Here There Be Dragons

Every so often we're going to bring you something we've been calling off-cuts and footnotes. These are extended scenes and deep dives that didn't make the final cut of the main episodes. This is also a place where we can talk about your questions and comments. So feel free to send your thoughts to htbdpodcast@gmail.com in a voice note or a quick message. This episode is a footnote. We're going to take a deeper dive into housing in the context of the Soviet Union. In the USSR and generally in the post-World War II city planning regimes, housing and new construction technologies played a major role in urban development booms. We're still feeling the impact of it to this day. The Soviet Union is a major contributor to this moment because it planned standardized residential developments to be deployed around its territories and spheres of influence. These designs were replicated so extensively that you can find them all over the world, from Poland to Iran from Estonia to Vietnam and of course in Odes[s]a. In this footnote, we'll hear from Kate Malaia, the author of Taking the Soviet Union Apart Room by Room, about the development of these residential blocks. We'll also hear from Odesiti who lived in the Soviet Union's first housing experiment, the communalki or communal apartments and later transitioned to different types of residential housing in Soviet Odes[s]a.

In this episode we're wandering west of the city center to a neighborhood made famous by writers, TV shows, and movies; Moldavanka. However the neighborhood's story is told and whatever is understood of its reputation, there have always been working people making a life there somewhere in between the myths of legendary criminals and shared toilets. Instagram: @dragons_podcast
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Every so often we're going to bring you something we've been calling off-cuts and footnotes. These are extended scenes and deep dives that didn't make the final cut of the main episodes. This is also a place where we can talk about your questions and comments. So feel free to send your thoughts to htbdpodcast@gmail.com in a voice note or a quick message. In the changing neighborhood of Moldavanka one space seems ungentrifiable, Starokonnyi Market or the Old Horse Market. Let's take another walk with Boris through this kaleidoscopic flea market, where people come for the conversation as much as the deals. We'll be spending more time in Moldavanka in our next episode, Off-Center. Instagram: @dragons_podcast Website: www.htbdpodcast.com Sign up for our newsletter: htbdpodcast.substack.com

Every so often we're going to bring you something we've been calling off-cuts and footnotes. These are extended scenes and deep dives that didn't make the final cut of the main episodes. This is also a place where we can talk about your questions and comments. So feel free to send your thoughts to htbdpodcast@gmail.com in a voice note or a quick message. It was an enormous pleasure to receive field recordings from Boris. In this scene he surveys the cathedral in Soborna Square after it was damaged by Russian rockets. You'll hear more from him through out the season. To spend more time with the cathedral and questions of identity in Odes[s]a's city center, check out Odes[s]a: Origins [Витоки].

In the second part of our exploration of Odes[s]a's city center, we move through the streets on City Day. From the bars by Cathedral Square to the McDonald's on Derybasivska Street to the street art gallery on Kuznechna Street, residents are thinking about the urban histories that describe or disrupt their understanding of Odes[s]a's identity.

After ten years of conducting interviews for Here There Be Dragons, there's one question that Jess particularly loves to ask: “Where is the heart of the city for you?” Usually, we wait until the end of the season to reveal the many hearts that residents leave all over their city maps. But in Odes[s]a, these hearts seemed to coalesce in one neighborhood in particular, the City Center. So, this episode kicks off not only this season, but also a two-part exploration of Odes[s]a's downtown with all its potentials and limitations. Instagram: @dragons_podcast Website: www.htbdpodcast.com Sign up for our newsletter: htbdpodcast.substack.com Record a question or comment for us and send to: htdbpodcast@gmail.com

For our last prologue episode, we're thinking a little more about the sounds of Odes[s]a. When Jess first started interviewing Odes[s]a residents for the show, it became clear that we would need help defining a sound that is specific to the city. This season, Ivan, founder of the indie Odes[s]a based music label, система system, stepped into that role. Here, he talks a bit about the sounds that define his hometown. Check out more of Ivan's work on his bandcamp: https://systemnapotvora.bandcamp.com

The whole team at HTBD has been working, at this point for years, on a new season about Odes[s]a, Ukraine. While we're impatient to put out everything we've been preparing, we decided to take our time and frame what you will be hearing this season. A prologue if you will. For the next few weeks, we'll be releasing these short casual clips that explain our approach (and how it changed) this season. Because of the nature of audio, it's easy to think that the person in front of the microphone is going it alone. But HTBD is a pretty large lift made all the easier by Adriene, who has been the show's sound designer since season 3 and is now the executive producer too. Adriene and Jess have worked together on projects for years but we rarely get to hear from her. So before we kick off this season, here is Adriene talking more about the sonic “identity” of HTBD.

The whole team at HTBD has been working, at this point for years, on a new season about Odes[s]a, Ukraine. While we're impatient to put out everything we've been preparing, we decided to take our time and frame what you will be hearing this season. A prologue if you will. For the next few weeks, we'll be releasing these short casual clips that explain our approach (and how it changed) this season. This clip addresses Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which completely upended life in Odes[s]a. While the war does not fundamentally shift residents' long rooted relationships to their city, it does reshape their ambitions and fears for the future. It also had a huge impact on the way we were able to record the show.

The whole team at HTBD has been working, at this point for years, on a new season about Odes[s]a, Ukraine. While we're impatient to put out everything we've been preparing, we decided to take our time and frame what you will be hearing this season. A prologue if you will. For the next few weeks, we'll be releasing these short casual clips that explain our approach (and how it changed) this season. This clip talks about our approach to language this season, a subject that has gotten more and more tense in Odes[s]a since Russia's invasion.

The whole team at HTBD has been working, at this point for years, on a new season about Odes[s]a, Ukraine. While we're impatient to put out everything we've been preparing, we decided to take our time and frame what you will be hearing this season. A prologue if you will. For the next few weeks, we'll be releasing these short casual clips that explain our approach (and how it changed) this season. This clip gets into how the sausage is made if you will. Essentially, how and why we work the way we work.

The whole team at HTBD has been working, at this point for years, on a new season about Odes[s]a, Ukraine. While we're impatient to put out everything we've been preparing, we decided to take our time and frame what you will be hearing this season. A prologue if you will. For the next few weeks, we'll be releasing these short casual clips that explain our approach (and how it changed) this season. This one is addressing a simple question that Jess got asked a lot. Why Odes[s]a???? Check out our: Website: www.htbdpodcast.com Newsletter: htbdpodcast.substack.com Social Media: @dragons_podcast

We have been beyond impatient to bring you this season of Here There Be Dragons, one of the most work and resource intensive seasons we've ever done. Finally it's here! Thank you for all the support we have received and continue to receive to make this happen. We're looking forward to getting this in your ears very soon. Check out our: Website: www.htbdpodcast.com Newsletter: htbdpodcast.substack.com Social Media: @dragons_podcast

As many of you know, in addition to hosting and producing Here There Be Dragons, I also teach architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design. And for the past year, I've been working on A Pause Is Not A Break. An exhibition for the architecture department about the intersection of sound and architectural practice. Learn more at https://www.htbdpodcast.com/apauseisnotabreak. A PAUSE IS NOT A BREAK In architecture, we the practitioners of the built environment, have turned over our mode of communication so entirely to visual mediums, that we have been accused on many occasions of being poor listeners, poor readers, and perhaps, at the base of it, poor perceivers. What does the axonometric, the plan, the section, the elevation, the detail, the model miss? What have we failed to render in our visual pursuits? The medium of audio may seem like a privation, cutting us off from the images we use to make meaning but in sound there is a representation of liveliness that standard architectural drawings cannot always capture, and in many cases, actively avoid or sanitize. Unlike the eye, which has a natural defense against that which it does not wish to absorb, the ear has no such mechanism. It is difficult to close the ear without great effort. It requires instead a type of concentration that creates hierarchies of the sonic information that surrounds us. And so, sound becomes a ubiquitous medium––perhaps the most ubiquitous sense in space––taking on through its mundane repetitions a significant part of how we, the users of the built, make sense of space. How can we train the architect's ear onto the issue of occupation, and so history, and so life? Perhaps the tools of repetition and invocation can remind us of what we know, what our minds have been storing all our lives. Special thanks to Adriene Lilly, Mohammad Golabi, Amy Kulper, Katy Rogers, Karen Bell, Carlos Medellin, Aine Guiney, Alex Eckman-Lawn, Uthman Olowo, Alia Varawalla, and of course the Design Research Seed Fund.

Don't be alarmed. We're working on a few experiments in between seasons. This is an episode swap with the experimental Berlin-based cultural magazine Errant Journal. We're swapping an interview they did with Brazilian practitioner Felipe Altenfelder about his project Mida Ninja. We start off with an interview with the magazine and podcast editor Irene de Craen. Irene will be reposting the Moving episode from the Stockholm season starting with a brief interview with me. Be sure to check that out along with other Errant Podcast episodes. https://errantjournal.org

My city of New York is known more for it's skyline than its outdoor offering. But in Stockholm, nature seemed to appear out of nowhere, intertwined within the city fabric. Even neighborhoods constantly labeled “dangerous” have pretty stunning views. How has Stockholm grown, and keeps growing, with natural spaces in mind ? Twitter/Instagram: @dragons_podcast Support us: patreon.com/htbdpodcast Sign up for our newsletter: www.htbdpodcast.com Record a question or comment for us and send to: htdbpodcast@gmail.com Check out Melissa Pons' Swedish Forest Textures: https://melissapons.bandcamp.com/album/swedish-forest-textures

The subway can tell you a lot about the geography of a city. Who gets off where and why? But at the central station all those wires get crossed and people are there for all types of reasons to work, to shop, to hustle, to hand out, to protest, to get out as fast as possible. So T-Centalen ticks a lot of factors on the Stockholm spectrum between fear and security. 1) Crowded and 2) Unpredictable and 3) Controlled. We’ll be navigating all three of these as we do the unimaginable, take our time in T-Centralen. Twitter/Instagram: @dragons_podcast Support us: patreon.com/htbdpodcast Sign up for our newsletter: www.htbdpodcast.com Record a question or comment for us and send to: htdbpodcast@gmail.com

In a country known for both pragmatic protestantism and Absolut Vodka, you can imagine there is some anxiety around alcohol, that swings between enjoyment and control. A spectrum of emotion that simmers in the background of Stockholm’s night life. So episode we’ll be talking about the party, the club, the bar, the night life of the city. Twitter/Instagram: @dragons_podcast Support us: patreon.com/htbdpodcast Sign up for our newsletter: www.htbdpodcast.com Record a question or comment for us and send to: htdbpodcast@gmail.com

Families are a common political battle ground. What’s good or bad for families is a regular explanation for everything from censorship to over-policing to immigration intolerance. So if families are so worth providing for and so worth protecting, what exactly are they afraid of? What do kids and parents feel they need to be safe in the city? This episode we’ll be discussing how parents and kids navigate the city. What’s working for them and what really isn’t. Twitter/Instagram: @dragons_podcast Support us: patreon.com/htbdpodcast Sign up for our newsletter: www.htbdpodcast.com Record a question or comment for us and send to: htdbpodcast@gmail.com

Knowing the rules and being able to navigate them can be a big part of feeling safe in the city. Whether newly arrived or born and bred, we’ll hear from Stockholmers trying to figure out the norms, how to use them, and how to change them. Will they have to bend to Stockholm or will Stockholm bend to them? Twitter/Instagram: @dragons_podcast Support us: patreon.com/htbdpodcast Sign up for our newsletter: www.htbdpodcast.com Record a question or comment for us and send to: htdbpodcast@gmail.com

We are taking a small break from our regularly scheduled programming to give listeners a little taste of the mini episodes that Patreon subscribers receive every other week. That's right, for subscribers Here There Be Dragons is a weekly podcast. Support us at: https://www.patreon.com/htbdpodcast You might remember that in episode 2, The Malms, we interviewed a Swedish-Chilean woman, Paulina Torres. If you haven’t listened to that episode, you might want to go and listen to it. Paulina told us about a traumatizing experience she had when she was about 16 or 17, in 1996. She was in the metro with her mother and grandfather when they got attacked by a mob of neo-nazis. Her story made it all the way to public radio. A well-known Swedish reporter Bosse Lindquist got in touch with Paulina. Together they tried to get answers from the police who just would not follow up on Paulina’s complaint. Today on the mini, we talk with Bosse Lindquist about what happened to Paulina in 1996 and more generally about the rise of neo-nazism in Sweden in the 1990s.

Last episode, we learned about a few key concepts. The design and planning of the Million Program. The increase of working class immigrants in Swedish cities. And the privatization of public housing. These conditions all woven together created a situation where urban immigrant families were stuck living on Stockholm’s periphery, in housing that was aging and coming apart. We’re going to pick up where we left off, exploring how buildings became ideas.

The more we poked around the edges of what Stockholmers meant when they talked about the separation in their cities, we realized people were talking about many different things. Because segregation comes in many forms. Racial segregation is often the most obvious. But there is also class segregation, segregation by citizenship, by social status, by family size, by age. And the way these forms of separation impact you also influences which forms of separation you are able to perceive. This episode we will be exploring Stockholm's separations and where they came from.

Housing is one of the hairiest urban planning questions. You have to get the balance absolutely perfect. If you build too much the cost of upkeep will bankrupt the state. But if you build too little, you’ll have a human crisis on your hands in no time. Sweden is a case study of this teeter totter, constantly chasing that perfect balance. And the right way to get it is always up for debate. Twitter/Instagram: @dragons_podcast Support us: http://patreon.com/htbdpodcast Sign up for our newsletter: www.htbdpodcast.com Record a question or comment for us and send to: htdbpodcast@gmail.com Also check out the music of Kristofer Svensson xkatedral.bandcamp.com/track/ir-himinn-gr-nn and Slackerist movecutclone.bandcamp.com/track/slacke…other-places.

No matter how neighborhoods change, old meanings and power structures remain. This episode, we explore how the power and wealth wielded in the neighborhoods of Södermalm, Östermalm, and Gamla Stan, impact city residents today. Check out Ellen Arkbo's music: https://ellenarkbro.bandcamp.com/album/for-organ-and-brass Twitter/Instagram: @dragons_podcast Sign up for our newsletter: www.htbdpodcast.com Record a question or comment for us and send to: htdbpodcast@gmail.com.

Welcome to Stockholm! For all the city's seeming calm and quiet there were many stories of fear, safety, and identity to be told. We are excited to take you to the big little capital of Sweden, where one in every five Swedish residents call home. Let's find out how Stockholmers feel about their city's bigness and smallness. We are produced with the generous support of the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in Fine Arts and Konstnarsnamden (The Swedish Arts Council. Our senior producer Adélie Pojzman-Pontay returns and we would also like to welcome our team of graduate assistants from the architecture department at the Rhode Island School of Design: Bilal Ismail Ahmed, Daniel Choconta Guerrero, Kimberly Ayala Najera, and Uthman Olowo. Fatou Camara consults for the show. Cory Jacobs does the music for the podcast. And the wonderful Adriene Lilly does our sound design. Support us on Patreon for HTBD stickers and exclusive mini-episodes spotlighting some amazing digressions that we can’t fit in the show. http://patreon.com/htbdpodcast Special thanks to Lev Bratishenko for voicing Ingmar Bergman. Also check out the music of Kristofer Svensson https://xkatedral.bandcamp.com/track/ir-himinn-gr-nn and Slackerist https://movecutclone.bandcamp.com/track/slackerist-skogas-other-places.

This time around Jess Myers returns alongside senior producer Adélie Pojzman-Pontay, to discuss the triumphs and trials of Stockholm, Sweden. Since the Cold War, Sweden has positioned itself as a third way between Soviet collectivism and American capitalism. Through the eyes of Stockholmers we explore how that vision has aged, as politics across the West seek to cast the country as the ideal of a socialist future or the crumbling of a failed experiment.

Here There Be Dragons - Centres (Season Finale) by Jessica Myers

It will come as no surprise to you that Paris, a city that is roughly two thousand years old, has had many plans for urban utopias. Utopias of morality, technology, health, and much more. Plans for the aristocracy, for the poor, for police, for immigrants and on and on. But one person’s utopia can be another person’s nightmare depending on who you talk to.  In this episode we’ll be diving into the utopias scattered throughout Paris in the 20th century. Who were they built for and who were they built to keep out?

This episode will focus not just on the identities of people but of places. We’ll be talking about the way that Paris is divided through years of history, politics and design. Cities have significant physical and psychic borders that create local bias and affinities. Paris is no different.

Last episode we talked about “French hipsters” or bobos and the anxiety about being perceived as one. This episode we’ll be expanding our ideas about how people want to be perceived in public space. The stereotype of Parisians being stylish and glamorous trendsetters is nothing new. But the more you get to know the city the more you see how style can be contentious. It often dances along the fault lines of gender, class, religion, race, and sexuality. How people dress is directly influenced by how they want to be treated in public space.

Bobo means bourgeois-bohème; a left leaning, culture loving elite. Kind of the French version of the hipster. Someone of or joining a more comfortable class who likes to dabble in the cultural spaces of the working class and/or ethnic groups. The bobo like the hipster is the boogieman of gentrification. No one wants to be bobo and yet we see them everywhere. And with their presence goes the neighborhoods we knew. This episode will be dispatches from and on the edge of Boboland.

Here There Be Dragons - Communautarisme (Community) by Jessica Myers

Does a good social mix create greater security for urban residents?  This episode we're talking mixité or diversity. How does it affect public space socially and politically in the Parisian region.

Welcome back! This is the first episode of Here There Be Dragons season 2. This season we're listening to Parisians tell their stories of fear and identity in the city of lights. You might remember the horrifying news we’ve heard from Paris as terrorist attacks rocked the city. Three attacks in the past two years. The one on November 13th 2015 left 130 people dead and 413 injured. These attacks lead to increased media attention and speculation about whether France’s capital was safe, what to do from there and who to blame. In this episode we'll hearParisians talking about how the attacks affected them and how they see their safety in the city in their wake.

Here There Be Dragons Podcast: On the Series Welcome to Here There Be Dragons, a podcast about safety and identity in cities. For this show I spoke to seven New York natives from all over the city and for the past two months you’ve heard their stories and experiences. This is the final episode where I’ll talk about making the show and listener responses. The title of the project comes from the medieval mapping technique of drawing dragons and sea monsters over unexplored or dangerous territories. Although we now find these maps to be historic figments of a medieval imagination, many of us carry these same maps around in our heads, negotiating our identities through space, pre-emptively planning escapes and defenses should the city square off against us. But as the stores from each episode show us monsters can also disappear for as we unlearn fear and access new spaces. Or they don’t and we navigate them anyway. Each person I interviewed for this podcast also drew a map of their childhood and adulthood in the city, you can see those at colabradio.mit.edu. Past episodes of Here There Be Dragons are on iTunes and Stitcher, please listen, comment and rate!

Here There Be Dragons Podcast: New Yorkers reflect on the Bronx Welcome to Here There Be Dragons, a podcast about safety and identity in cities. I spoke to seven New York natives from all over the city about their stories and experiences. This is the 5th episode of the series being released weekly on CoLab Radio. In this episode we hear New Yorkers’ reflections on the Bronx. Despite being the most diverse borough in the city, in terms of race and income, for the New Yorkers I spoke with, the Bronx stood out as the most dangerous borough. But as we’ve seen in previous episodes danger is a complicated emotion, ranging from fear of violence to feeling unwelcome. In this episode Bronx natives I spoke with work to navigate their own identities through their borough’s reputation. Their feelings towards the Bronx reflect some of the many ways that navigating our cities force us to confront who we are. This the last of the themed episodes the series finale will be about listener response and wrapping up loose ends. If you have been hesitating to call in, comment, or draw a map I will be taking two weeks off to encourage you to do so. Each person I interviewed for this podcast also drew a map of their childhood and adulthood in the city you can see those at colabradio.mit.edu. If you’ve visited or lived in New York and you want to share your experiences with me, download the base map, use the maps in our gallery as your guide and draw your own experiences of safety and danger in the city. And I’ll post them in the gallery. Send those to Jess Myers at colabradio@mit.edu. You can also record a comment or question about the episode by calling into 1 888 821-7563 ext. 58258. Some of those might be a part of the final episode in the series. You can now download Here There Be Dragons on iTunes and Stitcher, please comment and rate!

Here There Be Dragons Podcast: New Yorkers Reflect on Harlem Welcome to Here There Be Dragons, a podcast about safety and identity in cities. I spoke to seven New York natives from all over the city about their stories and experiences. This is the 4th of the series being released weekly on CoLab Radio. In this episode we hear New Yorkers’ reflections on Harlem. Harlem is one of the most famous neighborhoods in the city and one of the most talked about too. For some New Yorkers it represents a Mecca of black American culture and history while for others it is a dangerous neighborhood with reputation for violence. Harlem’s powerful history makes it an icon for blackness and black culture. Our feelings towards the neighborhood, inherited or learned, are also mixed with our feelings towards blackness. Each person I interviewed for this podcast also drew a map of their childhood and adulthood in the city (see below). If you’ve visited or lived in New York and you want to share your experiences with me, download the base map, use the maps in our gallery as your guide and draw your own experiences of safety and danger in the city. And I’ll post them in the gallery. Send those to Jess Myers at (colabradio@mit.edu). You can also record a comment or question about the episode by calling into 1 888 821-7563 ext. 58258. Some of those might be a part of the final episode in the series. You can now download Here There Be Dragons on iTunes and Stitcher.

Here There Be Dragons Podcast: New Yorkers Respond to Violence Welcome to the first episode of Here There Be Dragons, a podcast exploring safety and identity in cities. I spoke to seven New York natives from all over the city about their stories and experiences. The episodes that follow will be released weekly on CoLab Radio over the next 2 months. The theme of this inaugural episode is violence in the city. Violence, the experience of it, the threat of it, the rumor of it has a tendency to make even the most familiar places foreign to us. It complicates our relationship with the city and allows fear to lurk in the back of our minds. In the episode below we’ll hear stories of New Yorkers confronting and anticipating violence, then moving beyond it. Each person I interviewed for this podcast also drew a map of their childhood and adulthood in the city you can find those at colabradio.mit.edu. If you’ve visited or lived in New York and you want to share your experiences with me, download the base map, use the maps in our gallery as your guide and draw your own experiences of safety and danger in the city. And I’ll post them in the gallery. Send those to Jess Myers at (colabradio@mit.edu). You can also record a comment or question about the episode by calling into 1 888 821-7563 ext. 58258. Some of those might be a part of the final episode in the series.

Here There Be Dragons Podcast: New Yorkers Discuss Public Housing Welcome to the third episode of Here There Be Dragons, a podcast about safety and identity in cities. I spoke to seven New York natives from all over the city about their stories and experiences. The six episodes that follow will be released weekly on CoLab Radio. In the third episode below we hear New Yorkers reflect on public housing. Public housing, the projects, have a reputation in New York, even to people who’ve never been to the city. They are at once a low-income family’s best housing resource and places feared for crime and violence. Rumors of crime and incidents of violence make us forget that they are also homes, that they also have history that is deeply tied to city. This side of the projects is unfamiliar to even native New Yorker who often see the buildings for their broken windows and not the histories that live within them. Each person I interviewed for this podcast also drew a map of their childhood and adulthood in the city (see below). If you’ve visited or lived in New York and you want to share your experiences with me, download the base map, use the maps in our gallery as your guide and draw your own experiences of safety and danger in the city. And I’ll post them in the gallery. Send those to Jess Myers at (colabradio@mit.edu). You can also record a comment or question about the episode by calling into 1 888 821-7563 ext. 58258. Some of those might be a part of the final episode in the series.

Here There Be Dragons Podcast: New Yorkers Respond to Gentrification Welcome to the second episode of Here There Be Dragons, a podcast about safety and identity in cities. I spoke to seven New York natives from all over the city about their stories and experiences. The episodes that follow will be released weekly on CoLab Radio over the next 2 months. This second episode considers the cultural impact of gentrification. Neighborhoods that see a rapid increase of wealthy tenets can become foreign to those who know its history. Displacement of long term residents and erasure of cultural landmarks can make these changes feel like a loss or even a theft. Just as violence in the first episode steals our feelings of familiarity, gentrification can do the same thing making once familiar neighborhoods and our place in them seem strange to us. Each person I interviewed for this podcast also drew a map of their childhood and adulthood in the city, you can find those at colabradio.mit.edu. If you’ve visited or lived in New York and you want to share your experiences with me, download the base map, use the maps in our gallery as your guide and draw your own experiences of safety and danger in the city. And I’ll post them in the gallery. Send those to Jess Myers at (colabradio@mit.edu). You can also record a comment or question about the episode by calling into 1 888 821-7563 ext. 58258. Some of those might be a part of the final episode in the series.