Urban Radar

Episode

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  31. INSIDE URBAN STUDIES: Voices from RC21, +chokepoint cities, +Binface, +bar brawls, +polo clubs and more 29.07.2026 1j 8mnt

  In July's radar, we report back from one of the major urban studies conferences - RC21 - which is held every two years in different cities across the world. Bringing together 1200 scholars at the University of Vienna, the 2026 conference provided spaces for provocation and discussion about the methods, approaches and theories we need to identify and address urban inequalities in these contemporary times. The central part of the episode is a discussion with the editors of the Internation...
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  30. URBAN CHARITY RETHOUGHT: A conversation with Nicola Banks 17.07.2026 52mnt

  In this month's feature Tom and Beth are joined by Professor Nicola Banks from the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester to discuss One World Together, an innovative model of charitable giving that makes sure the bulk of the funding ends up where it is needed most. Often less than 10% of what we give to charity gets to where it's needed, and communities are not always the ones deciding what it gets spent on - even though they are the best placed to identify and address ...
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  29. BREXIT, AUSTERITY AND YOUTH FUTURES: Ten years later, +unbounding zoos, +war with Russia, +street 'goons' in Kenya, +banned flags in Oxfordshire and more 30.06.2026 1j 3mnt

  In this episode Tom and Beth are joined by Professor Sarah Marie Hall from the University of Manchester to reflect on ten years since Brexit and specifically how austerity has altered the lifecourses of young people in Barcelona, Sardinia and Greater Manchester. Together, they discuss how Brexit layered on top of existing crises, how community podcasts helped chart economic change during this extended period of waiting, and why valuing everyday lived experience as evidence is a radical ...
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  28. RIVER/CITY: A conversation with Olivia Casagrande and Roberto Monte-Mór 08.06.2026 58mnt

  High up in the Andes mountain range, two rivers begin their journeys. Starting in the El Plomo hill, one becomes the Mapocho river travelling though Chile into Santiago, dividing the city in two. The other makes its way from the Peruvian Andes and develops into a complex network of waters and rivers to become the Amazon basin, one of the longest rivers in the world. Rivers such as these shape and are shaped by the cities they meet. In this month’s feature Tom and Beth are joined by Dr O...
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  27. MAKING A PRIME MINISTER IN MAKERFIELD? Predicting election results, +Ebola in African cities, +domestic worker activism, +global sand crisis, +housing and the World Urban Forum and more 22.05.2026 57mnt

  In this episode Beth and Tom are joined by Dr Lotte Hargrave from the University of Manchester to discuss whether psephology - the study of elections and voting behaviour - can predict the next Prime Minister of the UK. All eyes are turned on the town of Makerfield in Greater Manchester, where Andy Burnham is making a play to win the constituency and head south - back to Westminster, and (probably) a leadership contest to replace Keir Starmer as UK PM. With Lotte we discuss whethe...
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  26. COMPARATIVE LEARNING THROUGH COMMUNITY EXCHANGE: A conversation with Jack Makau and Temilade Sesan 08.05.2026 1j 3mnt

  In this episode - recorded on location in Kampala, Uganda during an African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC) workshop in late April - we delve into questions of how urban communities in informal settlements can build power through their own forms of knowledge and data collection, and how two-way exchanges between cities can strengthen this process. For the main discussion, Tom was there in person with two of the research programme’s ‘City Manager’s - Jack Makau (City Manager for Nairob...
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  25. ASYMMETRIC URBANISM: Pushback in Portland, +Palantir in Sheffield, +dunking in Trento, +adopting cities, +Pope vs Trump and more 23.04.2026 1j 7mnt

  In this episode, Beth and Tom are joined by Ryan Bellinson, researcher/civil servant living in Portland, Oregon, US, to discuss how residents and community groups can mobilise their power to resist democratic backsliding. From Minneapolis to Portland federal immigration enforcement agents have been deploying hostile tactics to identify and seek to deport migrants, even those of legal status. Meanwhile federal programmes of support from housing to environmental protection are being slashed in ...
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  24. CHAOS AND DESIRE IN THE CITY: A conversation with Tanya Zack and Tanzil Shafique 13.04.2026 55mnt

  Come with us to Johannesburg and Dhaka in this month's feature. Visit the markets and stalls of Jeppe, in inner city Johannesburg, a dynamic ecosystem of informal traders, sometimes called Africa’s shopping Mecca. Head with us to Korail, an informal settlement of 300,000 dwellers, sometimes called Bangladesh’s largest slum. In this double book talk, we are joined by two critically-acclaimed authors. With Tanya Zack we discuss her book The Chaos Precinct: Johannesburg as a Port City, a narrati...
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  23. PROPERTY AND URBICIDE: Housing in Lebanon, +Nairobi floods, +Banksy, +scam centres, +Habermas and more 23.03.2026 1j 5mnt

  This month, Tom and Beth are joined by Hannah Sender, University of Sheffield, and Mariam Bazzi, Beirut Urban Lab to discuss how propertied families in small towns in Lebanon have responded to violence and displacement over the past years (Go to 35:04 for guests). When left with no savings, and little help to repair and reconstruct after military interventions, property becomes a moral relationship, as much as a personal asset: what ought housing to be used for, when urbicide becomes a ...
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  22. CRISIS, PUBLIC HEALTH & THE CITY: A conversation with Cristina Temenos 09.03.2026 50mnt

  In this episode Beth and Tom are joined by Cristina Temenos from the University of Manchester to discuss a wide range of issues from trust in medicine, responses to COVID-19 and experimentation and evidence in localised healthcare settings. Together, they ask: Faced with crisis after crisis, how do municipalities deliver public health care in Athens, Santiago and Greater Manchester?What forms of experimentation, innovation and alternative provision emerge during crisis, and what does this mea...
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  21. URBAN ROBOTICS BY STEALTH: Driverless vehicles, + Epstein, + Royals, + drug cartels, + immigration and more 02.03.2026 1j 8mnt

  In this episode Tom and Beth are joined by Professor Aidan While from the University of Sheffield to explore how robotic urban infrastructures are already reshaping everyday lives, homes and mobilities. From self-driving taxis to autonomous delivery drones the size of a lorry, we take a closer look at how experimentation in US cities, across Africa and now in the UK foreshadows the stealthy rise of robots across multiple domains. Go straight to 37:33 for this discussion. First in our ra...
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  20. SEEING THE CITY: A discussion with Junia Mortimer and Felipe Magalhaes 13.02.2026 54mnt

  In this episode Tom and Beth are joined by visiting researchers to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester, Junia Mortimer and Felipe Magalhães. They discuss: How can we see and understand the city in this geopolitical age of conflict and global uncertainty?How can photographs and visual archives make visible the complexities of cities, particularly those in the Global South?When seeing directly is not possible, what other approaches can help us analyse the intense volatility of ci...
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  19. THE NEW URBAN GEOPOLITICS: Inside Caracas + urban Greenland, + embassies and disinformation in London, + neighbourhood governance and more 26.01.2026 53mnt

  In this first episode of Series 2 of Urban Radar, Beth and Tom start to tackle some of the many ways in which the current moment of geopolitical turmoil is filtering down into in cities and towns across the world. We make the most of our new Sheffield-Manchester partnership by bringing on Dr. Erika Garcia Fermin (29:45 minutes onwards) from the University of Manchester's Global Development Institute, for an in-depth conversation on the Venezuala crisis and its urban dimensions. With Eri...
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  Series 2 Urban Radar: Trailer 05.01.2026 4mnt

  Urban Radar is a podcast series which reflects on current events and emerging trends through the lens of cities and urban life. Launched in 2025, Urban Radar hit the UK social science podcast charts, and was amongst the top 5% of new podcast entrants (according to one major streaming platform!). It reached listeners in every continent, over 80 countries and 670 cities. Series 1 included 18 episodes, with 40 guests, including leading urban studies theorists and thinkers, early car...
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  18: WRAP UP, REFLECTION & REVEAL (+ Care and the city, +Aussie social media ban, +urban themes of the year and much more...) 16.12.2025 50mnt

  This month, we (Beth and Tom) are podding alone, using the final episode of the year to reflect on some of the big themes we’ve discussed in 2025 as well as on the process of making Urban Radar. We start with our monthly radar for December, dipping into three current stories each as usual. Following this we offer some quick-fire thoughts on a number of issues and themes that have resurfaced repeatedly throughout the year and remain prominent as it draws to a close. Finally, we con...
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  17: CHILD LABOUR AND DISINFORMATION (+immigration policy, +COP30 in Belem, +ticket touts, +urban statistics and more…) 28.11.2025 1j 15mnt

  In this episode we are joined by Professor Julia Moses to consider the working lives and rights of children, and then Dr Dani Madrid-Morales to discuss disinformation and how it plays out across urban and rural areas. Reflecting on World Children's Day on 20 November, we explore children's rights and how these relate to questions of labour, as well as how attitudes to child labour have varied over time and in different national contexts (28:08). Then, in light of recent accusations from Donal...
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  16: CHINA, THE GLOBAL INFRASTRUCTURE RACE AND ITS URBAN IMPACTS - A panel with Jon Silver, Zhengli Huang and Linda Westman 13.11.2025 1j 16mnt

  In this feature, Tom and Beth discuss the Global Infrastructure Race with colleagues from the Urban Institute (UI), recorded live as part of the UI’s 10 year anniversary celebrations. Drawing on insights emerging from the GlobalCORRIDOR and Pluralize projects, Jon Silver, Zhengli Huang and Linda Westman share their interpretation of the Global Infrastructure Race, its urban impacts and how we can centre and decentre the role of China. Specifically they discuss: What is the Global Infrastructu...
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  15: GREEN RESURGENCE & GAZA RECONSTRUCTION (+Brexit, +rats, +Louvre heist, +AI Friend and more) 31.10.2025 1j 20mnt

  Released to coincide with World Cities Day on 31 October, this episode sees Beth and Tom first joined by Prof. Matthew Flinders (26:09) to discuss what the rise in fortunes of the Green Party, UK, under Zack Polanski, means for progressive politics in the UK, and for a city like Sheffield. Then, with Said Zaaneen (51:46), they dive into what the history of refugee camps in the Gaza strip tells us about the role of international humanitarian aid, and consider implications for future reconstruc...
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  14: HUMANITY'S URBAN FUTURE - A conversation with AbdouMaliq Simone and Ash Amin 20.10.2025 1j 3mnt

  In this month’s feature Tom and Beth are joined by two leading scholars of the urban condition - Ash Amin and AbdouMaliq Simone - to reflect on questions of inclusion and belonging in the search for the 'good city'. Building on their collaborative work for the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research's Humanity's Urban Future programme, our guests consider: Are ideas of the good city still relevant in face of worsening inequality, segregation and individualism?Can a progressive politics...
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  13: CONFLICT & URBAN TERRITORY - FROM UK HOMELESSNESS TO UPRISING IN NEPAL (+West Bank settlements, +witchcraft, +cars and more) 29.09.2025 1j 19mnt

  This month we are joined by Dr Sam Burgum & Professor Simon Rushton to dive into what the new UK Minister for Homelessness should have on their agenda (27:50) and how we can understand the wider socio-economic issues shaping the recent Gen Z uprising in Nepal (50:08). Cutting across our discussions are questions of conflict over and in urban territory, federalism and decentralisation and how best to meet basic needs - such as shelter, health or security at the local (and national) l...