“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.
We’re trying to record a special transatlantic @citymetric podcast for you. Here’s how that’s going pic.twitter.com/XL2RfI1LWR
— Stephanie Boland (@stephanieboland) February 23, 2017
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 me 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, incidentally, refers to the name of Chicago’s downtown. That, in turn, is named after the loop in the elevated railway network, where trains from the suburbs circle round the central business district before heading back out of the city once again. Here’s a map:
Image: Nico Brussels/Wikimedia Commons.
And, since I mention it on the show, here from January is my roundup of the first week of the Trump administration: “Here are 23 terrifying things that President Trump has done in the last seven days”.
The episode itself is below. You can subscribe to the podcast on Acast, iTunes, or RSS. Enjoy.
