This week’s podcast presented me with an unusual challenge: which album by 90s Britpop four-piece Blur should I 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, I 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 I 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 serious financial difficulty.
Fun thing number three: Walks. Regular CityMetric contributor Ed Jefferson and I discuss our common, faintly eccentric interest in spending our free time walking for dozens of miles through depressing industrial landscapes for no particular reason. What on earth do we think we are doing?
(Ed recently filled in for me while I was on leave, and wrote some excellent stuff which you can find here.)
Last but not least, we asked the internet: what are your favourite urban Christmas traditions? The answers may surprise you.
No, really.
The episode itself is below. You can subscribe to the podcast on Acast, iTunes, or RSS. Enjoy.
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