Podcasts about Manchester

#1053 | Daniel joins Ed to make the case that this was never really a football story: Manchester City's ownership is Abu Dhabi's ruling family operating through the exact same statecraft logic they apply to war, espionage and geopolitics. And that family's refusal to ever hear the word "no" from anyone. It's the instinct that produced the fraud itself. Trace the money and the politics: Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth, the family network tying the state, the investment vehicle, the sponsors and the football club into one entity. Then there's Andy Burnham's startlingly weak public response, read against his own history with City-linked land deals in East Manchester and the UK's broader security and investment ties to the UAE.  Pep Guardiola is linked in the same way. His public advocacy on Gaza and Catalan independence is impossible to square with total silence on his own owners' role in Sudan. His City trophies cannot be separated from dirty money and the questions of doping that have followed his career since Barcelona. This is potentially the biggest scandal in the history of sport, precisely because of the geopolitics layered underneath it. 0:00 Intro: City found guilty 2:30 From anti-competitive to human rights 4:39 Statecraft, sovereign wealth and sportswashing 6:58 Paper trail and the defence 14:55 Andy Burnham and Manchester politics 23:36 Punishment, lawsuits and a forced sale 37:48 Guardiola's hypocrisy and his legacy 47:52 Biggest scandal of all time? Wrap-up --- Ready to have an AI that can tackle real work? Try Claude Cowork today — Claude.ai/NQAT --- If you are interested in supporting the show and accessing a weekly exclusive bonus episode, check out our Patreon page or subscribe on Apple Podcasts. Supporter funded episodes are ad-free. NQAT is available on all podcast apps and in video on YouTube. Hit that subscribe button, leave a rating and write a review on Apple or Spotify. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Robert meets legendary musician Johnny Marr to celebrate the launch day of his brand new album The Age Of Everything, out today!!!Johnny Marr is one of the most creative, singular and influential guitar players in the history of pop music. He created a shimmering sonic framework for 1980s indie in his visionary work in The Smiths that continues to be foundational and endlessly emulated to this day.He's been a member of The The, teamed up with New Order's Bernard Sumner to form the electronic pop outfit, Electronic, and has also had stints in bands such as Modest Mouse, The Pretenders, The Cribs as well as contributing guitar for Pet Shop Boys. But despite a lifetime of collaborations, Marr is in something of a new chapter of his career as a solo artist. In the last 13 years he has released five albums, with the latest undoubtedly his best yet: The Age of Everything.The Age Of Everything is Johnny Marr's fifth full length studio record. 10 new songs that he describes as the most cathartic songwriting of his career. Written in London, developed live on the road across the East Coast of North America and recorded in Manchester, The Age Of Everything captures the energy and tensions of the city. Sharp, fast and dynamic, filled with ideas and possibilities.Introducing the album, Johnny Marr said: “This is the record that's been the most cathartic. The title came to me early in the process and became an inescapable idea.It seemed to sum up the way I think a lot of people are feeling. It's all encompassing, but it's not necessarily a negative statement. There's a sense of overwhelm in the culture brought about by technology, but looking at it with a different light, there could also be a sense of possibility.”It is the unique dialogue that exists between Johnny Marr and his audience that has turbo-charged the sound of The Age Of Everything. Whilst touring the East Coast of North America in late 2025, more than half of the set consisted of brand new and unheard music. This research and development in the field brought a new energy to the songs, something inspired by what Johnny describes as a preoccupation with perception. How we perceive things as we move through life. Considering the possibility of everything: good and bad. Choosing the promise of the future, with defiance and resistance.Few artists remain as relentlessly creative as Johnny Marr. Since launching his solo career he has scored five UK Top 10 albums, released a Sunday Times bestselling autobiography Set The Boy Free, recorded the James Bond theme for No Time To Die with Billie Eilish, received the Ivor Novello Inspiration Award, an Academy Award nomination for his work with Hans Zimmer on Inception, NME's Godlike Genius honour, and played sold-out tours and major festivals across the world. The years that have elapsed since the release of 2022's Fever Dreams Pts 1-4 album signalled a new era, bringing the career-spanning collection Spirit Power: The Best Of Johnny Marr, the acclaimed photobook Marr's Guitars, full orchestral concert A Night With The Johnny Marr Orchestra, the Look Out Live! album, as well as writing and recording with Gorillaz, Franz Ferdinand, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds and performing on the HELP(2) album with Grian Chatten (Fontaines DC) and Kae Tempest - the latest in a long line of exciting and unexpected collaborations.Listen to The Age Of Everything here. The new album is available on CD, black vinyl and limited edition red vinyl.Follow @JohnnyMarrGram Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Moms of the Lou, Rebekah & Lauren chat with Chelsea Theodoropoulos. Chelsea discusses her journey of owning five Burn Boot Camp locations in St. Louis and how fitness transformed her life from burnout to leadership. Chelsea reflects on ten years of entrepreneurship, growing her business from three original locations to a full market presence in St. Louis. She shares how she navigated the challenges of leadership by learning through direct responsibility and drawing inspiration from her family's entrepreneurial background. She manages five specific Burn Boot Camp locations in Manchester, O'Fallon, South County, Kirkwood, and St. Charles. Sign up for a fitness class at Burn Boot Camp and book Chelsea Theodoropoulos for speaking engagements, workshops, and coaching! You can also connect with Chelsea on Instagram. This episode is sponsored by St. Luke's Hospital. St. Luke's is a trusted partner in every phase of your family's health journey. Connect with St. Luke's Hospital on Facebook and Instagram and schedule your appointment today!Chelsea Theodoropoulos is a multi-unit franchise owner and operator, personal trainer, and transformation coach who believes women are capable of far more than they often allow themselves to imagine. Her own journey began as a member of Burn Boot Camp, where she experienced firsthand how strength, confidence, and community can change the way a woman sees herself, especially through motherhood. What started as a personal transformation became a calling. Today, Chelsea owns and operates five Burn Boot Camp locations across St. Louis, and serves thousands of women throughout the community. Through her gyms, coaching, workshops, and keynote speaking, Chelsea helps women recognize the patterns keeping them stuck and build the courage to step toward what is possible. Her work explores identity, confidence, environment, self-leadership, and the imperfect process of becoming. Chelsea is also a wife and mom of two who understands the complexity of pursuing meaningful goals while navigating motherhood, leadership, and everyday life.We hope you enjoyed this podcast episode! To learn more about Moms of the Lou you can go to stlouismom.com or follow us on Instagram and Facebook. You can listen to the podcast on Apple Podcast and Spotify. And don't forget to rate and review so more people can tune in! This episode was produced by St. Louis Mom. It was recorded and edited by STL Bucketlist Studios in St. Louis, Missouri.

£145k Added Value & £1,800 a Month Cash Flow: Jules Copsey's Semi-Commercial Deal   Just £14,000 left invested after refinancing, with an eight-month payback from rental cash flow. In this episode of Property Entrepreneur's Deals, Deals, Deals, Mark Barrett welcomes Jules Copsey, someone he has known for 10 years, to share her journey into property and the numbers behind her semi-commercial deal in Chorlton. Based in South Manchester and a mother of two sons, Jules previously worked in fashion and sportswear, both for multinational businesses and through her own brands. She began her property journey in 2017, invested in her education and went on to help others build their portfolios through design-led projects focused on strong cash flow. She started building her own portfolio in her 50s. The deal Jules bought the property off-market on Barlow Moor Road, Chorlton, Manchester for £270,000. She refurbished the ground-floor shop and secured a commercial lease for six years and 11 months, with a three-year break clause, to a Pilates studio. Upstairs, she let the three-bedroom accommodation to three friends on one joint tenancy. Purchase, purchase costs and refurbishment came to around £385,000. With a further £50,000 in finance interest and fees, the total cost was around £435,000 against a valuation of £580,000, which is approximately £145,000 of added value above the total spend. After refinancing and paying all finance costs, Jules had just £14,000 left invested. At the reported net cash flow of £1,800 a month, that remaining investment could be recovered in approximately eight months. The key numbers •        Purchase price: £270,000 •        Purchase, purchase costs and refurbishment: around £385,000 •        Finance interest and fees: £50,000 •        Total project cost including finance: around £435,000 •        Valuation: £580,000 •        Added value above total project cost: approximately £145,000 •        Total project cost as a proportion of valuation: 75% •        Stamp duty paid: £3,000 •        Gross rent: £49,560 a year / £4,130 a month •        Reported net cash flow: £21,600 a year / £1,800 a month •        Money left invested after refinancing and paying finance costs: £14,000 •        Payback on the remaining investment: approximately eight months What we cover •        Jules's move from fashion and sportswear into property. •        Investing in education and helping others build their portfolios. •        Her approach to design-led projects with strong cash flow. •        Finding an off-market semi-commercial opportunity. •        Combining a leased shop with residential accommodation upstairs. •        The purchase, refurbishment, finance and refinance figures. •        The stamp duty advantage of a semi-commercial purchase. •        Jules's top three tips and advice for anyone starting out. The stamp duty difference Jules paid £3,000 in stamp duty. Using current rates, a £270,000 additional residential property would attract £17,000 in SDLT, a £14,000 difference. The comparison at the time of purchase depends on the rates and circumstances then. A note on the figures Total project costs of approximately £435,000 include £50,000 in finance interest and fees confirmed by Jules after recording. The £14,000 remaining investment is after those finance costs were paid. Figures are rounded. Added value means valuation less total project cost, not realised profit. The approximate eight-month payback assumes net cash flow continues at £1,800 a month. Get in touch with Jules •        Email: jules@urbancoliving.com •        Instagram: jules_copsey •        Phone: 07757 049692   Jules would like to hear from investors with projects in the region of £150,000–£200,000 or more who want a design-led scheme, and from anyone with mixed-use deals or tired blocks of flats in and around Manchester. Listen to hear how Jules brought the deal together and the lessons she shares for others building their property portfolios. Follow Deals, Deals, Deals for more real property deals, the numbers behind them and the people making them happen.   Want to learn more?

Hello Poz Vibers, This week we're learning all about the world of puppy play.OUR GUESTS:Dan, known on his scene as Pup Rolo, is a Rubber and Puppy Player known for his advocacy of the Irish kink community. He held the title of Mr Rubber Ireland 2021 and placed second at Mr International Rubber in Chicago in 2023. He is a founder and secretary of Pups and Handlers of Ireland who recently celebrated their tenth birthday as a community group. He produces the Puppy Ireland title hosted during Dublin Leather Weekend which will take place in Pantibar on Saturday 23rd January 2027. Alongside his roles in the pup play space Dan is an active volunteer for both Leathermen of Ireland and Out in Kink, and most recently has established Ireland's newest iteration of Rubber socials under the banner "Shine Ireland" Pup Blondie is a Dublin based kinkster, living and loving life with their partner Rolo. This over caffeinated canine lends a supporting role as the go to volunteer for whatever endeavour the Pups & Handlers of Ireland have in their doggy bowl. Tasks may include lifting heavy things, decorating events and acting as a doggy/dodgy DJ during the Puppy Ireland election. Blondie has attended fetish events from Folsom Berlin to Fort Lauderdale Florida, Manchester to Antwerp and is excited to attend many more in the future. For him, fetish is a link between many communities that create bonds of familiarity and acceptance, love and openness. The ideals of this community are to tear down the stigmas of shame and encourage pride and self care. To quote his favourite song "What the world needs now.."FOR ALL THE LATEST PUP NEWS FOLLOW:https://www.instagram.com/pupsofireland/https://www.instagram.com/leatherman_of_ireland/@outinkink@shine_eireBow, wow.Love,Veda and Robbie.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Poz Vibe Podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ is a⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Veda⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Lady and⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Robbie Lawlor⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ production. Thanks to ⁠our sponsors ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Dublin Pride ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠who make this series possible. We'd also like to thank The Boiler House, Man 2 Man, Gay Health Network and The George for all their help and support.Episodes are produced by Veda and Robbie with production assistance from ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Esther O'Moore Donohoe⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and Adrian Duggan. Video editing, artwork, social media assets and⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ merch⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ all created by Lavender The Queen.⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠

This week on The Obsessed Podcast we are STILL Here For It All One year later as One year ago, Mariah Carey gave us Here For It All — an album that brought together vulnerability, timeless R&B, gospel, soul, hip-hop, disco and, of course, that unmistakable Mariah magic..To celebrate the album's first anniversary, Gareth & Ghia take another deep dive into Here For It All — the songs, the vocals, the moments, the meaning and the era that reminded us why Mariah's artistry continues to resonate.And as it's not quite time, the festive season still approaches and there's even more to celebrate! Mariah is bringing her Christmas Time Tour back to the UK, with shows in Birmingham, London and Manchester, before heading to Malta for a special festive performance. With her London & Malta shows already sold out, this is going to bring another unforgettable moment to this holiday season..Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to The Obsessed Podcast, follow us on all streaming and social media platforms @the_obsessed_podcast. .@mariahcarey @garethstorer @the_queen_g #TheObsessedPodcast #MariahCarey #HereForItAll #HereForItAllAnniversary #MariahCareyFans #Mimi #Lambily #Christmastime #MariahChristmas #AllIWantForChristmasIsYou

Join Aaron and Johann, experienced accountants and entrepreneurs weekly on Ask the Accountant, where they discuss various topics revolving around the accounting industry and give business advice and updates.Every Monday from 8:30 am.Don't forget to check out all our other content such as our 'Cool Friends', 'Pitstop Podcasts' and more!https://linktr.ee/asktheaccountant#Accountant #Podcast #Bookkeeper

"Welcome to "With the Sauce" the ultimate rendezvous for music enthusiasts! Tune in every Friday 12:00-15:00 (???????? time) on Manchester's premier youth-led station Pie Radio,where DJ Malibu Nana Mwene & Blended SA curate an electrifying blend of beats. Our show features weekly guest and resident artists/DJs, serving up a mix that transcends genres. If you miss a beat, fear not – our podcast is your backstage pass for downloading and streaming the latest episodes. Follow us on social media: @djmalibu_sa @nanamwene @blendedsa_ "With the Sauce" is proudly sponsored by Mali Mali Clothing, bringing you comfort streetwear at its finest.

A compact podcast team look back on the games against Cardiff & Manchester and look forward to the coming weekend.There's also discussion around the make up of the Challenge Cup group stages, Glasgow fans reaction to defeat against Manchester and the Overtime 'No Return' rule that is played in some leagues.Panthers Podcasts are brought to you in association with Wago.

Sean Farrington delves into the detail of the Prime Minister's party conference address.Elsewhere, the Premier League confirms that an independent panel has found Manchester guilty of making "sham contracts" with a number of commercial partners. It says this was part of a scheme to disguise secret club funding of more than £830m. Also, a closely-watched forecast predicts a double-digit percentage rise in bills in the new year. And we take a look at trade tensions over a viral type of yam.

On a special edition of Westminster Insider from Labour Party conference, Pat and Sascha sat down with the new Mayor of Greater Manchester, Bev Craig, at the POLITICO Pub in Liverpool. In a conversation recorded in front of a live audience on Tuesday, shortly before Andy Burnham's conference speech, Craig opened up about what it's really like taking over from her predecessor — and how she plans to make the job her own. Fresh from a trip to New York, she revealed what she learned from Mayor Zohran Mamdani and what Greater Manchester might borrow from his playbook. Craig told Westminster Insider about her plan for Donald Trump's visit to Manchester next year. Plus, she faced Pat and Sascha's quick-fire round. Westminster Insider returns in full on October 16. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This event was part of the IfG's programme of events at the Labour Party Conference 2026. Speakers: Mayor Kim McGuinness, Mayor of North East England Cllr Fran Belbin, Leader of Sheffield City Council Professor Duncan Ivison, President and Vice-Chancellor at The University of Manchester Mark Rogers, Interim Chief Executive, Sussex & Brighton Strategic Authority This event was chaired by Akash Paun, Programme Director at the Institute for Government. This event was in partnership with The University of Manchester.

This week on The Price Of Music, there's a vague but tangible 'us vs them' theme, and lot of hoo-ha about secondary ticketing: Secondary-ticketing firm Viagogo is having its latest public argument in the UK, with anti-touting group FanFair Alliance. And it's all about Manchester, and ticketing at smaller venues...Meanwhile 30 miles west of Manchester, it's the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, and the Creative Industries Minister has promised that the long-promised crackdown on ticket touts will happen “quicker than we initially intended”. But what's really going to happen?Sylvan Esso quit Spotify last year in protest at co-founder Daniel Ek's personal investment in military technology. Now they're back on Spotify, even though he's still invested in weapons. Why?How many people who'd bought tickets to see Ed Sheeran play the Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts DIDN'T get to see him? And this has nothing to do with Israel or Palestine... it's to do with climate change. (Plus, here's Brian Eno on Ed Sheeran, Macklemore, and Robert Kraft.)We don't get to talk much about brand new music print magazines, mainly because launching brand new music print magazines is usually a road to bankruptcy. Is Shownotes different though?Grand Theft Auto VI isn't just a game that licenses music: it's a game with its own soundtrack album stuffed with brand new songs…And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Stu and Joe prop themselves up at the bar – in this week's bonus material:Oasis Tickets: did Stu 'n' Joe get them? Did the ticketing system stop tickets from appearing on secondary ticketing sites (no) and how much are they charging? (A lot.)Joe develops his "Oasis are definitely releasing a new album" theory, courtesy of an archive Liam tweet... We promised a Little Grandad update, but it's been shelved in place of a Lammo Update...Listener Sarah writes in offering a new intriguing possibility of the Smiths reforming with politicians playing key rolesJoe went deep on other politicians' über-cringe music claims, their true taste (featuring a lot of MOR rock), and a couple of politicians with... objectively good taste in music?? Tim Farron's music taste: https://www.libdemvoice.org/tims-top-tunes-how-many-have-you-heard-of-48737.html===================================As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!Email us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠See you next week!Stuart and Joe======TPOM online: ⁠http://tpom.uk/⁠Support The Price of Music on Patreon:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠⁠Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredgeFollow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpodFor sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠⁠joe@musically.com⁠

Bongani Bingwa speaks to Vicki Turner about some of the international stories making headlines, including Manchester City facing findings over alleged “sham” contracts and misleading accounts, OpenAI scrapping the rollout of a new model over safety concerns, and musician Celine Dion making a surprise appearance at Paris Fashion Week. 702 Breakfast with Bongani Bingwa is broadcast on 702, a Johannesburg based talk radio station. Bongani makes sense of the news, interviews the key newsmakers of the day, and holds those in power to account on your behalf. The team bring you all you need to know to start your day Thank you for listening to a podcast from 702 Breakfast with Bongani Bingwa Listen live on Primedia+ weekdays from 06:00 and 09:00 (SA Time) to Breakfast with Bongani Bingwa broadcast on 702: https://buff.ly/gk3y0Kj For more from the show go to https://buff.ly/36edSLV or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/zEcM35T Subscribe to the 702 Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/v5mfetc Follow us on social media: 702 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TalkRadio702 702 on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@talkradio702 702 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkradio702/ 702 on X: https://x.com/Radio702 702 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@radio7See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bongani Bingwa speaks to Vicki Turner about some of the international stories making headlines, including Manchester City facing findings over alleged “sham” contracts and misleading accounts, OpenAI scrapping the rollout of a new model over safety concerns, and musician Celine Dion making a surprise appearance at Paris Fashion Week. 702 Breakfast with Bongani Bingwa is broadcast on 702, a Johannesburg based talk radio station. Bongani makes sense of the news, interviews the key newsmakers of the day, and holds those in power to account on your behalf. The team bring you all you need to know to start your day Thank you for listening to a podcast from 702 Breakfast with Bongani Bingwa Listen live on Primedia+ weekdays from 06:00 and 09:00 (SA Time) to Breakfast with Bongani Bingwa broadcast on 702: https://buff.ly/gk3y0Kj For more from the show go to https://buff.ly/36edSLV or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/zEcM35T Subscribe to the 702 Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/v5mfetc Follow us on social media: 702 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TalkRadio702 702 on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@talkradio702 702 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkradio702/ 702 on X: https://x.com/Radio702 702 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@radio7See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This event was part of the IfG's programme of events at the Labour Party Conference 2026. Speakers: Mayor Kim McGuinness, Mayor of North East England Cllr Fran Belbin, Leader of Sheffield City Council Professor Duncan Ivison, President and Vice-Chancellor at The University of Manchester Mark Rogers, Interim Chief Executive, Sussex & Brighton Strategic Authority  This event was chaired by Akash Paun, Programme Director at the Institute for Government.  This event was in partnership with The University of Manchester. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join Holly and Stef as we welcome Diego from The Global Gooners Podcast to chat all things Arsenal. Diego shares his experiences of following Arsenal from his country of birth, Nigeria, to Manchester and eventually to Washington DC, where he currently resides. We talk favourite players, highlights, lowlights, memories of last season and hopes for this season. We also react to the latest news about the ongoing charges against City and what these could mean for Arsenal. Please enjoy, like, share etc. COYG!  ____________________________________________Check out our exclusively designed merchandise including t-shirts, hoodies and the iconic North Bank mug at ⁠⁠northbankpod.myshopify.com⁠⁠For exclusive access, content and discounts on our range of merchandise, join our North Bank community:⁠FREE on Patreon!⁠Join the conversation on our socials:⁠BlueSky @northbankpod.bsky.social⁠⁠Twitter / X @northbankpod⁠⁠TikTok @northbankpod⁠⁠Instagram @northbankpod⁠⁠YouTube @NorthBankPod⁠ and discover more on ⁠our website, thenorthbankfc.com⁠ The North Bank. An Arsenal Podcast.Produced by ⁠The Podcast Company.⁠© TNB Productions Ltd._____________________________________________We're proud to support ⁠⁠British Heart Foundation⁠⁠ in their awareness campaigns and live-saving research.Every 3 minutes, someone in the UK dies from cardiovascular disease. It's one of the biggest killers in the UK, but research into it is underfunded. It can affect anyone at any age. Women. Men. The young. The seemingly fit and healthy.⁠⁠⁠How you can help – CLICK HERE, LEARN CRP in 15 minutes and SAVE A LIFE!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Find out more about the amazing work BHF do.⁠⁠

Send us Fan Mail#331A rising population is one of the classic drivers of capital growth, alongside jobs and infrastructure.But what happens to UK property investing when a country's population stops rising?Demographer Dr Paul Morland joined me to explain what falling fertility and an ageing population actually mean for where you should and shouldn't buy.ExpatPropertyStory.comCheck out our shorts on YouTubeOur WhatsApp  groupProperty Engine discounts (Code: EXPAT)Starter: 30 day trialPro: 30 day trial/3 mths 1/2 price, Ultimate: 1/2 price 3 monthsGoalsettingLeave a review37 Question Due Diligence Checklist / Auction GuideOur Sponsors: Finnigan McNeill Property GroupWe discuss:Why the UK Now Has More Deaths Than BirthsBritain has had below-replacement fertility for around 50 years, and the UK has now reached the point where more people die each year than are born.Paul sums up the consequences as the "four grays": a shrinking gray labor force, a more conservative gray consumer base, gray investors who favour low risk, and gray government budgets strained by pensions and healthcare.Immigration is currently masking the UK's underlying population shrinkage, but the demand for housing is already changing in nature even before the headline numbers fall.How an Ageing Population Changes Property DemandOlder populations mean falling demand for student accommodation and rising demand for elder care and retirement-style housing.More people are also living alone as populations age, which pushes up the number of households needed even where the overall population isn't growing.Paul points out that many older homeowners sit on large family homes for decades, which restricts supply and can push up prices for everyone else.He raises stamp duty, inheritance tax and mansion tax as some of the government levers that influence whether people downsize.The Demographic Trilemma Facing Every CountryPaul frames the choice facing developed nations as a trilemma between ethnic continuity, economic dynamism and small family sizes, and argues no country can have all three.Japan has prioritised continuity and small families at the cost of economic dynamism, while the UK and much of Western Europe have leaned on immigration to keep the economy moving.Whichever path a country takes reshapes the make-up and size of households, and with it, the type of property in demand.Why Cities Will Compete for the Same PeopleIn a growing population there's enough demand to go around, but Paul argues that a shrinking population turns city growth into a zero-sum game.He points to Munich's strong economy and architecture as reasons it has grown, against East German cities like Halle that have lost over a quarter of their population.Closer to home, Paul sees London and Manchester continuing to pull ahead of other UK cities, echoing the "pretty cities" theme raised by a previous guest on the show.A Simple Local Signal for Property InvestorsPaul's practical advice is to look past national statistics and study the demography of the specific city or town you're considering.His suggested checklist: are local schools closing down, are elderly care homes opening up, and are shops closing or opening in their place.Those signals, he says, tell you more about a location's trajectory than a single national population figure ever will.What This Means for Expat InvestorsPaul notes that many British retirees who move abroad tend to return to the UK around age 80, largely for healthcare access and to be near family.For expats who've structured their UK property or tax planning around never returning, that's a trend worth factoring in sooner rather than later.Key TakeawaysWith a shrinking population, cities increasingly compete for the same residents, so location selection matters more than ever.Avoid areas showing signs of decline: closing schools, rising elderly care provision, boarded-up shops and poor transport links.Many expat retirees return to the UK later in life, which is worth considering in long-term tax and property planning.

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What does it really take to bring a character to life through cosplay? Maria of Oz Costumes joins the Krewe to break down the creativity, craftsmanship, and passion behind cosplay, while exploring how this hobby can be enjoyed by people of all skill levels and interests. Whether you're a seasoned cosplayer or someone who has always been curious about giving it a try, this conversation offers a look behind the costumes and into the world of cosplay.------ About the Krewe ------The Krewe of Japan Podcast is a weekly episodic podcast sponsored by the Japan Society of New Orleans. Check them out every Friday afternoon around noon CST on Apple, Google, Spotify, Amazon, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to share your experiences with the Krewe? Or perhaps you have ideas for episodes, feedback, comments, or questions? Let the Krewe know by e-mail at kreweofjapanpodcast@gmail.com or on social media (Twitter: @kreweofjapan, Instagram: @kreweofjapanpodcast, Facebook: Krewe of Japan Podcast Page, TikTok: @kreweofjapanpodcast, LinkedIn: Krewe of Japan LinkedIn Page, Blue Sky Social: @kreweofjapan.bsky.social, & the Krewe of Japan Youtube Channel). Until next time, enjoy!------ Links about Oz Costumes ------Oz Costumes on InstagramOther Oz Costumes Links via Linktree------ Support the Krewe! Offer Links for Affiliates ------Use the referral links below & our promo code from the episode!Support your favorite NFL Team AND podcast! Shop NFLShop to gear up for football season!Zencastr Offer Link - Use my special link to save 30% off your 1st month of any Zencastr paid plan! ------ JSNO Upcoming Events ------JSNO Event CalendarJoin JSNO Today!

Sara from Manchester thinks her husband is cheating. He took a big promotion at work and didn't tell her. She wants to know if he's cheating. 

‘Creating nurture for people who've never had it”What happens when education is built around people instead of qualifications?Introducing Manchester's dreamer who's creating a movement that is changing the educational system not just in this city region, but across the world.Anthony Thompson is the founder of Navigators, who are creating vocational learning programmes that are opening doors for young people across Greater Manchester, creating pathways to employment, independence, and a stronger sense of purpose.Anthony shares the personal and professional experiences that led him to build places where young people are nurtured, plus the reason why he can still reel off Manchester city centre postcodes from memory.Lisa and Anthony discuss the power of community, the value of taking chances on people, and why creating lasting change often starts with someone simply believing in you. They also reflect on the meaning of legacy, the courage to think differently, and what it will take to ensure every young person in Greater Manchester has the opportunity to flourish.--------------------Your host, Lisa Morton, started PR company Roland Dransfield in 1996, one month after the fateful IRA bomb that tore apart the city centre. From that point, the business and its team members have been involved in helping to support the creation of Modern Manchester – across regeneration, business, charity, leisure and hospitality, sport and culture.To celebrate the 30 years that Roland Dransfield has spent creating these bonds, Lisa is gathering together some of her Greater Mancunian ‘family' and will be exploring how they have created their own purposeful relationships with the best place in the world.Connect with Anthony and NavigatorsVia their websiteOn LinkedInOn InstagramConnect with Lisa and Roland Dransfield:Via our websiteOn InstagramOn X Thanks to our partners on this episode of We Built This City, Car Finance 247. You can visit CarFinance247.co.uk or follow Car Finance 247 on LinkedIn to find out more about them.

Sara from Manchester thinks her husband is cheating. He took a big promotion at work and didn't tell her. She wants to know if he's cheating. 

The hugely anticipated West End revival of the Pulitzer Prize winning musical RENT opened last weekend at the Tom Stoppard Theatre in London. The production stands to be the biggest major revival of the show since it was originally staged. The cast includes Gaten Matarazzo as Mark, Travis Ross as Roger, Alexa Lopez as Mimi, Billy Nevers as Collins, Lazy Violet as Maureen, Olivier Award nominee Danielle Fiamanya as Joanne, Jeevan Braich as Angel and Joaquin Pedro Valdes as Benny. Find out everything you might need to know about this production including how it differs creatively from its original Manchester staging, the extent to which audience members sat onstage are involved in the show, and whether any changes have been made to the material... sign up to Mickey-Jo's weekly substack newsletter: www.mickeyjotheatre.substack.com00:00 | introduction03:17 | what is it like?09:43 | onstage seating / merch19:03 | other creative details27:33 | conclusionAbout Mickey-Jo:As one of the leading voices in theatre criticism on a social platform, Mickey-Jo is pioneering a new medium for a dwindling field. His YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MickeyJoTheatre⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ is the largest worldwide in terms of dedicated theatre criticism, where he also share features, news and interviews as well as lifestyle content for over 95,000 subscribers. With a viewership that is largely split between the US and the UK he has been fortunate enough to be able to work with PR, Marketing, and Social Media representatives for shows in New York, London, Edinburgh, Hamburg, Toronto, Sao Pãolo, and Paris. His reviews and features have also been published by WhatsOnStage, for whom he was a panelist to help curate nominees for their 2023 and 2024 Awards as well as BroadwayWorldUK, Musicals Magazine and LondonTheatre.co.uk. Instagram/TikTok/X: @MickeyJoTheatre Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This post looks at paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram, run through Meta Ads, and where it fits for a small recruitment, search or staffing business. It’s the paid companion to our earlier episodes on organic Instagram and Facebook. The short version is this: Meta ads can be genuinely useful, but they’re rarely the right first move for winning cold clients. The reach is real. Meta’s planning tools suggest advertisers can potentially reach around 38.8 million people on Facebook and 35.5 million on Instagram in the UK alone, with similar coverage across the US and Australia. But reach is not the same as attention, and neither is the same as someone being in a hiring mood. Facebook and Instagram are places people go to switch off, which makes Meta a discovery channel rather than an intent channel. That single distinction shapes everything else. We cover the four jobs Meta does well for recruiters, candidate attraction, retargeting, waking up your database, and getting a useful resource into the right hands, alongside what good recruitment creative looks like and the honest answer to whether Meta can win you clients. It can contribute, mostly by warming people up rather than closing them, but a cold ‘book a call’ advert to strangers rarely works. We also cover the money and the measurement: budgets, how long to give a campaign, and why chasing the cheapest lead is a false economy. We’re clear throughout about what the data does and doesn’t show, including where reliable UK and Australian recruitment benchmarks simply don’t exist. And we give you permission to skip the channel entirely if it doesn’t suit your business. What You Will Learn in This Post What Meta ads is, and how the paid side differs from organic posting on Facebook and Instagram Why reach on these platforms is not the same as buying intent, and what that means for recruiters The four jobs Meta ads genuinely does well for a recruitment business What separates recruitment adverts that get noticed from ones that get scrolled past The honest answer on whether Meta can win you cold clients How much to budget, how long to wait, and why lead quality matters more than cost per lead Who should skip Meta ads altogether A recruitment owner said something to me recently that sums up how many people feel about Facebook advertising. He’d put a small daily budget behind a ‘We’re hiring’ post, waited a couple of weeks, and got very little back. His conclusion was simple. Meta ads don’t work for recruitment. I understand why he’d think that. But it isn’t quite right. What happened is that he asked the wrong channel to do the wrong job for the wrong audience, in the wrong way. Once you understand how paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram really works, that becomes a very fixable problem. This is the paid side of Meta. We covered organic Instagram and Facebook, the posting and the profiles, earlier in this series. Today is about paying for reach and where that money is best spent for a recruitment, search, or staffing business. What are Meta ads  Meta owns both Facebook and Instagram. Meta ads is the system you use to pay for reach across both platforms from one place, through Ads Manager. You choose a goal, choose who you’d like to see your advert, supply the words and pictures, set a budget, and then Meta’s system decides who to show it to. That last part matters more than it used to. Meta’s delivery is now heavily AI-led, which means your detailed targeting choices act more as suggestions than strict rules. The platform tries to find whoever is most likely to give you the result you asked for. That has a big consequence, which we’ll come back to: the quality of the information you feed the system matters more than the cleverness of your targeting. The reach is real, and so is the catch Let’s start with the thing everyone leads with. Scale. In the UK, Meta’s own planning tools suggest an advertiser can potentially reach around 38.8 million people on Facebook and 35.5 million on Instagram. In the US, the figures are roughly 198 million and 182 million, and in Australia around 17.7 million and 15.2 million. These come from DataReportal’s Digital 2026 reports, drawing on Meta’s planning data from late 2025. Instagram’s reachable audience is also growing faster than Facebook’s. Now the catch, because it’s the whole game. These are estimated advertising audiences, not counts of real, active users. Meta itself is clear that the figure is not a proxy for how many people really use the app, and that it moves around for technical reasons that have nothing to do with more or fewer real people. So ‘can reach’ is not ‘is paying attention’, and it’s a long way from ‘is in a hiring mood’. It helps to think about how people use these apps. In the UK, Ofcom’s Online Nation 2025 report found people spend, on average, around 43 minutes a day on Facebook and Messenger, and around 20 minutes a day on Instagram. That’s real time and real attention. But it’s leisure time. Family photos, Reels, hobby groups, holidays, football. For context, Meta’s family of apps reached an average of 3.60 billion daily active people in June 2026, and Instagram passed 2 billion daily users in mid-2026. Those are global, family-wide figures, not Facebook-and-Instagram-only numbers and not country-level advertising reach, so they’re best treated as background rather than something to plan around. Discovery, not intent This idea explains almost everything else. Facebook and Instagram are discovery channels. People are there to switch off, not to buy recruitment. Compare that with LinkedIn or search, where someone is much closer to a work frame of mind. It’s worth being precise about who is reachable, without falling into lazy generalisations. Facebook’s audience includes a large share of working-age adults aged 35 and over, among them managers and hiring decision-makers. In the US, Pew Research found adults aged 30 to 49 were the most likely age group to use Facebook. Instagram reaches a higher proportion of younger adults, with use strongest among those aged 18 to 29. The point is not that one platform is for older adults and the other for young people. The point is that being reachable is not the same as being ready to buy. A hiring manager can be sitting right there in the audience and still have no interest in a recruitment pitch while they’re scrolling in the evening. None of this makes Meta useless. It makes it a discovery channel, and that changes what you should ask it to do. How Meta Helps Recruiters Meta ads does four jobs genuinely well for a recruitment business. Candidate attraction. This is Meta at its strongest. Job seeking happens in the evenings and at weekends, outside professional networks. Facebook has huge reach among working-age adults, and Instagram and Reels let you show what a role or a workplace is really like. If you recruit in volume, or locally, or into roles where people decide on their phone, care, hospitality, logistics, construction, manufacturing, and early-career technology and digital, it can be a very cost-effective way to be seen by the right candidates. Retargeting. This is the one most recruiters underuse. Retargeting means showing adverts to people who’ve already interacted with you. They visited a job on your website, watched most of one of your videos, opened a form, or downloaded your salary guide. They already know you exist, and a well-timed reminder does far more than shouting at strangers. Waking up your database. You can take your own lists, your candidates, your past clients, the people who came to a webinar, and, where you have the right permissions, show them adverts directly through Custom Audiences. Most recruitment businesses are sitting on a database they barely speak to. One word of care: using your own data like this comes with real privacy obligations. You need a lawful basis and a clean process. Don’t skip that part. Getting a useful resource into the right hands. This is the one we’d most want you to take away. Not ‘book a call’, but a genuinely useful thing: a salary guide for your niche, a local hiring report, a short guide on why offers are being turned down, or a webinar on what’s changing in your sector. You advertise the resource, the people who want it give you their email to get it, and you’ve turned rented attention into an audience you own. Our Marketing Trends Report works the same way. What good recruitment creative looks like A generic vacancy graphic with a logo and a salary gets scrolled past. The adverts that stop people do one of four things: teach something useful, name a specific problem, show real proof with permission, or make the next step genuinely easy. So ‘the three salary trends affecting data engineers in Manchester this quarter’ works far better than ‘we are hiring’. And short, native vertical video matters more than it did. Meta’s current guidance points to 9:16 Reels, and a 20- to 40-second specialist insight recorded on your phone is often more persuasive than a polished, generic corporate film. Can Meta win you clients? The honest answer is that it rarely does on its own, and rarely from a cold start. But it can play a real part. It contributes to client work by warming people up, not closing them. Picture the sequence. A hiring manager sees your useful salary guide. Another week, they see a short video of you explaining something smart about their market. Weeks later, they get an email from you or a note on LinkedIn, and this time your name is familiar. You didn’t win that client on Facebook, but Facebook did some of the early groundwork. It goes wrong when a small business expects a cold advert to do the job of a proper conversation. ‘We recruit accountants, get in touch’ means nothing to someone who’s never heard of you and wasn’t thinking about hiring. ‘The three things pushing up finance salaries in your city this quarter’ might make that same person stop. One is a pitch; the other is useful, and useful travels much farther here. The strongest results come when Meta is one part of a joined-up approach: useful content, Meta distribution, retargeting, email nurture, and LinkedIn or direct outreach, with fast follow-up behind it all. The money and the measurement On budget, don’t dip a toe in with a fiver a day and expect to learn anything. Meta’s own guidance is that where you set a cost-per-result goal, your daily budget should be at least five times that goal. A five-pound target cost per result implies a daily budget of at least twenty-five pounds. A serious test needs enough spend to produce real evidence, not just a few clicks. Give a lead campaign enough time to run properly. Meta suggests aiming for 50 or more conversions a week, with performance often improving after the first two weeks and a sensible minimum run of around three weeks. For a niche recruiter with a smaller audience, that volume isn’t always achievable, so judge results over weeks, not days. On quality, this is the point that saves the most money. If you tell Meta to find you the cheapest possible leads, it becomes very good at finding people who fill in forms cheaply and are worth nothing to you. Meta’s own figures show that when you feed the system information about which leads turned out to be good ones, through the Conversions API for CRM, cost per quality lead fell by around 21 per cent on Instant Form campaigns and around 9.5 per cent on website-form campaigns, compared with optimising for volume. Feed it the outcomes that matter. A word on benchmarks, and what the data won’t tell you It’s worth being straight about this. Reliable, like-for-like 2025 to 2026 Meta cost benchmarks, broken out separately for the UK, the US and Australia and specifically for recruitment B2B client acquisition, do not exist in the public data. Anyone quoting you a precise ‘cost per recruitment client’ from Facebook is guessing. The most-cited dataset is WordStream and LocaliQ’s 2025 Facebook Ads benchmarks, which are US and cross-industry. Their broad ‘Career and Employment’ category showed an average click-through rate of 2.81 per cent, an average cost per click of 0.86 US dollars and an average cost per lead of 17.64 US dollars. Treat that as rough US context only. It is not a UK or Australian figure, it is not a recruitment B2B benchmark, and a cheap form-fill is not a placement. Two advertiser examples illustrate how the levers behave, though they are not results you should expect. A B2B company, BLISS, found a shorter Instagram lead form produced 2.5 times the conversion rate and a 40 per cent lower cost per lead than a longer one, although the longer form gave higher-quality leads. Another, Appsee, reported 3.4 times higher click-through and a 25 per cent lower cost per qualified lead from Instagram Stories. Mechanisms, not guarantees. Whatever you run, measure the right things. Not just reach and cost per lead, but qualified leads, booked meetings, job orders, placements, revenue and gross profit. That’s the difference between a campaign that looks busy and one that pays. A note on compliance Recruitment advertising isn’t just a marketing exercise. Employment adverts sit within Meta’s Special Ad Category, which limits some targeting options, and any use of client or candidate data in Custom Audiences needs a lawful basis under UK GDPR and the equivalent rules in the US and Australia. This post is marketing guidance, not legal advice, so take specialist advice for your own circumstances. When to leave it alone Some recruiters should skip Meta ads altogether, and that’s a perfectly good answer if you run a small, confidential senior-search business, where the roles are rare and discretion matters; public advertising on Facebook is usually the wrong tool. Your work happens through relationships and direct approaches, not lead forms. If you can’t yet say clearly who you help and what makes you different, sort that out first. An advert only amplifies your message; it can’t rescue a fuzzy one. And if you don’t have the capacity to follow up leads quickly, or a proper page to send people to, don’t start yet. There’s no prize for being on every channel. The prize is being good on the few that suit your business. What to do this week If you’re curious but cautious, don’t launch a cold campaign at strangers. Start where the warmth already is. First, take a resource you already have, or could make in an afternoon- a salary guide, a short market report, a hiring checklist for your niche- offer it, and let people swap their email for it. Second, if you’ve got a bit of website traffic or a following, set up a simple retargeting campaign so the people who already brushed past you keep seeing you. Both are low-risk; they build something that lasts, and they teach you how the platform behaves before you ever try anything colder. Remember the pattern: Meta rewards useful, and it rewards warm. Get that right, and it stops being a money pit and starts being a proper part of your marketing. Thanks Denise The post Meta Ads for Recruitment: What Facebook and Instagram Advertising Can and Can’t Do appeared first on Superfast Recruitment.

From Porto to Sunderland and the Latest FFP Drama!

Episode 209 The Four Sexual Assault Survivors of Unknown John Doe Offender*This episode carries a trigger warning* In 2001, an 84 year old woman was raped in her home in Manchester, CT. In 2004, another Manchester woman was raped. In 2007, another. In 2008, a fourth woman from the neighboring town of Vernon was victimized. A recognizable pattern emerged, and investigators knew they had a serial rapist on their hands. But they didn't know who he was. A John Doe warrant provided probable cause for arrest, but 10 years elapsed before IGG gave a name to John Doe. And the identity of the suspect would shock the community to its core.To listen to every episode of DNA: ID ad-free and get other benefits, simply visit our channel page on Apple Podcasts to get started with an AbJack Insider subscription. Of course, you can also support DNA: ID with a Patreon subscription.Follow us on social media; find all of our social media links in one spot at our Linktree: linktr.ee/dnaidpodcastVisit this link to buy DNA ID Merch©2026 AbJack Entertainment -All rights reserved. This content is the sole property of AbJack Entertainment. Any unauthorized re-selling, re-purposing, or re-distribution, is strictly prohibited, and will be subject to legal action. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Last time we spoke about the collapse of Johore. Trapped at Parit Sulong with 150 severely wounded, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Anderson's Australians fought through Japanese roadblocks in a desperate bayonet charge singing "Waltzing Matilda." Unable to breach the bridge, Anderson was forced to abandon the injured, believing they'd receive decent treatment. Instead, they faced the Parit Sulong Massacre—tortured, executed, and incinerated by Nishimura's Imperial Guards. Few survived. Simultaneously, Endau fell after a costly RAF daylight raid. Brigadier Challen's brigade at Batu Pahat retreated through chaos, eventually evacuating by sampan. Most devastatingly, Brigadier Painter's 22nd Indian Brigade vanished into the jungle—a severed telephone line between brigades allowed Japanese infiltration, cutting them off completely. General Barstow died attempting to warn Painter. Only 63 of Painter's 2,000 men reached Singapore. The collapse of Johore was complete. The fortress awaited.   #221 The Malayan Campaign Part 3: The Fall of Singapore Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. On January 31st, the last defenders—the 2nd Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders—crossed the Causeway bridge into Singapore. The island was now under siege, though the military spokesman forbade use of the word "siege" to avoid demoralizing the population. Newspapers were permitted only "besieged," though the true situation was unmistakable to Winston Churchill, who had sent Wavell an unequivocal message two weeks prior: "I want to make it absolutely clear that I expect every inch of ground to be defended, every scrap of material or defenses to be blown to pieces to prevent capture by the enemy and no question of surrender to be entertained until after protracted fighting in the ruins of singapore city." This was Götterdämmerung in miniature—a fight to the bitter end. Wavell relayed Churchill's orders to Percival, who now faced two massive challenges: repelling a Japanese invasion of Singapore's northern coast while protecting the central island with its population and infrastructure. Following Churchill's directives, Percival ordered the destruction of the naval base in utmost secrecy. In a speech to his troops, Percival declared: "Our task has been both to impose losses on the enemy and to gain time to enable the forces of the Allies to be concentrated for this struggle in the Far East. Today we stand beleaguered in our island fortress. Our task is to hold this fortress until help can come – as assuredly it will come. This we are determined to do." Yamashita feared the British might use oil tanks in the naval base to ignite the Straits of Johore, creating a fiery barrier against his amphibious assault. He ordered his artillery and air force to bombard and bomb the tanks, creating a massive cloud of black smoke that enveloped the entire island. While Yamashita prevented the catastrophe he dreaded, the burning oil proved a double-edged sword—the smog made it extremely difficult for Japanese aircraft to locate targets and for artillery to maintain accuracy, wasting significant ammunition. Yamashita had positioned 200 artillery pieces and mortars within range, while Percival commanded 226 guns, including 29 large garrison guns and three massive 15-inch naval guns capable of rotating 360 degrees. However, the ammunition was armor-piercing, designed for ships rather than land targets. To conserve shells, Percival limited harassing fire to 20 rounds per gun daily. Yamashita envisioned firing 1,000 rounds from each gun to soften defenses. His heaviest artillery comprised 105mm guns firing 68-pound shells, but most were Krupp 1890 model 75mm guns firing lighter 11-pound shells compared to British 25-pounders. Yamashita faced an artillery shortfall. More critical was troop disparity: Yamashita had approximately 30,000 men for the assault, while Percival commanded nearly 90,000—though Percival believed the Japanese force was far larger. Singapore's 72-mile coastline meant defending everywhere simultaneously. Though the main thrust would obviously target the northern shore, Percival stationed units like the Manchesters—a regular machine gun battalion from Palestine—in southern pillboxes, never having fired in anger. Having been repeatedly outflanked during the Malayan campaign, Percival feared Yamashita might combine a northern attack with simultaneous southern amphibious landings or airborne drops. He preferred thin coverage across the entire coastline, drawing reserves only to address the most apparent threat. The logical invasion point was west of the Causeway, where the Straits narrowed to 600-2,000 yards and the Skudai River estuary provided concealment for small boats. Wavell believed this and recommended positioning the 18th Division—the freshest troops—there. But deployment decisions belonged to field commanders. Percival established two defensive lines: the Jurong Line, running from the Kranji River south to the Jurong River along the western side, and the Serangoon Line, extending from the Serangoon River southward on the eastern side. Both were mapped but entirely unprepared. The northern shore was similarly unfortified. Four defensive areas were designated: the Southern Area (from the Jurong River around to Changi) under Major-General Keith Simmons; the Northern Area (from Changi to Woodlands) defended by the 18th Division under Merton Beckwith Smith and the 11th Indian Division under Lewis Heath; the Western Area (from Woodlands westward) defended by the 8th Australian Division under Bennett and the semi-trained 44th Indian Brigade; and a Reserve Area centered on Bukit Timah and Paya Lebar, commanded by Brigadier Paris with the undermanned 12th and 15th Indian Brigades. Believing the western Causeway crossing too obvious, Percival decided the main landings would occur to the east. Unfortunately, he was wrong. Percival relied on secret sampan patrols to gather intelligence. Patrols east of the Causeway discovered Japanese equipment on Ubin Island in the strait, and artillery fire on the eastern sector seemed to confirm his suspicion of a northeastern invasion. However, two Australian patrols also reported significant Japanese troop concentrations in the western sector with large concentrations of enemy forces—but found very few landing craft on the Malaya River. Percival dismissed this intelligence as inconsequential, convinced the main attack would come northeast rather than northwest. The patrols had failed to locate where Yamashita had hidden his boats. Anyone understanding Japan should have anticipated that Yamashita would assault Singapore by February 11th—Kigensetsu, Shinto's most significant holiday celebrating Emperor Jimmu Tenno's birth. Yamashita was convinced Singapore lay within his grasp and knew how pleased his superiors would be with a conquest by that date. He had conquered all Malaya in just 55 days, suffering fewer than 2,000 deaths and under 3,000 wounded. His forces had advanced 700 miles, repaired over 250 bridges, killed an estimated 5,000 defenders, and captured 8,000, including senior officers like Painter and Challen. Soon Singapore would become a vast prison camp as the Imperial Japanese Navy tightened its blockade. Yet speed was essential; Yamashita's forces were needed for operations against Sumatra, Java, New Guinea, and many Pacific locations. The longer he delayed, the better prepared the 90,000-strong British force would become. Delay risked allowing the defenders to engage him decisively in the Straits of Johore. Yamashita promised Tokyo an attack within a week. Zero hour was set shortly after sunset on February 7th. Two divisional commanders requested an additional 24 hours to prepare, and Yamashita granted it without hesitation. He understood that if they needed more time, they needed it. Throughout February 7th, 52 guns supporting Nishimura's Imperial Guards Division bombarded the East Anglians near Changi, positioned where massive 15-inch guns stood. Under darkness, an Imperial Guards battalion boarded noisy-engined boats heading for Ubin Island. To their astonishment, the noise didn't alert defenders—the island lay undefended. Percival had decided against stationing troops there due to insufficient manpower, allowing only twice-daily patrols by the 4th Norfolks, who accidentally shot one another in the dark during one patrol. The unopposed capture raised Yamashita's concerns; this feint was designed to divert attention from the western sector, where he planned his full-scale assault. Had his deception failed? Were Percival's main forces hiding in the west? Yet there was consolation: British artillery was targeting the eastern side, not the western sector where Yamashita had positioned significant artillery. The concentrated eastern bombardment reinforced Percival's conviction that the Japanese would invade the northeast. Yamashita had successfully deceived his opponent. The trap was set. On February 8th at 10 a.m., the Japanese bombardment unleashed chaos along the entire northern coast. Over 88,000 shells rained down in 15 hours, destroying telephone lines and isolating forward units. By 7 p.m., the assault focused almost exclusively on the western shore. At 8:30, as the bombardment diminished, the men of D Company, 20th Battalion heard boat engines previously drowned out by the barrage. Yamashita's fleet—50 steel-hulled landing crafts and up to 300 collapsible assault boats—surged from the Skudai River, fanning across the straits as approximately 4,000 of his best troops made their first wave. Colonel Nicol of the 20th Battalion fired the first shots at roughly 300 yards. The forward defenders—about 3,000 Australian infantry exhausted from 15 hours of bombardment—faced Brigadier Harold Taylor's 22nd Brigade positioned across approximately 14.6 km of shoreline. Taylor's force was critically undermanned, with communication failures and minimal water obstacles leaving them devastatingly vulnerable. Yamashita had targeted Taylor's line at its weakest point—what the Germans called Schwerpunkt. Two critical failures compounded the disaster. Major Peacock's searchlight crews, meant to illuminate the landing craft, never received orders to activate. Commander Taylor mistakenly believed the generator was damaged; in reality, the lights simply never came on. Without illumination, artillery couldn't engage effectively. The forward infantry used 3-inch mortars and Vickers guns as landing craft made landfall on small islands like Sarimbun, 400 yards offshore, where Japanese troops established mortars and machine guns to return fire. Among the first ashore was Private Kiyoichi Yamamoto, who suffered severe shrapnel wounds to his stomach, chest, and right hand from a mortar explosion. Despite his injuries, he pressed through the darkness to the beach, reportedly collapsing and dying after helping comrades ashore while shouting "Tenno heika Banzai!" When retrieved, his right lung protruded through his shattered rib cage, his uniform nearly entirely drenched in blood. Taylor's Australians inflicted considerable casualties on the first waves. When Sergeant Arai Mitsuo of the 18th Division jumped from his boat at about 1 a.m. with the second wave, "a cold hand stroked his ankle." He found nine corpses floating in a line, heads upward. "A chill ran down Arai's spine. Were they shot while crossing, and then washed up, or after they had landed? But reflections be hanged! Quick! Cut off a wrist or a finger of each dead man. Chop, chop, chop. Into a box, there's no time to bury them. Just a quick prayer. Rest in peace. Then forward! He must fire the green 'success' rocket: Regimental Command has landed—the sign for 18th Division General Mutaguchi Renya to embark on the third wave across the straits." After four hours, Taylor's 22nd Brigade was overwhelmed. Though artillery eventually provided defensive fire, only 8 of 30 25-pounders were operational. Gun crews remained unaware of the situation until dispatch riders arrived with vague orders to "bring down fire everywhere." The absence of searchlights rendered fire inaccurate and chaotic. Yamashita's Schwerpunkt had worked perfectly. Machine gunner Ochi Harumi of the 5th noted, "For the defending Australians, it was kill or retreat; for the Japanese, it was kill or be killed." He observed that a rearguard armed with Thompsons attempted to slow them, but they moved like "rapid dogs" pursuing the Australians into the bush. Japanese officers carried compasses and instructions to disperse upon landing, heading south or southeast to regroup at the damaged Tengah airfield, situated between the coast and swamps. Both Taylor's forces and the Japanese converged there. Corporal Clarence Spackman and his men, armed with bayonets, encountered a Japanese group including an officer wielding a katana. Spackman charged, seized the sword, and engaged in brutal melee combat, killing several Japanese soldiers. Like many units, his company attempted to establish defensive positions, slowing the Japanese throughout the night. By February 9th, Taylor's brigade had descended into chaos. Men were caked in mud from swamp crossings, many having lost weapons while attempting to reform defensive lines north of Tengah. Bennett sent reinforcements, but the situation deteriorated. Some units reached the village of Bukit Timah on Singapore's outskirts. Duncan, commanding the 27th Infantry Brigade, made unusual personnel changes within hours: Lt Colonel Albert Boyes was succeeded by Lt Colonel Richard Oakes, and Black Jack Galleghan was replaced by Major Ramsay—Duncan disliked Galleghan, who had partially lost his hearing from a near-miss bomb blast. Duncan's forward units covered two miles between the causeway and Kranji River. With the Japanese bridgehead entirely west of the Kranji, Duncan repositioned away from the shoreline toward the river to confront invaders. He then defied Bennett's orders, instructing his men to destroy 2 million gallons of motor fuel at the Woodlands depot before withdrawing. This maneuver shifted his forces from a west-east axis to north-south, ensuring control over the Bukit Timah road for potential retreat into Singapore proper if the enemy gained the upper hand. Nishimura's Imperial Guards Division seethed after their diversionary role on Ubin Island. The humiliation proved unbearable, and his complaints convinced Yamashita to authorize an assault on the causeway itself. Given its narrow width, Nishimura committed only one battalion for the first wave. At 8:30 PM, boats ferried the 4th Guards Regiment across, but they faced identical obstacles to the Western landings—failed field telephones and inoperative searchlights. Around the Kranji River, Oakes' men mounted determined resistance, holding back the Guards. By morning, once communications resumed, Duncan learned his forces risked encirclement from Japanese crossings further south. He ordered immediate withdrawal after destroying the fuel tanks. At 4 AM, they ignited the depot. The Mandai Kechil blazed as the British successfully set portions of the sea ablaze. Corporal Tsuchikane Tominosuke, caught in the conflagration, recounted the nightmare: "Fire lashed out over the mangrove and set it ablaze. It spread quickly, feeding on oil poured into the straits. Mother! Mother! A voice could be heard moaning. It was a picture of hell—'Abiyokan,' Buddhism's worst of all hells. I stumbled along the edge of the beach, my gun felt slippery in my hands. Fire in all directions threatened to engulf me. Where to go? It seemed impossible to advance or retreat! Then I stumbled across Corporal Nemeto who said, 'We'll burn to death just standing here—let's attack!' Shouting out to the battalion and platoons, we advanced. One, then two comrades joined; soon we were five black figures looking all alike, with only the whites of our eyes glinting in the darkness. We were covered in heavy black oil." Nishimura learned that the Kobayashi regiment had last been seen swimming through flames. Many soldiers, covered in oil, returned to Johore. Convinced his division had been wronged, Nishimura raged that Yamashita had "recklessly forced a passage without adequate preparation, resulting in unnecessary casualties." Why did his guards face the toughest beach while the 5th and 18th divisions enjoyed relative ease? He suspected deliberate mockery of his "chocolate soldier" force. When he confronted Yamashita at his Johore headquarters, he discovered the commander had already crossed to his new HQ at north Tengah with Tsuji. Yamashita and Tsuji were having breakfast with dry bread when Nishimura's aide reported. Yamashita dismissed the account as panic from a few fleeing men. The guards division, he declared, could "do as it pleases in this battle," leaving victory to the 5th and 18th divisions alone. Despite this rebuff, the Imperial Guards pressed through the Abiyokan—the burning hell—seeking revenge. Tsuchikane engaged in grenade duels and led bayonet charges. After bayoneting an opponent, he observed defenders "having lost their nerve, with some soldiers cowering in terror, squatting down and avoiding hand-to-hand combat in a wait-and-see position. They, too, were bayoneted or shot without mercy." While the Guards fought, Wavell completed his final flight back to Singapore from Java HQ, arriving as the RAF evacuated. He went directly to Bennett's headquarters with Percival, the three generals barely escaping a Japanese air raid. Bennett revealed that Duncan had disobeyed orders and withdrawn, opening the floodgates for Yamashita to advance on Bukit Timah and the city. Bennett pledged to mount a counterattack within hours and seal the gaps. Before Wavell's early morning departure, he dined with Percival and Air Vice Marshal Pulford. Just as the meal began, a telegram from Churchill arrived: "There must at this stage be no thought of saving the troops or sparing the population. The battle must be fought to the bitter end at all costs. The 18th Division has its chance to make its name in history. Commanders and senior officers should die with their troops. The honour of the British Empire and of the British Army is at stake. I rely on you to show no weakness or mercy in any form. With the Russians fighting as they are and the Americans so stubborn at Luzon, the whole reputation of our country and our race is involved." Wavell added his own message for the troops: "The Chinese, with an almost complete lack of modern equipment, have held the greater part of their country against the full strength of the Japanese… It will be disgraceful if we yield our boasted Fortress of Singapore to inferior enemy forces… I look to you and to your men to fight to the end and to prove that the fighting spirit that won our Empire still exists to enable us to defend it." Percival issued his own directive: "It will be a lasting disgrace if we are defeated by an army of clever gangsters many times inferior in numbers… The spirit of aggression and determination to stick it out must be inculcated in all ranks. There must be no further withdrawals without orders. There are too many fighting men in the back areas. Every available man who is not doing essential work must be used to stop the invader." By 9 PM, Bennett's formations were positioned for a major counterattack at dawn. At Bukit Panjang, Brigadier Paris was settling in for dinner when a Japanese tankette appeared at his gates. Defenders mistook it for a Bren gun carrier; sentries grabbed revolvers and fired. The vehicle retreated. It was later discovered that Yamashita had transported armor across the straits using makeshift pontoons—three rafts lashed together. Over thirty T-95s had landed in the area Duncan vacated, now positioned three miles down the road in Bukit Timah. Alarmed, Paris sent Brigadier Major Angus MacDonald to establish a blockade, anticipating another night assault like Slim River. With no time for proper fortifications, the battalion—oriented westward toward friendly territory—could only park vehicles across the road. As men placed anti-tank mines, a T-95 silhouette appeared. The Japanese took twenty minutes to breach the obstacles, losing one tank to a mine. Boys anti-tank rifles blazed; two tanks exploded. The remaining armor halted. It was February 10th, the eve of Kigensetsu, the 2602nd anniversary of the Japanese Empire. On Kigensetsu morning, around 9 AM, Japanese aircraft dropped something unprecedented: eighteen-inch tubes adorned with colored ribbons containing Yamashita's surrender ultimatum to Percival, written in English: "Your Excellency, I, the High Command of the Nippon Army based on the spirit of Japanese chivalry, have the honour of presenting this note to Your Excellency advising you to surrender the whole force in Malaya… Many fierce fights have been fought by your gallant men and officers to the honour of British warriorship. But the development of the general war situation has already sealed the fate of Singapore… I expect that Your Excellency accepting my advice will give up this meaningless and desperate resistance and promptly order the entire front to cease hostilities… If on the contrary Your Excellency should neglect my advice and the present resistance be continued, I shall be obliged, though reluctantly from humanitarian considerations, to order my army to make annihilating attacks on Singapore… (signed) Tomoyuki Yamashita" By February 13th, Bennett's counterattack to reclaim the Kranji-Jurong line had largely failed. Australian, British, and Indian forces were retreating across the island, some in full rout. Bennett told Captain Frank Gaven of the 20th Battalion, "I don't think the men want to fight," to which Gaven replied: "The men are very tired; their rations have been irregular and insufficient. They have been in constant contact with the enemy and feel they have been let down. I feel that way too." When Wavell reported to Churchill on the situation, he admitted: "The Japanese, using their usual infiltration tactics, are advancing more swiftly than they should in the west of the island… The morale of some troops is low, and none is as high as I would like… Everything possible is being done to foster a more offensive spirit and an optimistic outlook." Percival, hampered by poor intelligence that grossly overestimated Japanese strength, attempted to reorganize his defenses. He created the Tom Force under Lionel Thomas to recapture Bukit Timah village and hill, which the Japanese had occupied that morning. Though composed largely of inexperienced soldiers, Tom Force made progress where most other disorganized units failed. However, they were halted at Bukit Timah by heavy bombardment from Japanese bombers that had shifted focus from Keppel Harbor. The 15-inch Johore batteries were firing on the invaders in the Bukit Timah area, but nearly all 250 rounds were armor-piercing shells—devastating to ships but ineffective against ground targets. Had they been high-explosive rounds, they might have decimated the enemy. Tsuji, driving through Bukit Panjang crossroads, experienced the terror firsthand: "…the blast jarred our spines. The flash seared my eyes, and I was thrown into the roadside ditch… one discharge – two discharges… I had no experience of such heavy projectiles, which tore holes in the ground 15 or 16 metres in diameter and 4 or 5 metres deep… Crouching like a crab inside the earthen pipe I imagined what would happen if a shell fell on me… I had landed on the island with the intention of dying but unconsciously I drew myself further into the pipe." With Tom Force's attack repelled, Percival consolidated his forces into a 28-square-mile perimeter stretching from Keppel Harbor to Kallang Airfield—an area containing approximately 1 million civilians and up to 90,000 military personnel. The loss of Bukit Timah made it impossible to include the island's two reservoirs. He retained only control of MacRitchie's southeastern shore and its underground pipes. By dawn on February 13th, morale was collapsing. Desertions were widespread, and soldiers had lost the will to fight. On February 14th, at 1 PM, the Changi Fire Command was ordered to prepare three 15-inch guns for demolition by 6:30 PM. The guns fired around 194 shells, using 80% of their ammunition before detonation charges destroyed them at 6:45 PM. All remaining ships began final evacuation. Out of approximately 5,000 people boarding 44 ships, around 40 vessels were sunk. Only 1,250 reached India or Australia. Many ships were targeted by Japanese aircraft and heavy shellfire in the Bangka Straits, though some fortunate survivors were rescued by select IJN vessels that permitted surrender. The worst horror came at Alexandra Hospital on Saturday, February 14th. Gunner Anckorn, severely injured and amputated, had received significant morphine. When Japanese soldiers entered, he spoke to the patient beside him: "aren't they Japanese soldiers?" When told yes, he asked what they were doing. "He said they're taking people on the front lawn and killing them… The next time I woke up the Japanese were back in the ward, going from bed to bed with fixed bayonets. As they came up my line of beds, I thought to myself I'm going to be dead in thirty seconds… I said out loud to myself two things: 'I'll never be twenty-four'. The other one was, 'Poor Mum'. They got close to my bed for my turn of bayoneting… I put my head under the pillow and when I came up for air they'd gone and there were four people left alive in the ward." Some theorize the Japanese mistook his blood-soaked hand and empty pillow for a corpse already bayoneted. The atrocity claimed 320 men and 1 woman, with 90 members of the Royal Australian Medical Corps killed while protecting their 800 patients. Meanwhile, Bennett gathered remaining Australian troops into a comprehensive defensive position, while many lingered around the docks seeking escape. Recognizing the dire situation, Bennett messaged Army HQ in Melbourne: "If the enemy enters the city behind us, we will take appropriate action to prevent unnecessary sacrifices." To the north, the 18th Division under Major General Beckwith-Smith fought intense house-to-house combat. The 1st Cambridgeshires identified a Japanese encampment on Peirce Reservoir's northwestern shore where enemy soldiers were swimming and performing calisthenics. They deployed a dozen Bren guns and 2-inch mortars, opening fire from 400 yards away with devastating effect. On February 15th, Percival received Wavell's telegram granting him discretion to surrender: "Time gained and damage to the enemy are of vital importance… When you are fully satisfied that this is no longer possible I give you discretion to cease resistance… Whatever happens I thank you and all your troops for your gallant efforts of last few days." Percival convened a commanders' conference at 9:30 AM. Only Beckwith-Smith was absent, reporting significant enemy infiltration along his 17,000-yard front. The 4th Suffolks and Foresters had been overwhelmed by Japanese tanks. Chief Engineer Brigadier Simson warned that Singapore City would run out of water within a day. Bennett and Heath had been advocating surrender for days. Suddenly, Bennett suggested a joint attack to reclaim Bukit Timah, but his proposal met with silence. A Japanese flag was raised from the Cathay Building for ten minutes—signaling Percival's agreement. He would meet Yamashita at the Ford Factory. Yamashita's forces were critically depleted: only 18 tanks remained, infantry were limited to 100 rounds each, and fuel supplies had run dry. Men survived on two bowls of rice daily. Percival arrived at 4:30 PM carrying a white flag himself. Inside the factory, photographers and reporters clamored. Yamashita appeared and declared: "The Japanese Army will consider nothing but surrender." Yamashita knew the British outnumbered him 3-to-1 and feared the British would discover this numerical inferiority, forcing disastrous street fighting. Percival stalled: "I fear we shall be unable to submit our final reply before 10:30 PM." Yamashita erupted: "Reply to us only whether our terms are acceptable or not, things must be settled swiftly. We are prepared to resume firing." When Percival continued stalling, Yamashita exploded: "Unless you do surrender, we will have to carry out our night attack as scheduled!" Percival requested: "Cannot the Japanese army remain in its present position? We can resume negotiations tomorrow at 5:30 AM?" "Nani!" Yamashita burst. "I want the hostilities to cease tonight and I want to remind you there can be no arguments." Percival stammered: "We shall discontinue firing by 8:30 PM. Had we better remain in our present positions tonight?" Yamashita grew suspicious of Percival's vagueness: "You have agreed to the terms but you have not yet made yourself clear as to whether you agree to surrender or not." Percival could not speak—facing history's worst moment for Britain. He cleared his throat and nodded. Yamashita shook his finger: "There's no need for all this talk. It is a simple question and I want a simple answer—yes or no! Surrender or fight!" "Yes," Percival said. "I have a request to make. Will the Imperial Army protect the women and children and British civilians?" "We shall see to it. Please sign this truce agreement." It was the greatest land victory in Japanese history. Yamashita took Malaya and Singapore for 3,506 killed and 6,150 wounded. Percival's casualties were approximately 7,500 killed and 10,000 wounded. About 120,000 prisoners were taken. During the Singapore Island campaign alone, Yamashita lost 1,713 killed and 2,772 wounded—nearly as many as the entire Malayan campaign. Yamashita later boasted about his greatest deception: "My attack on Singapore was a bluff—a bluff that worked. I had 30,000 men and was outnumbered more than three to one. I knew that if I had to fight for long for Singapore, I would be beaten. That is why the surrender had to be at once. I was very frightened all the time that the British would discover our numerical weakness and lack of supplies and force me into disastrous street fighting." On paper he was outnumbered 3-to-1, but his three first-class homogeneous divisions possessed air and naval superiority—advantages incomparable to Percival's heterogeneous, disorganized force. Had the British continued resisting, Yamashita would merely have waited for reinforcements and supplies. Winston Churchill called Singapore's fall "the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history." His personal physician, Lord Moran, wrote: "The fall of Singapore on February 15 stupefied the Prime Minister. How came 100,000 men (half of them of our own race) to hold up their hands to inferior numbers of Japanese?… The surrender of the fortress stunned him. He felt it was a disgrace. It left a scar on his mind. One evening, months later, when he was sitting in his bathroom enveloped in a towel, he stopped drying himself and gloomily surveyed the floor: 'I cannot get over Singapore,' he said sadly."   But Singapore's fall meant far more to the Chinese population than simple military defeat. For them, the island's capture represented not just the loss of a fortress, but the arrival of an occupying force whose intentions toward the Chinese had already been made brutally clear across Malaya. Dalforce, the Chinese volunteer force hastily formed weeks earlier, had fought fiercely across the island during the campaign, sustaining heavy casualties in a desperate struggle alongside British and Commonwealth forces. Some members had managed to escape into the jungle; others would face a far darker fate than conventional prisoner-of-war detention. The Japanese military leadership had long regarded the Chinese population as potentially the greatest source of resistance to their territorial expansion throughout Asia-Pacific. The Second Sino-Japanese War, raging since 1937, had created deep mutual antagonism—Chinese communities across Southeast Asia had raised funds for Chinese nationalist forces and demonstrated unmistakable anti-Japanese sentiment. What awaited the Chinese of Singapore after the British surrender was not occupation in the conventional sense, but systematic persecution rooted in ideological vendetta. On February 18, 1942—just three days after the British surrender—the occupying Japanese military initiated an operation that would become one of World War II's lesser-known but devastating atrocities. The Kempeitai, the Imperial Japanese Army's secret police, began mass arrests and executions of Singapore's Chinese population. The operation was code-named "Sook Ching," a Chinese term meaning "purge through cleansing." The Japanese themselves referred to it as Kakyo Shukusei—"purging of Overseas Chinese." The massacre was systematic and premeditated. Japanese military planners had decided well before the invasion that the Chinese population of Singapore and Malaya required elimination or severe subjugation. According to captured Japanese records and postwar testimony, an order had been issued by senior staff officers on Yamashita's operations staff to kill 50,000 Chinese—approximately 20 percent of the total population. The purge was officially planned to last only two days, but it would be extended repeatedly until early March, consuming thousands of lives. The mechanism of the massacre was coldly bureaucratic. The Japanese established "screening centres" throughout Singapore where Chinese males aged 18 to 50 were required to report for "inspection." The Kempeitai, commanded by Major Masayuki Oishi from headquarters at the YMCA Building on Stamford Road, divided Singapore into sectors and administered the process with 200 regular Kempeitai officers and approximately 1,000 auxiliaries—many of them young conscripts from rural areas with no interrogation training or judicial framework to guide their decisions. In theory, the screening was meant to identify "anti-Japanese elements"—communists, volunteers who had fought with Allied forces, businessmen who had financed resistance to Japan's invasion of China, and organized crime members. The reality was far more brutal and arbitrary. At some screening centers, interrogators singled out men with glasses, assuming educated men posed a threat. Others were selected based on tattoos, considered a sign of triad membership. Hooded informants—often questionable in their knowledge—pointed fingers at supposed troublemakers. At one notorious center, all Chinese males who happened to walk through a particular entrance were simply loaded into trucks to be shot, while those who used another pathway were released. The system was designed less to identify genuine resistance threats and more to terrorize the Chinese community through indiscriminate slaughter. Those who "passed" the screening received a stamp or certificate marked "examined," allowing them to leave. Those who "failed" were separated, marked with triangular stamps indicating their death sentence, and packed into trucks. They were transported to remote killing sites around the island: Changi Beach, Punggol Point, Katong, Tanah Merah, Sentosa (then called Pulau Belakang Mati), and numerous other coastal areas. At these beaches and isolated locations, the condemned were executed by firing squads, bayoneted by soldiers, or simply shot and left to be washed into the sea. The scale was staggering. On February 20, 1942, 66 Chinese males were lined up at Changi Beach and shot. On February 28, approximately 300 to 400 Chinese were executed at Punggol Point by Kempeitai firing squads. At Tanah Merah Beach, 242 victims from the Jalan Besar screening center were massacred. At Katong, 20 trenches were dug to bury bodies. Some victims were transported from the docks at Tanjong Pagar and executed at sea, their bullet-riddled bodies later washing ashore on Sentosa, where surrendered British gunners awaiting internment were forced to bury them. The massacre extended throughout the island and into Malaya. At Kota Tinggi in Johor, 2,000 were killed on February 28. At Joo Loong Loong in Negeri Sembilan, an entire village of 1,474 Chinese was systematically exterminated by Major Yokokoji Kyomi and his troops on March 18. Across the southern states of Malaya, estimated to be as many as 25,000 Chinese were killed through similar indiscriminate mass executions. The bodies piled into mass graves, often remaining hidden until decades later when construction or farming uncovered them. In the immediate aftermath, families of victims had no opportunity to recover remains or conduct proper funerary rites according to Chinese tradition. The death toll remains contested. Japan's postwar government claimed no more than 6,000 had been killed. Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's first Prime Minister, who himself narrowly escaped selection for execution during the screening process, stated the verifiable death toll was approximately 70,000, including Malaya. Historians examining mass grave discoveries and survivor testimony estimate the true figure at 25,000 to 50,000 in Singapore itself, with another 20,000 across Malaya. The variety of estimates stems partly from the Japanese destruction of all documentation related to the screening process and the indiscriminate nature of the killings—many victims were never recorded, their disappearances simply adding to the chaos of the occupation's early days. The psychological impact on Singapore's Chinese community was devastating. Survivors emerged from the screening process traumatized, many bearing visible marks of their passage through the system. Women and children, though theoretically not targeted, were sometimes sent for inspection as well, and some were victimized during the process. Entire families were separated, with some members executed while others survived by chance. The massacre destroyed the illusion that Singapore's position as a British fortress had provided security or protection. The rapid fall of Singapore and the subsequent slaughter of the Chinese population crystallized a profound realization among the local population: the colonial masters could not protect them, and their status as second-class inhabitants of their own territory had become abundantly clear. In the years after the war, perpetrators of the Sook Ching were identified and tried. Seven Japanese officers—Takuma Nishimura, Saburo Kawamura, Masayuki Oishi, Yoshitaka Yokata, Tomotatsu Jo, Satoru Onishi, and Haruji Hisamatsu—were charged in 1947. Kawamura and Oishi received death sentences and were hanged on June 26, 1947. However, the mastermind behind the operation—Major Masanobu Tsuji, Yamashita's Chief of Planning and Operations who personally planned and coordinated the massacre—escaped after the war, fled to China, and later became a politician in Japan before disappearing in Laos in 1961, presumably killed. The massacre's legacy became a catalyst for political awakening in Singapore. The British failure to demand reparations specifically for the Chinese, Malay, and Indian communities killed during the occupation (only securing compensation for European victims) became a point of bitter contention. It demonstrated to Singaporean Chinese that the colonial government did not truly represent their interests. When Singapore gained self-governance in 1959, waves of anti-Japanese sentiment emerged, with the Chinese community demanding official apologies and reparations. Not until 1966, after independence, did Japan agree to provide S$50 million in compensation—though notably refusing to make an official apology or accept legal responsibility for the massacre. The Japanese government classified the payment as a "gesture of atonement" rather than formal reparations, a linguistic evasion that did little to ease the lingering trauma. Mass graves were accidentally discovered in 1962 at Siglap, an area locals had called the "Valley of Tears." Exhumation work continued through the 1960s, with nearly 100 graves uncovered. In 1963, Singapore erected the Civilian War Memorial at Beach Road—a 67.4-meter monument consisting of four pillars symbolizing Singapore's four major ethnic groups. Beneath it lies a tomb containing remains of Sook Ching victims recovered from 1962 to 1966. The massacre sites at Changi Beach, Katong, Punggol Point, Tanah Merah, and Sentosa were designated as heritage sites in 1992 with commemorative plaques. Yet the numerical vagueness surrounding the death toll—a direct consequence of Japan's refusal to acknowledge full responsibility or conduct a proper investigation—remains a source of historical frustration and continuing emotional weight for the descendants of victims. The Sook Ching Massacre had an immediate and profound effect on organized Chinese resistance. Many Dalforce members who had escaped into the jungle were now hunted relentlessly by occupying forces. Some retreated further inland, eventually linking with the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA), the communist guerrilla force that had been organizing in Malaya. The massacre transformed what might have been localized resistance into a unified determination to survive and eventually drive out the occupiers. The brutality inflicted upon the Chinese population—ostensibly targeted at "anti-Japanese elements" but indiscriminate in practice—radicalized entire communities and gave the nascent guerrilla movements both moral justification and a steady stream of desperate recruits willing to fight. The very mechanism designed to crush Chinese resistance had, ironically, forged the conditions for sustained and effective guerrilla warfare throughout the occupation's three-and-a-half years.  I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me.   Singapore fell on February 15, 1942, when Percival surrendered to Yamashita—who had bluffed with inferior numbers and dwindling supplies. Three days later, the Sook Ching Massacre began: the Kempeitai systematically slaughtered 25,000 to 50,000 Chinese civilians across Singapore and Malaya through "screening centers" and mass executions at beaches, eliminating perceived anti-Japanese resistance.      

Original Nirvana drummer Chad Channing shares stories from the Bleach era, Love Buzz single & other collectables, getting knocked out by Chris's bass and digging through his rare vinyl. Topics Include: Chad's prized find: an original Australian Dirty Deeds from a rummage sale Hunting a Bill Evans record, and why jazz demands clean vinyl Dad played LA jazz bass; Mom once sang with Chet Baker How jazz quietly shaped his "drummer for the song" philosophy Describing his drumming style in one word: adaptive Nirvana's only instruction when he joined: powerful but simple Coming from a math rock band with 13-part songs The one time Kurt openly praised his drumming: In Bloom How "About a Girl" got its name from Chad Kurt finishing Bleach lyrics in a notebook while driving to the studio Shelved songs, lost tapes, and Chad's forgotten cassette in the box set Owning Love Buzz single #3; Kurt had #1, Chris #2 His blank-label Bleach test pressing, housed in a homemade cover Nate authenticates Chad's Australian Waterfront blue vinyl live on air The ultra-rare purple Waterfront pressing and why most were destroyed Swirled Sub Pop variants, and why he's never played some Knocked out by Chris's bass at the Bleach cover photo show Tracy Marander's undeveloped rolls of never-seen Nirvana photos Sub Pop steering early decisions while the band went along Packed European shows: the moment they realized something big was happening The Blew EP and its gynecologist-chair cover he never chose Hiding under the drum riser with Kurt as bottles flew Stuck alone in a broken Manchester elevator for half an hour His European tour posters, including the coveted Lush show poster Could his beat-up distortion pedal be Kurt's missing Astoria pedal? A gifted Mustang, his kit at MoPOP, and heirlooms for his kids Smart Studios sessions, and Dave Grohl keeping his drum parts Here She Comes Now, Sappy, and becoming a Nirvana fan afterward MS, a childhood leg injury, and a memoir about 73 moves The wonderful photo by Rosetta Greek  High resolution version of this podcast is available at: www.Patreon.com/VinylGuide Apple: https://tinyurl.com/tvg-ios Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/tvg-spot Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/tvg-amazon Support the show at Patreon.com/VinylGuide

Theo Delaney is joined by Oliver Holt, the Chief Sports Writer on the Daily Mail and the Mail On Sunday whose new book, '92 A Life In Football Grounds', tracks his decades long odyssey through the homes of all of England's professional clubs as a journalist and a fan. In this, part one of two, he recalls growing up in Manchester as the son of Coronation Street star Eileen Derbyshire (aka Emily Bishop) and his habit of attending games at Old Trafford and Maine Road as well as Edgeley Park Stockport. One of the most revered football writers around, he brings a connoisseur's list of goals with a mix of classics and personal choices. @ollieholt22@LifeGoalsTD@theodelaney dailymail.co.uk/sporthttps://www.theodelaney.com/life-goals-links

In this episode of the Manchester is Red podcast, Steven Railston and Tyrone Marshall break down the biggest news, tactical dilemmas, and injury updates surrounding Manchester United. Topics Covered: Man City's 115 Charges: The hosts discuss the rumours that Manchester City have been found guilty of 114 of their 115 charges. They debate the likelihood of Manchester United being retroactively awarded the 2011/12 and 2017/18 Premier League titles. Bruno Fernandes' Workload: Analysis of Bruno Fernandes' absence for Portugal against Wales after taking heavy blows in a 90-minute performance against Sabah. The hosts debate whether his minutes need to be managed more intelligently to avoid long-term burnout. Mounting Defensive Injuries: Updates on Patrick Dorgu, who suffered a thigh and hamstring injury while playing for Denmark against Wales. The hosts also express concern over the left-back position given Luke Shaw's ongoing absence following his brief return against Fulham. The Left-Back Dilemma: With injuries piling up, the hosts debate whether Michael Carrick will be forced to play Harry Amass. They discuss the risks of throwing the young defender into high-pressure games and whether he should have been introduced earlier in the Carabao Cup. Midfield Solutions: A look at Carlos Baleba's recent individual training. The hosts evaluate whether he is ready to make his debut or start in the upcoming clash against Tottenham on October 10 to inject much-needed running stats and energy into the team's passive midfield.

Check out the message called "Digging for the Miracle" from our guest speaker, Pastor Joel Richards from Audacious Church in Manchester, England. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Der Bund will mit «Verkehr 45» rund 50 Milliarden Franken in die Verkehrsinfrastruktur investieren. Derzeit liegen die Pläne öffentlich auf, nun hat sich die ÖV-Branche dazu geäussert. Sie übt an den Ausbauplänen keine grundsätzliche Kritik, bringt aber Verbesserungsvorschläge ein. Weitere Themen: Im Ständerat beginnt die Debatte über das Vertragspaket Schweiz-EU. Drei Tage sind dafür angesetzt. Die Botschaft umfasst 1000 Seiten, fast 40 Gesetze werden angepasst oder erneuert. Welches sind die grössten Knackpunkte? Und wie viel Spielraum hat das Parlament? Andy Burnham nimmt erstmals als Premierminister am Labour-Parteitag teil. Vieles, was ihm als Bürgermeister von Manchester gelungen ist, will er nun auf nationaler Ebene wiederholen. Was die Menchen in Manchester darüber denken, zeigt unsere Reportage.

Ogunquit has become a "three-season" town in recent years.The Front Porch is a big reason why.Started in 1980 exclusively as a gay men's bar, The Front Porch has become an all-inclusive restaurant, piano bar, and attraction for the half a million people who descend upon the tiny seaside town every summer.From the famous upstairs bar, longtime bartender Petey Tomes and current owner Scotty Vogel join host Troy Farkas for a wide-ranging discussion about the history of the Porch, favorite stories from 45 years of the Porch, Ogunquit's quest to become attractive year-round, mind-blowing stats about the amount of espresso martinis they serve, how the restaurant is on the front lines of change in the industry, and more.To support the restaurant, you can follow them on Instagram @frontporchogt.SUPPORT SEACOAST STORIES:Follow Seacoast Stories on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to get our new episodes every week.Join our FREE online community, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Local Thread⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, hereUPCOMING EVENTS:Seacoast Stories Dinner Club pres. by ⁠⁠⁠SWTHZ Portsmouth⁠⁠⁠: We're back in Manchester, N.H., on Wednesday, October 7! ⁠⁠⁠⁠Book your seat at the table here.⁠⁠⁠⁠"Seacoast Stories LIVE feat. Victoria Arlen" at The Press Room on Tuesday, October 13! Pres. by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠SWTHZ Portsmouth⁠. ⁠⁠⁠Get your tickets here.⁠⁠⁠SPONSORS:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Iron Cactus⁠:⁠⁠ Kingston, N.H.'s home for yoga, infrared saunas, reiki, healthy eating, community and more.⁠⁠SWTHZ: ⁠⁠Lock in your founding membership today at Portsmouth's newest home for wellness.⁠Budget Blinds of the Seacoas⁠t: Blinds, shades, and shutters reasonably priced, professionally installed, and done right the first time.CHAPTERS:Come to Seacoast Stories LIVE! on 10/13 (00:00)The evolution of The Front Porch & Ogunquit (02:40)The Porch's beginnings as a gay men's bar (11:44)The magic of the piano bar (15:35)Stories from 45 years of the Porch (20:23)Secure your SWTHZ Portsmouth⁠⁠⁠⁠ founding membership here (24:52)Custom blinds, shades and shutters with Budget Blinds of the Seacoast (25:56)Why Vogel purchased The Front Porch (27:10)How Ogunquit is building toward the future (31:52)How the restaurant is leading the charge for change in the industry (39:52)Visit The Iron Cactus in Kingston, N.H.! (43:15)The Front Porch's most popular drink order (44:30)How special it is to work at the Porch (52:20)

114/115 charges proven over more than a decade, but how did it affect Leicester City & will/do they have any recourse? #LCFC #Leicester #Leicestercity #leicestercityfc #epl #foxes #league1 #efl #football #soccer #preview #watchalong #review #ratings #foxes #forum #interview #prediction ‪#reaction #postmatch #psr Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us Fan MailNine rebellious and troublesome teenagers from the means streets of Manchester, England, undergo a strict physical and mental transformation in an attempt to plop them into the Miss International 2006 beauty queen competition. LET'S GOOO! 

Acclaimed musicologist, composer, and author Dr. Michael Hicks served on the BYU faculty for 35 years, retiring as Professor Emeritus of Music. In our conversation, we delve into the rich and often surprising history of Latter-day Saint hymnody, looking at everything from the earliest frontier gatherings to the forthcoming global hymnbook.Michael shares how early Saints truly experienced music in their worship, shedding light on the untold stories behind iconic hymns, the shifts across different church hymnals, and the musical tastes of church leaders. We also dive into the oral practice of “lining out” hymns, the stark divide between Emma Smith's personal, grace-centered hymn selections and the Apostles' second-coming anthems, and the peculiar tale of how President Spencer W. Kimball's personal record collection made its way across the Atlantic.Some highlights from this episode include:The Lost Art of “Lining Out”: How early Latter-day Saints sang without hymnals or printed musical notation, relying on an oral, line-by-line call-and-response tradition that mirrors modern campfires and concerts.Emma Smith vs. The British Apostles: The dramatic divergence in early LDS hymnody—how Emma Smith favored deeply personal hymns centered on grace, individual redemption, and grief (including "Amazing Grace"), while the Apostles in Manchester compiled bold, millenarian songs of triumph and Zion.Joseph Smith's Real Musical Favorites: Debunking the popular myth that "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" was Joseph Smith's personal favorite song, and revealing why four out of his five most requested tunes were melancholy soldier ballads about the grief and regret of war.Gospel Hymnody & "Pub Songs": How 19th-century revivalist music, jaunty 3:1 rhythms, and slow harmonic changes reshaped Latter-day Saint worship—and why British and Welsh members initially dismissed these upbeat tunes as mere "pub songs."The "Alleged" New Hymnbook: Michael's insider perspective on the monumental process of revising the Church's hymnbook, the tension between British Anglican choral aspirations and eclectic multilingual expansion, and what really happens behind closed doors when committee selections are presented to the Quorum of the Twelve.President Kimball's Secret Record Collection: The funny and heartwarming story of how Michael acquired Spencer W. Kimball's personal vinyl and 78 RPM record collection—complete with the prophet's red-inked initials over his son's name—and ended up handwriting a certificate of authenticity on a fast-food receipt for two shocked British shoppers at Deseret Industries.Resources Mentioned:• Website: Visit Michael Hicks' official site for his full catalogue of music, articles, and scholarly work:https://michaelhicks.org• Book (Print/eBook): "Spencer Kimball's Record Collection: Essays on Mormon Music" by Michael Hicks (Signature Books):https://www.signaturebooks.com/books/p/spencer-kimballs-record-collection• Audiobook: "Spencer Kimball's Record Collection" (Audible Edition, narrated by Michael Hicks):https://www.audible.com/pd/Spencer-Kimballs-Record-Collection-Audiobook/B08N6WX14P• Scholarly Article: "What Hymns Early Mormons Sang and How They Sang Them" by Michael Hicks (BYU Studies):https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/what-hymns-early-mormons-sang-and-how-they-sang-themFollow For All The Saints on social media for updates and inspiring content:www.instagram.com/forallthesaintspodhttps://www.facebook.com/forallthesaintspod/For All The Saints episodes are released every Monday on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and more:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVDUQg_qZIU&list=UULFFf7vzrJ2LNWmp1Kl-c6K9Qhttps://open.spotify.com/show/3j64txm9qbGVVZOM48P4HS?si=bb31d048e05141f2https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/for-all-the-saints/id1703815271If you have feedback or any suggestions for topics or guests, connect with Ben & Sean via hello@forallthesaints.org or DM on InstagramConversations to Refresh Your Faith.

Legacy is a series about living for something bigger than ourselves. As we step into a new season as a church, we're exploring what it means to build a life — and a faith — that leaves a lasting impact. Not just what we leave for people, but what we leave in people. Every generation has a part to play in advancing God's Kingdom, and this series is a call to live with eternity in mind. To continue the series Pastor Mark Foster shared a great message titled 'A Pioneering Legacy' — catch up here.

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.We dedicate this edition to Manchester, in England. We hear about the man who opened the city's first racially inclusive nightclub in 1962. This programme contains descriptions of racial discrimination. Our guest Kath McDermott, a Mancunian DJ and producer at BBC 6 Music, tells us about Manchester's musical scene and how it helped shape the town's culture and identity. The acclaimed artist Harold Riley was a local to Greater Manchester and also the only one granted access to paint Nelson Mandela from life.Plus, we remember the time the city hosted the Fifth Pan-African Congress in 1945, where activists from around the world met to discuss the struggle against colonialism and racial discrimination.And we go back to 1948, when the University of Manchester developed ‘Baby,' the world's first stored-program computer.Also, the mass trespass on Kinder Scout in the Peak District that challenged private landownership to demand access to the countryside. And the UK's first female football photographer.Contributors: Lisa Ayegun – daughter of Phil Magbotiwan, the founder of The Reno. Harold Riley – artist (archive). Peter Abrahams – African National Congress activist and writer. Tom Kilburn – creator of the 'Baby' computer (archive). Hakim Adi – historian. Benny Rothman – organiser of the Kinder Scout mass tresspass (archive). Harry Rothman – son of Benny Rothman. Magi Haroun – football photographer.(Photo: Albert Square in Manchester in 1968. Credit: Manchester Evening News Archive/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)

【欢迎订阅】 每天早上5:30，准时更新。 【阅读原文】 标题：Chinese carmakers are bringing their factories to the worldIncumbents will need to hit the accelerator to compete正文：When Ford opened the industry's first large-scale overseas outpost, in Manchester in 1911, it set the route by which ambitious carmakers went from dominating at home to spanning the globe. Over a century later, with Ford in retreat, exports of China's cheap but technologically advanced cars are roaring,and its firms are taking the next step to becoming global giants. When localising production, Chinese carmakers will not be able to bring all of their competitive advantages with them. But many will travel—to the dismay of foreign rivals.知识点：outpost n. /ˈaʊtpəʊst/英文释义：a remote settlement or branch established by an organization in a new territory中文释义：前哨，海外据点文中意：指福特在曼彻斯特开设的业内首家大型海外工厂，比喻车企在海外设立的生产据点例句一：The tech company established an outpost in Singapore to serve the Asian market. 这家科技公司在新加坡设立了据点以服务亚洲市场。例句二：The bank's London office began as a small outpost but grew into its European headquarters. 这家银行的伦敦办事处最初只是一个小型前哨，后来发展成了其欧洲总部。【节目介绍】 《早安英文-每日外刊精读》，带你精读最新外刊，了解国际最热事件：分析语法结构，拆解长难句，最接地气的翻译，还有重点词汇讲解。 所有选题均来自于《经济学人》《纽约时报》《华尔街日报》《华盛顿邮报》《大西洋月刊》《科学杂志》《国家地理》等国际一线外刊。 【适合谁听】 1、关注时事热点新闻，想要学习最新最潮流英文表达的英文学习者 2、任何想通过地道英文提高听、说、读、写能力的英文学习者 3、想快速掌握表达，有出国学习和旅游计划的英语爱好者 4、参加各类英语考试的应试者（如大学英语四六级、托福雅思、考研等） 【你将获得】 1、超过1000篇外刊精读课程，拓展丰富语言表达和文化背景 2、逐词、逐句精确讲解，系统掌握英语词汇、听力、阅读和语法 3、每期内附学习笔记，包含全文注释、长难句解析、疑难语法点等，帮助扫除阅读障碍。

Axel sits down with Jeff Duchesne for a deal-segment deep dive into one of the wildest closings in the show's history — a 12-unit, 1980-built Manchester, NH property that took five years, a three-day jury trial, and a New Hampshire Supreme Court appeal to actually close.This episode is essential listening for any investor who wants to understand what happens when a seller tries to walk away from a signed PSA, what it actually looks like to litigate a real estate contract dispute to the finish line, and why the appreciation that occurred during the delay ultimately made the fight worth it many times over.Join us as we dive into:How Jeff sourced a 12-unit property (two 6-unit buildings built in 1980 with 20+ parking spaces) through a wholesaler.Why the sellers — two successful out-of-state businessmen — tried to back out of the Purchase and Sale Agreement (PSA).The five-year legal process: placing a lien on the property, enduring a high-stakes three-day jury trial, and winning an appeal in the New Hampshire Supreme Court.The strategic decision-making and settlement offers weighed the night before the jury verdict.How market appreciation between 2021 and the eventual closing date turned a good deal into a home run.How Jeff navigated the financing delay, including keeping the same lender who testified on his behalf in court.The immediate post-closing strategy: direct, transparent communication with existing tenants to adjust below-market rents while maintaining full occupancy.Connect with Jeff Duchesne:Contact: 603-819-3183Follow him on InstagramConnect with him on Linkedin Are you looking to invest in real estate, but don't want to deal with the hassle of finding great deals, signing on debt, and managing tenants? Aligned Real Estate Partners provides investment opportunities to passive investors looking for the returns, stability, and tax benefits multifamily real estate offers, but without the work - join our investor club to be notified of future investment opportunities.Connect with Axel:Follow him on InstagramConnect with him on LinkedinSubscribe to our YouTube channelLearn more about Aligned Real Estate Partners

Meet two men who survived suicide attempts, and built lives around helping others imagine a future beyond despair. Kevin Hines, one of the few to survive a jump from the Golden Gate Bridge, reflects on the instant regret, the long recovery, and the tools he uses when “brain pain” returns - recorded just days before the 25th anniversary of his attempt. Then, Connecticut therapist Steve MacHattie shares what it means to live with chronic suicidal urges, after his first attempt at six years old, and how reaching for connection can change the outcome. This episode originally aired on January 17, 2026. Resources: 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline Crisis Text Line: text HOME to 741741 Connecticut Suicide Advisory Board In an emergency, please call or text 911 Suggested episodes: 911, What's Your Emergency? Tales From Dispatch Finding purpose in life after accidentally killing someone What it's like surviving a plane crash GUESTS: Kevin Hines: suicide attempt survivor, author, film producer, and mental health advocate. At 19, he survived a jump from the Golden Gate Bridge. Over the past 25 years, he has dedicated himself to suicide prevention, sharing his story to reduce stigma and help people through moments of crisis. Kevin is the author of Cracked, Not Broken, The Art of Being Broken, and The Art of Wellness, hosts the HINESIGHTS podcast, and was a leading voice in the effort to install safety nets on the Golden Gate Bridge. His latest documentary, Death Bridge, is set to be released in 2027 Steve MacHattie: a suicide attempt survivor, clinical social worker (LCSW), and founder of the Charter Oak Family Center in Manchester, Connecticut. He first attempted suicide at six years old, and today he supports clients ages 5 to 105 and serves as co-chair of the Connecticut Suicide Advisory Board’s Lived Experience Committee. He also writes poetry used in clinical trainings to help care providers see the humanity and strength in the people they serve Support the show: https://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, the Thang Gang celebrated Liam Gallagher's birthday with some of his wisest words, Johnny was (inadvertently) a victim to Harry's prank, and concrete Lego blocked a pensioner's gate.Hear Johnny on Radio X every weekday at 4pm across the UK on digital radio, 104.9FM in London, 97.7FM in Manchester, on Global Player or via www.radiox.co.uk

In 1932, hundreds of walkers organised a mass trespass on Kinder Scout, the highest point in England's Peak District.It was a major step in the campaign by workers from the industrial city of Manchester for access to the surrounding countryside, much of which was privately owned. In 2012, Simon Watts used interviews from the BBC archives to tell the story through the memories of those who took part in the trespass.Witness History is a short BBC World Service podcast about history that takes you inside big moments from the past through first-hand testimony and archive. Each weekday, in around nine minutes, we revisit one moment that helped shape the world and hear it through the voice of someone who was there. Scientists, artists, campaigners, soldiers, leaders and everyday people tell their true stories.When you subscribe to Witness History, you'll be taken inside turning points in world affairs from West Africa's fight back against Boko Haram in 2015 to the behind-closed-doors talks that led to the US-Cuba “thaw” and the surprise announcement of restored relations. You'll discover what it was like to experience disasters and how people recovered from them, including the Tabasco floods in Mexico, Portugal's worst train disaster, and the huge clean-up after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. You'll explore culture and ideas too: Sweden's Expedition Robinson, often credited as the first modern reality TV game show; the friendship between The Beatles' George Harrison and Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar; and the night a tiger attack brought Las Vegas superstars Siegfried and Roy's show to a sudden end. And if you're curious about inventions, we'll tell you how air fryers, BlackBerry, YouTube, Alexa, GPS, superglue, the shopping cart (shopping trolley) and bubble tea were created.If you're new to Witness History, the appeal is simple: real voices, one strong true story, and a fresh way to understand today through events from history – all in the time it takes to enjoy a cup of tea or a walk around the block. Join millions of BBC World Service podcast listeners around the globe and enjoy the insight, context and detail Witness History will bring you.(Photo: A sheep on Kinder Scout. Credit: Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images)

If you are just receiving this episode: this edition of Upfront was originally recorded and released on Tuesday 22nd September. We apologise for the delay pulling through to podcast apps.60 shots, 2 goals for Arsenal so far this term. Manchester United were the latest team to keep their attackers (almost) at bay. After coming away with a point from a physical battle at the Emirates, have Eva Olid's side turned a corner?On the blue side of Manchester it was a third win in a row for the defending champions, but an improved Liverpool may have exposed some of City's weaker areas.Finally, Chloe and Rachel are joined by FootballCo's Lead Women's Football Writer and certified Friend of the Pod Ameé Ruszkai to preview the return of the Champions League!Follow us on X, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube! Email us show@upfrontpod.com.*Please rate and review us on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your pods. It means a lot and makes it easy for other people to find us. Thank you!*Upfront is your definitive women's football podcast, the Lionesses and every team in the WSL – Arsenal, Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Brighton, Charlton Athletic, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Everton, Liverpool, London City Lionesses, Manchester City, Manchester United, Spurs, and West Ham United. We'll take you inside the biggest rivalries, like Arsenal vs Chelsea and Man City vs Manchester United. Subscribe for new podcasts every Tuesday throughout the season. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast is flabbergasted by EuroSki. Donate to my brain transplant fund to make me more smarter:WhoIain Martin, founder and host of UK-based The Ski Podcast. YouTube here. This is Iain's second appearance on The Storm:Interview dateSeptember 24, 2026Why I interviewed himIf, like me, you're a U.S. American SnoSportSkier, you may find European skiing more than a little baffling. More than 4,000 ski areas spread over dozens of countries with their dozens of languages. Trams and gondolas pop skyward from every other corner in Switzerland or the Pyrenees or Slovenia, as numerous as the strip-mall vape shops and Jesus-Knows-You're-Watching-Porn billboards defecating all over America's roads. The trail markings in Europe are all different colors. Why is no one skiing off the groomers? Who stole all the trees? Why is every ski lift either a tram that looks CGI'd to transport Storm Troopers to a fictional Star Wars Cloud City or a T-bar that looks as though it was hammered together by Yohan in between sheep shearings? Why is the food good and the alcohol cheap? Why do lift tickets not cost more than a semester's tuition at Cornell? And, most baffling of all as we contemplate the growing presence of EuroSki on U.S.-based multimountain passes, why is every ski resort actually 10 or 15 or 100 different ski areas stapled together as the Valley of Grand Domaine de Les Skis?I wish I could be more helpful in answering these questions. So far, I have not been very helpful. I felt like I could get away with just pointing and laughing as Vail and Alterra added a handful of big-time European ski resorts to their rosters, but the numbers have rapidly spiraled: check out the number of Euro ski areas that have joined Epic, Ikon, and Indy since 2018:At first I tried to keep up, but I just sort of surrendered after 2025. I did manage write-ups of Epic Pass additions in Austria, and new Ikon partners in Italy and France, but I never got past more than cursory acknowledgements of Indy's massive haul of Euro partners from Turkey up through the Alps core to Scotland. And I thought, “OK how many gigantic resorts can they have over there it's gotta stop soon right?” But they just kept coming like kaijū in Pacific Rim. The pass-by-pass totals headed into winter 2026-27 are shocking:Here's a country-by-country breakdown that's a bit easier to read:And here's the detailed roster - not all the lifts are filled in because shoot me:This chart is the European equivalent of American college football rankings. It makes no sense, but it must be fun because so many people do it, right?I tried to make a map but it sorta sucks so I'm going to keep trying. I did use the map as a visual aide in the podcast, which is also and always available in audio-only. But if you want to watch above or on YouTube, our conversation will make marginally more sense as I scroll around beneath Iain's narrative.TranscriptsThere are two transcripts. Both are generated by robots. Both are helpful and defective in their own unique ways. I do not proofread either of them.Transcript 1: Click the “transcript” button at the top of this article. You can only see this transcript on a computer. Because I don't know why exactly but everything is getting better and dumber all at once it seems. Anyway, this is the transcript that the robots create when I upload the podcast to the internet. The cool thing about it is that you can click on any block of text and the audio will teleport there instantly. The uncool thing about this transcript is that it does not indicate who is talking at any given moment. Transcript 2: You can read this below. This is the transcript that Zoom creates as we record the podcast. The cool thing about this transcript is that it indicates who is talking at any given moment. The uncool thing about this transcript is that the timestamps do not match the audio. Also, you cannot click on this text to move to the associated point in the audio.ZoomStuart Winchester: My guest today is the founder and host of The Ski Podcast, a UK-based show that just published its 327th episode.00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:56.000Stuart Winchester: He's also a freelance journalist writing for national and specialized press and the owner of a digital marketing consultancy for snow sports. Ian Martin is my guest. He is a good friend of the storm. He has been on the show before and he is here today to help us make sense of Europe. Ian, how you doing today?00:07:57.000 --> 00:08:02.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: I am really well, Stuart. It's really nice to see you, and thank you for inviting me onto the show.00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:07.000Stuart Winchester: Before we get started, what do you got lined up for this winter? When do you start skiing?00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:23.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: My personal first trip will be out to Les Des Alpes ski resort in France, which I'll be doing in early December. But I will actually be skiing not next weekend, but the one after in one of our indoor snow slopes.00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:24.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:28.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: in the UK. I'll be skiing in the snowy center, Manchester, so I'll get to get my skis on.00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:28.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, cool.00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:40.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, that'll be a lot of fun. Yeah, we have the one right over in New Jersey. I was supposed to go a couple of… a couple weeks ago, but I… something came up, and I wasn't able to make it. Alright, so Ian, let me set this up for the listeners.00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:42.000Stuart Winchester: And, and…00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:54.000Stuart Winchester: as a baseline for what we're dealing with here. So, US-based passes, meaning Epic, Icon, and Indy. There's also one on Mountain Collective, but it overlaps with… there's two on Mountain Collective that overlap with Icon, so I'.00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:59.000Stuart Winchester: So they have added a total of 61 destinations.00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:00.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Mm-hmm.00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:02.000Stuart Winchester: in 14 European countries.00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:04.000Stuart Winchester: 13 of those are on Epic.00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:06.000Stuart Winchester: Nine are on icon.00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:18.000Stuart Winchester: 39 are on Indy. Uh, so… some of those are unlimited on Epic, some you get 5 days, some you get 7. Icon's a pretty standard 7 days, or 5 days, even with the base pass. Indy is 2 days at each.00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:22.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, 20 of those destinations are in Austria.00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:31.000Stuart Winchester: 12 are in Switzerland. Uh, 8 are in France, and they're all over the place, but those are the countries with the most. So let me… I wanna actually…00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:33.000Stuart Winchester: Share on my screen.00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:38.000Stuart Winchester: a map that I made that could help us as a little guide, although it's not a…00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:42.000Stuart Winchester: It's not a great map, but I will…00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:46.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, okay. Can you, can you see the map?00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:51.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: I… can see the map, yes.00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:52.000Stuart Winchester: Okay, yeah, I couldn't figure out how to make the…00:09:52.000 --> 00:10:04.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, let me just explain this at a high level. So, I couldn't figure out how to make the text smaller, it's very much a work in progress, but, uh, blue is, uh, the names of the ski areas are by country.00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:19.000Stuart Winchester: And the names of the icons are bypassed. So when you zoom down to Austria, it's Epic, Epic, Indy. Uh, Indy's red, Icon's yellow, uh, Epic is blue. This is one where it really helps to watch the video. If not, we'll explain it, and you don't have to.00:10:19.000 --> 00:10:34.000Stuart Winchester: be watching to understand everything. So, uh, looking at this, Ian, and putting aside my, uh, crappy map design skills, and looking at the full of Europe, from above, from space, as we can do in the future here, uh, where do you even start?00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:53.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Well, firstly, I've got to congratulate you on your data. It's just amazing. When you read out all of the different resorts, and the number of countries, and the number of resorts in each country, I've got one of your spreadsheets printed out here, and it's already changed since then. So, staying up to date the whole time is really quite incredible.00:10:53.000 --> 00:11:06.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: how you manage… how you manage to do that. Um, it is, uh, amazing. In… in respect of the map, there's obviously a lot of ski areas on there, and probably this is going to be better for someone as a research tool.00:10:53.000 --> 00:10:55.000Stuart Winchester: Yep.00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:15.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Now, you mentioned that there are 61 countries in total, 61 ski areas in total that are covered on those different passes.00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:12.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:18.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: And I was thinking about…00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:34.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: what is the best way to kind of go into getting a sense for maybe which ones you should visit? Obviously, it's going to be different for everybody, depending on what kind of pass they have, and I know some people have more than one pass, but I thought that maybe a useful way to do it might be to think of.00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:37.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Let's say the hero trip.00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:38.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:41.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Then maybe somewhere you might go.00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:56.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: for a week, and then somewhere that you might visit if you were… if you were touring, or possibly if you're over for work, and you happen to be roughly in that area to give people a sense of, you know, where it might be worth doing a little side trip to while they were doing that.00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:56.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:11:56.000 --> 00:12:03.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: So if you are happy with that structure, I could work from that. Okay, cool.00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:01.000Stuart Winchester: I love it.00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:03.000Stuart Winchester: Full speed ahead. Let's do it.00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:06.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Okay, cool. So, I think…00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:26.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: We've seen more Americans coming over to Europe over the last few years, and that is to do with these. That is to do with the passes. No, it's a pleasure. I mean, I talk to everybody when I'm on a chairlift or in a gondola, and if I hear someone who's from the States or maybe from Canada, I'm always interested to know, you know, why they've come over, and predominantly it's because.00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:12.000Stuart Winchester: Sorry.00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:22.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:26.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:46.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: they've got the passes. And, you know, I spent a lot of time in Chamonix last winter, and evidently you get a lot of people in Chamonix. Chamonix is one of the ones on the Icon Pass, I believe, as is Zermatt. Now, Chamonix and Zermatt are two amazing destinations. They really are fantastic. You can see them, actually, on the map that you've got in the video now.00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:32.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:38.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:46.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:54.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: They're quite close to each other. They're probably about two and a half hours by car apart. You could fly into Geneva for both of them.00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:51.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm, okay.00:12:53.000 --> 00:12:55.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:12:54.000 --> 00:13:01.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: They are fantastic resorts, fantastic destinations. They're my two favorites in Europe.00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:01.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:02.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:20.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: But they're not necessarily going to be suitable for everyone. And the reason I say that is Chamonix is incredible. It's in the middle of a very dramatic valley. You have Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Europe, at 4,800 meters on one side. You can take the Aguille de Midi.00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:21.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:35.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Which is the lift that goes up to 3,800 roughly meters. And ski the Valley Blanche from there. Lots of people will have, you know, heard of that very famous off-piste run. It's incredible just to go up to the Aguirre de Midi.00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:26.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:31.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:49.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: But in terms of the ski areas itself, they're very disparate. They're not connected, uh, in the same way as we might come onto the Three Valleys, uh, you know, shortly. So…00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:42.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:44.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:48.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:13:49.000 --> 00:14:00.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: you've got to put in a bit of legwork if you're going to go to Chamonix. The connections between them generally involve getting a bus, and even if you're staying right in the center of town, you've got to get a bus.00:13:51.000 --> 00:13:52.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:07.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: or maybe a train from one end of the valley to ski the five different areas that you have in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc. And I think…00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:03.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:11.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: And I'm not 100%, I'm not the expert on the icon passes, but…00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:11.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, thank you.00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:26.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: The Icon Pass only covers the lifts that are in that area. There's also a couple of areas which are included on your map there, actually, Megeve and Les Contamines. You can get a lift ticket in Chamonix when I stay there that covers all of those.00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:21.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:28.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:29.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: And you can ski over there as well.00:14:29.000 --> 00:14:48.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, so Mijeve, I'm sorry to interrupt, but Mijeve has been added to the Icon Pass, but it took me so long to sort out even what that meant when they said Mijeve, and even Icon Pass themselves didn't seem to know. We'll get to that mess in a little bit, but Mijeve is on the Icon Pass, uh, you know, along with Shamani, and those are separate buckets of days.00:14:29.000 --> 00:14:31.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Uh so.00:14:31.000 --> 00:14:32.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yep.00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:52.000Stuart Winchester: Then, like in Tammany, which is part of Mijav, is also on Indy.00:14:52.000 --> 00:15:07.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, exactly. Megeve isn't really part of Chamonix, but it is covered on that very big pass that you can buy. My point being really that Chamonix is fantastic. It's an amazing town. It has an incredible history.00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:01.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:06.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:15:07.000 --> 00:15:21.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: It's where the first Winter Olympic Games are in 1924. You can get really close to, uh, Mont Blanc. You could ski the Vallee Blanche. There are lots and lots of options for, uh, high mountain skiing, but for a more recreational skier.00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:27.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: it's perhaps not as good. If we look at Zermatt, another one, yes, yep.00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:39.000Stuart Winchester: Okay, so let me pause one moment on Chamonix first. So, I want to point out, the Icon Pass, for whatever reason, does not cover the Algo de Midi, or whatever, I'm sure I pronounced it wrong, the big tram. How important is it to just pony up, buy that tram ride anyway?00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:35.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yes, okay.00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:47.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, I mean, we had… we stayed out there for 2 months last winter, and we had lots of friends come to visit us, and with all of them.00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:44.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:47.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:15:47.000 --> 00:15:56.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: we recommended that you go up there. It really is something quite special, being so high, so close to.00:15:56.000 --> 00:16:14.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Mont Blanc itself, but also just for the type of visitors we had, who weren't really expert skiers, to get an insight into the high mountain, because you do see skiers who are heading off down the Valley Blanche, and the Valley Blanche is a relatively accessible off-piste run with a guide.00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:07.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:31.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: but other skiers who are doing much more hardcore stuff, or climbers who are up there, who are practicing their mountaineering skills. And if you go up the Aguirre de Midi, you get an insight to all of that. I mean, I met some of your American friends who were over, who were.00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:20.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:46.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Really going for it, going down the Cosmic. When I met them, going up with some friends to the Aguirre-Midi, they were on their second ascent of the day. They'd already gone up, done the Valley Blanche, come back up, and then they were on their way down Cosmic to stay in a refuge for the night.00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:36.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:41.000Stuart Winchester: Yes.00:16:46.000 --> 00:16:48.000Stuart Winchester: Of course, yeah.00:16:46.000 --> 00:16:51.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: I really would recommend it. And yes, it is expensive.00:16:51.000 --> 00:17:03.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: it could even be worth just buying that Montblanc Unlimited ticket in advance, because it's dynamic pricing. It's one of those things where if you buy it in advance, it's less expensive than buying it on the day.00:16:56.000 --> 00:16:57.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:09.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm. And Mont Blanc, just for my listeners, is, I believe, the tallest mountain in Europe.00:17:09.000 --> 00:17:14.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, highest mountain in Western Europe. I think it's 4,810 meters.00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:12.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, okay.00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:17.000Stuart Winchester: All right, so over to Zermatt.00:17:17.000 --> 00:17:33.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Zermatt, I worked a season there as well. Absolutely beautiful place. Zermatt Matterhorn, as it's known. The Matterhorn is the standout attraction. It is just an incredible looking mountain.00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:27.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:43.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: The village itself, in my opinion, very pretty. Lots of traditional chalets, traditional buildings.00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:39.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:55.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: they have controlled development of it. It's not full of skyscrapers. Without going into the details, there was a proposal to build, you know, one recently that really got it dampened down pretty quickly.00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:49.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:17:55.000 --> 00:18:02.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: You can only get there by train. It's a car-free resort, which adds to the charm as well.00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:02.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:12.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: really, I would say, if… the only negatives are that it's quite expensive. It is one of the most expensive destinations in Europe.00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:28.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: There are a lot of, uh, visitors, a bit like Chamonix, who go there not necessarily to ski, but because they want to go and see the Matterhorn, in the same way that you could go up the Agua de Midi in Chamonix. There's a Gornergrat, uh, cog railway.00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:17.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:18:19.000 --> 00:18:20.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:27.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:46.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: which will take you up, uh, to a fantastic view looking over, uh, the Matterhorn. So, I guess you're competing a little bit with the non-skiers. The ski area itself is better connected than Chamonix. It goes up high. You've also got lifts of skiing up to 3,800 meters.00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:43.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:18:46.000 --> 00:18:49.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: at the Klein Matterhorn area.00:18:49.000 --> 00:19:03.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: typically they have summer skiing there as well. It's actually closed this summer for a little while because of the weather, but, you know, it's so high, and because of the glacier, they can offer skiing all year round. So, I really do love Zermatt.00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:56.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:19:03.000 --> 00:19:05.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: The only negative would be…00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:16.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: it's expensive, you know, you just gotta face up to that fact if you want to go there, but it has a cachet and a feel to it that I just, uh, love.00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:11.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:34.000Stuart Winchester: And one thing this map doesn't show is it does interconnect with Turbinia, which is now on Icon Pass, but separate days. So once you cross, if you use the day of Zermatt, even if it's the same day, you cross into Turbinia, you're using another Icon Pass day. It doesn't really matter for most Americans who are visiting anyway.00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:39.000Stuart Winchester: But what do you think about Slovenia? Is it worth it to pop over there?00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:47.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, well, interesting you should mention that. So I picked Chamonix and Zermatt as the first two because they are the most well-known.00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:44.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:48.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:19:47.000 --> 00:20:02.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: But it's not strictly necessary to go to those two places and base yourself there. And you mentioned that, uh, you know, Cervinia is on… did you… did you say Cervinia is on… sorry, which pass again?00:19:53.000 --> 00:19:55.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:05.000Stuart Winchester: So, it's on ICON, and the reason I didn't have it…00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:06.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah. Okay.00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:12.000Stuart Winchester: called out. It's under Valle de Oesta, Italy, so that includes, uh, Pila, it includes, uh…00:20:07.000 --> 00:20:09.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yep.00:20:09.000 --> 00:20:10.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yep.00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:19.000Stuart Winchester: Slovenia, it includes Cormier, it includes some other ones, but I made the map fast.00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:17.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yep.00:20:17.000 --> 00:20:35.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, Stuart, you are… you are very well, uh, informed. You're right. I mean, you can see it on the map that we're looking at below us. You can get from Chamonix to Courmayeur very easily through the Mont Blanc tunnel. It's actually a 22 kilometer tunnel, and we skied over in Courmayeur while we were there. Lots of.00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:24.000Stuart Winchester: Yep.00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:25.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:20:27.000 --> 00:20:29.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:20:29.000 --> 00:20:30.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:20:31.000 --> 00:20:33.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, wow.00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:36.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:50.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Chamonix, people who are based in Chamonix do go over there, because, uh, although the ski area is limited, there are more trees over there, you know, on a bad weather day, it's a really good place to ski, and it's included on the Mont Blanc Unlimited Pass. And Courmayeur is right at the top.00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:39.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:44.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:49.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:59.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: of the Aosta Valley. So where that little yellow, uh, icon is, underneath where it says Val de Aosta, is Courmayeur.00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:53.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:20:57.000 --> 00:20:58.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:00.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:20:59.000 --> 00:21:09.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: But the Cormier… if I understand it correctly, then, all of the Aosta Valley resorts are included on the Icon Pass. So, as you say, Cormier… Cormier…00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:07.000Stuart Winchester: Correct.00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:26.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: It's quite a shishi kind of resort. You'll find lots of Milanese and Turinese will go up there for the weekend. There are lots of very smart shops in the little high street there. There's some very, very good restaurants up there.00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:43.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: The ski area is not as big, probably, you know, 50km, two, three days for a, you know, a good advanced skier would be sufficient to ski a lot of it. But you can get access up to the Vallee Blanche from the Italian side as well.00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:30.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:35.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:44.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:59.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: And that lift was upgraded a few years ago. And it's very, very impressive. It's much more modern than the Aguirre de Midi. And it has, you know, museums at the mid station and at the top station, which explore the history of mountaineering in the area.00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:49.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:21:51.000 --> 00:21:52.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:05.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: So, I would actually say that if someone's, you know, looking to stay.00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:07.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: For a week.00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:19.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: and they have an Icon Pass, that the Ossa Valley could be a really good choice. If you had a car as well, because you can then explore Courmayeur, and then you mentioned Chavinha.00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:13.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:18.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:20.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:34.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: So, uh, slightly further down the valley, uh, and then up the hill, you mentioned that Shavinia links with Zermatt, and Shavinia is a really good resort. It's high, uh, it has.00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:23.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:29.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:31.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, thank you.00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:45.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Quite wide pistes, quite flattering type of skiing. It has Italian cuisine, as all of the Aosta Valley does. Much.00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:37.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:55.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: more affordable than Zermatt, but you could ski over to Zermatt for the day and ski the Zermatt area, uh, as well.00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:49.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:22:49.000 --> 00:22:50.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:22:55.000 --> 00:23:02.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: So, Chavinha, you know, is great. There's also a smaller resort called La Tuile, uh, in the Aosta Valley as well, which…00:22:59.000 --> 00:23:00.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:09.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: it is worth a day or two. That actually links over to a French resort called La Rozier. I doubt.00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:21.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: that would be included, and I don't see it on your list. Uh, and what I do see included a bit further down, we're moving around the map quite a lot, there is an area called Monterosa.00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:22.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:23:21.000 --> 00:23:28.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: which is on the Aosta Valley as well. Uh, and there's two areas there called Gressenet.00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:25.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:41.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: uh, and Alanya, and the skiing in both of those, I believe, is included, uh, within that. And, uh, you know, in Gressenet, uh, and Alanya, there's some quite advanced skiing there, up in Monterosa.00:23:39.000 --> 00:23:41.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:53.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: um, some really good, you know, off-piste, uh, challenging skiing, and in fact, you can do heli-skiing out of those areas. Heli-skiing is banned in France, but it's legal in Italy, so you can ski, and it'.00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:48.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, wow.00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:51.000Stuart Winchester: Oh.00:23:53.000 --> 00:24:04.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: legal in Switzerland as well, but you can ski out of Alanya, and heliski up to the mountain called Monterosa, and, uh, you know, access some amazing off-piste from there.00:23:57.000 --> 00:23:58.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:22.000Stuart Winchester: That's incredible. I, you know, for a while, Google Maps took that. I'm looking at the map here and I changed the settings so that the lifts show up. And for a while, Google Maps had taken them off and now they've added them back on. And so you can just really get to see the scale of what's going on in Europe. And I know what Americans are going to want to do.00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:29.000Stuart Winchester: when they look at Chamonix. They're going to want to take the Algomenidae up, and they're going to try to ski down into Italy. Is.00:24:29.000 --> 00:24:50.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Uh, I mean, it is possible. Quite literally, if you did that to the Aguirre de Midi, you could ski, you'd have to ski tour up slightly, and then you could ski down. I wouldn't suggest doing that without a guide. You know, it is feasible to do it, and when last time I went up the, uh, the lift from the Courmayeur side, I saw tracks below.00:24:31.000 --> 00:24:32.000Stuart Winchester: Yes.00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:34.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:39.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:41.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:46.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:24:50.000 --> 00:25:04.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: but it's not a straightforward route. Cormier's 1,200 meters, you know, you can get snow all the way to the bottom, but yeah, it's possible, but definitely, you know, take a guide, I would suggest.00:24:56.000 --> 00:24:57.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:11.000Stuart Winchester: Right. All right, so let's continue with the hero trip here. Where next, Ian?00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:25.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, well, again, if you're thinking about, you know, some of the great resorts in Europe, I'm actually going to pick St. Anton in Austria next, because that is listed on the spreadsheet I'm looking at as Skjalberg.00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:16.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:20.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:25.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:27.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:28.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: On the epic, on the epic pass.00:25:27.000 --> 00:25:34.000Stuart Winchester: Right. Yeah. Everything has 10 names there. That's another, that's another reason I, we needed you on here. Um.00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:33.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah. Well…00:25:33.000 --> 00:25:41.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, Ski… Ski Aalberg is… so, let's just have a look at where you are. It's gonna be slightly to the, uh, west.00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:39.000Stuart Winchester: There it is. There it is. I found it.00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:59.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, there you go, Ski Aalberg. So, Ski Aalberg… Aalberg is, like, a region of Austria that sits within Tyrol, one of the, uh, the cantons, and in fact, that is quite good, the level that you've got it at right there. You can see, just on the video that I'm looking at, uh, at the moment.00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:44.000Stuart Winchester: Okay, there we go.00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:48.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:25:49.000 --> 00:25:51.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:55.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:13.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: That you've got St. Anton is sitting almost underneath where it says Ski Aalberg. It's pretty easy to get to.00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:11.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:26:13.000 --> 00:26:25.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: you can get there… you can fly into either Innsbruck, or you can fly into Zurich. For, you know, I typically travel by train, but, you know, from both of those, it's about an hour and a half or so by train.00:26:19.000 --> 00:26:20.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:26.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:33.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Uh, roughly, uh, transfer time. A really good train station in St. Anton. And St. Anton…00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:40.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: is an amazing destination. I was lucky enough to learn to ski there, you know, when I was a kid.00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:37.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:50.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: And I think what… it ticks a lot of boxes. It does have, uh, maybe contrary to some people's impressions, amazing food.00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:51.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:26:50.000 --> 00:27:01.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: There's, like, a Michelin-star restaurant at the mid-station, just above a resort, which is, you know, well worth checking out. But lots of resorts, lots of restaurants in the town as well.00:26:52.000 --> 00:26:54.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:26:57.000 --> 00:26:59.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:27:01.000 --> 00:27:03.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Has legendary apres ski.00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:04.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:12.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: There are two bars located opposite each other, which some listeners may have heard of, called the Crazy Kangaroo.00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:09.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:12.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:14.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: And the moose avert.00:27:13.000 --> 00:27:15.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:29.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: And these are, like, legendary at the end of the day. Skiers will go there, they'll be dancing on the tables, they'll be, uh, you know, knocking back whatever they can, and then skiing down very, very carefully.00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:18.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:26.000Stuart Winchester: Yes.00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:44.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Uh, to the resort, the remaining, kind of, 500 meters or so. They do actually encourage people to get a bus back, uh, now, uh, if you can, because there is a little bit of a history of… of accidents, but those two, you know, have amazing apres ski.00:27:33.000 --> 00:27:34.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:37.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:42.000Stuart Winchester: Yes.00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:45.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:27:44.000 --> 00:28:00.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Really good restaurants, but the ski area is fantastic. Ski Aalberg covers all of the resorts in that area. On the level of maps on at the moment, you can see over to the left, there's an area called St. Christoph. You can link over to St. Christoph.00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:08.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: you can link over to Steuben, quite easy to ski over there, and then just to the north of the map, as we're looking at it at the moment, will be Lech.00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:09.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:17.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: which is also part of Ski Aalberg. You know, you can stay in Lech. I tend to favor St. Anton, there's a lot more going on. Lech is a bit…00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:12.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:17.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:28:17.000 --> 00:28:33.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: how can I put it? Posher, quite frankly. You know, frequented by the Dutch royal family and, uh, and others. You know, the British royal family historically used to go there as well. You can actually ski on Ski Arburg all the way up to that town called.00:28:19.000 --> 00:28:21.000Stuart Winchester: Okay, okay.00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:31.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:28:33.000 --> 00:28:43.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Vaath, or Vaath, which is right at the top of the map. That is a very long day, and the connections to there are quite difficult. But it is a…00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:35.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, gosh.00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:38.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:44.000Stuart Winchester: You can ski from there to…00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:59.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, you could ski between there and St. Anton and back in a single day. You can get a certificate if you follow the whole route and do it. But it is a very large ski area. But St. Anton itself, really brilliant place to base yourself.00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:46.000Stuart Winchester: You're saying, wow.00:28:46.000 --> 00:28:48.000Stuart Winchester: Jeez.00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:52.000Stuart Winchester: Unbelievable.00:28:52.000 --> 00:28:53.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:28:58.000 --> 00:29:00.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:28:59.000 --> 00:29:06.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: you know, lift connections are really good, the resort is really good, and, you know, that would be one of the reasons I would suggest that.00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:14.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: And just another kind of equivalent destination for the hero trip. Oh, sorry. Go on. Go on. Yes.00:29:11.000 --> 00:29:18.000Stuart Winchester: Let me just pause and ask you one question about Ahlberg. So, you know, again, Americans are…00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:34.000Stuart Winchester: And that's, I don't want to mean to speak for the whole nation, but they tend to fall into the checklist trap where they're just trying to get to everything. Would you recommend trying to ski from here to there, or would you recommend settling in, kind of enjoying a day at each, or maybe just.00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:27.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Hmm.00:29:34.000 --> 00:29:38.000Stuart Winchester: Seeing where the day takes you, not worrying about all the lifts.00:29:38.000 --> 00:29:53.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: I mean, I would only do that for a long way to go. I mean, it's quite a long way to go to Lech and back for the day. And there is a lot of really good skiing in St. Anton. I actually tend to favor the St. Christoph Steuben.00:29:42.000 --> 00:29:44.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:50.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:29:53.000 --> 00:30:09.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: area, because it doesn't get skied as much as some of the other areas, and there's a lot to ski there, so you can have peace to yourself, whereas it might be much busier closer to St. Anton. There's actually another area you can see with the lifts that you've got there going slightly south.00:29:57.000 --> 00:29:58.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:30:09.000 --> 00:30:10.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:30:09.000 --> 00:30:24.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: from St. Anton, that goes to an area called Rendle, which is part of the Ski Arburg area. And, you know, Rendle is another really good ski area that's often underskied. I mean, you could spend a day skiing over there on its own.00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:16.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:30.000Stuart Winchester: Is… is that… is that part of Ski Aalberg? On the Epic Pass? It is? Okay. Okay.00:30:27.000 --> 00:30:31.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's part of Schiberg as well, yeah.00:30:31.000 --> 00:30:37.000Stuart Winchester: Okay, great. All right. Anwar, you were gonna tell us about another, I think, Austrian destination.00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, I was gonna go the other… the other very obvious, I would say.00:30:38.000 --> 00:30:39.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:30:39.000 --> 00:30:40.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Um…00:30:41.000 --> 00:30:44.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Big destination is Verbier.00:30:44.000 --> 00:30:47.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Which I believe is also on the Epic Pass.00:30:46.000 --> 00:30:48.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:58.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Uh, so Verbier's in Switzerland, quite close to Chamonix. You can drive between Chamonix and Verbier in an hour and a quarter. Again, you'd fly into Geneva.00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:50.000Stuart Winchester: Ah, yeah, let's…00:30:51.000 --> 00:30:53.000Stuart Winchester: Okay. Oh, there it is.00:30:53.000 --> 00:30:55.000Stuart Winchester: Yep.00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:56.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:30:58.000 --> 00:30:59.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:30:58.000 --> 00:31:14.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: really easy to get to from Geneva. You can actually get the train all the way from Geneva Airport direct to the town at the bottom of Verbier, which is called Le Chapelle, and then they have a gondola, which, uh… which you guys call a tram, I think, or, uh…00:31:06.000 --> 00:31:07.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, wow.00:31:07.000 --> 00:31:09.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:31:12.000 --> 00:31:14.000Stuart Winchester: There.00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:25.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: it's a bubble lift, however you want to term it, that goes directly from the valley floor, connects directly out of the railway station and up into Verbier.00:31:16.000 --> 00:31:17.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:26.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:28.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: And, you know, Verbier…00:31:28.000 --> 00:31:43.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Brilliant resort. Such an amazing ski area. It's actually listed on there as a Catra Valley, the Four Valleys, and that's because it also includes several other resorts as well, which are called, I think, Lazu… you can just about see them. Lazuma, Nonda.00:31:29.000 --> 00:31:30.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, okay.00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:37.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:31:43.000 --> 00:31:48.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: and Vaesuna, which are just slightly to the north there.00:31:48.000 --> 00:32:00.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Uh, so they're all included in that area. It's a big ski area, but Verbier has a lot going on. Uh, again, you know, good apres ski, really good, uh, restaurants, uh, but.00:31:51.000 --> 00:31:52.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:31:54.000 --> 00:31:55.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:07.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Particularly for the more advanced skiers, there's some incredible off-piste there. You know, you can…00:32:07.000 --> 00:32:12.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: um… go off… off the back from the top of Mon4.00:32:11.000 --> 00:32:13.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:28.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: with a guide, just again, and there's a huge area that can open up there. You can also do heli skiing out of Verbier to access some of the other peaks around there, but you can stay in the inbounds area and still ski a lot of really good off-piste.00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:34.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: It's high as well, you know, the resort itself is 1600 meters, and I think it goes up to.00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:45.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: 3… 2… I'm not 100% sure about that, but certainly high. So, you know, you have regular snow. I mean, I skied there in the last week of…00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:47.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: April last year.00:32:46.000 --> 00:32:48.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:32:47.000 --> 00:33:02.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: and there was still plenty of snow. Um, it's, you know, it's expensive. It's not quite as expensive as, uh, Zermatt. It doesn't have the view of the Matterhorn, but it is one of the world's best ski resorts, for sure.00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:56.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:33:02.000 --> 00:33:14.000Stuart Winchester: So that's on Epic Pass, and it's, you know, Vail has purchased a couple of ski areas at Kranz, Montana, and Andermatt-Suderun, and it's also… the Epic Pass is unlimited on DeSantis, which is right.00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:23.000Stuart Winchester: contiguous with the Entermeister Druun. If you have the Epic Pass, is it worth trying to do a trip with all of those, or is Verbier enough?00:33:23.000 --> 00:33:32.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: And Verbier's definitely enough for a whole week. If you had a car, Cro-Montana isn't very far away, it would probably only take you…00:33:27.000 --> 00:33:28.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:45.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: you know, an hour and a bit… I'm gonna say an hour and a quarter, perhaps, to, uh, get there. Cremontana's a big area in itself. It's, um… you know, I've skied there on many occasions, and I really like it. It's not… I've been there…00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:36.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:33:38.000 --> 00:33:40.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:47.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: On a family holiday.00:33:47.000 --> 00:33:48.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Whereas…00:33:48.000 --> 00:34:05.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: I would go to Verbier because I like to ski kind of, uh, steep and off-piste, uh, you know, with a guide. And probably it's too expensive to take a family to. Cromontana is, uh, you know, a bit more, uh, affordable. I mean, it's still a very smart, uh, resort.00:33:53.000 --> 00:33:54.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:06.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:13.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: But if you wanted to explore, you could go there. Amount is a bit more of a stretch in terms of distance.00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:14.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:18.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: You know, if you were on a tour, and you're an Epic Pass holder, you could take it in.00:34:18.000 --> 00:34:33.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Now, I'm also a fan of Andermatt. I've been there several times, uh, as well. Again, probably go to Zurich for Andermatt. You can get the train from Zurich in about an hour and a half, something like that. And it's a really interesting story, uh, Andermatt. You know, it used to be…00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:26.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:34:33.000 --> 00:34:43.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Its location is strategically significant in the middle of several valleys. So at once upon a time, it used to be an army base.00:34:43.000 --> 00:34:55.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: And then, when the army, uh, withdrew, it kind of went into decline for a long time. And it was bought by, uh, the area was brought by a property developer.00:34:49.000 --> 00:34:50.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:34:55.000 --> 00:35:08.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: And ultimately, he built it up, and more recently, Vale Resorts have taken that over. And so there's a lot of new accommodations, some incredibly nice restaurants. Again, more Michelin stars there. I've got a feeling…00:35:08.000 --> 00:35:14.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: It might have the highest number of Michelin stars per capita for any.00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:16.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: town in the world.00:35:16.000 --> 00:35:26.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Uh, and the skiing itself, you know, again, I've been there with a guide, there's some excellent off-piste skiing, but there's, you know, a good amount of on-piste skiing as well.00:35:26.000 --> 00:35:29.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: It's a really, it's really appealing area.00:35:29.000 --> 00:35:35.000Stuart Winchester: So you mentioned having a guide many times, and I think that's, you know, in…00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:33.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Heh.00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:45.000Stuart Winchester: in North America, we generally only hire guides when we're going outside of the resort, and a lot of folks don't even do it then, if they're confident in their own avalanche.00:35:45.000 --> 00:36:00.000Stuart Winchester: capabilities. In general, everything within resort boundaries in North America is considered to be patrolled and controlled, meaning they'll do avalanche work, and if it's open, you can go in it without a guide. There's a few exceptions where you need transceivers, etc.00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:13.000Stuart Winchester: That's not really the case in Europe, so just from a mentality standpoint, how should skiers approach this when they're going to some of these hero resorts you're talking about, as far as.00:36:14.000 --> 00:36:18.000Stuart Winchester: Considering a guide in essential versus a luxury.00:36:18.000 --> 00:36:36.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Okay, I wouldn't want to mislead you there. I mean, guides are just on my mind, because I like a lot of backcountry skiing, and therefore, I often, you know, go with them. In bounds, you don't need a guide, absolutely not. You know, you can download the app, or get yourself a peace map, and you can.00:36:21.000 --> 00:36:23.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.00:36:26.000 --> 00:36:27.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:58.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: go around the place as much as you want, and, uh, you know, it is fully secured, you've got ski patrol, uh, etc, so you don't need to be concerned about that. It just happens that a lot of the places that I've mentioned so far, you know, do have some of those more interesting off-piste options, and I guess it depends a bit on the listener and, you know, what they're, uh, looking for, but you… you don't…00:36:58.000 --> 00:37:06.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: need to have a guide to show you around resorts. I mean, potentially, some of these ski areas are.00:37:03.000 --> 00:37:04.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:37:06.000 --> 00:37:13.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: significantly larger than they might come across in North America, and therefore.00:37:11.000 --> 00:37:12.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:37:13.000 --> 00:37:29.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: it could be a good investment to rent someone or to hire someone to show you around. I mean, back in the day, in the 90s, when I was working in the Alps, I worked for British tour operators, and part of my job was showing guests around the mountains and helping them orientate themselves.00:37:29.000 --> 00:37:38.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: And that actually is pertinent, because the next resort I wanted, or area I wanted to mention, was Le Trois Vallees, Le Three Valleys.00:37:36.000 --> 00:37:38.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:37:38.000 --> 00:37:40.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Which…00:37:39.000 --> 00:37:41.000Stuart Winchester: Also on Epic Pass.00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:45.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: also is on Epic Pass. Now, the three valleys…00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:53.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: probably has a pretty good awareness amongst the North American market. I mean, it is the world's largest ski area.00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:51.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:37:53.000 --> 00:37:54.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:37:53.000 --> 00:38:01.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: There's 600 kilometers apiece there, and I work four seasons in the three valleys, three in Meribel and one in Courchevel.00:37:56.000 --> 00:37:57.000Stuart Winchester: Peace.00:37:58.000 --> 00:37:59.000Stuart Winchester: Wow.00:38:01.000 --> 00:38:03.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: And it is.00:38:03.000 --> 00:38:14.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: magnificent in terms of scale. There is so much skiing you can do there, and, you know, I worked four winters there. Did I ski every single run, you know, during that time? I doubt it.00:38:14.000 --> 00:38:24.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Uh, because you tend to go back and forth across a lot of them. Uh, you know, there is so much that it's gonna take you well more than a week if you wanted to, uh.00:38:18.000 --> 00:38:19.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:38:24.000 --> 00:38:29.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: ski them all, but you could certainly explore the three valleys.00:38:29.000 --> 00:38:39.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: You know, I… it's hard to know exactly which of those destinations to recommend, because it depends on the individuals to…00:38:39.000 --> 00:38:46.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: put it in context, you have three valleys, literally, over, if we were looking on the map, the left-hand side, you would have Courchevel.00:38:42.000 --> 00:38:43.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:38:46.000 --> 00:38:47.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:38:46.000 --> 00:38:49.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: The middle, Maribel.00:38:49.000 --> 00:39:07.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Uh, and the right-hand side, Val Torrens. I think as we look at the map at the moment, it's the opposite way round. So we can see on the left, you've got Val Torrens at the top. That's the highest ski resort in Europe. It's 2,300 meters itself, the resort. Not high by, like, Colorado standards or something like that, but high by European standards.00:38:51.000 --> 00:38:53.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:38:54.000 --> 00:38:55.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:39:04.000 --> 00:39:06.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:39:07.000 --> 00:39:08.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:39:07.000 --> 00:39:19.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: It's above the tree line, uh, you know, it's changed a lot in recent years, but there's a lot of apartment accommodation there, there's a lot of nice four- and five-star hotels up there, uh, as well, but it doesn't have.00:39:13.000 --> 00:39:15.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:39:19.000 --> 00:39:28.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Like, if you were coming to Europe for the first time, it doesn't have the kind of character, the charisma.00:39:21.000 --> 00:39:22.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:39:27.000 --> 00:39:28.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:39:28.000 --> 00:39:43.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: that some other resorts, let's say, like Verbier, or Zermatt, or St. Anton have, because it's modern, you know, it was built in the 1970s, so it's a purpose-built, uh, resort. Also, in that valley slightly lower down, you have Leymanduia, more.00:39:33.000 --> 00:39:35.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:39:43.000 --> 00:39:47.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Prettier, you know, at the bottom, you've got a place called San Martin.00:39:46.000 --> 00:39:48.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:39:47.000 --> 00:39:49.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: The middle valley, Meribel.00:39:49.000 --> 00:40:04.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: that is lots of pretty chocolate box chalets. Uh, you know, I worked 3 years there. It's brilliantly connected. Uh, the resort itself is between 1,400 and 1,800 meters, so it's pretty high.00:39:52.000 --> 00:39:53.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:39:58.000 --> 00:39:59.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:07.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: And, you know, it's a good…00:40:07.000 --> 00:40:19.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: base, I'd still, if you were thinking about that, I'd still, you know, without wishing to offend any of my friends in Mirabal, and I have very many of them, I'd probably say if you think about a week and you wanted to base yourself somewhere.00:40:19.000 --> 00:40:21.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Maybe Verbier or Saint Anton.00:40:21.000 --> 00:40:33.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: would be a better choice for that. They both have, you know, still big ski areas, and just a little bit more accessibility, uh, you know, overall.00:40:23.000 --> 00:40:25.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:40:26.000 --> 00:40:28.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:40:32.000 --> 00:40:34.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:40:33.000 --> 00:40:39.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Courchevel, again, a resort I love that I worked in for a season.00:40:39.000 --> 00:40:41.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: There's several different…00:40:41.000 --> 00:40:46.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: um, what the French call station, different levels within Courchevel.00:40:43.000 --> 00:40:44.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:46.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:40:46.000 --> 00:41:01.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Courchevel 1850, most people will have heard of. It's a top station. It's at 1850 meters. It is very shishy. Five and six star hotels, 13 Michelin stars.00:40:49.000 --> 00:40:51.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:40:56.000 --> 00:40:58.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:40:58.000 --> 00:41:00.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:41:01.000 --> 00:41:13.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: you know, across the resort, it… you can't find… well, I have stayed there in a couple of budget accommodations, but there's not really budget accommodation. You know, if you want to go and…00:41:14.000 --> 00:41:31.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: to a resort where you may well end up, you know, sharing a hotel with, I don't know, Leo DiCaprio, or, you know, you might find a member of the British Royals there, or David Beckham, then that's the kind of place to go.00:41:31.000 --> 00:41:32.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:41:31.000 --> 00:41:36.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: But you're going to have to pay to go along with that. And it has fantastic skiing.00:41:34.000 --> 00:41:35.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:41:36.000 --> 00:41:37.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:41:36.000 --> 00:41:38.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: But again.00:41:38.000 --> 00:41:45.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: if you're only coming for a shorter period of time, I'd be inclined to mention a couple of the other resorts I mentioned, plus…00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:54.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: I want to mention Valdezare as well, but I don't think Valdezare is on any of the collective passes, is it?00:41:53.000 --> 00:41:58.000Stuart Winchester: Hmm. Uh, is it part of one of these bigger…00:41:58.000 --> 00:41:59.000Stuart Winchester: Domains or.00:41:58.000 --> 00:42:05.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: No, it is not. I mean, there is a, uh… so it's not going to come up on your map.00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:07.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: But Valdisera is a brilliant…00:42:07.000 --> 00:42:24.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: uh, resort, which does give you traditional skiing, a pretty village, a huge, uh, ski area that links up to Teen, where they have a glacier, so you can kind of guarantee that you're going to be able to get skiing. Skiing goes up to 3,500 meters there.00:42:08.000 --> 00:42:10.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:42:24.000 --> 00:42:25.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:42:24.000 --> 00:42:41.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: And I met Americans there, so Americans certainly know about it. I met a family from, you know, Florida who were in the Folly Deuce, who were enjoying themselves in the VIP area and very kindly, you know, offered us some of their champagne.00:42:28.000 --> 00:42:29.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:42:41.000 --> 00:42:53.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: uh, at the time. You know, Founders Area is a brilliant resort, not covered on any of those passes. That doesn't mean that it's not necessarily going to be, you know, a good option, uh, for you. You know, lift tickets.00:42:42.000 --> 00:42:43.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:42:53.000 --> 00:43:07.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: are going to be, you know, dirt cheap compared to the States, but maybe still, like, 80 euros a day, or something like that, you know, overall, but a really good ski area. So those are all… I think we've covered all of the, kind of, the bigger.00:42:59.000 --> 00:43:00.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:43:03.000 --> 00:43:04.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:43:06.000 --> 00:43:08.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:43:07.000 --> 00:43:18.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: kind of places there, unless you've got any other questions in relation to any of them. Oh, no, hold on! We've missed one! We've missed one! Dolomitiski!00:43:12.000 --> 00:43:15.000Stuart Winchester: No. Yeah.00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:16.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:43:17.000 --> 00:43:19.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:43:18.000 --> 00:43:21.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: That's on Icon, isn't it?00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:35.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, well, Dolomiti Super Ski is on Icon, Skirama Dolomiti is on Epic. They each have, like, 100 ski areas, it seems like, so… yeah, this is how they're pitched to us. I don't know how you want to make sense to them on the ground… of them on the ground.00:43:29.000 --> 00:43:31.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah.00:43:33.000 --> 00:43:34.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah.00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:51.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, okay, let's talk Dolomiti superskis. That's where the Winter Olympics were last year. Milan Cortina. Cortina is in the Dolomites. And it is a huge superski area, you know, depending how you do the definitions, it's larger.00:43:37.000 --> 00:43:39.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:43:39.000 --> 00:43:40.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:43:42.000 --> 00:43:43.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:43:44.000 --> 00:43:45.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:43:48.000 --> 00:43:50.000Stuart Winchester: Yes.00:43:51.000 --> 00:43:54.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: than L'Etoile Vallee.00:43:53.000 --> 00:43:54.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:43:54.000 --> 00:43:56.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Uh, but…00:43:56.000 --> 00:44:01.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Sometimes that means getting a bus in between. Uh, it is…00:43:58.000 --> 00:44:00.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:44:01.000 --> 00:44:13.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: It is great. You could fly into Innsbruck, you could fly into Venice, you can combine that with a trip to Venice, or maybe Verona, or Milan. They're all about equidistance from the Dolomiti Sufski.00:44:02.000 --> 00:44:04.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:44:13.000 --> 00:44:16.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: It's visually accurate.00:44:16.000 --> 00:44:31.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Absolutely stunning. The Dolomites are just an amazing mountain range. I found myself when I was skiing in Val Gardena, which we'll come to right in the middle of your map at the moment, just being distracted.00:44:17.000 --> 00:44:18.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:44:21.000 --> 00:44:23.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:44:28.000 --> 00:44:29.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:44:31.000 --> 00:44:43.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: I'm looking at the mountains, because they're just so gorgeous. I'm skiing down this piste. You know, looking at this mountain, thinking, oh my god, this is just amazing. And then on top of that, you know, you have.00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:36.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:41.000Stuart Winchester: Yah.00:44:43.000 --> 00:44:58.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Italian cuisine, Italian prices, you know, yeah, Cortina's the most expensive. Again, quite a lot of, uh, you know, Milanese would go up there for the weekend, but, you know, overall, Selva, again, roughly around the middle of your, uh, map at the moment. Yeah, really…00:44:57.000 --> 00:44:58.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:44:58.000 --> 00:45:06.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Really good value, you know, considering it's a really good access point for a fantastic ski area.00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:01.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:06.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:45:06.000 --> 00:45:09.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: And it has…00:45:09.000 --> 00:45:16.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: The Superski is not a misnomer. It is a very large ski area.00:45:12.000 --> 00:45:13.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:45:16.000 --> 00:45:27.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: And there's some amazing circuits that you can do there. So I would probably recommend, if you were thinking about it, Cortina or Silva Val Gardena would be the two best places to locate yourself.00:45:24.000 --> 00:45:26.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:45:27.000 --> 00:45:37.000Stuart Winchester: And do you like Superski over Vail's Skirama Dolomiti group? And again, I've dug in a little bit, but I didn't include on this map what that…00:45:37.000 --> 00:45:42.000Stuart Winchester: contains, and I dropped the pin here on, uh, Campo Carlomagno, but…00:45:42.000 --> 00:45:46.000Stuart Winchester: It includes a lot of things in, you know, almost equal.00:45:44.000 --> 00:45:58.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, I'm gonna have to put my hand up and say I don't know that area as well. I haven't actually skied there myself. It is, to my mind, and I can check your stats because I've got it in front of me, you're saying it's roughly the same skiable area.00:45:48.000 --> 00:45:49.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:45:58.000 --> 00:46:01.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Right. Was that the vertical drop?00:45:59.000 --> 00:46:01.000Stuart Winchester: That's the stats that…00:46:01.000 --> 00:46:04.000Stuart Winchester: or on the Epic Pass website.00:46:03.000 --> 00:46:04.000Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah.00:46:04.000 --> 00:46:06.000Stuart Winchester

The Fifth Pan-African Congress was held in Manchester, England, in 1945, helping to shape the post-war struggle against colonialism and racial discrimination. Prominent black activists, intellectuals and trade union leaders from around the world attended, including Kwame Nkrumah and Jomo Kenyatta, who would later become the leaders of independent Ghana and Kenya.In 2020, Alex Last explored the story through archive recordings of one of the delegates, the late African National Congress activist and writer Peter Abrahams, and spoke to Professor Hakim Adi of the University of Chichester about the significance of the meeting.Witness History is a short BBC World Service podcast about history that takes you inside big moments from the past through first-hand testimony and archive. Each weekday, in around nine minutes, we revisit one moment that helped shape the world and hear it through the voice of someone who was there. Scientists, artists, campaigners, soldiers, leaders and everyday people tell their true stories.When you subscribe to Witness History, you'll be taken inside turning points in world affairs from West Africa's fight back against Boko Haram in 2015 to the behind-closed-doors talks that led to the US-Cuba “thaw” and the surprise announcement of restored relations. You'll discover what it was like to experience disasters and how people recovered from them, including the Tabasco floods in Mexico, Portugal's worst train disaster, and the huge clean-up after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. You'll explore culture and ideas too: Sweden's Expedition Robinson, often credited as the first modern reality TV game show; the friendship between The Beatles' George Harrison and Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar; and the night a tiger attack brought Las Vegas superstars Siegfried and Roy's show to a sudden end. And if you're curious about inventions, we'll tell you how air fryers, BlackBerry, YouTube, Alexa, GPS, superglue, the shopping cart (shopping trolley) and bubble tea were created.If you're new to Witness History, the appeal is simple: real voices, one strong true story, and a fresh way to understand today through events from history – all in the time it takes to enjoy a cup of tea or a walk around the block. Join millions of BBC World Service podcast listeners around the globe and enjoy the insight, context and detail Witness History will bring you.(Photo: The Fifth Pan-African Congress. Credit: John Deakin/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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