong? To take us on a whistle stop history of municipal England, I’m joined by self-professed local government nerd Emma Burnell. Our conversation takes in everything from Joseph Chamberlain to Clement Attlee to Derek Hatton to the Grenfell fire.After that, we ask the audience: what’s the strangest local government name/boundary/job title you’ve come across? From the responses, incidentally, I am delighted to see that we’ve accidentally made the Tees Valley’s own Sue Jeffrey into a meme.PS: if you’d like to give us a nice review on iTunes, it'd help other people discover the show, which we'd, y'know, like. So, thanks.Skylines is the podcast from the New Statesman's cities site, CityMetric. It's hosted by Jonn Elledge. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 48. Going Underground | 27 Jun 2017 | 00:35:59 | |
This week, we’re all about pushing the envelope and breaking new ground. So here's an entire podcast about the Tube. First up, the clever bit. One time CityMetric James O'Malley has since blossomed into the editor of Gizmodo UK. Earlier this year, he caused a bit of a splash with his scoop about how Transport for London has been using wifi data to track passengers – to find out how people actually move around London Underground.So – what are TfL playing at? How will this sort of thing help transport authorities redesign their networks? Should we be worried? And are all the signs at King’s Cross such lies?Then, the less clever bit: Jonn is joined by Stephen Bush so we can slug it out to debate the official CityMetric ranking of the London Underground lines. This was meant to be a short, jokey segment to end on. Reader, it did not turn out that way. Apart from anything else, it takes us a surprisingly long time to agree on what counts as a line.Before we go, a spot of housekeeping. This is our 48th... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 47. The Middle Bit | 14 Jun 2017 | 00:34:39 | |
You know, on this podcast, we’ve talked a lot about the American Midwest considering it’s a place Jonn’s been twice, for a few days each time.So, we figured it was about time we got one of the locals on to tell us about the region, to argue with our diagnosis of its ills – and, most importantly, to explain what its obsession with weird public art is.Dayton native Sarah Manavis wrote an excellent piece for us with the memorable headline “Here are the six freak statues of Ohio”. She tells us the parable of Touchdown Jesus; explains how Arnold Schwarzenegger came to be in Columbus; and discusses how her home state came to vote for Trump. Oh, and also – why is somewhere very clearly in the eastern half of the United States known as the MidWest?After that, Patrick Maguire, the not-quite-Scouse wunderkind of the New Statesman politics desk joins us for this week’s audience participation bit, in which we ask: what’s everyone’s favourite weird tourist attraction? Alas, it’s Patrick’s last week at the New... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 46. Election special | 07 Jun 2017 | 00:27:15 | |
Election SpecialThis week, with apologies to international listeners, there is only one story in town. Mere weeks after we stopped banging on about our metro mayors, it's time for a general election.So I've dragged two of the New Statesman's political correspondents, Stephen Bush and Patrick Maguire, back into the podcast catacomb to discuss the lie of the land. We talk, in no particular order, about the provincial metropolitan split; why cities are more liberal; whether small towns can rediscover their purpose; why the north is less stuffed than Ohio; and then, to cheer ourselves up, whether Zac Goldsmith will cheer us all up by losing. Again.And, inevitably, we make our predictions. Oh, god.PS: if you’d like to give us a nice review on iTunes, we’d really like that very much. Thanks.Skylines is the podcast from the New Statesman's cities site, CityMetric. It's hosted by Jonn Elledge. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 45. Francophonie | 01 Jun 2017 | 00:25:25 | |
Stephanie’s been to Paris, and Jonn’s been to Montreal, so this week we’re chatting French-speaking cities.Where does the Parisian Metro stand in the pantheon of underground railways? Why does the whole of Paris smell of wee? Which country is Montreal actually in? All these and more questions are answered within.(Also, a genuine question: which is the largest French speaking city in the world? It isn’t Paris.)Then we ask the audience what weird phenomenon or tradition were they most surprised by when they moved to a new city.And painfully, inevitably, we discuss the UK’s looming general election.Skylines is the podcast from the New Statesman's cities site, CityMetric. It's hosted by Jonn Elledge and Stephanie Boland. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 44. SPQR | 25 May 2017 | 00:28:57 | |
It’s just Jonn this week, which is a problem, because there’s no one to stop him from indulging his sillier ideas. For example: an entire podcast about Ancient Rome. Our guest is Kevin Feeney, a historian of the late Roman Empire based at Yale University, Connecticut. He gives us a whistlestop tour of Imperial Rome, with occasional side trips to other ancient cities. We also discuss other important matters such as the nature of Roman emergency services; whether the Emperor Claudius was all that Robert Graves made him out to be; why ancient Britain sucked; and, inevitably, why the whole enterprise fell apart.Then we round off with the audience participation bit. This week we’re asking: which cities or places from history would you like to visit and why?Oh – and if you’d like to give us a nice review on iTunes, we’d really like that very much. Thanks.Skylines is the podcast from the New Statesman's cities site, CityMetric. It's hosted by Jonn Elledge. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 43. Mistakes were made | 12 May 2017 | 00:39:44 | |
Well. We got that a bit wrong, didn’t we? Last week on this podcast, Stephen Bush, Patrick Maguire joined Jonn to make their predictions for last Thursday’s English mayoral elections. This week, we conduct the post-mortem, looking at the actual results and how they diverged from our predictions. (Spoiler alert: it’s a lot.)We talk about what the Tories’ success, the Liberal Democrats’ failure, how the supplementary vote gives us a headache, and why Manchester mayor Andy Burnham might just be the man to save us.That covers the politics. To talk about the more wonkish stuff, Jonn is joined by two very clever people from the Centre for Cities, director Andrew Carter and principal economist Paul Swinney. We discuss how the new mayors will establish themselves, what that Tory success means for the future of devolution policy – and what will happen to those cities that have been left behind.Advance warning: next week I’m off to Montreal for a conference (about trains!), so in all likelihood there won’t be a... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 42. Level Five | 04 May 2017 | 00:33:42 | |
The big day is here at last: as we write, residents of six English city regions are finally going to the polls to elect their first metro mayors. If you're a regular listener, you've probably been looking forward to this day, either because you think it's a great step forward for British democracy – or because it means we'll finally shut up about it and talk about something else.Anyway: we won't get the results until Friday, but Jonn has dragged Stephen Bush and Patrick Maguire from the New Statesman's politics team back to the podcasting catacomb to make some brief predictions. Tune in to find out what the results will be; or, if you’re listening after Friday, to find out how wrong we were.Before that, though, let's talk about something completely different. The Guardian tech correspondent Alex Hern is back to answer one of the big questions in the world day: are driverless cars really going to happen?Skylines is the podcast from the New Statesman's cities site, CityMetric. It's hosted by Jonn Elledge. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 139: 2019 Election Special | 05 Dec 2019 | 00:28:32 | |
Well, here we go again. We’re seven days out from polling day here in the UK, and I don’t know about you but I’m not feeling great about it. So as a form of therapy I dragged Patrick Maguire, who’s been travelling around the country as part of his role as the New Statesman’s politics correspondent, back to the podcast to offer some reassurance. He couldn’t offer any. Anyway - we did have a fascinating chat about regional differences in voting patterns; how parts of Wales and the North East have never been the anti-Tory heartlands which they’re sometimes portrayed as; whether housing, transport and other similarly wonk-ish concerns are coming up on the doorstep; and how Napoleon III’s stay in Southport helped it win the title of “the Paris of the North”. Skylines is the podcast from the New Statesman’s cities site, CityMetric. It’s hosted by Jonn Elledge and produced by Nick Hilton. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 41. Bouncing back | 27 Apr 2017 | 00:35:26 | |
Stephanie’s back! Well, technically she’s in her flat eating ice cream and proof-reading her PhD thesis, but she very kindly agreed to co-host this week’s episode.This week we are talking about de-industrialisation. From the north of England to the American rustbelt, there are many parts of the western world that were once economic powerhouses, but have since seen the factories and jobs that once drove them drain away. So why have some cities done so much better than others at making the transition to the service economy? And what can we do about those that remain?To dig into this issue further, we talk to two cities that have been through this transition, but now seem to be bouncing back. Grant Ervin is the chief resilience officer for the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Duncan Booker does the same job across the Atlantic in Glasgow, Scotland. They tell Jonn a little about their cities’ histories, and how they managed to turn things round.Skylines is the podcast from the New Statesman's cities site,... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 40. Snap | 20 Apr 2017 | 00:24:03 | |
In retrospect, I suppose it was inevitable that the entire UK wasn't going to spend the next two weeks on the edge of its seat about the outcome of the West Midlands mayoral election.Anyway. What does Theresa May's decision to call a snap general election on 8 June mean for the metro mayor contests scheduled for 4 May? Will focusing minds on national politics make Tory victories more likely? Is the LibDem fightback really a thing? What'll it do to turnout? To help answer these and other equally fascinating questions, Jonn is joined by two of his colleagues from the New Statesman's politics desk, Stephen Bush and Patrick Maguire. If you've ever wanted to know Stephen's views on which preferential voting system is the worst, then this is the podcast for you.Skylines is the podcast from the New Statesman's cities site, CityMetric. It's hosted by Jonn Elledge. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 39. Shakespeare's engine | 13 Apr 2017 | 00:53:25 | |
This week, CityMetric's tour of the upcoming mayoral elections takes us to the West Midlands: the annoying name for the multi-centred conurbation that takes in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Coventry and points in between.The West Midlands is the most competitive of the major metropolitan regions that will pick their new mayors on 4 May. Indeed, it's the only one of the big three where we don't in effect already know the result: right now, according to the polling expert Professor John Curtice, Labour’s Siôn Simon and the Conservatives' Andy Street are neck and neck. And so I've been to Birmingham to interview them both. Simon tells me about the region's cultural and engineering heritage; Street talks about his plans to boost the local economy. And, obviously, I make both of them nerd out about trams for a bit.Before and after those interviews, I'm joined by my colleagues Stephen Bush and Helen Lewis, a Midlands native herself, to talk about the region, the election – and to make some foolhardy predictions... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 38. Build More Bloody Houses | 06 Apr 2017 | 00:34:13 | |
It's Stephanie's last day on staff at the New Statesman, so that means it's Jonn’s last opportunity to do something he’s been threatening for a while: to explain to her exactly why Britain has a housing crisis. The reasons include a growing population, the end of council housing, and the north-south divide in the British economy. The big one, however, remains land – and the fact we place to many artificial restrictions on where we can build.To help explain that one, we’re joined by Catharine Banks, of the policy team at housing charity Shelter, who talks us through the reasons for the shocking fact that we don't know who owns nearly a fifth of the land in England & Wales.And finally, inevitably, you lot tell us your housing horror stories. Warning: involves slugs and kettles.Skylines is the podcast from the New Statesman's cities site, CityMetric. It's hosted by Jonn Elledge and Stephanie Boland. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 37. The Mersey Beat | 30 Mar 2017 | 00:27:10 | |
It's another metro mayor special: this time, we're off to Liverpool.Officially, of course, it's the Liverpool City Region. Unofficially, it'll probably end up being called Merseyside. It was nearly called the Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, St Helens, Sefton & Wirral Combined Authority; there but by the grace of god. Anyway. Whatever it is, on 4 May, it's getting a metro mayor. Specifically, it's almost certain going to be Labour's Steve Rotheram.To talk about this not-particularly-close election, Jonn has dragged in two colleagues from the New Statesman's politics desk: Patrick Maguire, who himself hails from the Sefton; and Stephen Bush, who's just returned from a trip to the Wirral.They talk about how Rotheram is campaigning more like it's a marginal than a sure thing; how the other parties are responding; and how, in British local government, one-party states inevitably throw up other forms of opposition. They discuss the May government's attitude towards these new metro mayor posts created by its... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 36. Keep calm and carry on | 23 Mar 2017 | 00:17:42 | |
Here we go again. Not for the first time in its history, London has been the victim of a terrorist attack. This time there was no bomb - but there was car, driving into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, followed by a knife attack at the gates of Parliament.That story is still developing - and frankly we don't feel qualified to talk about matters of terrorism, crime and security, anyway.So instead we talk about London's history as a target for political violence; the city's stoicism, real and imagined, and the way, in times of trouble, people the world over do just tend to get up and go to work; and whether Manchester really was revived by an IRA bomb. Skylines is the podcast from the New Statesman's citiessite, CityMetric. It's hosted by Jonn Elledge and Stephanie Boland. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 35. The Manc of the hour | 16 Mar 2017 | 00:28:19 | |
Yesterday, in Newton Heath, Labour's Andy Burnham launched his manifesto to be the first elected mayor of Greater Manchester. Obviously, nothing can be taken for granted in politics these days – but nonetheless, Manchester is a Labour city, and the bookies currently have him at 1/6. Andy Burnham seems highly likely to become the most important elected politician in the entire north of England.So – what does he actually want to do with the place? He was kind enough to speak with Jonn for a few minutes after the manifesto launch yesterday to tell him. And, by some miracle, the tape of that conversation is pretty much of broadcastable standard, so, you can hear it on this week’s episode.On this podcast, we've not always been as kind about Burnham as we could have been, of course. So to balance things out a bit, and make sure we’re not being too unfair, we invited our colleague Patrick Maguire – another Sefton-lad, and a self-described Burnhamite – to join us this week and to make the case for... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 34. Limps, marriages and deaths | 09 Mar 2017 | 00:21:17 | |
We don't want to lie to you, this is one of our sillier episodes. Things we discuss, in no particular order:-What embarrassing thing happened that means Jonn’s been limping for the past two days, and whether this is a sign the street furniture is turning against him;-How bad driving in the inner city brings out his road rage;-Whether it's okay to propose on public transport;-Whether it's okay to dump someone on public transport;-Whether it's okay to start a singalong on public transport;-Whether it is ever, in fact, okay to start a conversation on public transport;-Funerals.Oh, and Stephanie makes Jonn sing the Only Fools and Horses theme tune. Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.Don't worry, next week I'm going to make her talk about the housing crisis. Skylines is the podcast from the New Statesman's cities site, CityMetric. It's hosted by Jonn Elledge and Stephanie Boland. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 33. Parallel histories | 03 Mar 2017 | 00:15:10 | |
“Is there a podcast this week?” Someone tweeted us yesterday. “Is itabout trains? I’d like it to be about trains.” Oh boy have we got good news foryou. The first half is very much about trains – or at least, the tracks theyrun on, as Jonn tells Stephanie what I learned when I accidentally wrote ahistory of the London Underground. (Honestly, he just meant to do the linenames but it kind of got out of control.) Quick precis: there’s a huge gap inthe 20th century, and the British state is obsessed with bloodyroyalty.Then Stephanie talks about her favourite crazy article of the week: apiece in the Daily Mail which imagines what London would look like had the Gunpowder plot succeeded in 1605, thus undoing the Reformation and turning these islands back intoa Catholic country. Never mind that the last 400 years of British, European and Worldhistory would have been different, the article says –... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 32. In the Loop | 23 Feb 2017 | 00:22:55 | |
“Let’s do an extra podcast when I’m in the States,” she said. “It’ll be easy,” she said.Reader, it was not easy. At risk of demystifying ourselves it took us a surprisingly long time to get to a stage when we could actually hear each other, let alone be sure that our antiquated recording device could hear either one of us. Anyway, we got there in the end, even if the audio quality isn’t quite all we’d hope it would be. So: this week, Stephanie is in the great state of Illinois, splitting her time between an archive in Carbondale down state, and hanging out in Chicago. She tells Jonn about her adventures on Amtrak and how she’s fallen in love with Union Station, and we talk about the best skyscrapers to climb if you fancy a good view of the city. Less trivially, she also discusses signs of resistance to the Trump administration, including the ongoing protests, and the group of lawyers offering free legal advice to those trying to pass immigration at O’Hare Airport. The title of this episode... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 138. The real Middle Earth | 20 Nov 2019 | 00:21:09 | |
This podcast has been a bit parochial of late (read: London-bound) so this week we're going abroad. Max Rashbrooke is a journalist, author and policy wonk based in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, with whom, a very long time ago, I used to work. We chat about the cities of his homeland, how one might travel between them, and how they came to have the sort of housing crisis that can almost make London look good. We also talk about New Zealand's politics and history more broadly - as well as its relationship with its bigger, better known neighbour Australia. Skylines is the podcast from the New Statesman’s cities site, CityMetric. It’s hosted by Jonn Elledge and produced by Nick Hilton. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 31. The Iron Road to Europe | 16 Feb 2017 | 00:34:26 | |
This week on the podcast we are talking about trains. You might think that we talked about trains a mere two episodes back. To which we respond – trains! Trains are great! Woohoo, trains!Okay, so one big reason why we’re back on public transport again is because it’s what this week’s guest really wanted to talk about. As well as being the political editor of Buzzfeed UK, Jim Waterson is a massive railway nerd, and is the only person ever to – we don’t use this word lightly – beg to appear on this podcast. He tells us the delightfully screwy story of regional Eurostars: how the British government spent hundreds of millions of pounds commissioning trains and building infrastructure so that you could get sleeper trains from Manchester, Wolverhampton or Swansea to the continent – yet never managed to run a single train. Before we hear from Jim, though, Jonn bores Stephanie to tears by enthusiastically recounting everything I’ve learnt about the history of the British railways from a book he’s just... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 30. Now we are one | 02 Feb 2017 | 00:44:48 | |
This week marks our birthday: Skylines is a whole year old. To mark this momentous occasion, I decided to invite two people who've been key to the success of Skylines back, to talk about whatever weird stuff they wanted to. First up, one time co-host Barbara Speed is back, to tell us about her long-time obsession with Greggs. Yes, the “popular high street bakery chain”. No, really, that's what we're talk about. I mean, we talk a bit about what the success of the chain tells us about the British High Street, but for the most part, we're just talking about Greggs, and why Barbara is obsessed with it. Then, a man without whom we wouldn't be here at all – our erstwhile producer, Roifield Brown, who was responsible for giving me the push I needed to start a podcast in the first place – pops by to tell us about his own obsession. In his case, it's the failings and future of his home town, England's second city, Birmingham. (I wrote a lot about Birmingham, and the wider West Midlands, in this series last... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 29. The Permanent Way | 19 Jan 2017 | 00:38:31 | |
This week, we're not mucking about: we're going full-transport nerd. First up Jonn tells Stephanie about his abortive adventures inter-railing in the long hot summer of 1999 - an almost entirely appalling experience about which he briefly considered writing a very short memoir under the title "Belgian Boy Scouts and Psychosomatic Diarrhoea". The inspiration for this was the news that a German MEP has proposed free interrailing passes for every EU citizen on their 18th birthday. So we share our experiences of scary nuns and Soviet buses on Europe's transport network, and discuss whether better transport links really could create a European identity. Next up, the Guardian technology writer and New Statesman escapee Alex Hern pops by to talk us through the hyperloop: why it is a real thing, why it will nonetheless almost never happen, and why it typifies everything wrong with the entire Silicon Valley culture. To wrap up, the regulars talk about trolleybuses, suspended monorails, outdoor escalators and... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 28. New year, new mayors | 06 Jan 2017 | 00:25:37 | |
This week, it's cold, it's January, and everything's a bit depressing. So to cheer ourselves up, why don't we have a nice chat about municipal government structures?First up, Jonn talks Stephanie through what is arguably England's biggest local government shake up in 40 years: plans for "metro mayors" in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and selected other cities. We talk about why it is that, just four months before the elections, it's surprisingly unclear how many of these new mayors there are actually going to be; why some of the other big cities aren't getting mayors at all; and we're probably a bit gratuitously mean about yorkshire.After that, to lighten the mood, Stephanie shares some stories of weird local government initiatives from around the world, including "the guy who tried to ban death" and "the foot powder that got itself elected mayor". And finally we talk about Transport for London's tube bylaws for basically no reason at all.Skylines is the podcast from CityMetric, the New... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 27. Christmas special service | 21 Dec 2016 | 00:20:35 | |
There's long been a tradition on British television of Christmas specials. Old characters come back, stories get bigger and more melodramatic, and the whole thing feels just a tiny bit self-indulgent.This is our Christmas special, so, well, you know what to expect. Things we talk about this week, in no particular order: The CityMetric Christmas playlist – that is, which Christmas songs are actually about cities/maps/geography/something;How Jonn started the year by wandering around London with a map and a film crew, pretending to be lost, because of this story about station names;How he ended it riding up front in a train (sorry, Jim);The CityMetric Christmas quiz, which Stephanie wrote specially to flummox him (you can see the questions on our website);How we'd like to hear more from those of you who listen to this thing who aren't in London, New York or another of the cities we bang on about all the time. If you're the person who's listening to this in Tirana or Tehran, please do write in.Lastly... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 26. Parklife | 08 Dec 2016 | 00:39:18 | |
This week's podcast presented us with an unusual challenge: which album by 90s Britpop four-piece Blur should we name it after? Leisure would work. So would The Great Escape. (13 would be silly because this is episode 26, and the less said about The Magic Whip the better.)Anyway, we went with Parklife because, well, we're talking about parks, and all sorts of other ways of having fun in cities. We've been a bit gloomy of late, you see (and little wonder; have you seen the world recently?). So this week, we're talking about fun things.Fun thing number one: Christmas. Stephanie and Jonn discuss going home for the holidays, the sad fate of this year’s Gävle Goat, Manchester's long and noble tradition of terrifying giant Santas, and why it is I insist on going to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park every year even though it's obviously going to be hell.Fun thing number two: Parks. Peter Watts swings by, to talk about Britain's parks – their origins, social function, and the fact so many of them are now in... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 25. The End of the World | 24 Nov 2016 | 00:48:01 | |
This week, in keeping with the global mood, we’re talking about threats to civilisation, and the things we can do to combat them.First up, Stephanie and Jonn discuss Trump – yes, again – and fail to discuss the disappearance of the ice in the Arctic because one of us finds the whole thing far too depressing. Then, in an attempt to cheer ourselves up, we discuss the British government's ban on lettings agency fees, and various things we have done to troll estate agents.After that, it's onto more serious matters, as we hear from two people at the forefront of the efforts to protect us from our dangerous age. Dante Disparte, the founder of consultancy Risk Cooperative, tells us about the threats facing our cities; then Michael Berkowitz, president of the NGO 100 Resilient Cities, tells us what we can do to protect them. (If the name of the latter organisation looks a little bit familiar, that's because they've been kind enough to sponsor our fine podcast.)Then, to round off, we share our favourite... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 24. Trumpocalypse Now | 14 Nov 2016 | 00:26:47 | |
This is, like that Saved By the Bell where Jessie got addicted to drugs, another very special episode. Partly it's because it's, disappointingly, Stephanie-free. (For various boring travel-related reasons, I'm afraid it's been pretty much impossible to get us into the same room at the same time.) But mostly it's because of a sneaking suspicion that, in light of recent events, nobody much cares about things like metro maps and infrastructure right now. So instead, I'm joined by a pair of colleagues from the New Statesman politics desk, Stephan Bush and Julia Rampen, to discuss the big news of the week: President-elect Donald Trump. How is the rust belt like the north of England? Is it economics, culture, or simply racism that cause rural areas to vote differently from urban ones? And most importantly - are we all going to die? We'll be back soon, with our normal co-host, our normal producer and our normal sponsor. Skylines is the podcast from CityMetric, the New Statesman's cities site. It's... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 23. Roads, ruins and racism: American Election Special | 07 Nov 2016 | 00:13:44 | |
This week, Jonn is in America, chasing cool cities along the interstate and catching up with – gulp! – Trump voters.Skylines is the podcast from CityMetric, the New Statesman's cities site. It's presented by Jonn Elledge and Stephanie Boland and produced by Roifield Brown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 22. Northern soul | 20 Oct 2016 | 00:45:07 | |
This week's podcast is sort of the conclusion of a two-parter. On the last show, we talked about the history and economy of England's post-industrial northern cities. This week, we're north of the Watford Gap once again, but this time we're talking culture.(A note for overseas listeners: don't worry, we've not given up on the outside world, and we'll be back to a more international service soon enough. Also, a bunch of the stuff we talk about on this one does reflect on cities more broadly so you should listen to it anyway. So there.)First up, in what is clearly an attempt to troll me, Stephanie makes me talk about a subject that's absolutely central to life in Liverpool, Manchester, and many other northern cities, but remains absolutely baffling to me: football.To do that, we're joined by Neil Atkinson, the host of the ludicrously successful Anfield Wrap podcast, which chronicles Liverpool FC and Liverpool life through as many as 15 shows a week. He talks about the role football plays in the life of... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 137. Into the Woods | 06 Nov 2019 | 00:42:50 | |
Skylines is out and about again this week. Epping Forest is a 13 mile long strip of wooded land straddling the border between London and Essex. I often visited during my childhood, have walked bits of it since, but I've never done the whole thing. So last week, I did, with a man who's just written the book on the subject. Luke Turner, with whom I worked briefly a depressingly long time ago, is the co-founder of the culture website The Quietus. He's also the author of Out Of The Woods, which he modestly describes as “a critically-acclaimed memoir of sexuality and nature”. He kindly agreed to spend an autumn day walking with me from Manor Park to Epping, all the while telling me about his book, the history of the forest and its place in the psyche of the city, and how it came to be owned by the City of London Corporation. We also talk, variously, about hermits, hallucinations, cows and our former boss Jeremy Hunt. Some excellent production work courtesy of our producer Nick on this one incidentally – while the podcast was recorded on location, the woodland sound effects are sadly a later addition. Skylines is the podcast from the New Statesman’s cities site, CityMetric. It’s hosted by Jonn Elledge and produced by Nick Hilton Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 21. North and south | 07 Oct 2016 | 00:44:11 | |
You know there are people – bad, mean people – who've been known to accuse CityMetric of being a bit London-centric. As the world's leading purveyor of news about minor changes to the tube map, we can't understand this at all. Anyway. In an attempt to balance things out a bit, we're dedicating the whole of this week's episode to the world on the other side of the north/south divide. I talk about my recent trip to Liverpool, and what I made of that great city (which is, I'm sure, dying to know what another bloody Londoner thinks of it). Then Stephanie, an actual northerner, tells me about the relationship between Liverpool and her home town of Manchester. While we're at it, we also discuss why it is that, in Lancashire, local identity comes from cities while, across the Pennines, the Yorkshire identity still dominates Leeds and Sheffield.Next two staffers from the Centre for Cities – Newcastle's Ben Harrison and Sunderland's Paul Swinney – talk about their relationship between their two cities and why... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 20. Before the flood | 23 Sep 2016 | 00:39:04 | |
This is, as they used to say of the installments of Saved By the Bell in which someone got addicted to drugs, a very special episode.In fact, it's special for two reasons. Firstly it's episode 20 (round numbers are cool). Secondly, it's the first to be supported by our new sponsor, 100 Resilient Cities: an NGO dedicated to helping cities prepare for the challenges of the 21st century.To celebrate, this week, we're talking about an issue very close to 100RC's heart: how coastal cities can deal with rising sea levels.To discuss this, Stephanie and I are joined by our colleague India Bourke, the office climate expert. She talks us through the latest science, and we debate why, when the Arctic ice sheet is in dramatic decline, we aren't more frightened.Then I talk to some of the chief resilience officers in port cities at the front line of the fight to keep cities above water: Arnoud Molenaar of Rotterdam in the Netherlands; and Christine Morris and her deputy Katerina Oskarsson, of Norfolk... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 19. How it all began | 09 Sep 2016 | 00:46:00 | |
This week's podcast is a game of two halves. (Stephanie didn't manage to get a football reference onto the tape so I'm putting one here instead.)First of all, we talk about why it is people move to cities – or to be more specific, why people continue to move to London, when the experience of finding somewhere to live here is so completely bloody horrible. Stephanie relates her recent experiences with house-hunting and letting agents, while I look on with the serene sympathy of one who's insulated from this particular hellscape.That covers why people move to cities today – then we look at why people moved to cities in the past. To be more specific: several thousand years in the past.Rob Monaco is the US historian behind the frankly brilliant Podcast History of Our World. He runs me through the latest research on where the first cities could be found; discusses what motivated people to found them in the first place; and, most importantly, explains what sewers and street furniture would have looked like... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 18. Sex* and the city (*gender) | 26 Aug 2016 | 00:51:15 | |
On this week's podcast, we're talking gender. Which of course is not actually the same as sex – the former is social, the latter biological – but until such time as HBO makes a hit sitcom called “Gender and the City”, this is our title and we're sticking to it. Anyway. This week's guests:Caroline Criado-Perez is the writer, journalist and feminist campaigner, who wrote a fantastic feature for us on why cities need to take women into account when planning. She gives us a whistlestop tour of her findings, from playgrounds in Vienna to toilets in Mumbai.Lauren Elkin is the author of "Flaneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London", recently serialised on BBC Radio 4. She tells Stephanie about the origins of the book, and why walking can be a radical act. Sarah Coughlan and Marissa Santikarn are two-thirds of the Berlinials podcast. They tell us about the joys and hassles of ex-pat Berlin. Lastly, Stephanie and I discuss how her experiences of London differ from mine (most... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 17. Kings in the north | 16 Aug 2016 | 00:22:43 | |
Last week, Britain's Labour party announced the results of the internal party elections to determine its candidates for three of the new "metro mayor" posts being created next May. Former health secretary Andy Burnham will contest Greater Manchester; Liverpool Walton MP is the candidate for the greater Liverpool region; and Siôn Simon is to run in the West Midlands (Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Coventry and the Black Country).The Labour party nationally is – and let's be nice about this – completely knackered. But it remains strong in Britain's cities, and won back the mayoralties in both London and Bristol earlier this year. It's highly probable that Burnham, Rotherham and Simon will all be elected as metro mayors next May.So this seems like a great moment to discuss who these new titans of the British political scene are. Stephanie and I are joined by our colleague Julia Rampen, who edits the New Statesman's politics blog, the Staggers, to talk about what new mayors can do for the Midlands and the North;... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 16. Let the games begin | 11 Aug 2016 | 00:53:01 | |
So here’s a funny thing. We managed to do an entire podcast about the Olympics in cities, without saying the words “Rio de Janeiro” once. That’s weird, isn’t it? Anyway. In a shameless bid for news relevance and SEO, this week, we’re talking about whether hosting a massively over-priced sporting jamboree is really the best way of regenerating a city.Stephanie and I talk about why Barcelona ‘92 worked, but Athens ‘04 didn’t; discuss the various alternative models for hosting the Olympics that periodically come up for discussion; explore the long-forgotten time when town planning was an Olympic event (yes, really); and have a long and involved argument about whether dressage (“horse-dancing”) would be improved if the horses were drunk.Then, festival producer Sara Doctors, who’s been working on cultural events in east London for many years, gives us a guided tour of London’s Olympic Park, past, present and future, and explains the role the 2012 games played in speeding up the regeneration of... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 15. Band on the run | 29 Jul 2016 | 00:41:13 | |
So, there are two different reasons why this episode is particularly exciting. One is that it's the first with new co-host Stephanie Boland. The other is that we're joined by an actual, literal rock star. Honestly: I write about maps for a living, and now this. My 17 year old self would be so impressed.Anyway. Neil Codling plays with Penguin Cafe, but his best known work has been as keyboard player and backing vocalist in Suede. (For boring legal reasons, the music used in the show is from neither band, I'm afraid.)Neil tells us about life on tour, and how you engage with a new city when you're seeing six of them every week. He also discusses the hollowing out of London’s music industry, and even reads from his tour diaries.Elsewhere in the show, journalist Steffan Storch tells us about Swansea, the second city of Wales - a fact for which it will never forgive its larger rival Cardiff. (You should check out Steffan's own podcast, Well Thanks, too.)Finally, Stephanie and I talk about the origins... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 14. Barbarexit | 14 Jul 2016 | 00:26:55 | |
A disaster has befallen the good ship CityMetric: our staff writer Barbara Speed, who has been with us since before we even launched in July 2014, is leaving us. She’s moving on to take up an exciting new job as comment editor of the the i newspaper.This, then, is my last chance to make her talk about the various silly stories I've made her look into over the last two years: think of it as a sort of Barbara Speed greatest hits compilation. In it, we shall attempt to answer the following questions:Are there really alligators in the New York sewers?Is London really awash with bottles of discarded Uber piss? (Yes, really.)What's the world's smallest skyscraper?And, most importantly of all: what's Barbara's favourite map?Oh, and in case you were wondering: no, this isn't the last episode (you don't get off that easily). Nor am I going to have one of those inevitably disappointing solo careers. From the next episode, Skylines will be co-hosted by the entirely excellent Stephanie Boland.Skylines is the... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 13. Help! Somebody save us! | 30 Jun 2016 | 00:34:14 | |
On this week's podcast, we're joined by arguably the biggest political theorist writing about cities today.In 2013, Benjamin Barber published If Mayors Ruled the World, a book in which he argued that nation states are increasingly powerless to deal with the challenges of the 21st century (climate change, migration, terrorism, and so forth). Instead, Barber suggests we should be looking to cities as the building blocks of the global government of the future.I was lucky enough to grab a few minutes with Barber after an event organised by the Centre for Cities last week. He told me more about his theories, and how he's putting them into practice by creating the Global Parliament of Mayors, which will hold its first meeting this September.But, with apologies to the 60 per cent of our readers who aren't based in these islands, but there's really only one topic any of us can focus on right now: the gradual collapse of our government, opposition, economy, global status, and very possibly the United Kingdom... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 12. Crossing continents | 17 Jun 2016 | 00:31:59 | |
If you live in Britain – and if you don't, I sort of envy you right now - you'll know that it's a pretty torrid time in politics right now. Next Thursday, there's a referendum to determine whether the UK should remain a member of the European Union.So, since migration to cities is this week's theme – and since it's, frankly, about all we can think about right now – Barbara and I begin this week's episode by talking about that referendum, and why cities so often have a more international outlook than their hinterlands.This week, you can also hear: Emmanuel Akinwotu on how Lagos has coped with ballooning from a city of 1m, to one of 20m, in under half a century;Olivia Cuthbert on her experiences visiting Za'atari, the refugee camp that's rapidly solidifying into Jordan's fourth largest city (this week's header pic was taken inside that camp);Lyman Stone, an agricultural economist for the US government, on life in the city Americans love to hate, Washington DC;And finally, our map of the week –... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 136: Health and efficiency | 24 Oct 2019 | 00:22:07 | |
This week, I finally invited someone I should have asked years ago onto the podcast. Anoosh Chakelian is a long time colleague of mine at the New Statesman – she joined the staff literally two days before I did – whose work focuses largely on public services and the state of the public realm. She also earlier this year replaced Helen Lewis as co-host of the main NS podcast, on which she is doing an excellent job. Anoosh joins me to talk about a subject very dear to her heart: outdoor gyms, which offer free community classes, and many of which are now under threat. While she's around we also chat about austerity, London's best parks, and why west London is not frankly very good. Skylines is the podcast from the New Statesman’s cities site, CityMetric. It’s hosted by Jonn Elledge and produced by Nick Hilton. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 11. Fear and loathing in Miami | 09 Jun 2016 | 00:10:00 | |
A special BONUS episode, in that we've not had time to do a proper one yet. Sorry.Aaaanyway. Jonn's been out of the office for a couple of weeks, reading books by a pool, and gradually taking on a mixed red, white and brown colour scheme more usually associated with Neapolitan ice cream. Consequently, we haven't had time to prepare a full episode, with all the guests and bells and whistles that we'd normally include. We'll be back next week. To tide you over, we thought we'd do a mini-episode about the place where Jonn spent his holidays. Miami is a beautiful art-deco sub-tropical paradise that is, almost certainly, doomed. By the end of this century, a combination of rising sea levels and unhelpful geography will combine to make much of South Florida uninhabitable. There's something quite debilitatingly horrifying to realise that you are holidaying in a place that, in your own lifetime, is probably going to die. So, a form of therapy, Jonn talks to Barbara about exactly why Miami is under threat –... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 10. Genius loci | 26 May 2016 | 00:39:16 | |
You know, there are some people – mean, cruel, wrong people – who might think our podcast gets a little bit, well, nerdy sometimes. Those people should stop whining and take more of an interest in public transport. Anyway. This week, to mix things up a bit, we're taking a different approach to things: we're looking at how cities and places are portrayed in literature film and TV. First up, Barbara talks about her discovery of the surprisingly not-made-up phenomenon of Paris syndrome, and we discuss how our perceptions of places are so often shaped by culture. Then we're joined by Stephanie Boland, a colleague from our New Statesman mothership, who in her other life is in the middle of a PhD in 20th century literature; together we discuss cities in the works of Shakespeare, Dickens and Joyce and anyone else who comes to mind. Next, Helen Lewis and Stephen Bush – hosts of our sister show, the New Statesman Podcast – pop in to talk about how angry people (read: I) get about on-screen geographical cock... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 9. Cats in a bag | 13 May 2016 | 00:36:54 | |
This week, I am sorry to tell you, we aren't actually talking about cats. (Boo.) What we are talking about is the fraught matters of borders and boundaries, identity and institutions – whether the city is one entity or many, and who it is who gets to decide.Barbara and I begin by discussing one of our (my) favourite questions: where does London end? Or Southampton? Or New York, Shanghai or Paris, come to that? These questions aren't just of interest to map nerds: they have a real impact on how cities relate to their suburbs, and the authorities within them relate to each other. So Tim Fendley from Applied Wayfinding, who you might remember from episode 3, pops in to tell us about his adventures trying to get the various transport bodies to work together in Toronto.Next, our occasional Americas correspondent Drew Reed tells us about his city. Los Angeles was made by the car – but its long demolished streetcar network might yet save it from snarl ups. And finally, given our topic, what else could we... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||