Some dates are destined to live in infamy. 1066; August 4th, 1914.

This is not one of those dates.

It is, however, a pretty big day for us as it sees the release of the first ever episode of Skylines, the CityMetric podcast. On it, you can hear Barbara and I talk about a topic that’s pretty close to many a metropolitan liberal’s heart: why does everyone seem to hate us? Or, to be more specific, what is it about world cities like London that seems to inspire as much loathing as admiration?

To help us answer this question, we talk to Tom Forth, the writer, consultant and professional Yorkshireman, to get a northern view on London’s dominance. We also talk to Elizabeth Minkel to get a US perspective on both London and New York.

From here on in, with the help of our excellent producer Roifield Brown, we’re planning to do one of these every two weeks. You can find us on Acast here. You can also subscribe to our RSS feed, or on iTunes. 

Or you can just listen to the latest episode right here:

Some relevant links…

  • Tom Forth is the man who revealed that the UK’s airport isn’t in London at all. It’s actually in Amsterdam. He’s on Twitter, probably shouting about regional injustice, as @thomasforth.
  • Back in January 2015, Elizabeth Minkel wrote this great piece for us on NYC’s reaction to Winter Storm Juno (” there’s a sudden realisation that residents of four out of the five New York City boroughs live on islands”). She’s also on Twitter as @elizabethminkel, and has her own podcast, Fansplaining, co-hosted with Flourish Klink.
  • Lastly, here’s our map of the week, showing that all roads really do lead to Rome:

You can read more about it here.

Here’s a helpful reminder that you can subscribe to the podcast via our RSS feed, or on iTunes. You can also find us on Acast here.