Bridge in London, England
POPULARITY
3 episodes with Waterloo Bridge
2 episodes with Waterloo Bridge
2 episodes with Waterloo Bridge
2 episodes with Waterloo Bridge
2 episodes with Waterloo Bridge
2 episodes with Waterloo Bridge
3 episodes with Waterloo Bridge
2 episodes with Waterloo Bridge
2 episodes with Waterloo Bridge
Sandwiched between Westminster and Waterloo Bridge, this bridge give you a choice on which side you get fantastic London views! Hungerford Bridge to most is just a railway bridge taking passengers in and out of Charing Cross, but this is so much more.....
‘A very tall man is jogging. His running style is reluctant, as if he's hauling himself along.' Please note before you start listening: this podcast is recorded in 3D sound! So make sure that you're wearing headphones for the very best experience.The small details in life can pass you by. Unless you take the time to stop to notice them.Which is exactly what author, actor and social media personality Miranda Keeling does in this podcast series.Expanding on the observations she shares on her popular Twitter account, she invites you to join her out and about as she captures those small, magical moments of everyday life, in sound.Thanks to 3D recordings, you'll hear everything she does as if you were right there with her.There are new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. These short but lovingly crafted episodes are an invitation to escape from life's hustle, immersing you in Miranda's world for a few minutes.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
'A woman talks to a man, gesticulating with her hands as she does so. She makes lots of square shapes, as if she's putting her hands around differently-sized, boxed Christmas presents.' Please note before you start listening: this podcast is recorded in 3D sound! So make sure that you're wearing headphones for the very best experience.The small details in life can pass you by. Unless you take the time to stop to notice them.Which is exactly what author, actor and social media personality Miranda Keeling does in this podcast series.Expanding on the observations she shares on her popular Twitter account, she invites you to join her out and about as she captures those small, magical moments of everyday life, in sound.Thanks to 3D recordings, you'll hear everything she does as if you were right there with her.There are new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. These short but lovingly crafted episodes are an invitation to escape from life's hustle, immersing you in Miranda's world for a few minutes.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Welcome to this mini-episode of the podcast, where we revisit a powerful and emotional conversation with Neil Laybourn and Jonny Benjamin. In this heartfelt excerpt, Jonny shares his deeply personal experience with mental health struggles, his time in inpatient care, and the events that led him to Waterloo Bridge on a pivotal day in his life. Neil recounts his spontaneous decision to approach Jonny on the bridge, offering connection and hope during a critical moment, despite having no prior knowledge or training in mental health intervention.Together, they reflect on the profound impact of that encounter—Jonny's gratitude for being treated with humanity rather than as a patient, and Neil's realisation of the importance of empathy and presence in moments of crisis.Please listen to the full episode here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/hurt-to-healing-mental-health-wellbeing/id1649515453?i=1000587060647 Jonny's website: https://jonnybenjamin.co.uk/Neil's website: https://neillaybourn.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Danny Baker, the act you've known for all these years, is kicking his legs up again in 2025 on a thundering new theatre tour, ‘Aye Aye! Ahoy Hoy!' “Dead men tell no tales,” he points out, “so we might might as well get ‘em all told now.” This will be another barnstorming one-man circus - as, naturally, is this barrelling conversation with the two of us which collides with the following … … being shot, Welsh cake, an olive green Humber, goldfish, when videos were the size of a loaf of bread, why half his Maidstone audience got up and left, stolen gear being hustled over Waterloo Bridge, bad things done by Rod Stewart and Britt Ekland, ELP, the Average White Band, Max Miller, Kenneth Williams' loathing for Michael Aspel, when records become like furniture, getting £4k for a Ziggy Stardust white label, why he doesn't miss the 14,000 albums he sold, and the record that came out the same day as Sgt Pepper and Bowie's first album but is better than both. The podcast includes an extract from Ronnie Barker's “A Pint Of Old And Filthy” and Terry Thomas reading PG Wodehouse. Order tickets for Danny's 2025 tour here:https://www.dannybakerstore.com/Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Danny Baker, the act you've known for all these years, is kicking his legs up again in 2025 on a thundering new theatre tour, ‘Aye Aye! Ahoy Hoy!' “Dead men tell no tales,” he points out, “so we might might as well get ‘em all told now.” This will be another barnstorming one-man circus - as, naturally, is this barrelling conversation with the two of us which collides with the following … … being shot, Welsh cake, an olive green Humber, goldfish, when videos were the size of a loaf of bread, why half his Maidstone audience got up and left, stolen gear being hustled over Waterloo Bridge, bad things done by Rod Stewart and Britt Ekland, ELP, the Average White Band, Max Miller, Kenneth Williams' loathing for Michael Aspel, when records become like furniture, getting £4k for a Ziggy Stardust white label, why he doesn't miss the 14,000 albums he sold, and the record that came out the same day as Sgt Pepper and Bowie's first album but is better than both. The podcast includes an extract from Ronnie Barker's “A Pint Of Old And Filthy” and Terry Thomas reading PG Wodehouse. Order tickets for Danny's 2025 tour here:https://www.dannybakerstore.com/Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Danny Baker, the act you've known for all these years, is kicking his legs up again in 2025 on a thundering new theatre tour, ‘Aye Aye! Ahoy Hoy!' “Dead men tell no tales,” he points out, “so we might might as well get ‘em all told now.” This will be another barnstorming one-man circus - as, naturally, is this barrelling conversation with the two of us which collides with the following … … being shot, Welsh cake, an olive green Humber, goldfish, when videos were the size of a loaf of bread, why half his Maidstone audience got up and left, stolen gear being hustled over Waterloo Bridge, bad things done by Rod Stewart and Britt Ekland, ELP, the Average White Band, Max Miller, Kenneth Williams' loathing for Michael Aspel, when records become like furniture, getting £4k for a Ziggy Stardust white label, why he doesn't miss the 14,000 albums he sold, and the record that came out the same day as Sgt Pepper and Bowie's first album but is better than both. The podcast includes an extract from Ronnie Barker's “A Pint Of Old And Filthy” and Terry Thomas reading PG Wodehouse. Order tickets for Danny's 2025 tour here:https://www.dannybakerstore.com/Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Summary Neil Bradbury (Website, LinkedIn) joins Andrew (X; LinkedIn) to discuss the deadly history of poison and espionage. Neil is an author and biochemist. What You'll Learn Intelligence How different poisons affect the human body The usage of poisons as a covert assassination method The deaths of defectors Alexander Litvinenko and Georgi Markov The Soviet Union's Lab X and the production and research of poisons on the state level Reflections The double edge of creativity The necessity for research and experimentation And much, much more … Quotes of the Week “In order to counteract lots of the poisons, you have to know how they work, and you have to be able to develop your own. So, yes, undoubtedly, Western governments are just as actively involved in creating these chemicals and also the antidotes to them.” – Dr. Neil Bradbury. Resources SURFACE SKIM *Spotlight Resource* A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them, Neil Bradbury (St. Martin's Press, 2022) *SpyCasts* The Murder of an IRA Spy with Henry Hemming (2024) I Helped Solve the Final Zodiac Killer Cipher with David Oranchak (2024) The North Korean Defector with Former DPRK Agent Kim, Hyun Woo (2023) Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East vs. West with Calder Walton (2023) DEEPER DIVE Books Poison: The History of Potions, Powders and Murderous Practitioners, B. Hubbard (Welbeck Publishing, 2020) Poison: A History: An Account of the Deadly Art and its Most Infamous Practitioners, J. Davis (Chartwell Books, 2018) The KGB's Poison Factory: From Lenin to Litvinenko, B. Volodarsky (Zenith Press, 2010) Primary Sources Press Release on the Poisoning of Alexei Navalny (2020) Update on the Use of Nerve Agent in Salisbury, UK (2018) The Litvinenko Inquiry (2016) Situation Report on Piesteritz (1953) Analysis of Madame Lefarge's Arsenic Trial (1840) *Wildcard Resource* This week's companion song can only be Waterloo Sunset (1967) by The Kinks. Heralded as one of the most beautiful songs of the swingin' sixties, “Waterloo Sunset” is appropriately incorporated into the title of Neil's chapter on the assassination of Georgi Markov, which took place on London's Waterloo Bridge. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode, which is the 6th in Danny Hurst´s Unusual Histories Bridge Series, he shares some fascinating stories about London´s Waterloo Bridge. The location of an a highly unusual assassination, an accidental hanging, a cardboard city and a book market which are all part of its rich history. Also learn about Waterloo stations Only Fools and Horses connection, why the bridge was mostly built by women and more. KEY TAKEAWAYS The Markoff assassination did not happen in the way everyone thinks. The impressive Waterloo Bridge helmet dates back to between 150 and 50BC. Monet painted the bridge 41 times. The bridge is self-cleaning. The bridge was not finished until 3 years after its official opening. The play Waterloo Bridge has been turned into a film 3 times. BEST MOMENTS ‘As a result, the bridge made an enormous loss. ´ ‘The original Waterloo Bridge was thought by many to be the most beautiful bridge in the world.' ‘It does have some of the best acoustic qualities in the world.' EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.citybridgefoundation.org.uk/ The Strand episode of Unusual Histories podcast - https://omny.fm/shows/unusual-histories/015-uh?in_playlist=podcast HOST BIO Historian, performer, and mentor Danny Hurst has been engaging audiences for many years, whether as a lecturer, stand-up comic or intervention teacher with young offenders and excluded secondary students. Having worked with some of the most difficult people in the UK, he is a natural storyteller and entertainer, whilst purveying the most fascinating information that you didn't know you didn't know. A writer and host of pub quizzes across London, he has travelled extensively and speaks several languages. He has been a consultant for exhibitions at the Imperial War Museum and Natural History Museum in London as well as presenting accelerated learning seminars across the UK. With a wide range of knowledge ranging from motor mechanics to opera to breeding carnivorous plants, he believes learning is the most effective when it's fun. Uniquely delivered, this is history without the boring bits, told the way only Danny Hurst can. CONTACT AND SOCIALS If you can´t get enough of these podcasts, head to https://www.patreon.com/DannyHurst to access my exclusive, member-only, fun-filled and fact-packed history-related videos. https://instagram.com/dannyjhurstfacebook.com/danny.hurst.9638 https://twitter.com/dannyhurst https://www.linkedin.com/in/danny-hurst-19574720 Podcast Description "History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake." James Joyce. That was me at school as well. Ironically, I ended up becoming a historian. The Unusual Histories podcast is all about the history you don't learn at school, nor indeed anywhere else. Discover things that you didn't know that you didn't know, fascinating historical luminaries and their vices and addictions, and the other numerous sides of every story. Danny continues his Unusual Histories podcast with the Bridge Series, remaining in London travelling east to west to look at the bridges which span the Thames. He looks at their design, construction and history, along with the history of the areas in which they're located on both sides of the river. This series kicks off with an exclusive interview with Dirk Bennett of the City Bridge Foundation, the organisation which looks after London's bridges. Tower Bridge is marking its 130th anniversary this month and Dirk talks to Danny about the history of the bridge as well as the new exhibition that is opening for it. If you love history; or indeed if you hate history, this is the podcast for you…
Show Notes and Transcript Jaco Booyens joins Hearts of Oak to discuss his journey from South Africa to the U.S, becoming a citizen and focusing on anti-trafficking work. His organisation prioritizes prevention, inspired by his sister's trafficking experience. Jaco highlights the prevalence of human trafficking in the U.S, especially within families, tells us of the destructive impact of the pornography industry on exploitation and criticizes the church for not actively addressing these issues. Despite facing opposition from Big Tech, Big Pharma, and the pornography lobby, Jaco encourages engagement, education, and support for anti-trafficking efforts and tells us how we can all get involved. With 29 years of fighting trafficking, Jaco Booyens is the leading voice in America addressing the entire ecosystem that feeds human trafficking. His team collaborates with 170+ anti-trafficking organizations nationwide, as well as local and federal law enforcement agencies. JBM is consistently tracking the evolution of this crime in real time. This intel allows us to conduct a global gap analysis to best advocate for the needs of the anti-trafficking community on all fronts (legislation, awareness, training our first responders and government officials). JBM sees early and is able to sound the alarm - warning the American public about what's happening to their children. Jaco Booyens Ministries is an anti-trafficking organization led by the Holy Spirit to redeem the lives of children, victims, survivors, and those creating demand for sexual exploitation. They support real-life rescues and save children BEFORE they need to be rescued Connect with Jaco and the Ministry... WEBSITE jacobooyensministries.org X/TWITTER x.com/BooyensJaco INSTAGRAM instagram.com/jaco.booyens Interview recorded 29.5.24 Connect with Hearts of Oak... X/TWITTER x.com/HeartsofOakUK WEBSITE heartsofoak.org/ PODCASTS heartsofoak.podbean.com/ SOCIAL MEDIA heartsofoak.org/connect/ SHOP heartsofoak.org/shop/ *Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast. Check out his art theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com and follow him on X/Twitter x.com/TheBoschFawstin TRANSCRIPT Hello, Hearts of Oak. I'm delighted to be joined by a brand new guest that I had the privilege of meeting over in my trip in Texas, and that's Jaco Booyens. Jaco, thank you so much for your time today. Thank you. It was great to meet you in person, and thank you for the kind gesture of having me on your show. Not at all. It was wonderful meeting you and then meeting you again later jumping on with you on your show and I had not actually known about the work you're doing. I've looked into it and and it's a phenomenal work you do and i'm hoping that we can share that with our viewers and listeners, but of course first of all people can obviously find you there's your twitter handle which is on the screen or X and this Jaco Booyans Ministries.org is the website that is on the the twitter handle at the top when you go on to Jaco's profile and also everything is in the description. And you describe yourself Jaco as as an anti-trafficking organization led by the Holy Spirit which we'll delve into that point in a moment which is alien for UK viewers certainly but to redeem the lives of children victims survivors and those creating demand for sexual exploitation. We support real life rescues and save children before they need to be rescued. So, we want to delve into the work you do, the vital work you've done for nearly three decades. But before I start with that, can I ask you about yourself? How does a South African end up in the US and becoming a US citizen, legally becoming a US citizen? You know, that's the question today is what's legal and what's not legal, because we still have legal immigration in the US, you know, there's still and as you do in the UK, there are laws on the books, it's whether those laws are actually upheld or not. That's the question of the day. You know, Peter, when I was 18 years old as a South African, born and raised in Johannesburg, with a tremendous, you know, love for England because all our sport are the same. Our school system is built on the British school system. Our legal system is British law. I mean, there's such an intertwinement between the UK and South Africa, right? I was destined to play professional rugby at that time as an 18-year-old. My sister was 12 years old. We were on the brink of civil war. This is 1994, South Africa, Nelson Mandela's coming out of prison. I mean, it is just a melting pot of change, right? And in that year, 1994, when my sister Ilonka was 12, she was trafficked. Now, we're from a single-parent home. Father was not in our lives. I'm a senior in high school, or a matriculant in high school, as we'll call it. But on my way to the military, because it's last class of military, mandatory military service, I'm also on my way to play professional rugby, which both happened. But then also my sister is trafficked. And it was a six-year journey. Of this 12-year-old girl being trafficked until she was 18, my sister, so for me from just about turning 19 to 26, 25, 26, it was this process of not knowing exactly what has happened, what is happening to our sister. And by God's grace, I was there the night she was rescued. And in that process, none of us knew what human trafficking was, but in that six-year process, there was this agreement by the family, my mother, myself, my brother, that when Ilonka was coming home, and we believed that God had her, that she was safe, that we would immigrate to Nashville, Tennessee, because music was our love. Music is, in fact, the industry she was trafficked through. We didn't know it at the time. And so once that happened in 2001, we immigrated to the U.S. We came as visitors and started the process of becoming legal U.S. Citizens, came in legally and worked the process. And for me, it was a 14-year process of becoming a citizen, because I was a visitor and then I became a professional athlete in the U.S., which changed my visa status. And you start over every time. And then I lived in Canada for two years playing professional football in Canada, football, not British football, American football. Which changed my legal status again. And so I had to restart three or four times. And hence the reason it took 14 years before I was sworn in as a U.S. Citizen, you know, and very proudly so. Where was that? Which city, which area was that you were sworn in? Did most of my work with the Memphis Office of Immigration, but I actually was sworn in in Dallas, Texas, because we moved to Dallas 2011 and 2014, sworn in as a U.S. citizen. So, I've been a citizen now for nine, ten years almost. It was such a proud moment, Peter. You know, I love South Africa. That red dirt never gets out of your system. I love my people. I love the country. But we're called here for the fight. We're in fighting human trafficking. We're called here. And standing in front of an immigration judge, I say this to a lot of U.K. residents would understand this. When you have migration and immigration into a country, into the U.S., you are asked to assimilate. You're required. I had to write a written English exam, verbal exam, understand the branches of government. An exam, I argue, most American citizens, naturally born, will fail. They'll fail that test. Same here. Same situation in the U.K. And so pass that exam, then you go through a bar. Then you go through an immigration federal judge, you get questioned. You get all your biometrics taken, they check your background, et cetera, et cetera. And then finally, you stand in front of a judge with your friends and family, and you hear, welcome, newest citizen of the United States. And you pledge that allegiance for the first time, and you sing that national anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner, for the first time. And what a moment, you know, what a moment. Incredible. Had my daughter there with me, my firstborn and she was witness to that. And so, you know, we honor that process, although it being a very expensive and a 14-year process, I honor it. Jaco, you touched on your sports background. You're an entrepreneur. You were in the media industry, which you refer to what happened to your family. That seems a lot on. Why jump into this issue whatever you've got your hands filled with so many other things. Yeah, you're right look I was I was born and raised on the stage. I mean my mom was a theater professor so my first memory we're doing the musical, the student prince I was three years old so I was raised in the entertainment business which ended up being the business that trafficked my sister. And so at the time, at 18, as I'm going to professional sport, the military, you've got a sister that's under duress. And so it takes precedent. Six years in, when Ilanka was rescued, by God's grace, I was there that night. Peter, I'll just tell you my story. I heard God's voice say, not another one. And although I didn't quite know and understand what trafficking was at the time, this is 2001. 2001, I knew that this, this had to end through her eyes in the US after we arrived in Nashville, she called a family meeting and unpacked for us in detail, what men had done to her and how, and you know, you can't, you, your brain disconnects. You don't want, you don't want to hear it, but you're hearing it because it's your sister. And so everything I knew in the beginning, I learned from Ilonka. That led us on this journey of fighting for every child and which led us to 2010 to realize that the United States is the leading nation in the world demanding the exploitation of people. That's a fact. It's sadly so, but it's a fact. We're demanding the highest demand on pornographic content, producing pornographic content, the distribution of CSAM, child sexual abuse material. We lead the world in social media and app development, which has become the platform on which this is prolificated, right? It's just, it's exploded since the age of social media. And so since 2010, although we do a lot of work in other countries still, our organization has a hyper focus on the 50 states of the United States. And thank you for the quote early. We believe we can save a child before they need to be rescued. And what we mean by that is predators look for vulnerabilities in children. If there's not a vulnerability, they'll exploit a potential vulnerability like love and belonging, care, shelter, food, community, identity, you know, and they'll explore what sticks and then they'll dig in. And, you know, remember, it's a crime. Human trafficking is such a broad term. There's labor trafficking, debt bondage, sexual exploitation, sex trafficking. But the crime of human trafficking by definition, which we had a hand in help write, is the exploitation of persons through the mechanism of force, fraud, and coercion. And so those are the mechanisms predators use. The bully uses force. Fraud, coercion is so effective when you combine it with sexual exploitation, so for us we just learned how to use our relationships in media which is still ongoing and active. Proud member of the blaze network with Glenn Beck. We produce feature films. We produce a lot of content and music and television. We utilize those platforms now as sounding boards and awareness campaigns to drive all attention attention and focus to end the sexual exploitation of children. That is our main focus, is to end trafficking. Now, with that being said, our organization has four key pillars, of which one is policy and legislation. Where we are unbelievably active in policy and legislation. We've got great leaders of that in our organization, where we write bills for individual U.S. States, U.S. Senate, the House. We consult. We are even busy with a bill for the House of Lords to speak into how do we protect children in a community by us identifying the vulnerability, vulnerability securing the vulnerability before a predatory force gets to to exploit. Tell me about the early days of starting the JBM, Jaco Booyan's Ministries? Yeah, what were those kind of early days, because this is a huge issue and has got much worse there's so many facets where you can tackle this. And you talk about media and legislation? There are so many angles that you can start on. And it seems as though this is something which actually is just too big to tackle. And I'm sure a number of people have tried to look at this and walked away by the beast they see in front of them. But tell us about those early days, how you started and how you grew in those first few years. Yeah, what a question, man. This is what makes you such a great interviewer, Peter, and congratulations on all the success of the show and the impact you're making. It's because of questions like this. That question is actually also the answer to the big problem. You know, I came full circle, 30 years is a long time, Peter. I mean, 30 years in, I now know that where we started is actually the solution to the problem. We started by focusing on one child in one family, understanding that if the family breaks down, the child is vulnerable. And so the solution to this multi-headed dragon monster that you're addressing is actually where we started. We focused on one child, my sister, her story, her voice. How did this happen? Learning about where we were vulnerable and we didn't know as a family, because we have a mother that worked three jobs, actively engaged in every aspect of the lifestyle, but yet it's not a sound, stable family. It's not. And that's not to frown upon single-parent families. They're to be celebrated, but they are vulnerable. We have to understand how they're vulnerable. And so the early days was very tough because when Ilonka, first of all, when she went through trafficking. The word human trafficking wasn't even socialized. Law enforcement deemed it a runaway right away, quickly, as is happening today. There was no policy and legislation. We didn't have a definition for human trafficking in the US until 2015. We didn't have laws on the books specific to child sex trafficking in the United States until 2015. And so the early years from 2001 to 2015 was a desert. You couldn't raise funds. You couldn't get anybody to repeat the word. Nobody wanted to even know. You couldn't talk about sexual exploitation and really child rape. Rape it was it was just a taboo across the board and and there was these prayers of could we just see a day when people would at least want to talk about it. Could we not just us but other amazing organizations that have championed this with us the problem was in the U.S. at that time and really still today to be honest on the heels of the Sound of Freedom movie. Great film, we consulted on it know the guys well, but it still paints a misconception of really what's happening, is it paints this picture to the American population that the problem is elsewhere. The problem is in Cambodia, it's in the Philippines, it's in Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, in the Congo, and then they tie the problem directly to poverty or displacement, right? Right. Sure. Poverty and displacement plays a big role, but that's, in fact, no longer a driving factor. You know, the fastest growing form of human trafficking globally and in the U.S. is what's called familial trafficking, where it's family members trafficking their own children, where the child is not homeless, is not a runaway, is not in the foster care system. So, for years we fought to say, hey, wait a minute. It's not just over there. It's here. It's in the U.S. And that's still a battle we face today. So we come full circle because we thought for a time period around 2010 through 15, we started saying to law enforcement, look, you're arresting the wrong people. You're arresting the victims and the Johns. The bad guys are walking free. The pimps and the predators are walking free. You know, so we said, could we just get laws on the books? And then we did. And then we thought that we could arrest ourselves out of the problem. And you realize you cannot. Then we thought we could legislate ourselves out of the problem. And we realized, as you do in the UK at the moment, just because the laws on the books doesn't mean it's adjudicated as such in the court of law. And so you're not going to legislate yourself out of the problem, although we need great legislation. So, how then do we fix this? We heal the nuclear family. That's how you fix this. The fight starts at home. Each parent, every child, you don't wait until a child is destitute. Or, I mean, it is a constant bombardment, a barrage of attack on our Gen Z culture of misinformation, lies, deceit, and sexualized content, normalizing absolutely absurd behavior. And so the law is tossed aside for social norm. So, once we realize that, okay, we started with, bonding one family together around one child, we come full circle and realize the only way to stop child sexual exploitation is to educate one family at a time for them to take ownership. Over the problem, which means accountability, fortify that family, and do not allow any of the crazy that you fight and I fight into the family. Don't allow them to radicalize the school system, the education platform, driving the church out of the home, bringing radicalized ideology through different religion, as you are literally living in every day, into the conversation because it disfranchised the strength of a family, which then renders that family completely vulnerable to predatory forces. I want to get on to the demand you talked about, and there are all different points on the website that people, the viewers, listeners do need to go to and absorb some of that information, to realize the scale of what you face and how you're working towards a solution for this. But the industry, you talk about kind of, well, people talk about industries, the lobby power of Big Pharma or the war industry or the food industry. But the sex industry, the pornography industry, and then the people trafficking kind of coming together, that sex industry, that must be a powerful industry with their tentacles in governments, not only in the US, but worldwide. Have you seen that? Yeah, it's because of the nature of it, you know, Peter in my in my Ted Talk, I say I open my ted talk I believe with every single human being can be trafficked. If I know your greatest vulnerability and your greatest need you can be trafficked well. Finance is a mechanism of vulnerability. Finance. The desire to be loved and understood and seen as every human being. So, every human being is a sexual being. So, when you take sex as a concept and you corrupt it, you're going to devastate and destroy. Absolutely so, now you're seeing that sex, in fact, a drug in pornography, 100%, right? It's actually very effective. So, you'll find that when we work with law enforcement in the U.S. and there's a drug raid. There's not always sex involved. There's not always guns smuggling involved. There's not always money laundering or people smuggling involved. It could be drugs. Where you fight sexual exploitation, all of the above are involved. Every single human trafficking case has illegal weapons, money laundering, people smuggling, drugs, crime, homicide. It's the one thing that begets all of it because it's the ultimate moral compromise. Once you go to that level where you are willing to look the other way or be participant in subjecting a child to exploitation, all the rest is fair game. So evil will play that card. And so when we talk about the size of that industry, we are in this year going to surpass the illegal drug trade in the U.S. With sexual exploitation. It will become the number one crime in the U.S. Now, in 2023, it was a $152 billion U.S. crime, sorry, international crime. $52 billion of the $152 billion was domestic, was U.S. So, a third of the world's human exploitation by dollar value is in the U.S. When you would consider sexual exploitation as a for-profit enterprise, publicly traded, it would be a Fortune 100 company in the US. This is tax-free, which makes its EBITDA close to probably $5 billion, right? Because it's all for gain and for profit. But it's not just money, Peter. It's the corruption of power. I'll give you an example. Were deep into this conversation and investigation in the Sean Combs P. Diddy case, like we were in 2007 and are currently in the Jeffrey Epstein case, Ghislaine Maxwell, Harvey Weinstein. Why it's prevalent at those levels is the following. It's not just money. It's not that they're making money through sex. Yes, they do. It's power and position. It's compromise, it's throwing a freak out party. P. Diddy's party inviting a bunch of people, positioning activity that's illicit in front of everybody. Compromising everybody at the party. Filming people. Get a knock on the door going, hey, you were at the party. You're in a photograph with a minor. You didn't talk to the minor. You didn't touch the minor. You didn't engage in the basement. None of it. But you are compromised. And it's a tool, unbelievably prevalent tool in politics to sway votes, to move people, to move judges, to move. Look, you've got a member of the royal family implicated in the Jeffrey Epstein case. There is no level of society as low or high where you cannot use sex to compromise an individual for power, position, or finance. And that's why it's so prevalent. It's effective, highly effective, because it speaks to the moral compass of a man or a woman, the fortitude and the spine of saying no, even if it costs you everything. And so when you take desire for political position, right now, one of our top things we're doing with the United Nations in the UK, and I shared this with you, is looking into premiership soccer, premiership football. The amount of Premier League players that had been trafficked from Africa, right? It's, again, there's a young talent. How do you control that talent? You compromise the talent, take passports, visa, you compromise them sexually, you hold something over your head. This is an effective tool that's in business and in public and private sector alike. Is part of the problem under the demand issue, and you touched about a moral compass, you've also got an innate sexual desire compass. And when that gift of sex is abused by society, by media, then we see the end result. Adult, but you've got men in positions of power and pornography and masculinity, sadly, have become mixed and therefore, and it's also seen as a non-victimless activity. It's seen as actually, this is fine, this is natural and these women, I'm sure they've made this decision to enter this career. You kind of come up against that of men in positions and why would any man in a position who enjoys pornography, why would you want to stop this? It's kind of seen as normal and natural and yet you're giving a different message which hits at it from an angle of truth that people don't want to accept I assume. Yeah, look. Taking accountability and personal responsibility for anything, as a father, for you as a father, right? Staring your faults and your mistakes in the face and say, I own them. That human nature shies away from that. Even if it's not sex, just making a mistake, saying, hey, that was me. I own it. I'm going to fix it. I'm going to do better next time. By nature, people don't want to do that. When it is sexual compromise now it's secret in my world it's secret it's private. It is their self-condemnation most of most men if they're honest they'll tell you right after they watch porn they feel guilty, they feel empty, they feel void, it does not fulfill them, and it will not, it cannot, because they've objectified a person where that where there's a dissonance, you know, there's a disassociation with nobody is being harmed. Let me give you some statistics real quick, okay? Over 80% of what the world deems prostitutes, over 80% of those women have filed rape charges. And you would say, well, how is a prostitute able to file a rape charge? It's easy. All she has to do in the moment is say, 'no.' It's not consensual. Well, you're branded a prostitute, so it must always be consensual. No, there's no irrevocable consent, right? Over 80%, get this number, 87% of what the world today classifies as prostitutes, we're talking about adult women now, right, had been sexually exploited as minors. So are they prostitutes? They're actually, in fact, not prostitutes. Because you have to understand the human behavioural science, the mind, the psyche, what happens to sex hormones in the brain, puberty, what actually happens to a human being with sexual encounter and interaction. It's chemical. It's metaphysical. It's physical. It's biological. It's not just a feeling. There's real reaction and there's bonding and tearing, bonding and tearing. This is why divorce is so detrimental. This is why having multiple sexual partners, there's a tearing because it's a bonding agent. It's the most vulnerable, most intimate moment a human being will ever be in. Complete exposure, nudity, nakedness, heart, emotion. So, it's this constant bonding, tearing, bonding, tearing. When you normalize that, you decimate culture. Here's some statistics. There's not a single civilization recorded in the history of mankind that embraced sexual exploitation that survived three generations, not one. Rome fell because of this. The Mayan culture fell. The Greeks fell. The Asian culture fell to where the Chinese have outlawed pornography completely. They'll give the US TikTok with porn and the UK TikTok, but porn is illegal in China. Why? They understand that it will kill their culture. Porn is the most destructive weapon on the face of the earth because it seems normal. It's sex. Here's another thing. Do you know that in Nevada, the state of Nevada that has legal brothels, and it's not on the Vegas strip, by the way, there's not a single legal brothel on the Vegas strip. The areas in Nevada that has legal brothels. Most of those women have pimps. Most of those women perform pornography because they're not making enough money to make their quota on general sex trafficking on the Vegas Strip. Most of those women in organized porn are intoxicated, are manipulated. What I want men to understand is when you objectify a woman or a man, the violation of privacy. What if it was your daughter? For young men, your future wife. The violation of privacy by observing porn, just observing it, watching it, you are creating demand for another human being to be exploited. And it is exploitation, whether they understand it or not. Remember, most victims don't self-identify. So, we are asking for human beings to be exploited, while we are frowning upon racism and all these things. There's more slaves today, sex slaves, than ever before in human history, ever before. We are dealing with a cataclysmic problem here in society where now we're looking at it and go, well, if we normalize it, there's Germany two weeks ago legalizing the possession of child. Pornography. Okay, I hear you. How did the individual obtain the child pornography? A child was exploited. So, you could say it's legal to possess it, but then you're saying it's legal to create it. So, the child has no defence. The child is a sitting duck. That culture, you mark my words, the German culture is going to implode. It will implode. It'll be decimated at the core because it's the ultimate moral compromise. When you have a situation in the UK where you have rape gangs, when you have a situation in the UK where there's no go zones, where you have a situation in the UK where a doctrine that does not frown upon sex with children becomes normalized. You're going to lose the culture. You'll be decimated like the Romans. You will lose it all. There is no way around this. If you cannot protect, for me as a Christian, it's a mandate, Peter. But even if you're not a Christian, let me tell you, if you cannot protect the vulnerable of your culture, the most vulnerable children, you don't have a future. Forget about them standing up for freedom, for liberty and justice, for our constitution, your constitution, for be kind to your neighbour, be a good citizen. You are having a Gen Z class. That is the most self exploitive class in human history. They sell their own bodies on OnlyFans. The girls in, and I've been on many UK campuses, go talk to them, ask them what's their body count, what's their sexual partner relations like. They've lost count. They've lost hope and they're empty. So pornography in any form, hentai, animation, porn, pornography is the entry drug into human exploitation and human trafficking. Speaking, I've never met a single paedophile, child trafficker, convicted trafficker that was not a porn addict that has not told me it started with pornography. And the drug no longer sustains the dopamine requirement. So, it has to go to harder core porn than it goes to purchasing sex from an adult. That doesn't satisfy. And the ultimate end goal is prepubescent sexual encounter, which is where you see Germany going on a bullet train. I agree. It's a massive concern watching that legislation. Jaco, you talked about your faith right at the beginning. And on the website, you say you're led by the Holy Spirit. Tell me where the church fits into this, because we've seen the church in the UK shy away from any major issues, and as long as they can have their Bible study on a Wednesday and their service on a Sunday morning, they've ticked those boxes, and we see a church withdrawing from society. What's it like for you as a high-profile individual on this huge, horrendous, dark issue that needs to be addressed and that no one really, if you talk to anyone in the street, no one would disagree with anything you say. Then you get down to actually them doing something that's a different issue. But where is the church in this? Where are Christians in this, especially over there in the US? You know, earlier, and I can't be a hypocrite. And I told you this before, every morning I start my day in the mirror asking myself if I'm part of the problem. Do I look the other way? Do I see something and not say something? Am I in some way, you know, demanding for some human being to be exploited? And the answer has to be absolutely not. So as a non-hypocrite, I'm going to tell you, the church has been nowhere in this conversation, because the church has believed the separation of church and state, and the church can't speak into societal issues, and the church is not supposed to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I'm now speaking to the church, and I'm speaking to all denominations, not just Catholicism that's very prevalent in the UK history. I'm talking to the Protestants, you know, all of them, right? The Anglicans, you know, the non-denominationalists. Our faith is not a faith of gathering, tapping each other on the shoulder and saying, hey, let's have Bible study. The greatest commandment of our faith to the one we serve, Jesus Christ, is go into all the nations and disciple, which means bring solutions, kingdom solutions to earthly problems. He tells Peter, pray on earth as in heaven. Heaven, our Father who art in heaven, on earth as in heaven, meaning bring heavenly, Holy Spirit-led, divine, scriptural, foundational solutions to great earthly problems like foster care and abortion and racism and whatever conversation you want to have. If the church does not actively engage with solutions in love, not in hate, in love, but with truth, which is the word of God in the public square, the church is in fact abandoning their watch post on the wall. That is, Peter, Ezekiel 33, 7 says, if the watchman on the wall, which by biblical precedent is the believer, the Christian. If the watchman on the wall does not warn society of an injustice that it sees, meaning speak into it, speak biblical truth, not a fluid biblical worldview, not a watered down false gospel, the gospel. If a Christian, each individual, does not actively speak with their mouth into that injustice, then the blood of is on the hands of the watchman. If that watchman, the Christian engages in culture in these conversations that you're having with Brexit, with the parliamentarians, the house of lords; what's happening. If they don't engage in election conversation from a biblical worldview, if they don't preach it from the pulpit, right? They're in fact the watchman with the blood on their hands. You can't as a Christian stand and say well look at Joe Biden, what is happening to America? We are, we're having drag shows for kids. We are losing our culture. My question immediately is where was the church when they drove you know prayer out of school? Where is the church when we say: hey we're going to show up at a drag show for kids and say this is not okay. They don't show up. So, the role of the church, in fact, the Messiah we follow, Jesus Christ, didn't even have a home, Peter. Didn't have a building, met under trees and went town to town to do what? Meet need, feed people, heal people, right? And spread a different message, a gospel that's a gospel of love, but correction, accountability, take ownership, wait for the British Parliament to save your family. You've got stewardship over your family, over your community, your child's school, right? And so Christians have abdicated their social responsibility because we've made the gospel just about me and my salvation. And now it's private. And now I'm not even a contributor to society. I'm just hoarding faith. But the Great Commission is go and spread this news. So, the church is complicit, 100%. When we are told Jesus went around doing good, destroying the works of the enemy, that verse is enough to live by until our dying day. Jaco, let me finish off just on the opposition you face on this issue. You talk about legislation. I'm sure there's opposition there. I know you're heavily involved in the media and I had the privilege of you showing me around the Blaze studio. And I felt a little bit of envy rising up as you were showing me around the facilities you have. Where does the opposition come from? Is it the political? Is it the media? Or is it lobby groups? Because again, publicly, no one will reject your message. But privately, there must be opposition to what you're doing or else we will see this situation eradicated. I agree with you. You know, the people in general, if we go into what I love, and I'm just going to say this, I love walking from Piccadilly to the West End. I love that walk all the way to Waterloo Bridge. I love that city, right? And when I stop people, I'll never forget, there was a group of kindergartners that were connected with a yellow vest, a bright yellow vest, and their teachers were all around them. And they were protecting them, walking through on a field trip through Piccadilly Circus, right? And there was an immediate reverence by the people they made way. In general, the public's gonna agree. Look, when they look in the eyes of a child, yeah, we've got to protect that child. The problem comes in when they abdicate their voice to government and they abdicate their voice. Well, this parliamentarian, this member of the House of Lords will speak on my behalf. They will not. They will not. They've got a different mission. Their mission is to stay in office. Their mission is to stay in power. The Uniparty, the globalists, their mission is to not have their own personal faults exposed to the world, to not lose position. So, the problem comes with general society agrees, but general society doesn't speak up and general society doesn't hold those who have been elected accountable. So now by default, we're forfeiting power to organizations. And so our biggest opposition comes from political parties on both sides of the aisle in every country. The Republicans, the Democrats, there's as much opposition sometimes in the House of Lords to a subject like age verification for social media websites. The second I bring that up, they go, wait a minute. Okay, well, hold on. Or when you bring up freedom of speech should not protect pornography to children. That's not a right, right? And that's what Germany grappled with. Do I think the German culture on the ground in the countryside want to see pornography children? Absolutely not. But they lost their voice. They've given it over. So in the U.S., our top opposition is big tech. Think how well they're funded. Big pharma. Absolutely. Big pharma as making a radical push for gender modification, puberty blockers, you know, sexual alteration of children, massive push, and they throwing money at politicians to sway votes. We have now an official pornography lobby, not against porn, for porn on K Street, over a hundred million dollar funded porn lobby that knocks on the doors of politicians every day and coerce them to legalize porn, child porn, to lower the age of consent. We've got a gigantic opposition in the non-faith community. We have a massive fight with radicalized Islam. It's just a fact. It's just a fact because societally in that religion, they don't frown upon. Activities we frown upon as an American culture. I'm reminded in the last Soccer World Cup, I was asked to work with the Qataris on an anti-trafficking campaign. And I said, I cannot, because you guys don't frown upon having eight-year-old child brides. That's the trafficking, the selling of little girls. And their response to me was, well, would you help us to say trafficking of boys is frown upon? I said, this is asinine. It's insane. Which FIFA stepped up and said, hey, we're against trafficking of all sorts. But culturally, when you abandon your core culture as a nation for a foreign entity to come in, and you're not asking that entity to become British. And I'm not saying they got to love bangers and mash, you know, but culturally who what what is the fabric and the fibre of of of Great Britain. What is what is an American what is the we do not consent with the exploitation of children in this country we do not agree with hate or racism we do not agree that that you shouldn't have freedom of speech, a first and second amendment. You cannot come to this country from a Joseph Kabila regime in the Congo and think that you can come cut people's limbs off. That's not okay. And the second culture loses its voice that we don't agree. You have people speaking on your behalf, but they're not speaking on your behalf. They're speaking on their own behalf and on their own compromise. And you lose your culture. Jaco, I really appreciate your time. I'm intrigued and excited at the work you're doing and for the viewers and listeners maybe you haven't come across your mister before how do they how do they partner with you how do they support you? I know you've got a shop on the website. I'm sure you've got a donate button. I mean how do people become part of what you're doing? Yeah, thank you. Our number one social platform we use is is Instagram. We're on X and Twitter but But there's massive censorship of our voice on some of those platforms. Please go to HelpJBM, Juliet Bravo Mike, Help, Jacobooyens Ministries, Help JBM.org. Number one thing I want your viewers to do is to get educated on our website, how to protect their own families, how to have a conversation with their teenager. How do predators talk online? Is your child already engaging with a predator on DMs, on social media? Secondly, they can help us for a nominal fee save lives period to rescue children from trafficking, fortify them, partner with us in donations but they can also partner with us by by becoming ambassadors in their community; distributing truth and educating families on how to how to protect men, women, and children from sexual exploitation. Jaco, thank you so much for saying that I know the viewers and listeners will really want to go delve into the website and support you in any way possible. So, thank you so much for coming along and sharing the work you're doing. Appreciate you, Peter. God bless you.
Staring down the unforgiving path of family law, many men find themselves lost in a labyrinth of legal battles over divorce and child custody. Matt O'Connor joins me once again for a deeply moving conversation that shines a light on the all-too-common plight fathers face. Amid the turmoil, we uncover a vital lifeline—staying put in the family home during separation can be a game-changer in preserving legal rights. Plus, we venture into the complexities of the C100 form and mediation, tools that can make or break a father's quest to remain a pillar in his children's lives.The cold statistics surrounding men's mental health and suicide are not just numbers; they're a call to action. Sharing my own brush with despair atop Waterloo Bridge, this episode serves as both a confessional and a clarion call for societal change. We tackle the stigma and urge for a champion in parliament, someone to advocate for men's rights and address the systemic biases that leave many fathers feeling marginalized. It's a heart-wrenching journey through the emotional battleground fathers endure, and a testament to the resilience it takes to emerge from the shadows.Yet, in the face of such gravity, there's room for unexpected levity. Guy Harrison's legendary powder bombing caper offers a moment of reprieve, reminding us of the camaraderie and boldness that once punctuated our lives. This episode is a tapestry of serious discourse interwoven with nostalgia, an offering of hope and solidarity to any man navigating the treacherous waters of family law. Tune in for a conversation that's as enlightening as it is emotionally resonant, and perhaps, find a beacon to guide you through the storm. >>>>>>>NEW 5 week Heroic Man course & online community (no charge, it's on us) Join Here How Heroic are you? Take the Heroic Man scorecard and see how you score: Take it here Follow AMP Socials: Instagram | Facebook | Youtube | Website Follow Pete: Instagram | Facebook
17th March 2024 The Spokesmen Cycling Podcast EPISODE 349: Turn on Strava for everyday journeys, it could reshape streets for the better SPONSOR: Tern Bicycles HOST: Carlton Reid GUEST: Tom Knights, Strava Metro LINKS: https://www.the-spokesmen.com/ https://www.ternbicycles.com https://twitter.com/CarltonReid https://press.strava.com/articles/stravas-metro-reaches-significant-milestone-of-10-year-anniversary https://metro.strava.com Carlton Reid 0:13 Welcome to Episode 349 of the Spokesmen cycling podcast. This show was engineered on Sunday 17th of March 2024. David Bernstein 0:28 The Spokesmen cycling roundtable podcast is brought to you by Tern bicycles. The good people at Tern are committed to building bikes that are useful enough to ride every day and dependable enough to carry the people you love. In other words, they make the kind of bikes that they want to ride. Tern has e-bikes for every type of rider. Whether you're commuting, taking your kids to school or even carrying another adult, visit www.ternbicycles.com. That's t e r n bicycles.com to learn more. Carlton Reid 1:03 I'm Carlton Reid. On today's show, I'm talking with Tom Knights. He's the senior manager of partnerships and marketing for Strava Metro. This is a super-useful active travel city-making dataset-service from the athlete tracking app. And if you bristled at the word athlete, because you think there's no sport in transport, listen on ... Strava metro was very, very insistent in 2020. About how successful cycling and and walking in all active mode because of the pandemic and the blog posting was, you know, we're very pained to say this. However, you know, it's really, really, we're going crackers with the amount of cycling as you know, the bike boom, yeah, what did go amazing. Now, the bike industry right now is famously and woefully massively down in the dumps. So what have you seen with usage? So what has happened since 2022? actual usage of bicycles not just, you know, we know the sales are bad. Is the usage bad also? Tom Knights 2:21 Yeah, that's a really good question. And actually like to say the kind of the free, the free, free call to Strava Metro kind of suddenly going free was actually very well timed, unfortunately, under very difficult circumstances globally. One of the reasons like I say, we kind of made Strava Metro free wasn't actually because of the pandemic and the looming kind of crisis. And obviously, this switch to human powered transportation. It was like, almost like an unfortunate timing, but but obviously beneficial for cities and all the planners that start to use this data. So yes, we definitely saw this huge boom during the kind of 2020 21 era. And thankfully, because a lot of cities and a lot of regions and governments had the foresight to start investing in protecting cycle lanes in safe routes, which we know is one of the biggest barriers to people actually kind of picking up a bicycle. Lot of those initiatives have stayed, and we hope that they've stayed because actually, they've been able to see some of the Strava activity straight through Strava Metro, and then use that against other data sources to start to understand actually, is this being used in terms of trends, and overall, we've definitely seen more of a normalisation but again, what we are seeing is obviously, people looking for alternatives to either commute, and then well, kind of 2024 the word commute looks a bit different than maybe it did in 2019. But anything that's a utility trip, and essentially through safe and accessible infrastructure. That's what we know. And I'm sure you know, from all the kind of conversations you've had over the years, that's the biggest driver to people, making it feel safe. So, long story short, yes, we've definitely seen a normalisation now, in terms of growth Carlton Reid 4:06 Normalisation, that sounds like quite a bit of a euphemism for, for what? Tom Knights 4:12 So I guess the new the new normal as it were, so we've definitely seen that growth. And then now what we've seen, like I say, as people who are consistently cycling now, and then obviously, we hope that through infrastructure improvements into society into communities, that will then also encourage even more folks to pick up a bicycle on that front. Carlton Reid 4:33 I'm gonna carry on digging here, because I think it's quite important. So that graph that was on the Strava Metro, I remember it well, the human powered transportation one Yep. Yeah. So I mean, that was that was great. But, you know, so when you've been normalisation, is that graph, it went up like crazy. And do you mean by normalisation that it went down so well usage is down or has plateaued, Tom Knights 5:00 so not I mean, it's difficult to say but I wouldn't say plateau because we're always seeing kind of growth. And that's what's so exciting a and I can't necessarily kind of say a lot more about the Strava core Strava world because of course, that's a different kind of department as it were. But in terms of the Metro world, and what we're seeing in terms of cycling, in general, we've just seen that spike from 2019 to 2020, that continued growth into 2021. And now what is is probably more of that kind of continuous steady growth. As opposed to that, we I wouldn't say we've definitely seen any kind of drop off as it were on that front. Carlton Reid 5:34 So it's interesting, because we now have metrics that we just didn't have, you know, 10, 15 20 years ago, from an industry perspective, used to be able to track sales of number of bikes, and but you never knew whether, actually people even though a few bikes sold, actually, people might actually be riding more, potentially. So now we have metrics from from people like you, where you can not only track the number of bikes sold, but you can also track roughly whether people are using those bikes. So that's fascinating information from a market point of view. And the way I'm going from on that is you've got some high end holiday companies, you know, Glorious Gravel going to Sri Lanka, Namibia, all these amazing places with people who got clearly a lot of money and a fair bit of time. Yeah, still getting out there cycling. So when we haven't seen that end shift at all. But no, that's the rarefied end, isn't it? That's like, Yeah, from from a metro point of view. Tom Knights 6:42 Yeah, definitely. I mean, I in terms of, you know, think travel and tourism, that is obviously a kind of luxury. And, you know, for kind of people a having the kind of means to kind of jump on a plane or to kind of visit and take the time off. And that's great, though, for kind of seeing that, that boom, because we want people to kind of get an introduction to cycling in general. And if that means discovering it on a holiday tour, fantastic. Hopefully, that then translates into cycling into work maybe two or three days a week, or suddenly dropping a car trip once a week, because they've discovered the joy of cycling. But I think January what we're hoping, though, is we see this bike boom, fueled by better and safer streets. That's, that's our kind of main concern is that, if you build it, I know, you've heard this phrase a lot before, you know, if you build it, people will come. And we know that from Strava Metro data, when you look at the kind of streets where there's been investment, the Before and After Effects is amazing. See this kind of increase in trips. Now, of course, you might say, Well hold on Strava growth. But actually, what we're seeing is that Strava Metro data alongside Eco-counter or Telraam data, you can start to kind of normalise and build a model. And I think that's what we're we're hoping that people can start to, as you mentioned, all these amazing datasets start to pull these together, and then really build this picture to kind of tell a different story than perhaps maybe the negative stories are saying in terms of, you know, cycling booms over or no one's using this bike lane, etc. Carlton Reid 8:10 And this is an obvious question, okay. And this is a question that I'm sure you are incredibly well used to batting away, and you know, you're gonna get it. And you, you could almost do it yourself. So that is in your documentation. It's all about athletes. Of course, when you put that into Strava Metro, you're talking about non lycra. I know you discuss this on your blogs, but just just tell me now, why I would be wrong to suggest that Mamils, women on bikes and lycra why the data is robust, even though you talk about athletes? Tom Knights 8:53 Yeah, no, you're quite right. And it's a, it's a really good point. And I suppose, from the data point of view, we're not looking at, we look at those as activities and people and trips so that the athletes is more of a kind of Strava kind of communications in a playful way to call our community athletes, and you've probably seen various different messages over the years about, you know, if you're an athlete, you're on Strava. And, and essentially, there is a lot of truth in that, you know, we want anyone who moves through human powered transportation, or through moves and find their joy in discovering movement ways we would define as an athlete, you know, anyone who is doing that, now appreciating the world of transportation planning and bike lanes and commuting, you might not think, you know, cycling across the Waterloo Bridge in the morning at 830. You're an athlete, but essentially, from a metro point of view, what we're looking to do is see these community based trips as data points, like say that can be used for improving infrastructure on that front. And I think the way that actually I would position it personally is often thinking, well, everyone who uploads a ride on to Strava is a human powered counter, because through through Metro That's going towards some kind of better cause in terms of funding and reviewing active travel investment. But I do understand your point about you know, Mamil. And you know, a lot of drivers growth in the early days was fueled by that amazing core set of athletes. And you know, I grew up in this town called Dorking, which you're probably familiar with, from the classic ride, sorry, and I'm very familiar, you know, the weekends kind of seeing, you know, the the kind of, I say the kind of more sportive rides coming through the town. But actually, what that served is actually an inspiration for more people's go. Actually, that was quite fun. I should try that. And I think the data we're seeing through Year in Sport that we've done anecdotally, through Metro data, that actually we've got a lot more 18 to 34 year olds, who are now also discovering the joy of active transportation. And again, Metro data is telling us that it's not just, you know, the weekend, you know, the Saturday morning at 10am, in the Surrey Hills or on the the kind of Yorkshire Dales it's actually taking place on the streets of Manchester, or the streets of London, etc. And I think that's what we're hoping is that story through community or athletes, as you know, we're calling it that that helps planners to see that trend is is not just, you know, the kind of Lycra brigade Who are you know, cycling and I would all use what the same people that are cycling at the weekends, you know, on the kind of right sorry, classics or up in the Yorkshire Dales are also the same people that are using bike lanes. And equally as important when we're thinking about counting. Carlton Reid 11:30 Of course, you're not getting the invisible in American terms, it's called the invisible cyclists. So these are often Latino. Basically poor people on bikes, who are definitely not going to be using Strava. But going to using bikes, and then they call them invisible cyclists, because they're not on bicycles that perhaps an enthusiast would ride, but they are using bicycles and all power to their elbow, but power to their knees. Now, you're not capturing them. So if you're not capturing a significant number of people who are using the roads, does that not suggest that you're missing an important chunk of people who are not using? You just can't capture everybody? And how important is that? Tom Knights 12:27 Yeah, really, really good point. And I guess a couple of bits on that is that essentially no data set, you know, the world is accurate, you think about a, you know, a bicycle counsellor on the embankment or, you know, in the middle of Manchester, or even in the rural area, you know, if someone doesn't go through that specific kind of counting station, as it were, you're not being picked up in the count. And I think that's what Strava Metro is really kind of aiming to do is essentially colouring the map with all the blank spots that aren't being picked up. And being free, which is, again, one of these kind of opportunities to kind of get this data into the masses, allows transportation planners allows Safe Streets advocates, anyone who's focused on transportation equity and environmental racism to dive into that data and go, Okay, looks like actually, there's people going through this counting station here. But actually, Strava Metro is also showing us that people are going down this route. So what's interesting what's going on there. And again, you're quite right to call out that the heat map, for example, in, you know, maybe underrepresented areas, or places that don't necessarily have the same political will have, you know, more affluent areas who have perhaps built cycle lanes or made their streets more attractive from things like heat islands, you think about kind of cities outside of the UK that suffer a lot from high temperatures, you know, the streets are not necessarily designed for being walkable and bikable. That's what we're really hoping we can also use the Strava data to show what's not happening, as well as what's happening. And again, a lot of the work that Metro is involved in is ties back into this kind of social impact piece. It's not just, you know, we obviously want this data to be used by, you know, transportation planners, but we're also hoping we can start to, you know, work a lot more with, you know, say advocacy groups, anyone likes easy, bold environmental racism and transportation equity, to really kind of look at that data, and metrics looks, it's been designed that anyone including myself, I'm not a geospatial professional, but I can see, you know, through a map and looking at certain areas where people are cycling and when they're not cycling, but also we want to build a product and I can't really, you know, say I'm not necessarily holding the Strava product side, but we want to build an experience, which is all encompassing for everyone on there, but I definitely understand your point about the barriers to entry, you know, just in general, you cycling you need to have a bike to join Strava you need a mobile phone that supports you know, obviously your Strava although we do have connections with lots of fitness devices, but again, that comes at a cost, but hopefully, the more people that learn about Metro and the authenticity and the kind of the fact that it's free. The fact that Strava is free to join, it gives people a sense of empowerment that actually, I can change something that's happening on my street. And that's a big part of the messaging that, you know, I'm working on, and certainly have been working on for the last five years, because as you say, maybe the association with Strava is it's just for athletes, or people who are doing k runs, and Q RMS, etc. But actually, what we're seeing is that more and more people are turning to Strava, to kind of log their activities, and hopefully through when they learn about Metro, they'll realise that they're actually changing their communities, because that data is really kind of playing a part in helping to shape your better infrastructure or, essentially, build a political case for more investment. Carlton Reid 15:45 Good point. So somebody like me, who's been a Strava member since 2013 I discovered by looking into my profile this morning, Tom Knights 15:53 and then thank you for your long term membership. Carlton Reid 15:57 I would say, I'm not a frequent updater. But I should be, shouldn't I? So what you're saying is people like me who have it on our phones, don't use it, you know, because I don't consider myself an athlete. Yeah, that should be turning on, for even everyday journeys, because it helps. Tom Knights 16:18 So I've been, you know, I'd have that in writing. And, as it quite, you know, when we kind of go out to advocacy kind of events and talk to kind of people because I think, as you've just said, you know, the more people that discover about this, you know, cycle of like Strava, being free and then wanting to make streets better. And then Metro, obviously, enabling that, we think there's a really compelling story. And I genuinely there's, this is such a passionate thing to kind of work on. And I think we're very lucky, you know, part of the metro team to be able to have these conversations with partners all over the world. And I think we are we've met at Velo-city a couple of times before. And the one thing that comes up all the time at these conferences is, you know, how are we measuring it? Or how do we win the case for safer streets? And, you know, this is our answer to that and to say, well, let's come together and bring all these amazing datasets that are available out there. You know, let's build a case and get people to see that this is available. Carlton Reid 17:12 And those datasets, the expectation is, from your point of view, that a transportation planning department will be using multiple sources, they won't be just using Metro. They'll be using their own counting devices, hopefully, if they've got them. And they'll be plotting everything. And they'll have some sort of, will they have a desktop with everything on? Or have they got like a look at lots of different screens? Tom Knights 17:40 Yeah, so what we hear from from foreigners, they use a lot of geospatial kind of software, you know, there's obviously various different enterprise kind of grade level software and data analytics tools where you can always ingest multiple sorts of data. So we make extracting the data from from Metro, which is, I'm sure, hopefully, everyone realises completely anonymized, obviously, and then also aggregated, we make that very easy for partners to essentially download, and then upload back into, like, say, all of this data planning tools. And obviously, you know, there's multiple data sets out there. And largely, like I say, we use the same mapping tools as well. So OpenStreetMap is really important, you know, in terms of, actually, how do you paint a picture of your infrastructure in your area. And like, say, planners will then use that to build reports to kind of maybe produce research, and then essentially come up with this kind of our number, which says, you know, for every X number of trips on Strava, you can say that there's 100 trips of normal, non non Strava usage, for example, send your Strava. But, and we've seen a couple of examples that, you know, the Office of National Statistics have done that, in rural remote areas, Transport for London, have been using it to kind of model traffic lights through London and the timing that you get on green times, you know, and it's not just Strava D. So you don't want to build cities just around one particular user. But that's why being like I say, a free tool to do that allows us to kind of plug into all these other datasets. Unknown Speaker 19:12 Let's let's go backwards a little bit into Carlton Reid 19:16 that, that I'll use your term, the athlete, so you basically got a rider? Yeah, going along. I'll use like, even though I'm like to 50 miles away. I'll use London as an example. So going along the Embankment. Yeah, yeah, yes, you've anonymized all the data. So this is not you know, you know, you don't know this particular person on a bike at all. You can't track anything. But you can see at a granular level, whether they are on the road or whether they are on the Embankment cycleway, and you can see where they make that you know, sudden turn like there's a there's a few turns on the embankment where you've got to make quite a shift to get on to the cycleway. So you in Strava Metro, you can see that too. happening? Tom Knights 20:01 Exactly that so we can see, like I say the, I think there's something like 420 million edges in the whole world. So edge is referred to as streets on OpenStreetMap. And if you've got some enthusiastic mapping listeners on this podcast, hopefully they might be able to write in and correct me in some tell me how many exactly edges there are. But if you think about the world as all of these kind of different edges and routes that are built up, where there's been a Strava activity gone over the top of that, and, of course, where there's been a minimum of free, which allows us to kind of aggregate those activities, we can exactly that show you where people have turned left, how many trips went off, on a certain direction? Was this route busier because of a road closure one week? Or was this route more improved year on year because of a safer kind of passageway? You know, I appreciate we're talkinh about cycling here. But if you think about running and walking, you know, was this improved? Because there was better lighting? Or were more people using this pathway, because, you know, there was a kind of nice new path put down. So I think this is like it's this kind of colouring in the map with all the other kind of datasets that are available. And then Strava can kind of tell you that picture of where, you know, there has been activity. Carlton Reid 21:12 So when Nick Ferrari goes on the radio and says, I got stuck behind a cyclist on the Embankment, they should be on the cycleway. You could or anybody could go to Strava Metro, and say, well, actually, that must have been just a completely unusual person. Because look, 99.9% of of cyclists are going on to the cycleway. And here look, we can show you the heat map where that is happening. That's what you can do? Tom Knights 21:42 Exactly that. And like I say you want one colour, I would say is it's not anyone. So that was one of the caveats to the authenticity of the kind of Metro project. And I know that word authenticity thrown a lot you know about but that the only reason Metro works is because the Strava community buy into this idea that the data has been used for something good, not for commercial purposes. So not anyone can access Metro, but TfL can access it, for example, in your example of the bike lanes in London, London cycling campaign could access this because of course, you know, they're involved in advocacy work. Unfortunately, LBC wouldn't be able to access this, because obviously they're using it for other purposes. But actually anyone involved in safe infrastructure, and we hope that this is it, you know, when the the transportation teams, all these different medical authorities or local authorities can actually go, actually what we have seen on the street is that X percentage of people are using this bike lane on there. And that's, that's what I think it's going to take to kind of not win the argument, but really convinced people that bike lanes are being used, and they're a good investment. They're just incredibly efficient, because you never see anyone in traffic. And then yes, people are constantly moving. Carlton Reid 22:53 Yes. Now, I know you're not on this side of it. So it's a slightly unfair question to ask, but I'd like one I'd like you to tell me about anyway. So at the end, not not now. But at the end, I'd like you to go through and just tell people how much it costs to, you know, go the full fat version of Strava. But before you do that, and that's going to be the end anyway, just let's just, you know, just confirm this right now, you do not need to use Strava Metro for is free for transportation planners, anybody else. But you don't need any, you're not going to get hassled to become a pro member. To be one of these people like me who just want to do good for the community by turning metro or Strava on for our normal daily rides, you won't be charged for that you can get a free membership that will do everything apart from all the pro level stuff that you don't need anyway, if you're just one of these lapsed people? Tom Knights 23:56 Yeah, it's possible. And so, you know, Strava is like has always operated on that kind of freemium model, as it were, that you know, at its simplest, you can download the app, join the community upload rise. And then if you've made that road public, so I should have added that caveat as well, that will contribute to metric because of course, you know, people might want to hide the start or the end of their journeys, they won't count. Some people might want to also hide a certain route. But hopefully, like say when they hear about the project and go actually, this is a pretty good idea, I should start uploading my routes and maybe, you know, further down the line as they kind of start to explore Strava they want to kind of look at a route or they want to kind of go oh, that could be quite a good tool to have because I've got more into my cycling journey, then yes, of course. Strava is open for them. But at its source and Metro, they are both free. Carlton Reid 24:46 Mm hmm. Okay. At this point, I would like to cut away to my colleague, David who will give a short break. David Bernstein 24:56 This podcast is brought to you by Tern bicycles. The good people at Tern are committed to building bikes that are useful enough to ride every day and dependable enough to carry the people you love. In other words, they make the kind of bikes that they want to ride. Tern has e-bikes for every type of rider. Whether you're commuting, taking your kids to school or even carrying another adult, visit www.ternbicycles.com. That's t e r n bicycles.com to learn more. This podcast is brought to you by Tern bicycles. The good people at Tern understand that while a large cargo bike can carry oodles of stuff, many of us prefer something a little more manageable. That's why they've come up with the HSD e-cargobike for folks with big aspirations to go car free, delivered in a compact size, with its rear shock, 280 kilos, and a combined hauling capacity of 180 kilos. The robust new HSD is stable and easy to manoeuvre, even when under load. And with its Bosch eBIKE SYSTEM tested and certified to meet the highest UL standards for electric and fire safety you'll be able to share many worryfree adventures with a loved one whether it's your kiddo or Nan. Visit www.ternbicycles. That's te r n turn bicycles.com to learn more Carlton Reid 25:57 Thanks, David. And we're back with Tom Knights of Strava Metro, and I was looking at your LinkedIn profile. And as you do when you when you want to talk to somebody and you want to find out their background, and you've kind of similar background to me, in that you did classics you did you did like nothing to do with what you're doing in your day job. You did like it will tell me what you did it was Exeter University exactly what you did. So I kind of found found myself essentially looking at degree subjects where, you know, I was interested in more the kind of anthropological aspects of history and actually Classical Studies, and I'm always very much told by classic students that classics versus Classical Studies is a very different subjects. Obviously, one focuses heavily on Latin language in Greek texts, whereas Classical Studies is more about, you know, the discovery of what was going on during the Roman Empire in the Greek Empire period. So that was always a passion of mine about kind of understanding society, and maybe what was the kind of political kind of themes at the time and, you know, fascinated about some communities on there. And, of course, the story for the dad joke, but like, most people, when you study history, there's no future in it. I'll use that. Tom Knights 27:24 But yeah, obviously, you know, that allowed me, you know, I suppose to back in the kind of early 2000s, when I was at university, you know, it was a very privileged time, when they weren't necessarily crippling university fees and structure. So it allowed me to kind of study a subject, which was more of a passion project. But of course, you know, didn't necessarily elude me into kind of a specific career working in British museum or on an archaeological site in antiquity. And actually, in hindsight, I think geography would have been more of my passion, because that's ultimately what's kind of landed me in this area of transportation and maps and bicycles. Geography was always my kind of first passion. Carlton Reid 28:04 But you're a man after my own heart, because I did a degree, that was nothing connected to what I eventually did. And that was religious studies and comparative religion. And I did Hebrew, as well. So I did do a not a classic language, but I did a language that was known to antiquity. I'd say, yeah, we've come similar backgrounds. But then you've if you look at your career progression, it went very quickly from something that's completely useless to and affect your career. If I look at your career arc has been certainly tech. So from the very first it was you went from classics, blummin' heck,, to tech, that's that's a leap. And then you've carried on that, that that trajectory. Tom Knights 28:45 Yeah, definitely, I think that kind of, you know, almost juxtaposes the kind of interest in history, but I think a lot of my friends maybe went into, you know, in the early 2000s, like most people kind of found their way going into financial services, I'd always kind of been more interested in the world of tech and technology. And then working my way up through various kind of research firms and kind of people teams in that world of headhunting and kind of early days of, of search, when it comes to kind of jobs and careers. Allow me I suppose just to suppose learn a lot more about the world of tech, and then actually through interviewing people and and candidates and helping people on their search journey. That then opened my eyes into this whole world of kind of software, which again, early 2000s was really interesting, and then tied into that passion for sports and maps and mapping, landed, actually initially at a company when I lived in Hong Kong for five or six years, which was doing event registration for marathons and five K's and stuff like that, which is obviously very relevant to the Strava world nowadays. But it was when Strava Metro came along and said that they were looking for someone to essentially grow the community on Strava Metro in Europe. It was too good an opportunity not to kind of put my CV forward so You know, tied into all my passions around mapping and transportation. Carlton Reid 30:04 And, and getting out there and doing stuff. As in Yes. Being an athlete if you want to use that term. Tom Knights 30:11 Exactly. And you know, that's a it's an interesting point to kind of call up. But essentially the the advice, actually the CEO at the time, who was a gentleman called James, and actually Michael Hogarth, the founder of Strava, they said, The most important thing you can do in this role at Strava Metro is get out there and see bike lanes and infrastructure, or really understand what the kind of partners are doing. So over the last five years, that's kind of allowed me to get involved and actually see some of these projects. And you know, one of the best moments of the year or certainly at conferences, or events we go to whenever there's a bike parade, and I've never had a bike tour or a technical tour around the cities that you can visit, and you can really start to see the, you know, how those numbers come to life, actually, in the physical world, because, again, we've focused a lot on on this talk, we talked a lot about the Embankment. But actually, there's a whole multitude of examples around the European continent, and also across the world of bike lanes, which we visited and gone. Gosh, that's really interesting, what innovative design and oh, look at how that impacted this number of people. Carlton Reid 31:13 Tell me about your day them. So you've got somebody flagged out that yes, sometimes travelling around a bit. So what what do you do, Tom, scribe, what you actually do to people who don't know what you might be doing day to day? Tom Knights 31:28 I love it. So my biggest kind of responsibility is to grow the awareness of Strava Metro. And obviously, the more people that hear about Metro, hopefully, from listening to this, the more people might go, okay, that's really interesting. I didn't know that. So essentially, that's our, our main focus is to speak to the folks that active travel England through to the city of Paris, and obviously, the, the onset of zoom and online meetings has made that a lot more accessible now, which is great. So as much as I'd love to go visit all these places, a lot of them are done by kind of video conferencing, which is allowed us to scale and obviously tell the story in a kind of much more scalable way. But where possible, I'll always try and visit partners and learn about what they're doing on the ground. And then actually, one of the biggest kind of tasks this time around is to then how do we communicate these back to the Strava community, and then get all these 120 million athletes who are on Strava, to actually learn about these projects that their movement has contributed to, because that's going to be the power of when they understand that your cycles work, even though it's providing you with your exercise or your means of transportation. It's also having a big impact on how, for example, you transport Greater Manchester or Transport for London to building your roads and your cycling. So if it helps with that extra bit of motivation, to get out of bed on a kind of cold January morning to kind of, you know, get cycling or walking to work, then, you know, we've done our job. Carlton Reid 32:57 Isn't there an argument and I am playing devil's advocate here a little bit, council employee, a transportation but oh, maybe a councillor could actually use your data, which shows us lots and lots of people using a certain road? At a certain time? Yeah. And you would say, to a council? Officer? Well, look, we need to improve this route. Because look, how many cyclists are using it, we need to improve that. So it's more comfortable besides blah, blah, blah. But, you know, a councillor could use that exact same argument and say, Well, why do we need to improve anything? You're just telling me there's loads of cyclists using this road? Great, job done? Tom Knights 33:44 Well, I think the answer that is the kind of the theory that maybe, you know, a lot of highways and motorways around the world have used, which is what more lanes will fix it. And what did what happens when you get one more loan, we'll fix it, you get more cars driving? Well, I think the principle for that applies in terms of, if you keep fixing and increasing the number of cycle paths and bike lanes, then you'll see an increase in even more cyclists on there. So that would be my kind of caveat to say is, you know, the same way that we saw, you know, mass growth of roads and kind of infrastructure around the country, the same way that you could, if you keep investing, you'll, you'll see those increases come even more, as well. So it's just the start. I think this is the kind of the key point. And, you know, this has only really been what I've been in the industry for what five or six years intended, specifically around the world of transportation planning. And I've, I've read your in as another student of history, read your history of bike lanes, and what we're seeing is nothing new. You know, this obviously happened in the 1920s, as you've written about, it's happened, you know, the early 1950s. And we hope that obviously, this bike boom is going to continue, but we know that the secret to that is obviously infrastructure, but the extra secret sauce and I'm gonna say this with my Strava hat on so apologies is that you know, other people keep other people motivated. And that's where Strava comes into it as a motivation machine. Carlton Reid 35:06 So that game, gamification of it almost. Exactly, which is a good segue, thank you very much into my next question, which will be at the White House. So that's a that's a gamification, so, so just tell me exactly I know it's not UK, but this is a, this is a podcast that goes ... it's very popular in America. So Strava, not Strava Metro, but Strava is working with the White House on something. So just tell us what what you're doing. And then the gameifacation angle of that? Tom Knights 35:34 Yeah. So from obviously, my understanding internally of the team that's been working on that is very similar to other kind of projects or campaigns, or let's say gamification, or challenges that we would work on this time, though, there's obviously a social impact cause attached to it, I think what's happened and from what I understand is that the White House, obviously have a campaign or a kind of cause that they're looking to mobilise the community on, they had a commercial partner in work, which is, you know, obviously, kind of, I suppose, helping to kind of measure that through the through the wearable side. But the White House is partnering with Strava, to support physical activity, as part of its challenges to end hunger and build healthier communities. Now, as part of the social impact strategy, let's say the call to action is to raise awareness of that campaign through movement. And obviously, that movement there is on Strava. And it's very similar to lots of other campaigns that we might work with, from brands, but also also other charities, you know, that might want to also mobilise their community on Strava, through that kind of challenge format. Carlton Reid 36:38 So that's a US initiative. Obviously, it's the White House as in the White House. What other stuff might you be doing UK or maybe even worldwide, similar to that? Tom Knights 36:50 Well, I think ultimately, it's if if we've done our job, right, and you know, the more people that learn about these challenges for good for social impact, we hope that people will start to see Strava as a platform, where they can actually start to tell their message to what's a very engaged community. You know, like I say, not every cyclist is on Strava. But we do have, you know, in the UK, again, I'm going to correct myself on every one in seven adults has joined Strava, or something around 15% of the population. So that's not everyone, but it is a very engaged audience. It's bonkers, actually. So how many What's that in millions? Is that like 10 million downloads or something, I will come back with some specific figures. And James can help with that. On on, on our team, but Yeah, certainly, we obviously are in the millions of users in the UK. And of course, that's a really engaged community who are using Strava a for their movement, but also then can attach that through a challenge for a social impact campaign, or brand campaign. And again, these challenges are completely optional for people to dive into should they wish to. And I think that's one of the kind of key things to get at the Strava community, you know, having that say and what they do, and that's what's probably kept people coming back stronger over time, is that they get they have a choice in what they can join. And the challenges that the the team in Bristol, who in the UK run those operations for similar to the White House challenge, they do a fantastic job of making sure that there's some really exciting challenges to come onto the platform and keep people motivated. Carlton Reid 38:26 So can you now tell me the different pricing options, so people are like, they've got the free version? They maybe like me that don't. They will now start using the free version a bit more for the reasons we've discussed before. But if you wanted to up the game, what would you be paying? And what would you be getting? Tom Knights 38:46 So for UK based users, obviously Strava premium is an option and that it costs £8.99 per month, or £54.99 per year. Obviously, there's a freemium model, in terms of the kind of ability to join Strava and not have to, like, say, necessarily choose to subscribe. But again, the compelling products, and the opportunity that the product team in the US and all the amazing kind of engineers that work on Strava have built an experience that should you wish to subscribe. There's a really compelling reason to mostly through our amazing routing, mapping discovery tools, looking at new routes to explore. Obviously, like saying you've got access to technical data, should you wish to kind of see things like your heart rate and health and kind of segments and leaderboards, etc. So there's something on Strava for a lot of folks, and of course, you know, that community element and clubs and groups is really exciting. And another way for local authorities and governments to really drive engagement back to Metro, for example. Carlton Reid 39:54 And then you got things like integration with fat map so you can like do all sorts of stuff with that as well because it's Strava. Did you buy fat map? Is that was that? Tom Knights 40:02 Yeah, so there was a strategic acquisition of fat map and you know, the the, that's the exact date has been going on for the last year. So again, all these amazing tools and some mapping tools are such a good driver for people to discover the world around them. And I think that's what's really exciting is that, you know, yes, you might go on a bike ride and you know, kind of cycle from A to B on one of the cycle highways. But at the weekend, that same bike hopefully, is being used to then go, that that route is quite interesting, or I saw my friend do that route. You know, the other day that looks like I could probably do that I've got a spare couple of hours. And it's basically just keeping people active. Again, you've probably heard this one for every minute spent on Strava, you can attribute 30 minutes of activity back to your kind of daily life. So rather than that, and that's because you could you look at heat map, you see, you're in an unusual destination, you don't you're you're at your bike, and you fire up the heat map. It's like, everybody's gone that way. That way, then is that what you mean? Yeah, essentially, you know, like I say, you might, or it might just be on your activity feed that, you know, kind of been suggested a route or suggested a, an area to kind of move through. And I think that's what's really exciting is when you get somewhere new, you know that there's a community, because obviously, we're a global community that has cycled there before. And I say you can either look at the heat map, or you might be able to see someone's route. And they've recommended it as a kind of place to ride. That inspiration you get from not just like, say, scrolling through maybe another social network or Doom scrolling, should I say, hopefully, that movement and inspiration of people being active for something that's going to be a positive driver for people being, you know, engaged on Strava. Carlton Reid 41:44 There is another active travel analogy, which sometimes gets wheeled out. And that is, you can't tell why you need a bridge from the number of people swimming across the river. Because they aren't going to swim across the river with a bike, they probably aren't going to swim across the river full stop. But when you put a bridge in it suddenly get, you know, the heat map would go crazy. But once you put the bridge in, so is any of your cleverness your your text, can any of it can I spot? Well, if you only had something here, it would open up, you know, is this something that you can pinpoint that you can say that a bridge analogy can be used? Tom Knights 42:25 Absolutely. And thank you so much for asking that, because that's something we just updated last year in our metro product that obviously the planners and the transportation teams can see. And a lot of it ties back into some of the the kind of accessibility transportation equity, environmental racism that we talked about. What we've shown is that, when you put a pin on the map, we've also been able to kind of draw almost like a kind of circle around what's accessible within say, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, etc. And people can see data within that kind of circle, which, again, will show you that where there's a massive motorway with no bridge crossing, that's that part of the community can't access the park on the other side of it, or where there's, for example, a big brownfield site where there's been industrial use, it's not safe to cycle through. So people have kind of diverted around it, we had a really good example, actually, recently in Germany, where, you know, there was a curb on the side of a bike lane. And you could see very clearly actually three desire lines on the on the actual grass and the verge that people were kind of going off this curb through the woods to kind of cut out maybe a mile. And again, using Strava, Metro, this German transportation team who are based in Frankfurt, actually, I'll share the example with you because it's fascinating see how even at a really small local level, these little changes can make a massive difference. And they're not expensive to do, I think it only cost them something a couple of 1000 euros to drop the curb, because they then saw that that was having an impact on where people were then cycling. So you know, the famous analogy of when it snows, you can really see the designs of cars. Actually, when you look at the design on the heat map, and then in turn, look at that on Strava, you can start to see Oh, that's interesting. And again, another great example that was Hartfordshire county council had a bicycle counsellor in one location. And they realised that the Strava count was actually higher than the bicycle counter. And they thought well hold on what's happening there. And actually, there was a kind of dangerous crossing just slightly further up from this bicycle counter. And they were able to then use the Strava data to kind of, I suppose understand that actually, people were going this way because it was a safer journey. And that's the these are the kind of insights that yes, we want to do the big high level projects and you know, make sure that we get new infrastructure and cycleways across major cities. But actually the really exciting ones when local advocacy groups or local councils who don't necessarily have big budgets for you to accessing data can make these small changes and really improve these kind of everyday life for their community. Carlton Reid 44:56 Can the Netherlands which obviously every week, look Up to is like, the absolute nirvana of cycling. Do you like do you have like, Dutch people go, Oh, we could use this. It's like, Jesus, they even removing even more, you haven't done so. So basically, can you improve the Dutch cycle network? Tom Knights 45:15 Yeah, definitely. And actually, we've had some interesting conversations with the folks over in Copenhagen, and obviously, in Amsterdam, and across the Netherlands as well. So not just Denmark and Holland. But, of course, the Netherlands is such a stays a bellwether of the cycling industry, but they're always looking at new ways to improve, you know, the technology that they're using and counting data. We are in Leuven, just at the end of November for the policy network events. And again, we are understanding that the kind of technical university they are leaving, we've been using metro to kind of understand, you know, and this is a really forward thinking Belgium city, which has got great cycle access, but they still need data to understand and counter. So rather than, you know, developing another app to count people, and getting the community to download it, they've seen that correlation between actually Strava and Strava, Metro. So again, they don't need to necessarily go and kind of reinvent the wheel, so to speak with, you know, building another kind of engagement tool with local community to get them to join, because Metro is hopefully fulfilling that service. Carlton Reid 46:20 Brilliant, Tom that's been absolutely fascinating. And we could go on for a good amount of time, probably on Classics literature, even while we discussed, what's your Roman Empire? Yes, exactly. But we can't, because we people just won't listen to 10 hours of us chatting away. Tom Knights 46:42 I'm sure they will. Carlton Reid 46:43 Now, could you tell us where people can find out? I'm sure people know where you can get onto Strava. But how they find out about Strava Metro, and and maybe how they can contact you? Tom Knights 46:56 Yeah, definitely. So the best way to get in touch with myself and travel metric is on metro.strava.com. And then on that website, you'll be able to learn more about case studies about how cities how researchers, communities have used the actual kind of practical steps of the data. There's also some frequently asked questions on there about you know, privacy and how the data is used, etc. And then most importantly, there's an apply button. So you can click apply for access. And then what we ask is that a you're a organisation that is involved in working to improve active transportation. If you're a consultancy, or an engineering firm, we also accept those applications as well. As long as you're under contract with say, for example, the local government or the city authority, we know that Metro kind of appearing as a line item as it were. And then, again, like saying, at its source, transportation planners around the world can can access, we ask that you use a work email, not a Gmail email. So normally an org or dot.gov, etc. And then just a short abstract, essentially, of how you're going to use the data. And so then we know that it's being used for a positive kind of cause, and then you will give you access to the area of interest that you've selected. Be it London, Birmingham, Somerset, wherever it is, as long as there's been Strava activity, you can start to really start to see trends and patterns, then hopefully feed that into other datasets to build the infrastructure. Carlton Reid 48:20 And Nick.Ferrari@LBC.co.uk or whatever his email address will just be rejected out of hand, that's nefarious use? Tom Knights 48:28 Yeah, I reserve the right not to comment on on LBC and Nick. Carlton Reid 48:34 Thanks for listening to Episode 349 of the Spokesen podcast brought to you in association with Tern bicycles. Show notes and more can be found at the-spokesmen.com The next episode – 350 – will be out next month. Meanwhile, get out there and ride ...
Happy New Year!! How about a poignant New Year classic film? Starring the incomparable Vivien Leigh in a performance perhaps even better than her Oscar-winning role in Gone With the Wind. Wendy and guest Mark explain why this film is so beautiful and point out why it was the favorite film of both it's leading stars - Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor. Don't miss this great episode! Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for cute outtakes and snippets of upcoming episodes. And don't forget to give us your feedback on the episode and let us know what films you'd like us to review! And if checking us out on Spotify - please fill out the poll for the episode! #podcasters #classicfilm #WaterlooBridge
What was the sharp pain that Georgi Markov felt in his ankle as he crossed London's Waterloo Bridge one day? Spoiler: it doesn't end well for Georgi. Designer Thomas Heatherwick and host Alice Loxton tell the sad tale of a Bulgarian dissident's encounter with one of the most notorious tools of spycraft. From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series produced by Alex Burnard, Morgan Childs, Claire Crofton, Joe Foley, Frank Palmer, Kellie Redmond and Isabel Sutton. Music by Nick Ryan.
Rerun. Bulgarian writer Georgi Markov was shot by a poisoned pellet whilst walking on Waterloo Bridge on 7th September, 1978. Four days later, he was dead. He thought the bullet – believed to be filled with ricin – had emanated from the umbrella of a Soviet secret agent, and the British press labelled his assassination the ‘Poison Brolly Riddle'. In this episode, Olly, Rebecca and Arion explain how Markov was initially disbelieved by doctors; reveal the mysterious involvement of a pig in the Porton Down investigation; and ask whether poisoning is really as efficient a method of murder as it seems… Further Viewing: Umbrella fired fatal ricin dart (CNN 2013) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZO5Lf8wD_c&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Ftheretrospectors.com%2F&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE&feature=emb_title ‘Why am I hearing a rerun?' Every Thursday is 'Throwback Thursday' on Today in History with the Retrospectors: running one repeat per week means we can keep up the quality of our independent podcast. Daily shows like this require a lot of work! But as ever we'll have something new for you tomorrow, so follow us wherever you get your podcasts: podfollow.com/Retrospectors Love the show? Join
In this episode Cally talks to strangers on the bridge, Jonny Benjamin and Neil Laybourn, about the January morning in 2008 when Jonny, then 20, stood on Waterloo Bridge, about to jump when a stranger, Neil, saw his distress & stopped to talk with him – a decision that saved his life. There is talk of suicide and suicide prevention during this episode so below we have compiled resources for you to turn to if you are affected by anything in the show. Above all, it is a conversation of hope. Twitter: @neillaybourn Instagram: @mrjonnybenjamin Watch Stranger On The Bridge on Channel 4 Jonny's charity Neil's consultancy Campaign Against Living Miserably CALM Rethink Mental Illness More about Cally Instagram: @callybeatoncomedian Twitter: @callybeaton Produced by Mike Hanson for Pod People Productions Twitter: @podpeopleuk Instagram: @podpeopleuk Music by Jake Yapp Cover Art by Jaijo Design Sponsorship: info@theloniouspunkproductions.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Svetlana came from a dissident Jewish family opposed to Soviet rule in Latvia. Her parents survived World War 2, but during the Stalin era two members of her family were held in the Gulags. The family never resigned themselves to Latvia's occupation by the Soviet Union in 1940. It was almost impossible to legally leave the Soviet Union, however, in 1971 the first opportunities for "Jewish" emigration appeared, and Svetlana, then aged 12 and her family left legally. At the age of 16, she is staying with her Uncle in London when she comes across Bush House, the home of the BBC Russian Service. Svetlana manages to get a job there and begins to get promoted. She meets Georgi Markov who is assassinated by Bulgarian Security Services on Waterloo Bridge in London and later she is introduced to Oleg, the Chief Editor of the Russian Service of Radio Liberty, a CIA-financed station beaming Western propaganda into the Soviet Union. This meeting has a profound effect on her life… The fight to preserve Cold War history continues and via a simple monthly donation, you will give me the ammunition to keep this podcast on the air. You'll become part of our community and get a sought-after CWC coaster as a thank you and you'll bask in the warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history. Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ If a monthly contribution is not your cup of tea, We also welcome one-off donations via the same link. Details and extra video content on this link https://coldwarconversations.com/episode288/ St Petersburg (Leningrad) aircraft hijack episode https://coldwarconversations.com/episode258/ Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/ Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
When the weather is absolutely British, the best is to talk to a friend.Neoborn Caveman and Josh Bovington are having a great time with the Battle of Jokes and then music and life will be the focus in their warm and laughter-filled conversation.Plus a musical sneak-peek into The Lyricals.Supporting Purple Rabbits!And buy your books at the book-market under the Waterloo Bridge when in London. Josh will be there!...................... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
I am thrilled to be joined by not one but two wonderful men for today's episode. Jonny Benjamin and Neil Laybourn first met in early 2008 when Neil approached Jonny who was sitting on the edge of Waterloo Bridge and asked if he was alright. The conversation that followed changed their lives forever. Fast forward 14 years and a huge social media campaign later and the two are not only great friends but work together to improve the public's understanding of mental health and to champion suicide prevention.Their story proves the role we can all play in helping each other and has helped to eradicate the stigma that surrounds schizophrenia and suicide by bravely sharing their story. They have opened doors for so many others to do the same. I'm so thrilled to be talking to them both today and to hear about how that day changed both their lives. This conversation really struck a chord with me. It's powerful, inspiring, and proves that we can have faith in humanity. Find out more about Neil and Jonny's work:Jonny's website: https://jonnybenjamin.co.uk/Neil's website: https://neillaybourn.com/Support for men in suicidal crisis: James' Place: https://www.jamesplace.org.uk/Follow Hurt to Healing on Instagram:@hurttohealingpod--A big thank you our wonderful charity partner Shout. Shout is the UK's first 24/7 mental health text support service so if you're struggling or in need of someone to talk to, please remember to text Shout to 85258. This episode is sponsored by Boden, a British brand that has championed uplifting, eclectic British style since it was founded 31 years ago. Head to Boden.com to check out their new autumn collection or to their Instagram @boden_clothing.Thank you to our corporate supporter, Brown Advisory, a global investment management firm which is passionate about raising awareness of mental health challenges in order to help people thrive in an ever-changing world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Despite being such a well-regarded episode, "The House in Cypress Canyon" was only performed once on Suspense."The House in Cypress Canyon" is an episode of the American radio series Suspense. Written by Robert L. Richards, produced and directed by William Spier, this episode is consistently cited as one of the most terrifying programs broadcast during radio's Golden Age. It was originally broadcast December 5, 1946.The story begins a few days before Christmas. James (Robert Taylor) and Ellen (Cathy Lewis), married seven years and having recently relocated to California for the husband's engineering job, move into a hastily finished rental house in a development that was started before the war. Dusty furniture and creaky hinges seem to be the only problems with the place at first glance. But the very night they move in, the two hear inhuman cries in the night, and find blood oozing out from under a closet door they can't open. Fleeing the house in a panic, they return with a pair of policemen, only to discover the closet door is unlocked and the blood has vanished. The following night, Ellen, sleep-walking, attacks James like a crazed animal and bites him savagely, waking with no memory of the attack; then the milkman is discovered with his throat torn out. The narrative concludes with James' indication that he has accepted his fate and is no longer afraid; he knows now what he must do. Just then there's a knock on the door and the inhuman scream is heard again. A newspaper article clipped to the manuscript notes that James killed Ellen with a shotgun before turning the weapon on himself. The episode then returns to the framing story, with Sam Spade discussing the case with his friend. The friend explains the paradox that the manuscript was found in the same house in which the story appears to have taken place, but that at the time the manuscript was found, the house was derelict and unfinished. Impossibly, the story set down in the manuscript appears to have taken place in the house *after* the manuscript was discovered. Spade suggests that this is just a coincidence and leaves. After Spade leaves, his friend returns to his regular occupation—a rental agent for the housing development. As the story concludes, a young couple comes into his office and asks about renting the house in Cypress Canyon. The couple is James and Ellen.Robert Taylor (born Spangler Arlington Brugh; August 5, 1911 – June 8, 1969) was an American film and television actor and singer who was one of the most popular leading men of cinema. Taylor began his career in films in 1934 when he signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He won his first leading role the following year in Magnificent Obsession. His popularity increased during the late 1930s and 1940s with appearances in Camille (1936), A Yank at Oxford (1938), Waterloo Bridge (1940), and Bataan (1943). During World War II, he served in the United States Naval Air Forces, where he worked as a flight instructor and appeared in instructional films. From 1959 to 1962, he starred in the television series The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor. In 1966, he assumed hosting duties from his friend Ronald Reagan on the series Death Valley Days. Taylor was married to actress Barbara Stanwyck from 1939 to 1952. He married actress Ursula Thiess in 1954, and they had two children. A chain smoker, Taylor died of lung cancer at the age of 57.
Speaking with a foreign accent, the man muttered, “I am sorry.”
Rerun. Bulgarian writer Georgi Markov was shot by a poisoned pellet whilst walking on Waterloo Bridge on 7th September, 1978. Four days later, he was dead. He believed the bullet - believed to be filled with ricin - had emanated from the umbrella of a Soviet secret agent. The British press labelled his assasination the ‘Poison Brolly Riddle'. In this episode, Olly, Rebecca and Arion explain how Markov was initially disbelieved by doctors; reveal the mysterious involvement of a pig in the Porton Down investigation; and ask whether poisoning is really as efficient a method of murder as it seems... Further Reading: ‘The poison-tipped umbrella: the death of Georgi Markov in 1978' (The Guardian, 2020): https://www.theguardian.com/world/from-the-archive-blog/2020/sep/09/georgi-markov-killed-poisoned-umbrella-london-1978 ‘The umbrella murder mystery' (The Oldie): https://www.theoldie.co.uk/article/the-umbrella-murder-mystery Umbrella fired fatal ricin dart (CNN, 2013): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZO5Lf8wD_c ‘Why am I hearing a rerun?' We're planning exciting new things for the autumn, and we're banking that most of you haven't heard it yet. So stick with us. For bonus material and to support the show, visit Patreon.com/Retrospectors We'll be back tomorrow with a new episode! Follow us wherever you get your podcasts: podfollow.com/Retrospectors The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Sophie King. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2022. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In this episode, we peer into plant cells. Researchers are using measurements from single cells to understand which genes help plants grow, get nutrients, weather drought, and more. And eventually, their findings could help us grow better crops, with less impact on our planet.Links from this episode:Monet's Waterloo Bridge at Sunset (1904)Serat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1884)Submit a proposal to work with the JGI: https://jointgeno.me/proposals Margot's 2021 Berkeley Lab SLAM talk The JGI's Genomics of Plant-Microbial Interactions group Plant Single-cell Solutions for Energy and the Environment (Workshop report)JGI Blog: A Plant Root Atlas for Tracking Developmental TrajectoriesBen Cole's DOE Early Career AwardGenome Insider is a production of the Joint Genome Institute. This episode uses two pieces of music from Free Music Archive: Sad French Accordion by Dana Boulé (CC BY-NC 4.0)Sonata No. 20 in G Major, Op. 49 No. 2 - I. Allegro ma non troppo by Daniel Veesey (Public Domain)
September 11 1978, Georgi Markov dies in hospital in Balham, South London. Markov was a Bulgarian journalist working for the BBC, having recently defected to the West earlier that year. He had developed a fear after something resembling an insect bite appeared on his thigh.An autopsy found a small pellet in the area, most likely filled with ricin. Before he died Georgi told his wife that when he felt the 'bite', he was on Waterloo Bridge and a man behind him was picking up an umbrella.Was Georgi assassinated for his defection by the Bulgarians or the KGB? And did they use a modified umbrella to do it?One of the most famous Cold War murders gets the Mystery on the Rocks treatment, which basically means bickering about the size and shape of the bullet, arguing about a 69 joke and getting distracted about little Masud watching Last Action Hero... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
"the destruction of a great artistic monument"
TW: This episode podcast discussing distressing themes around suicide. If you feel you may be triggered by such content please kindly do not listen. In this episode, I sit down with the insanely talented award winning mental health campaigner Jonny Benjamin. Jonny who is a film producer, public speaker, vlogger and published author received an MBE in 2017 for services to mental health suicide prvention. Jonny speaks publicly about living with mental illness and has written articles and given various interviews on TV, Radio and in print around the world to help educate and break stigma. Jonny Benjamin began having mental health problems at a young age and his parents first took him to see a psychologist at the age of 5. He later developed depression at 16 and was eventually diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, a combination of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, in his early 20s. He had also been experiencing the delusion that he was on his own version of the film, The Truman Show, and was hospitalised as a result of his condition in January 2008. He ran away from the hospital intending to take his life by jumping off a bridge. A passerby found him on Waterloo Bridge and talked him out of committing suicide, which lasted long enough for the emergency services to arrive and return him to hospital. This incident became the focus of his 2014 campaign, Find Mike. Jonny published his first book in May 2018. His second book, The Book Of Hope, will be a collection of quotes, poems and stories by himself and others to inspire recovery and hope which will be published in April 2022. In 2018 Jonny launched his new youth mental health charity, Beyond. The charity is a grant-giving organisation that aims to provide mental health support to young people, their families and teachers. It is being led by a Youth Board, who together with Jonny, created the UK's first mental health festival for schools and colleges in early 2021. Follow Jonny - https://www.instagram.com/mrjonnybenjamin/ Follow James - https://www.instagram.com/extra_ordinary_podcast/
Turner's Modern World at the Kimbell Art Museum: https://kimbellart.org/exhibition/turners-modern-world Turner's Modern World catalog: https://www.rizzoliusa.com/book/9780847869343/ What made Turner modern? (1:00) — Stylistic transition in the 1830s; “painting with tinted steam”; The Burning of the Houses of Parliament (4:30) — The sublime and the incomprehensibly powerful; painting a steamship in a snowstorm (8:00) — Contrast with Ruskin on medievalism and industrialization; The Thames Above Waterloo Bridge; canals and steam engines (12:30) — Mark Twain trashes The Slave Ship; evolving reception and public appreciation of Turner's style (17:15) — A British painter; traveling in Europe; Fall of the Rhine at Schaffhausen; seeing Venice, Venetian painting and Vesuvius; seeing European painting at the National Gallery in London and the Dulwich Picture Gallery (24:00) — Political and social conflicts in 19th-century England; the class system and political reform; women's suffrage; the wreck of the Amphitrite (A Disaster at Sea) (31:30) — The wide range of Turner's patrons; painting a scene in Venice and a nocturne of coal barges being loaded (Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Moonlight) (38:00) — Viewing Turner: in person vs. online (43:15) Paintings by J.M.W. Turner: The Burning of the Houses of Parliament (c. 1834-35) https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-the-burning-of-the-houses-of-parliament-d36235 Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth (exh. 1842) https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-snow-storm-steam-boat-off-a-harbours-mouth-n00530 The Thames above Waterloo Bridge (c. 1830-35) https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-the-thames-above-waterloo-bridge-n01992 Fall of the Rhine at Schaffhausen (c. 1805-06) https://collections.mfa.org/objects/31489/fall-of-the-rhine-at-schaffhausen A Disaster at Sea (c. 1835) https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-a-disaster-at-sea-n00558 Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Moonlight (1835) https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.1225.html
We spoke to Arup's Richard de Cani and Cathy Li about the new report, London Alive, and how the capital's public spaces could be reimagined for a post-pandemic future. We were joined by the Northbank BID's Alison Gregory, who shared her perspective on the evolution of Waterloo Bridge and Charing Cross, as well as the wider role of the Northbank in the city's renewal.
Episode 70 - Waterloo Bridge, Part 3 of the James Whale Retrospective Series Steven is joined by the Classic Horrors Club's co-host Jeff Owens to discuss the James Whale movie Waterloo Bridge(1931)! This episode is the third part of the James Whale Retrospective Series. The movie is available on YouTube. We hope that you enjoy this deep dive into Whale's work. A special thanks to Reber Clark for the intro music! You can purchase Mr. Clark's music at reberclark.bandcamp.com. Also, uou can listen to his interview on Episode 15!
Standing on Waterloo Bridge in 2021, the artist re-examines the personal impact of Derek Jarman's final film, ‘Blue' (1993). His celebrated experimental film is a poetic reckoning with his grief at the loss of friends, lovers and his own life as a result of AIDS-related illnesses. ‘Time is what keeps the light from reaching us' is an audio essay, sampling from the film itself, asking the question, what does it mean to review Jarman's film without an image today? A re-view, in this case, might be defined by a multiplicity of looks; seeing again, anew, once more. As the artist finds out, ‘Blue' casts its shadow over all they see. From the vantage point of many years, ‘Time is what keeps the light from reaching us' is a cinematic vision; a long-distance double-take. About Cassandre Cassandre Greenberg is an artist and writer. Most recently, she completed the audio documentary, Touchdown. She was the 2019 recipient of the Michael O'Pray Art Writing prize, and her texts have been published on Art Monthly, The White Review, The Architectural Review, and others. She has shown works at ICA, IMT Gallery, SPACE studios, and Auto Italia. New Creatives is supported by Arts Council England and BBC Arts. Cassandre Greenberg - Writer, Director, Performer & Producer MX World - Musician Martha Pazienti Caidan (NTS) – Executive Producer Mark Estall - Sound Engineer Archival material from BFI National Archive. Quotations selected from Blue by Derek Jarman (1993), with thanks to Basilisk Productions and James Mackay.
Bulgarian writer Georgi Markov was shot by a poisoned pellet whilst walking on Waterloo Bridge on 7th September, 1978. Four days later, he was dead.He thought the bullet - believed to be filled with ricin - had emanated from the umbrella of a Soviet secret agent, and the British press labelled his assassination the ‘Poison Brolly Riddle'.In this episode, Olly, Rebecca and Arion explain how Markov was initially disbelieved by doctors; reveal the mysterious involvement of a pig in the Porton Down investigation; and ask whether poisoning is really as efficient a method of murder as it seems...Further Reading:‘The poison-tipped umbrella: the death of Georgi Markov in 1978' (The Guardian, 2020): https://www.theguardian.com/world/from-the-archive-blog/2020/sep/09/georgi-markov-killed-poisoned-umbrella-london-1978‘The umbrella murder mystery' (The Oldie): https://www.theoldie.co.uk/article/the-umbrella-murder-mysteryUmbrella fired fatal ricin dart (CNN, 2013): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZO5Lf8wD_cFor bonus material and to support the show, visit Patreon.com/RetrospectorsWe'll be back tomorrow! Follow us wherever you get your podcasts: podfollow.com/RetrospectorsThe Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Emma Corsham.Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2021. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
The boys make clear that bridges are not just for boys. Join us as we learn some forgotten history of the Waterloo Bridge - more aptly the Ladies Bridge - and check out this link below to support the effort to better memorialize women's role in creating this wonderful bridge: https://pointpeople.typeform.com/to/VfhYND Questions, comments, corrections, suggestions: bridgeboyspod@gmail.com
Waterloo Bridge, also known as ‘The Ladies' Bridge,' tells the recently uncovered story of women construction workers who built it during the WWII labour shortages.
Moving one bridge along to Waterloo Bridge this week. Tishy has a crazy story about a magician jumping of the bridge and nearly gives away tricks of the magic trade. We discuss about how moving forwards is so much better than look backwards. Stay tuned for the Foreign Phrase of the Week and a Handy Hint to help you in the garden.
Ladies, unite! Unite under a bridge and check out how dirty it is underneath. Because we are here for the ladies' input this week, as we take a look at Waterloo Bridge and find out if there is any truth to the often quoted rumour that this was built by women during WW2. We also take a look at the nearby impressive Somerset House and find out why it has a more interesting history than it might seem at first glance. Thanks to Rachel Pearson for the request of topic! Plus we find out who won the Podcast Pedestal and Emily gets her sweaty hands on the wheel again for another chance to see where we will get to chat about next week. Let us know what you think on Instagram, or on our websites. Instagram @ladieswholondonpodcast Email ladieswholondon@gmail.com Websites www.guideemily.com and www.alexlacey.com/links where you can also book for our virtual and real life walking tours. Thanks to Susie Riddell for our voiceover jingles www.susieriddell.com and our jinglemeister Ben Morales Frost, can be found on www.benfrostmusic.com
Ophelia Stähelin brauchte eine Veränderung im Leben und zog vor vier Jahren in die Millionenmetropole London. Dort startete die kaufmännische Angestellte ein Praktikum in einem Hotel. Heute arbeitet die 24-Jährige aus Rickenbach (LU) als Assistentin eines Software-Startups. Ophelia Stähelin musste sich an das multikulturelle Leben der pulsierenden Stadt anfänglich gewöhnen: «Man lernt Freunde aus aller Welt kennen, die dann leider oft nur für kurze Zeit bleiben und wieder in ihre Heimat zurückkehren.» Trotzdem ist sie fasziniert von der Vielseitigkeit, die diese Stadt bietet. WG-Leben in Waterloo Ophelia Stähelin hat sich gut in London eingelebt. Mit ihrem Freund und einer Freundin wohnt sie im Stadtteil Waterloo, nahe der bekannten Waterloo Bridge. An den Lockdown, der seit Januar gilt, hat sich Ophelia längst gewöhnt: «Letztes Jahr war es schlimmer. Jetzt sind wenigstens die Coffeeshops und Takeaways offen. Ich bin regelmässig zu Fuss unterwegs, das ist meine Fitness hier.»
In this Podcast we interview Zoey Cooper from Southgate and who became an environmental activist in the last few years. Zoey has wide experience in marketing and has always been interested in the environment but it was not until she joined an XR demonstration on Waterloo Bridge that she began to fully realise the seriousness of climate change. And as she says, “Passionate about sustainability and permaculture, I leverage my 15+ years of communication and brand experience to inform and engage as wide an audience as possible on the climate and ecological emergency – and how to do something meaningful about it.” Zoey now realises that if we do not take action now and not in a few years time then humankind could well be heading for extinction - the Sixth Extinction of life that our planet has known in its history. Zoey now gives talks on the journey we are making towards extinction and tries to create awareness that we must do something now. Zoey has also offered to be active in the Enfield Climate Change Action Fortum as part of her mission to arouse awareness and to galvanise people to take action. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/globalnet21/message
「微信」或者「微博」搜索关注［早安英文］，查看更多有趣实用的中英双语节目。笔记：Waterloo Bridge 《魂断蓝桥》Waterloo Bridge is a 1940 remake of the 1931 American drama film also called Waterloo Bridge, adapted from the 1930 play Waterloo Bridge. In an extended flashback narration, it recounts the story of a dancer and an army captain who meet by chance on Waterloo Bridge. 《魂断蓝桥》（1940）翻拍自1931年的美国同名戏剧电影，这部电影改编自1930年的戏剧《滑铁卢桥》。在展开的倒叙叙事中，它讲述了一名舞者和一个军长偶然在滑铁卢桥相遇的故事。获取节目完整音频、笔记和片尾的歌曲名，请关注威信公众号「早安英文」，回复「加油」即可。更多有意思的英语干货等着你！
「微信」或者「微博」搜索关注［早安英文］，查看更多有趣实用的中英双语节目。笔记：Waterloo Bridge 《魂断蓝桥》Waterloo Bridge is a 1940 remake of the 1931 American drama film also called Waterloo Bridge, adapted from the 1930 play Waterloo Bridge. In an extended flashback narration, it recounts the story of a dancer and an army captain who meet by chance on Waterloo Bridge. 《魂断蓝桥》（1940）翻拍自1931年的美国同名戏剧电影，这部电影改编自1930年的戏剧《滑铁卢桥》。在展开的倒叙叙事中，它讲述了一名舞者和一个军长偶然在滑铁卢桥相遇的故事。获取节目完整音频、笔记和片尾的歌曲名，请关注威信公众号「早安英文」，回复「加油」即可。更多有意思的英语干货等着你！
What Bulgarian dissident was killed by the Penguin? What's the GDP of New York? Who is this mysterious stranger we haven't heard from in ages? Jake Yapp & Natt Tapley find out in today's Date Fight.
Introducing my joint first guest of season two, mental health activist Jonny Benjamin MBE! I laughed and I cried in equal measure while producing this episode, which has themes ranging from Jonny’s mental health journey; his experience of growing up gay in the Jewish community; and the perils of hiding your phone from yourself when you live alone. Jonny was SO funny and easy to talk to – qualities that make him ever the more inspiring in the wake of what he’s been through. In 2008, Jonny stood on the edge of Waterloo Bridge ready to take his own life – but was saved thanks to a chance intervention from a stranger. Since then, Jonny has dedicated his life to raising awareness surrounding mental illness and suicide. Even the Duke of Cambridge is a fan, providing the foreword to Jonny’s book, The Stranger on the Bridge. Jonny Benjamin’s book, The Stranger on the Bridge, is available from Amazon and Waterstones. If you enjoyed this episode – I’d LOVE it if you could leave a written review. It’s the absolute best way to help others discover the show. Twitter: @ChezSpecter @mrjonnybenjamin Instagram: @alonementofficial
Regular listeners will know we've an archive of episodes in the 'before time' - prior to relaunching since the pandemic and lockdown. Our goal since has been to bring stories of value to look toward a better future for our kids. In that spirit, we've dusted off a recording from April 2019, joining Extinction Rebellion as they took control of Waterloo Bridge for a week of persistent protest against the climate crisis. With parents and kids alike, we discuss how the next generation's voice is inspiring many of us to consider the planet's health - and how we 'responsible' older folks can set our own example of taking a stand in the name of positive progress. For more info visit www.rebellion.earth, and I hope you enjoy the sounds of peaceful protest and togetherness recorded last year. Of course who knew what was to come? But now everything has changed, and pollutive travel has ceased for example, perhaps the messages can finally get through? (though our sudden reliance on Amazon / online deliveries and all that packaging is troubling.) Here's to grasping the roots of change...
Leigh Chambers’ featured guest is Jan Casey talking about her debut novel, The Women of Waterloo Bridge, about the true story of the women who built Waterloo Bridge during World War 2. Imogen Alexander from Kettle’s Yard explains why the Cambridge gallery is publishing a book for children about the work of the painter Alfred Wallis. […]
Leigh Chambers’ featured guest is Jan Casey talking about her debut novel, The Women of Waterloo Bridge, about the true story of the women who built Waterloo Bridge during World War […]
Climate change can feel like an overwhelming issue and even if you want to try and make a difference, sometimes it's difficult to know what's the best thing to do! Do I buy loose apples grown in Turkey, or plastic-wrapped apples grown in the UK? Do I attend that environmental activist demonstration despite not agreeing with some of their methods? Do I reconsider having children to slow the population rate?! I get the facts from climate scientist Dr Michelle Cain, meet Indy, Mila and Eve, year 7 girls that have regularly been attending the climate change marches, and head down to an Extinction Rebellion protest on Waterloo Bridge. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
As many of us struggle on through the Covid 19 London lock down, it's a good time to pause, and reflect and truly see that good can come out of bad. I've chosen to re publish one of my earliest interviews with the inspiring and Jonny Benjamin. This is his very dramatic personal story from the depths of despair to being awarded MBE ( service for mental health). I hope you find this amazing yet true life story of 'The Stranger on The Bridge' a motivation that things will get better soon. Just keep believing. **************************************************************************************************************** On a bitter cold winter morning, you’re walking across Waterloo Bridge—on your way to work. As you reach the midway point over the grey, fast flowing Thames, something unusual catches your eye. You notice the figure of what appears to be a young man holding onto the railings…on the wrong side. Hundreds of busy commuters pretend not to see what’s right in front of their eyes. Some know what is going on, but don’t know what to do, or internally question whether to get involved or not. One man stops to see to see if he can help. This is the story of “Stranger on The Bridge”—of how two totally unconnected worlds collided and changed both forever. This is Your London Legacy. “Looking back it’s strange, I almost believed it was –it didn’t feel like me that was causing this disruption. It felt like it was this toy that was in control, but again I guess at that age I couldn’t articulate what was going on.” Jonny first went to a psychologist at the age of 5. While hard to express his emotions and reasoning at that age, he was acting out and being destructive. He was irritable, couldn’t sleep, and becoming violent. What he couldn’t express was that he was seeing things that weren’t there. This theme of shielding his family and friends from what was tormenting him ran through his early years all the way through uni. Jonny constant felt like something was off and bore into his studies as an escape—finding a particular interest in drama. 10:34 Things started to come to a head when Jonny was 17. He’d given into a delusion that he was in a “Truman Show” type situation where he was being watched all the time. Coincidences seemed preordained, planned, and he liked it—if he was being watched then it must mean that everyone liked him. But after a friend vocalized concern he went to see a doctor and was put on a waiting list for a specialist. After time though, Jonny gave up waiting and headed off to uni where he hoped his problems would solve themselves. 18:00 While his studies in drama continued to be a godsend and escape, outside of his studies his life was crumbling. It started with self-harm and abusing alcohol and getting into a minor car accident that threw him into a temporary psychosis. Jonny was scared, and to complicate things further he was beginning to struggle with his sexuality as well. He ended up going to group therapy and finally his secret was out, his family was clued into his mental struggles. Jonny felt like he’d betrayed them. “This might sound awful, but there was a kind of relief in making that decision—because I thought finally, there’s a way out.” 26:40 It is at this point that we arrive at the poem Jonny reads at the beginning of our interview. On a freezing cold day in January, he ran to the Waterloo bridge—as he’d planned the night before, deciding to end his life. He’d been in the hospital for a month where his family visited every day, and he felt like this was doing them a favor, taking the burden of himself off their shoulders. But it was on the bridge the stranger came. Calm, empathetic, and very, very human compared to the sterile clipboard environment of the hospital. This stranger was invested in Jonny when he didn’t have to be, and it ended up saving Jonny’s life. 37:52 Support this podcast
Universal, 1931: we discuss one of the greatest movies of the 30s, James Whale's WATERLOO BRIDGE, and William Wyler's Oedipal horror movie, A HOUSE DIVIDED. And in our Moviegoing in Toronto section: erotic pedagogy in Jacqueline Audry's OLIVIA (1951), Christian anarchism in Frank Capra's YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU (1938), and more Bresson. Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s: A House Divided (dir: William Wyler) 0h 29m 57s: Waterloo Bridge (dir. James Whale) 1h 03m 17s: Winter cinemagoing: Chronicle of the Years of Fire (1975; dir: Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina)/ OLIVIA (1951; dir: Jacqueline Audry)/ YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU (1938; dir: Frank Capra) / LES DAMES DU BOIS DE BOULOGNE (1945), AU HASARD BALTHAZAR (1966), MOUCHETTE (1967) & PICKPOCKET (1959) – all dir: Robert Bresson. +++ * Check out our Complete Upcoming Episode Schedule * Find Elise’s latest published film piece “Making America Strange Again: Gangs of New York” in issue #80 Bright Wall/Dark Room* *And Read Elise’s Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.* Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com Theme Music: “What’s Yr Take on Cassavetes?” – Le Tigre
Artist and producer Beatrice Dillon’s new piece for ASSEMBLY, infraordinary, combines installation and performance, in which specially composed sounds are triggered using the system’s Kinect camera, alongside a live controlled sound mix of the street. Inspired by writer Georges Perec’s concept of the ‘infra-ordinary’ - taking account of the micro events of the everyday - the performance attempts to examine and reframe the rhythmic patterns of the street outside. Pedestrians, traffic, roadworks, protest; the corner of Somerset House where Waterloo Bridge meets Embankment is a hive of often unpredictable activity and noise. Acknowledging and working with this to define a compositional framework, Marclay invited a series of guests to collaborate in bringing the outdoors inside for an evolving series of electro-acoustic performances. Beatrice Dillon is an artist and music producer who has produced solo and collaborative releases across Boomkat Editions, Hessle Audio, The Trilogy Tapes, PAN, Timedance and Where To Now? Recent performances include Barbican Centre, Tokyo’s wwwX, MUTEK Montreal, Dekmantel, Documenta Athens, Cairo’s Masåfåt Festival, Norway’s Insomnia and Documenta Athens. With a background in fine art, Beatrice has produced sound and music commissions for Outlands Network, Lisson Gallery, Études Paris, AND Festival, Somerset House and has collaborated with visual artists and choreographers across ICA, TATE, Southbank Centre, York Mediale, Centre d’Art Contemporain Geneva, MACVAL Paris, Nasher Center Dallas and Mona Tasmania amongst others. She was the recipient of Wysing Arts Centre’s artist residency, is a resident at Somerset House Studios and presents a show on NTS Radio. Christian Marclay’s ambitious and accomplished practice explores the juxtaposition between sound, photography, video and sculpture. His installations display provocative musical and visual landscapes and have been included in exhibitions around the world including the Whitney Museum of American Art, Venice Biennale, Centre Pompidou Paris and Kunsthaus Zurich. More recently, he exhibited The Clock at the Tate Modern (debuted at White Cube in 2010) – an artwork created from thousands of edited fragments, from a vast range of films to create a 24-hour, single-channel video. Podcast produced by Reduced Listening for Somerset House Studios ASSEMBLY Production by Music Hackspace and sound system by Call & Response, with sound and interaction programming from Black Shuck and Preverbal Studio. Lighting design by KitMapper. ASSEMBLY is supported by PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund, The Adonyeva Foundation and the John. S Cohen Foundation.
Pedestrians, traffic, roadworks, protest; the corner of Somerset House where Waterloo Bridge meets Embankment is a hive of often unpredictable activity and noise. Acknowledging and working with this to define a compositional framework, Marclay invited a series of guests to collaborate in bringing the outdoors inside for an evolving series of electro-acoustic performances. Studios resident Lawrence Lek is an artist, filmmaker and musician whose virtual worlds and animated films create alternate versions of real places. For ASSEMBLY he invited collaborators Seth Scott and Robin Simpson to present a site-specific simulation that acts as an uncanny virtual and sonic double of the performance space. Their performance, Doom, reflects the atmosphere during the Extinction Rebellion protests when Waterloo Bridge – which the Lancaster Rooms overlook – was closed to traffic and filled with warning signs of the coming apocalypse. Christian Marclay’s ambitious and accomplished practice explores the juxtaposition between sound, photography, video and sculpture. His installations display provocative musical and visual landscapes and have been included in exhibitions around the world including the Whitney Museum of American Art, Venice Biennale, Centre Pompidou Paris and Kunsthaus Zurich. More recently, he exhibited The Clock at the Tate Modern (debuted at White Cube in 2010) – an artwork created from thousands of edited fragments, from a vast range of films to create a 24-hour, single-channel video. Podcast produced by Reduced Listening for Somerset House Studios ASSEMBLY Production by Music Hackspace and sound system by Call & Response, with sound and interaction programming from Black Shuck and Preverbal Studio. Lighting design by KitMapper. ASSEMBLY is supported by PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund, The Adonyeva Foundation and the John. S Cohen Foundation.
For ASSEMBLY, Karen Gwyer approached the street noises as drums. Building over the course of the performance, Karen will use and process the ambient sounds to create a multilayer, polyrhythmic piece created from the more punchy and identifiable sounds as well as distorting the general hum. The mood and intensity will shift as the performance progresses. On top of the rhythmic street sounds, layers of synths will build to create a moving yet sobering composition that draws on Karen’s own emotions around her 12 years as a Londoner, both the pain and relief of leaving, and the conflict of looking at it now from afar. Pedestrians, traffic, roadworks, protest; the corner of Somerset House where Waterloo Bridge meets Embankment is a hive of often unpredictable activity and noise. Acknowledging and working with this to define a compositional framework, Marclay invited a series of guests to collaborate in bringing the outdoors inside for an evolving series of electro-acoustic performances. Karen Gwyer was born in the southern US and raised in the north. Now based in Berlin after more than a decade in London, she shifts between pumping, thickly melodic, just left-of-techno dancefloor vibes and diversionary acidic psychedelia in her expansive, largely analogue live electronic performances. To date, she has released a handful of acclaimed recordings on Don’t Be Afraid, Nous Disques, Opal Tapes and Kaleidoscope, among others. She has produced remixes for labels such as InFiné, Software, and Public Information, and has created a number of commissioned pieces for Berlin’s Pop-Kultur festival and Open Music Archive in London. Christian Marclay’s ambitious and accomplished practice explores the juxtaposition between sound, photography, video and sculpture. His installations display provocative musical and visual landscapes and have been included in exhibitions around the world including the Whitney Museum of American Art, Venice Biennale, Centre Pompidou Paris and Kunsthaus Zurich. More recently, he exhibited The Clock at the Tate Modern (debuted at White Cube in 2010) – an artwork created from thousands of edited fragments, from a vast range of films to create a 24-hour, single-channel video. Podcast produced by Reduced Listening for Somerset House Studios. ASSEMBLY Production by Music Hackspace and sound system by Call & Response, with sound and interaction programming from Black Shuck and Preverbal Studio. Lighting design by KitMapper. ASSEMBLY is supported by PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund, The Adonyeva Foundation and the John. S Cohen Foundation.
Alfred the Great (Old English: Ælfrēd,[b] Ælfrǣd,[c] 'Elf-counsel' or 'Wise-elf'; between 847 and 849 – 26 October 899) was King of Wessex from 871 to c. 886 and King of the Anglo-Saxons from c. 886 to 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf of Wessex. His father died when he was young and three of Alfred's brothers, Æthelbald, Æthelberht and Æthelred, reigned in turn. After acceding to the throne, Alfred spent several years fighting Viking invasions. He won a decisive victory in the Battle of Edington in 878 and made an agreement with the Vikings, creating what was known as the Danelaw in the North of England. Alfred also oversaw the conversion of Viking leader Guthrum to Christianity. He defended his kingdom against the Viking attempt at conquest, becoming the dominant ruler in England. Details of his life are described in a work by 9th-century Welsh scholar and bishop Asser. Alfred had a reputation as a learned and merciful man of a gracious and level-headed nature who encouraged education, proposing that primary education be conducted in Anglo-Saxon rather than Latin and improving the legal system, military structure and his people's quality of life. He was given the epithet "the Great" during and after the Reformation in the sixteenth century. The only other king of England given this epithet is Cnut the Great. In April 871 King Æthelred died and Alfred acceded to the throne of Wessex and the burden of its defence, even though Æthelred left two under-age sons, Æthelhelm and Æthelwold. This was in accordance with the agreement that Æthelred and Alfred had made earlier that year in an assembly at an unidentified place called Swinbeorg. The brothers had agreed that whichever of them outlived the other would inherit the personal property that King Æthelwulf had left jointly to his sons in his will. The deceased's sons would receive only whatever property and riches their father had settled upon them and whatever additional lands their uncle had acquired. The unstated premise was that the surviving brother would be king. Given the Danish invasion and the youth of his nephews, Alfred's accession probably went uncontested. While he was busy with the burial ceremonies for his brother, the Danes defeated the Saxon army in his absence at an unnamed spot and then again in his presence at Wilton in May. The defeat at Wilton smashed any remaining hope that Alfred could drive the invaders from his kingdom. Alfred was forced instead to make peace with them, according to sources that do not tell what the terms of the peace were. Bishop Asser claimed that the pagans agreed to vacate the realm and made good their promise. The Viking army withdrew from Reading in the autumn of 871 to take up winter quarters in Mercian London. Although not mentioned by Asser or by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Alfred probably paid the Vikings cash to leave, much as the Mercians were to do in the following year. Hoards dating to the Viking occupation of London in 871/2 have been excavated at Croydon, Gravesend and Waterloo Bridge. These finds hint at the cost involved in making peace with the Vikings. For the next five years the Danes occupied other parts of England. In 876 under their new leader, Guthrum, the Danes slipped past the Saxon army and attacked and occupied Wareham in Dorset. Alfred blockaded them but was unable to take Wareham by assault. He negotiated a peace which involved an exchange of hostages and oaths, which the Danes swore on a "holy ring" associated with the worship of Thor. The Danes broke their word and after killing all the hostages, slipped away under cover of night to Exeter in Devon. Alfred blockaded the Viking ships in Devon and with a relief fleet having been scattered by a storm, the Danes were forced to submit. The Danes withdrew to Mercia. In January 878 the Danes made a sudden attack on Chippenham, a royal stronghold in which Alfred had been staying over Christmas "and most of the people they killed, except the K --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thehistoryexpress/support
Dan Cruickshank explores the mysteries and secrets of the bridges that have made London what it is. He uncovers stories of Bronze-Age relics emerging from the Vauxhall shore, of why London Bridge was falling down, of midnight corpses splashing beneath Waterloo Bridge, and above all, of the sublime ambition of London's bridge builders themselves. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thehistoryexpress/support
Markov, a prolific novelist and playwright in Bulgaria was assassinated in 1978 while crossing the Waterloo Bridge in London. Join us this week as Courtney discusses the circumstances surrounding the assassination and the unique method that was used to ultimately end his life. Interested in helping us out? Check out our Patreon page: https://patreon.com/twospookybroads Listen on Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/twospookybroads/two-spooky-broads
**Content Warning**This episode contains discussion of a suicidal crisis and suicidal ideation.Jonny Benjamin MBE is a writer, filmmaker, public speaker, and award-winning mental health campaigner. Since starting his YouTube channel in 2010, Jonny has gone on to make documentaries for BBC Three and Channel 4 and write a book about the time he was prevented from attempting suicide in 2008 by a passerby. He is passionate about improving mental health education and this year launched a charity called Beyond Shame, Beyond Stigma with Neil Laybourn, the man who saved his life on Waterloo Bridge, which delivers talks and workshops to young people and their families and educators.Among many things Jonny and Simon discussed: Stigma, and the impact of growing up a gay man with a mental illness in a Jewish communityWhy we need to listen to young people about mental health, our attitudes to social media, and the need to connect with each other moreThe challenges of busy modern life and how to properly slow downHow giving each other hope can save livesJonny's new book, The Book of Hope, will be published in 2020.We'd love to know what you think! If you could take a moment to rate and review wherever you get your podcasts we would very much appreciate your feedback. You can do this on most platforms including:Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle PodcastsStitcherTuneInDon't forget to get involved on social media using #JACPodcast!More on Jonny:Beyond Shame, Beyond Stigma: beyondshamebeyondstigma.co.ukThe Stranger on the Bridge: amazon.co.uk/Stranger-Bridge-Journey-Despair-Hope/dp/1509846425Jonny's YouTube channel: youtube.com/user/johnjusthumanMore on Simon: twitter.com/SimonablakeSimon Blake OBE is the Chief Executive of Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England. His mission is to improve the mental health of the nation and help build an inclusive and society where attitudes and behaviours around mental health are normalised. Simon received an OBE in 2011, is Deputy Chair at Stonewall, and enjoys running, equestrian eventing, and walks with his dog.More on #JACPodcast:MHFA England: mhfaengland.orgEmail: media@mhfaengland.org
Leah and I discuss four movie damsels in distress. No, none were tied to railroad tracks, but they were damsels none the less. Poor Paula, played by Ingrid Bergman is having some major trouble with her mysterious dreamboat in Gaslight. Next we discuss Mary, played by Loretta Young, who's new husband may be a NAHHHHHHtttzee (that's how Loretta pronounces Nazi. Orson Welles plays the dastardly fiend. Will Nazi hunter Edward G Robinson save the day..The ending is absolutely ridiculous. Our next Damsel is Mae Clark as Myra in the 1931 version of Waterloo Bridge. Myra worked in shows during WW1 but her show closes and she finds nothing else so she becomes a prostitute. One night during an air raid she meets a nice American guy that came to Europe to fight in the war, He buys some fish and chips and Myra brings him home. Its all above board and Douglass Montgomery, who plays Roy is so sweet and adorable, falls in love with Myra. He has no clue that she is a member of the worlds oldest profession. Eventually he finds out what Myra is but asks her to marry him. Myra has fallen in love, but she knows its not to be.She is not being terrorized by a man, but the war. Look for a young Bette Davis in a very small role as Roy's sister. I like this version and also the 1940 version. Our final damsel is Barbara Stanwyck in Sorry Wrong Number. Barbara plays Leona Stevenson, a spoiled rich girl/woman that falls for Burt Lancaster, as Henry Stevenson. Leona gets attacks when something doesn't go her way. She believes she has heart trouble. She ends up staying in bed. Leona hears two men talking about a murder and tries to get the police to help. They are sure, lady. We go through Leona's very bad day, with plenty of flashbacks. Yes, Leona was not a nice person but she was still a damsel. There are total spoilers so if you've never seen these films be warned.. Thanks so much to Leah. I love her perspective on the films and damsels. Thanks mostly to the listeners, you are so great.. Grace Leah's fun blog www.carygrantwonteatyou.com www.truestoriesoftinseltown.com www.truestoriesoftinseltown.podbean.com https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-stories-of-tinseltown/id1363744889 You can also listen on spotify, Spreaker, you tube and anywhere podcasts are posted. Please follow me on my Facebook page. I post new content daily (mostly) www.facebook.com/truestoriesoftinseltown I'm on Tumblr and Pinterest. I'll be starting up my instagram.
**Quite a lot of clipping on this interview so had to edit out most of the original interview-apologies. Will be sorted for series two.** Jonny first came to the public’s attention in 2014 when he launched a campaign to find the stranger, who six years previously had talked him down from the edge of Waterloo Bridge, as he was about to take his own life. The campaign to find the good samartian soon went viral and a few weeks later Jonny was reunited with the man who saved his life, Neil Laybourn. A documentary which followed Jonny’s search and reunion with Neil was aired on Channel Four the following year. Jonny is now a mental health campaigner, public speaker, documentary maker and vlogger. He was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List in 2017 and has set up his own charity Beyond Shame, Beyond Stigma. He is also an author and his incredible first book The Stranger on the Bridge was released last year and included a foreword from none other than the Duke of Cambridge himself Prince William (link below). When I met up with Jonny we chatted about; the shame he felt over his sexuality and how this struggle really impacted on his mental health how he came out to his parents and family the worrying mental health statistics for the community why we need more LGBTQ+ allies and our shared admiration for the Queen of Pop herself, Madonna. Links To buy Jonny’s book ‘Stranger on the Bridge’- https://amzn.to/3336rrK Twitter & Facebook @mrjonnybenjamin Jonny’s charity https://beyondshamebeyondstigma.co.uk
In 1744, in the grand surroundings of London’s Royal Opera House, a musical scandal occurred. During the austere Christian season of Lent, George Frederick Handel (composer of Messiah, The Water Music, and Zadok the Priest) premiered his new opera Semele. Drawing on ancient writings by Ovid and more recent ones by playwright William Congreve, Handel’s ‘musical drama’ Semele broke the rules, social and musical – with the story of a disastrous love affair between the mortal Princess Semele and Jupiter, King of the Gods. Sir John Eliot Gardiner is one of the world’s leading musicians specialising in the ‘restoration’ of early music. With a peerless 50-year track record, he strives to recreate the sounds that composers like Handel and JS Bach would have imagined and heard. His approach combines musicology, scholarship, and an uncompromising passion for the music: rather like a picture restorer, he painstakingly strips away the layers of musical varnish and tarnish that have accumulated over generations, to present the music afresh, as its composers intended. Composer and musician Lloyd Coleman follows John Eliot Gardiner’s work to prepare a brand new 2019 production of Semele. Visiting rehearsals just across London’s Waterloo Bridge from where Semele was first heard 275 years ago, Lloyd talks to John Eliot Gardiner about his philosophy and strategies, and asks some of Gardiner’s many colleagues about how they collaborate with him to realise this ambitious and thrilling project.
Welcome back, listeners! In our 10th episode of ItAllVeganWithFriends we (Jay, Olivia, Becks and Sam) are joined by Nat, a protestor with Extinction Rebellion who spent some time on Waterloo Bridge throughout the recent London protests. We will share with you Nat's experience of actually taking part in the protests, our thoughts on whether Extinction Rebellion were right to take over our streets, how the media doesn't always show us the whole truth and why it might be difficult for people to know what to believe. We ask the questions: Who are Extinction Rebellion? What do they want? Should we be part of the movement and how can we get involved? Is protesting accessible for everyone and if not what can we do to make a difference. Does the Vegan movement share similar beliefs to the movement of Extinction Rebellion and can we support one without the other? **"You are never too small to make a difference... Change is coming wether you like it or not"** **Greta Thunberg**
When Extinction Rebellion took over Oxford Circus and Waterloo Bridge, they were doing so in the clean air of London's Ultra Low Emission Zone. And for that, they have Anna Heslop and the work of ClientEarth to thank. You see, while some take direct action in pursuit of preserving our small blue dot, others (like Anna) use the law – working with lawmakers, governments and manufacturers to help protect and improve the environment. Anna clearly loves her job, and she goes about it with a dedication and passion we should all be thankful for. You may have already seen her on TV, or heard her on the Today Programme. Now's your chance to get to know her a little better. Listen in as she talks to our Kevin about everything from Brexit, to a surprising lack of thank you letters from bison. Find out more at tr.com/TheHearing
Soldiers are equipped with helmets, rifles, and uniforms to fight in the trenches in James Whale's picture set during WWI in London. Sass mouth dames such as Mae Clarke's Myra have lipstick, a cloche hat, and an ermine stole to survive the blackouts and shortages. Myra keeps her chin up when a string of bad breaks wear a groove into her tiny attic flat. When she meets an innocent recruit, does she dare hope for a fresh start? Mae Clarke's life story is more dramatic than the plots of her pictures. After the crushing demand of dual studio contracts left her physically and emotionally shattered, she was confined to an asylum against her will, and financially ruined by shady doctors. Mae was a ride or die performer who deserves a greater legacy.
Paris had to watch in horror as fire erupted from the magnificent Notre Dame Cathedral on Monday evening....................It was here that a Mass was held after the liberation of Paris, on August 26, 1944, in what may be the single most important moment in French contemporary history. Naturally, the cathedral is a Unesco World Heritage Site. Paris itself was born on an island whose center is occupied by Notre-Dame, and it grew out from there. FOUR people in Chiclana de la Frontera (Cadiz) were charged with removing a workman’s clothing to conceal a work-related accident. The 42-year-old forklift driver, who was married with two children, had no social security and was not trained to operate heavy machinery. IBERIA bumped a 15-year-old off a Madrid flight and expected him to spend the night alone in a Dublin hotel. Upset when he was told he could only fly the next morning via Heathrow he called language school owner, Liz Einstein, who is hosting him in Ireland. GLOBAL wine production has hit a 15-year high after a dramatic slump last year. Wine output across the world saw year-on-year growth of 17 per cent in 2018 according to a report by the International Organisation for Vine and Wine (OIV). A CHARITY road rally from the UK to Spain is due to hit the road on April 23 and organisers say how much people spend on their chosen chariot is up to them but the cheaper and wackier the better! The Brexit Party has surged into the lead in the race for the European Elections after a top pollster predicted Nigel Farage's new party could win its first election. Commuters and businesses are raging at the major disruption to at least 500,000 people as a boat continues to block Oxford Circus, activists dance on Waterloo Bridge and rows of tents cover key routes through the capital. Jeremy Corbyn vowed to axe Sats tests insisting children should be prepared for 'life not just for exams'. In a promise that has delighted left-wing teachers' unions, the Labour leader insisted if elected he would scrap the 'regime of extreme pressure testing'.
Paris had to watch in horror as fire erupted from the magnificent Notre Dame Cathedral on Monday evening....................It was here that a Mass was held after the liberation of Paris, on August 26, 1944, in what may be the single most important moment in French contemporary history. Naturally, the cathedral is a Unesco World Heritage Site. Paris itself was born on an island whose center is occupied by Notre-Dame, and it grew out from there. FOUR people in Chiclana de la Frontera (Cadiz) were charged with removing a workman’s clothing to conceal a work-related accident. The 42-year-old forklift driver, who was married with two children, had no social security and was not trained to operate heavy machinery. IBERIA bumped a 15-year-old off a Madrid flight and expected him to spend the night alone in a Dublin hotel. Upset when he was told he could only fly the next morning via Heathrow he called language school owner, Liz Einstein, who is hosting him in Ireland. GLOBAL wine production has hit a 15-year high after a dramatic slump last year. Wine output across the world saw year-on-year growth of 17 per cent in 2018 according to a report by the International Organisation for Vine and Wine (OIV). A CHARITY road rally from the UK to Spain is due to hit the road on April 23 and organisers say how much people spend on their chosen chariot is up to them but the cheaper and wackier the better! The Brexit Party has surged into the lead in the race for the European Elections after a top pollster predicted Nigel Farage's new party could win its first election. Commuters and businesses are raging at the major disruption to at least 500,000 people as a boat continues to block Oxford Circus, activists dance on Waterloo Bridge and rows of tents cover key routes through the capital. Jeremy Corbyn vowed to axe Sats tests insisting children should be prepared for 'life not just for exams'. In a promise that has delighted left-wing teachers' unions, the Labour leader insisted if elected he would scrap the 'regime of extreme pressure testing'.
On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Richard Wolff, a professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, founder of the organization Democracy at Work, and his latest book is “Capitalism's Crisis Deepens: Essays on the Global Economic Meltdown.”The audience at a Fox News Town Hall meeting in Pennsylvania with Bernie Sanders erupted in cheers and applause when the host asked the crowd if it supported Medicare for all, a signature Sanders campaign issue. The raucous response was despite the fact that the White House condemned the bill, with Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders calling it “a socialist takeover of healthcare.” Sanders’ strong showing is being interpreted as evidence that he could win in states where Trump prevailed in 2016. An indictment against Julian Assange in the Eastern District of Virginia was unsealed on Thursday, and the criminal complaint was released today, adding detail to the case against the Wikileaks co-founder. But even with the new detail, the government’s case is weak and limited and still accuses Assange only of a minor charge of conspiracy to access a government computer without authorization. Joe Lauria, the editor-in-chief of Consortium News, founded by the late Robert Parry, and author of the book "How I Lost, By Hillary Clinton," joins the show. London police last night arrested more than 100 climate activists who had blocked Waterloo Bridge in central London to protest the government’s failure to address climate change. As soon as police completed the arrests, more protestors arrived and either chained or glued themselves to the bridge. The protests are part of a global campaign called Extinction Rebellion, with demonstrations taking place in 80 cities across 33 countries. Brian and John speak with Antony Loewenstein, an independent journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the Guardian, and the author of many books, including “Disaster Capitalism.” Huge demonstrations demanding “freedom, peace and justice” are continuing as the revolt that toppled Sudan’s long-time leader Omar al-Bashir are continuing. In the aftermath of last week’s military takeover in Sudan, the African Union has given the country’s military leadership 15 days to revert to civilian rule or face expulsion. Military leaders and opposition parties and civil society groups are currently in negotiations. Nisrin Elamin, a Sudanese PhD student at Stanford and an activist in the Sudanese diaspora, joins the show. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo recently wrapped up a tour of countries with right wing governments in Latin America to build support for the U.S.-backed push to overthrow the government of President Nicolas Maduro. Pompeo also prompted a strong response from China when he said that the country’s support for Venezuela is causing the disintegration of that country and chaos in Latin America. Chuck Kaufman, the National Co-Coordinator of the Alliance for Global Justice, joins Brian and John. Tuesday’s weekly series is False Profits—A Weekly Look at Wall Street and Corporate Capitalism with Daniel Sankey. Brian and John speak with financial policy analyst Daniel Sankey.Today’s regular segment that airs every Tuesday is called Women & Society with Dr. Hannah Dickinson. This weekly segment is about the major issues, challenges, and struggles facing women in all aspects of society. Hannah Dickinson, an associate professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and an organizer with the Geneva Women’s Assembly, and Loud & Clear producer Nicole Roussell join the show.
This week on How To Fail With Elizabeth Day, my guest is the brilliant Sharmaine Lovegrove. Sharmaine is a champion of stories. As a publisher, she heads up her own imprint, Dialogue Books, at Little, Brown and has been instrumental in bringing more diverse voices into print. But Sharmaine is also one of the most dynamic and inspiring women I've ever had the privilege of meeting. This is a woman who survived a challenging childhood and ended up living on the streets while studying for her A-Levels. This is a woman who, through sheer force of will, began selling second-hand books under the arches of Waterloo Bridge before rising through the ranks to head up her own publishing imprint. This is a woman who, despite the myriad obstacles she faced along the way, set up the first English language bookshop in Berlin and became literary editor of Elle magazine. This is a woman who says, quite candidly, that books saved her life. We talk about failure to be a child, failure to conform and failure to be a perfectionist (and I discover you can Deliveroo pizza to a park. MIND. BLOWN.) You might not have heard of Sharmaine before this podcast episode, but after listening to her story, you will quite possibly become her biggest fan. How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Chris Sharp and sponsored by 4th Estate Books The book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day is available to pre-order here. Be sure to check out the forthcoming titles from Dialogue Books ! Social Media: Elizabeth Day @elizabday Sharmaine Lovegrove: @sharlove Dialogue Books @dialoguebooks Chris Sharp @chrissharpaudio 4th Estate Books @4thEstateBooks
"The Edge of Waterloo Bridge", written by Jonny Benjamin MBE. https://jonnybenjamin.co.uk/ Read by Anthony Townsend. https://soundcloud.com/kiwi-fruit Produced by SNS Online. SNS Online's interview with Jonny. https://soundcloud.com/scratchnsniff-rte-pulse/sns-online-series-6-jonny-benjamin-mbe From "The Stranger on the Bridge", written by Jonny Benjamin MBE. https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/jonny-benjamin/the-stranger-on-the-bridge/9781509846429
We speak to Jonny Benjamin MBE, a prolific mental health campaigner who was close to taking his own life on Waterloo Bridge in 2008, until a stranger - Neil Laybourn - talked him around. It's an incredibly powerful and heartwarming story, which Jonny and Neil now share around the globe to help promote good mental health. Released during Children's Mental Health Week and #TimeToTalkDay - 07.02.19. Fully illustrated. Includes The Soundtrack of Your Life. Poetry read by Anthony Townsend. https://soundcloud.com/kiwi-fruit "The Edge of Waterloo Bridge" https://soundcloud.com/scratchnsniff-rte-pulse/sns-online-series-6-the-edge-of-waterloo-bridge The Samaritans (UK 24 hour telephone) - 116 123 Jonny's Website https://jonnybenjamin.co.uk/ Charity: Beyond Shame, Beyond Stigma https://beyondshamebeyondstigma.co.uk/ A donation has been made to Beyond Shame, Beyond Stigma. SNS Online continues to offer an eclectic range of quality programming - free to download - to all like-minded people out there in cyber-space. These shows are independent podcasts produced to the highest professional standards and are non-profit making. So please enjoy, download and share these shows on all your lovely social media - as essentially that is our advertising! And please, please, please...offer feedback on the 'SNS Online' FB page or Twitter (ScratchNTweet). Other shows currently in preparation... Mickey Fisher - TV script writer/showrunner for Amblin Dame Esther Rantzen - consumer rights goddess Brad Wolfe - musician Lynda La Plante CBE - TV script writer/novelist Michael Armstrong - musician
Ok, so full disclosure: I cried during this interview. You will quite possibly cry too. You will quite possibly need a box of tissues next to you as you listen. And you will quite possibly leave feeling enlightened and uplifted by the magical, gorgeous man that is Jonny Benjamin, MBE. Jonny is a mental health campaigner and someone with a truly extraordinary story to tell. In 2008, Jonny was 20 and standing on the edge of Waterloo Bridge about to jump. A passing stranger noticed his distress and stopped to talk to him. It was a momentary decision that saved Jonny’s life. We talk about his journey to track that stranger down and about what Jonny has learned about himself along the way. We also talk about Jonny's diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder and his experiences of living with 'The Truman delusion' (so-called because the person believes that their lives are staged reality shows being filmed on camera). We talk about mental health in the workplace and being open about our fallibilities. I am so grateful that Jonny also chose to talk about Irritable Bowel Syndrome and the realities of living with that when you're just trying to get on with life (it makes dating a bit of a nightmare and a lot of people don't really understand what it means). Along the way we chat about Amy Winehouse, feeling left behind in your 20s, the importance of self-compassion and why love isn't ever conditional on whether you succeed or not. I hope you are moved as much as I was by this episode. Also if anyone has any single gay men wanting a set-up with an incredibly handsome, funny and sensitive individual then feel free to DM us - details below ;) How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Chris Sharp and sponsored by 4th Estate Books The Stranger on the Bridge by Jonny Benjamin is out now published by Pan Macmillan. Beyond Shame, Beyond Stigma is a new mental health charity for young people co-founded by Jonny. You can learn more about the WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Plan) by visiting the Rethink website. If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this podcast, you can call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit their website. Social Media: Elizabeth Day @elizabday Jonny Benjamin @mrjonnybenjamin Chris Sharp @chrissharpaudio 4th Estate Books @4thEstateBooks
Jonny Benjamin tells Katie how he was talked down from a suicide attempt on Waterloo Bridge, and how he and the stranger who helped him now dedicate their lives to helping others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jonny Benjamin tells Katie how he was talked down from a suicide attempt on Waterloo Bridge, and how he and the stranger who helped him now dedicate their lives to helping others. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
On a bitter cold winter morning, you’re walking across Waterloo Bridge—on your way to work. As you reach the midway point over the grey, fast flowing Thames, something unusual catches your eye. You notice the figure of what appears to be a young man holding onto the railings…on the wrong side. Hundreds of busy commuters pretend not to see what’s right in front of their eyes. Some know what is going on, but don’t know what to do, or internally question whether to get involved or not. One man stops to see to see if he can help. This is the story of “Stranger on The Bridge”—of how two totally unconnected worlds collided and changed both forever. “Looking back it’s strange, I almost believed it was –it didn’t feel like me that was causing this disruption. It felt like it was this toy that was in control, but again I guess at that age I couldn’t articulate what was going on.” Jonny first went to a psychologist at the age of 5. While hard to express his emotions and reasoning at that age, he was acting out and being destructive. He was irritable, couldn’t sleep, and becoming violent. What he couldn’t express was that he was seeing things that weren’t there. This theme of shielding his family and friends from what was tormenting him ran through his early years all the way through Uni. Jonny constantly felt like something was off and bore into his studies as an escape—finding a particular interest in drama. [10:34] Things started to come to a head when Jonny was 17. He’d given into a delusion that he was in a “Truman Show” type situation where he was being watched all the time. Coincidences seemed preordained, planned, and he liked it—if he was being watched then it must mean that everyone liked him. But after a friend vocalized concern he went to see a doctor and was put on a waiting list for a specialist. After time though, Jonny gave up waiting and headed off to uni where he hoped his problems would solve themselves. [18:00] While his studies in drama continued to be a godsend and escape, outside of his studies his life was crumbling. It started with self-harm and abusing alcohol and getting into a minor car accident that threw him into a temporary psychosis. Jonny was scared, and to complicate things further he was beginning to struggle with his sexuality as well. He ended up going to group therapy and finally his secret was out, his family was clued into his mental struggles. Jonny felt like he’d betrayed them. “This might sound awful, but there was a kind of relief in making that decision—because I thought finally, there’s a way out.” [26:40] It is at this point that we arrive at the poem Jonny reads at the beginning of our interview. On a freezing cold day in January, he ran to the Waterloo bridge—as he’d planned the night before, deciding to end his life. He’d been in the hospital for a month where his family visited every day, and he felt like this was doing them a favour, taking the burden of himself off their shoulders. But it was on the bridge the stranger came. Calm, empathetic, and very, very human compared to the sterile clipboard environment of the hospital. This stranger was invested in Jonny when he didn’t have to be, and it ended up saving Jonny’s life. [37:52] Jonny’s recovery took years, taking a large chunk out of his early twenties. He finished uni but at that point his heart was no longer in his studies. Still finding it difficult to talk about his experience directly, he started talking to the camera and uploading his thoughts online. He started getting an outpour of responses, others that felt so alone and confused in the world. Jonny’s story just got larger and larger and ended up in the #Find Mike campaign—a push for Jonny to find the man who talked to him on the bridge 6 years after it happened. Now Jonny is an award winning mental health campaigner who has spread his reach across film, writing, and the internet at large.... Support this podcast
The second episode of our new series explores a very emotionally challenging and difficult subject as Neil interviews Jonny Benjamin. When Jonny found himself on the edge of Waterloo Bridge, ready to jump and end his own life, a complete stranger, instead of walking past and ignoring him as many hundreds of people had already done, chose to engage him in conversation; a chat that quite literally saved his life. Listen to Jonny discussing his journey, how he is now actively campaigning for Mental Health and his thoughts on how we can destigimatise this delicate subject. Please visit: https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/jonny-benjamin/the-stranger-on-the-bridge/9781509846429 for more information on where to buy Jonny's book!
Georgi Markov falls victim to a poisoned umbrella on this episode of This Day In History! On this episode of This Day In History, Tony and Armand recall the assassination of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov with a poisoned umbrella. In 1978, Georgi Markov was walking across Waterloo Bridge in London when Bulgarian secret police agent... The post September 7th – The Poisoned Umbrella Assassination of Georgi Markov appeared first on This Day In History.
The full-length interview with Jonny Benjamin from Episode 1: What Is Anxiety? In 2008, Jonny Benjamin arrived at Waterloo Bridge to take his own life. Incredibly, a passer-by was able to connect with Jonny, enabling him to continue his life today. Jonny shares the full story with HFM and we learn how important the dialogue about mental health can be. He expands on this and the work he is doing to promote a better understanding of mental health in his memoir The Stranger on the Bridge. You can purchase Jonny's book The Stranger on the Bridge here. Written and directed by Tom Rowley and Andy GreeningAudio engineered and edited by Andy GreeningPodcast artwork by Matt FordMusic by ArtlistHealthy For Men theme song by Premium Beats This episode is in partnership with Bounce Foods Healthy For Men Podumentary is by Healthy For Men magazine which is published by River Group Content Limited 2018
This episode is sponsored by The Great Courses Plus. Get a FREE month of unlimited access to over 10,000 lectures presented by engaging, award-winning experts on everything from art to physics, interior design and world languages. Sign up today at thegreatcoursesplus.com/ART. In 19th century England, landscape painting transitioned into being something lovely and comparatively calm, and transformed into a personal and stylistic battleground. Landscape: pristine and idealized, or rough, ready, and turbulent? Which one would better express the heart of 19th century British painting? Please SUBSCRIBE and REVIEW our show on Apple Podcasts! Twitter / Facebook/ Instagram Episode Credits This is the second of three episodes in collaboration with Sartle. Sartle encourages you to see art history differently, and they have a plethora of incredibly fun and informative videos, blog posts, and articles on their website. Production and Editing by Kaboonki. Theme music by Alex Davis. Social media assistance by Emily Crockett. ArtCurious is sponsored by Anchorlight, an interdisciplinary creative space, founded with the intent of fostering artists, designers, and craftspeople at varying stages of their development. Home to artist studios, residency opportunities, and exhibition space Anchorlight encourages mentorship and the cross-pollination of skills among creatives in the Triangle. Additional music credits "Western Tanager" by Chad Crouch is licensed under BY-NC 3.0; "Not the end" by Alan Špiljak is licensed under BY-NC-ND 4.0; "More Than Friendship - Geglaettet (ID 814)" by Lobo Loco is licensed under BY-NC-ND 4.0; "Fuzzy Lines" by Yan Terrian is licensed under BY-SA 4.0; "Full of Stars" by Philipp Weigl is licensed under BY 4.0; "Phase 1" by Xylo-Ziko is licensed under BY-NC-SA 4.0; "Whimsical Theme #2" by David Hilowitz is licensed under BY-NC 4.0; Ad Music: "Repeater Station - Observation (ID 204)" by Lobo Loco is licensed under BY-NC-ND 4.0; "Electric Silence" by Unheard Music Concepts is licensed under BY 4.0 Links and further resources Memoirs of the Life of John Constable, C.R. Leslie John Constable: A Kingdom of His Own, Anthony Bailey The Life of J.M.W. Turner, Volume 2, Walter Thornbury Turner: The Extraordinary Life and Momentous Times of JMW Turner, Franny Moyle Standing in the Sun: A Life of JMW Turner, Anthony Bailey The Daily Mail: "Why Britain's Two Greatest Painters Hated Each Other's Guts: And now Turner and Constable Are Going Toe-to-Toe Once More" The Telegraph: "JMW Turner's Feud with John Constable Unveiled at Tate Britain" Joseph Mallord William Turner, Self-Portrait, c. 1799 John Constable, Self-Portrait, c. 1799-1804 John Constable, The Hay Wain, 1821 JMW Turner, Rain, Steam and Speed, 1844 John Constable, The Opening of Waterloo Bridge, 1832 JMW Turner, Helvoetsluys, 1832 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
When does anxiety become a disorder? From the world of pro-wrestling, to the tribal people of Borneo, to an incredible incident on London Bridge, this HFM Podumentary explores the modern mental health epidemic like never before. We discover innovative ways to tackle anxiety disorders, and learn the difference between a healthy reaction to our environment, and a psychiatric diagnosis. Ex-commando Bruce Parry is an award-winning filmmaker and ambassador for Head Talks (Headtalks.com). Whilst making his film Tawai, Bruce lived with a tribe in Borneo called the Penan, who are one of the last true egalitarian societies on the planet. Bruce shares what he learnt from this tribe about mental health, and how we can better our living conditions to accommodate positive mental wellbeing. In 2008, Jonny Benjamin arrived at Waterloo Bridge to take his own life. Incredibly, a passer-by was able to connect with Jonny, enabling him to continue his life today. Jonny shares the full story with HFM and we learn how important the dialogue about mental health can be. He expands on this and the work he is doing to promote a better understanding of mental health in his memoir The Stranger on the Bridge We speak with a psychiatrist, a hypnotist, a sophrologist, and a life coach to understand how to overcome anxiety, and how to use it as a tool. Special thanks to all the guest involved: Alex Cupid, Tim Grimwade, Professor George Fieldman, Nicola Oldcroft, Nat Hawley, Tom Sellick, Dominique Antiglio, Michael Serwa, Bruce Parry and Jonny Benjamin. Written and directed by Tom Rowley and Andy GreeningAudio engineered and edited by Andy GreeningPodcast artwork by Matt FordMusic by ArtlistHealthy For Men theme song by Premium Beats This episode is in partnership with Bounce Foods Healthy For Men Podumentary is by Healthy For Men magazine which is published by River Group Content Limited 2018
Mental Health Campaigner Ten years ago, Jonny Benjamin was at a low point. He was talked out of a suicide attempt on Waterloo Bridge. His quest to find the man who rescued him, Neil Laybourn, became famous. Jonny’s now written a book about his story, his illness and his progress towards recovery. Jonny talks to us about how far he has come on his journey and the help he’d like to see for others with mental health problems in the future.
On the 11th of September 1978, Bulgarian born Georgi Markov was waiting for a bus on Waterloo Bridge in London. He was on his way to work for a normal run of the mill day. The day did not turn out the way in which he had expected. That day on the bridge, Georgi was poisoned with what turned out to be an umbrella. This crime was baffling and investigators struggled to figure out what had happened. Had Georgi been killed for his brave decision to speak out about the conditions in his own country? Important information provided by: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/06/poisoned-umbrellas-and-polonium-russian-linked-uk-deathshttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2297854/Did-man-kill-Cold-War-spy-Georgi-Markov-umbrella-35-years-prime-suspect-revealed-ex-Communist-agent-working-antiques-dealer-Austria.htmlhttps://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/928368/Georgi-Markov-Bulgarian-dissident-poisoned-umbrellahttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9949856/Prime-suspect-in-Georgi-Markov-umbrella-poison-murder-tracked-down-to-Austria.htmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/magazine-37376130/the-bbc-journalist-assassinated-with-a-poison-tipped-umbrella
Let The Sunshine In, directed by Claire Denis is a French film starring Juliette Binoche as a divorced Parisienne dealing with love and looking for a relationship that will work for her The latest West End jukebox musical Tina is about the tumultuous life of Tina Turner and her transformation from Anna Mae Bullock - born into rural poverty in the Southern USA - into half of Ike-and-Tina-Turner and a disastrous violent marriage into a world-conquering solo superstar Aminatta Forna's new novel Happiness follows the story of two strangers who bump into each other on Waterloo Bridge in London and their intertwining narratives. An urban wildlife expert and a psychiatrist specialising in PTSD share a lot in common Marina Amaral is a photograph colourisation expert and her work is much admired. She has colourised photographs of prisoners at Auschwitz and gained plaudits from the general public and survivors groups but does altering a historical document change our understanding of its meaning? BBC TV's latest Sunday night series is an adaptation of Wilkie Collins' The Woman In White Tom Sutcliffe's guests are David Olusoga, Shahidha Bari and Maev Kennedy. The producer is Oliver Jones.
In this episode the Director's Club takes a look at the films of James Whale (with the help of Fresh Perspective's Jeff Broitman). Whale's innovations in camera movement and special effects, set of quirky character actors in supporting roles, and appreciation of the outsiders in society was put to good use in musicals, war films, and courtroom dramas, but never better than when he was making some of the most iconic horror movies in history! 00:00 Pre-film history, "Journey's End" 11:21 "Waterloo Bridge", ("Under the Bridge", Red Hot Chili Peppers 21:18 "Frankenstein", "Impatient Maiden" ("Frankenstein", The Edgar Winter Group) 48:23 "The Old Dark House", "The Kiss Before the Mirror" ("Our House", Madness) 1:11:40 "The Invisible Man" ("I'm Not There", Bob Dylan) 1:29:38 "One More River" ("Find a River", R.E.M.) 1:39:04 "Bride of Frankenstein" ("Be My Wife", David Bowie) 2:09:09 "Remember Last Night?", "The Road Back" ("Dire Wolf" The Grateful Dead) 2:17:41 "Show Boat", "The Road Back" ("Old Man River", Paul Robeson)
Emma Keith, producer of the National Theatre Live series of theatrical broadcasts, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, talks about the latest broadcast, the National Theatre in London revival of Stephen Sondheim's 1971 musical, “Follies.” The producer of the series since 2016, she discusses what is required to put on this kind of international live broadcast, some of the technical issues involved, and how the National brings in a younger audience. The Royal National Theatre is the English equivalent of New York's Public Theatre, or perhaps Lincoln Center, supported to a great degree by the government's National Arts Council, and is in that sense a model of how government can support the arts. Founded in 1963 with Sir Laurence Olivier as its first director, the National now encompasses three theaters on its side near Waterloo Bridge in London. “Follies” airs on November 16, 2017 with encore presentations following. To find out more, National Theatre Live website The post Interview: Emma Keith, National Theatre Live: Sondheim's “Follies” appeared first on KPFA.
Top 4 Most Mysterious Assassinations Assassination – Whenever we hear this word, we often think of someone famous being killed like President Lincoln or Kennedy. But there are other assassinations, some you may not know lying just beyond the limelight that have equally baffled people as to why and how they happened. These are the top 4 most mysterious assassinations. 4. Max Spiers – UFO Hunter Max Spiers isn't a household name but to the many UFO hunters and conspiracy theorists out there, he's a well-known figure. Max was a 39-year old father of two who was originally from Canterbury, England. He went on to live in America for several years before moving back to his home country. Spiers was known for a blog he wrote called "Where Truth Meets Heart" where he posted his ideas and thoughts. His primary focus included investigating various UFO sightings and cover-ups conducted by the government. Before his death, he was looking into the lives of well-known political figures in both entertainment and business. 3. Georgi Markov Born on March 1st, 1929, Georgi Markov was a controversial dissident and writer who defected from Bulgaria during its Communist period. After defecting, Markov worked as a journalist under the BBC World Service, a US funded company where he highly criticized the Bulgarian regime. While living in London, Markov was able to release various plays successfully while also working on his weekly show, where he analyzed life under Communist Bulgaria. In these shows, he was particularly critical of party leader Todo Zhivkov. Suffice it to say, this did not gain him any friends. On September 7, 1978, Markov was walking across Waterloo Bridge which spans the River Thames. He stopped and waited for the bus that he took to work each day. While waiting, he felt a sharp sting on one of his legs as if a bug had bit him. When he turned around, he saw a man pick up an umbrella and hurriedly head to the side street where he got into a cab. Markov headed to work and examined his leg and told at least one of his colleagues of what had happened. 2. 18 Witnesses to the JFK Assassination While the assassination of President JFK himself is among the top stories when it comes to mysterious assassinations, what's even more mysterious is that in just three years after the death of the President, 18 witnesses to the event died. Six of these people were killed with gunfire; three in car accidents, two people from suicide, one was killed by having their throat slashed while another was killed by a karate chop to the neck. Two others died from natural causes and three suffered heart attacks. With 200 people actual close enough to witness the event, the likelihood of having 18 of them die within these three years is highly unlikely. Some of the victims were part of the Warren investigation. The very first person to die linked as a witness was 23-year old Kathryn Kupcinet, the daughter of journalist, Irv Kupcinet. Days before the event, Kathryn placed a call to the Los Angeles police department and she was screaming at the operator that "President Kennedy was going to be killed." Her body was found on November 30, 1963. She was found strangled to death and police found no leads. 1. Alberto Behar and 74 NASA Scientists On January 12, 2015, a small plane crash-landed on the streets of Los Angeles shortly after taking off. Operating the plane was Alberto Behar, a NASA scientist working in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as well as at Arizona State University. Behar was among the scientists who were the first to discover that water once existed on Mars. Normally, a scientists' death is no cause for suspicion or alarm. But Behar's death marked the 74th case of a prominent scientist dying within just two years. It leads many to believe that perhaps these people knew something that perhaps they shouldn’t and that their deaths were actually executions?
Waterloo Sunset by The Kinks was released in 1967. To mark its 50th anniversary, Soul Music hears the poignant, thoughtful and life-changing memories of those who love it. Childhood holidays were an escape from bullying for John Harvey. He describes the unforgettable moment when he heard Waterloo Sunset for the first time, on the radio, in 1967. Getting to know the music of The Kinks, and finding out about the character of its lead singer, Ray Davies, shaped and coloured his life from then on. Allison Moore Adams is an American who married Vernon, a Brit. Waterloo Sunset was sung at his bedside following a terrible road accident. The painting used to illustrate this edition of Soul Music is of Vernon and Allison on Waterloo Bridge. It's by Allison's friend, Isabelle Logie, who also sang to Vernon in hospital. Christopher Young used to work in mental health. For him, the lyrics of Waterloo Sunset symbolise the isolation that many people feel. Professor Allan Moore, a musicologist, discusses why this beautiful pop song works so well. Producer: Karen Gregor.
In 1912, 24 scouts from the slums of South East London set sail from Waterloo Bridge, but in a tragic accident eight drowned. Stella Duffy discusses her new novel, London Lies Beneath, in which she recreates that area of London and imagines the lives of the families involved in the months leading up to the tragedy and beyond.With news that the £21m New Art Gallery Walsall is being threatened with closure just 16 years after it opened, Bob and Roberta Smith, former artist-in-residence, gives his response.At the age of 19, Yves Klein identified the blue sky in Nice as his first artwork. It marked the beginning of an artistic career which ended with his heart attack at the age of 34. Art critic Richard Cork reviews a new exhibition of Klein's work at Tate Liverpool.Barrie Kosky's directorial debut at the Royal Opera House is Shostakovich's The Nose, based on a satirical story by Gogol, with a huge cast of singers and even more noses, all inspired, he says, by a very famous one - Barbara Streisand's.Presenter Samira Ahmed Producer Marilyn Rust.
V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmescases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many whichpresent strange and interesting features that it is no easymatter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however,have already gained publicity through the papers, and others havenot offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friendpossessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object ofthese papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled hisanalytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings withoutan ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, andhave their explanations founded rather upon conjecture andsurmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear tohim. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkablein its details and so startling in its results that I am temptedto give some account of it in spite of the fact that there arepoints in connection with it which never have been, and probablynever will be, entirely cleared up.The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greateror less interest, of which I retain the records. Among myheadings under this one twelve months I find an account of theadventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur MendicantSociety, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of afurniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of theBritish barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of theGrice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of theCamberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered,Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, toprove that it had been wound up two hours before, and thattherefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--adeduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up thecase. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none ofthem present such singular features as the strange train ofcircumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe.It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial galeshad set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind hadscreamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so thateven here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forcedto raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life andto recognise the presence of those great elemental forces whichshriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, likeuntamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grewhigher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child inthe chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of thefireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at theother was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories untilthe howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text,and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash ofthe sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for afew days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at BakerStreet."Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely thebell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?""Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encouragevisitors.""A client, then?""If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man outon such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is morelikely to be some crony of the landlady's."Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for therecame a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. Hestretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself andtowards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit."Come in!" said he.The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at theoutside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something ofrefinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrellawhich he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof toldof the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked abouthim anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that hisface was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who isweighed down with some great anxiety."I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez tohis eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I havebrought some traces of the storm and rain into your snugchamber.""Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may resthere on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up fromthe south-west, I see.""Yes, from Horsham.""That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps isquite distinctive.""I have come for advice.""That is easily got.""And help.""That is not always so easy.""I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergasthow you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal.""Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards.""He said that you could solve anything.""He said too much.""That you are never beaten.""I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by awoman.""But what is that compared with the number of your successes?""It is true that I have been generally successful.""Then you may be so with me.""I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour mewith some details as to your case.""It is no ordinary one.""None of those which come to me are. I am the last court ofappeal.""And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, youhave ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain ofevents than those which have happened in my own family.""You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us theessential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwardsquestion you as to those details which seem to me to be mostimportant."The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet outtowards the blaze."My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have,as far as I can understand, little to do with this awfulbusiness. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you anidea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of theaffair."You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Eliasand my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry,which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. Hewas a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his businessmet with such success that he was able to sell it and to retireupon a handsome competence."My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man andbecame a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have donevery well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army,and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. WhenLee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, wherehe remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he cameback to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham.He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and hisreason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and hisdislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise tothem. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, veryfoul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiringdisposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, Idoubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two orthree fields round his house, and there he would take hisexercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leavehis room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked veryheavily, but he would see no society and did not want anyfriends, not even his own brother."He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at thetime when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. Thiswould be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine yearsin England. He begged my father to let me live with him and hewas very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to befond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he wouldmake me his representative both with the servants and with thetradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quitemaster of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where Iliked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him inhis privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for hehad a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which wasinvariably locked, and which he would never permit either me oranyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peepedthrough the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such acollection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in sucha room."One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamplay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not acommon thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were allpaid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'FromIndia!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What canthis be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five littledried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began tolaugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sightof his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, hisskin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which hestill held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, andthen, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!'"'What is it, uncle?' I cried."'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to hisroom, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelopeand saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above thegum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing elsesave the five dried pips. What could be the reason of hisoverpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as Iascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key,which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a smallbrass box, like a cashbox, in the other."'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,'said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in myroom to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.'"I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked tostep up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in thegrate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burnedpaper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As Iglanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid wasprinted the treble K which I had read in the morning upon theenvelope."'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leavemy estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, tomy brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend toyou. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find youcannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliestenemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can'tsay what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paperwhere Mr. Fordham shows you.'"I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away withhim. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepestimpression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it everyway in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet Icould not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it leftbehind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passedand nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. Icould see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever,and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of histime he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon theinside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzyand would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with arevolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man,and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, byman or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he wouldrush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him,like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terrorwhich lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seenhis face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though itwere new raised from a basin."Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not toabuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of thosedrunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, whenwe went to search for him, face downward in a littlegreen-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. Therewas no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep,so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity,brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he wincedfrom the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myselfthat he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed,however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, andof some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank.""One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee,one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let mehave the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, andthe date of his supposed suicide.""The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weekslater, upon the night of May 2nd.""Thank you. Pray proceed.""When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at myrequest, made a careful examination of the attic, which had beenalways locked up. We found the brass box there, although itscontents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was apaper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath.These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which hadbeen destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there wasnothing of much importance in the attic save a great manyscattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life inAmerica. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he haddone his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier.Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southernstates, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he hadevidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bagpoliticians who had been sent down from the North."Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live atHorsham, and all went as well as possible with us until theJanuary of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard myfather give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at thebreakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly openedenvelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in theoutstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at whathe called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he lookedvery scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come uponhimself."'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered."My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I."He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here arethe very letters. But what is this written above them?'"'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over hisshoulder."'What papers? What sundial?' he asked."'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but thepapers must be those that are destroyed.'"'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in acivilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind.Where does the thing come from?'"'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark."'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to dowith sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of suchnonsense.'"'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said."'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.'"'Then let me do so?'"'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about suchnonsense.'"It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinateman. I went about, however, with a heart which was full offorebodings."On the third day after the coming of the letter my father wentfrom home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who isin command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was gladthat he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther fromdanger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was inerror. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegramfrom the major, imploring me to come at once. My father hadfallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in theneighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. Ihurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recoveredhis consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning fromFareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him,and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation inbringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.'Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, Iwas unable to find anything which could suggest the idea ofmurder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, norobbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads.And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease,and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had beenwoven round him."In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask mewhy I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was wellconvinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon anincident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be aspressing in one house as in another."It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and twoyears and eight months have elapsed since then. During that timeI have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope thatthis curse had passed away from the family, and that it had endedwith the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon,however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape inwhich it had come upon my father."The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, andturning to the table he shook out upon it five little driedorange pips."This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark isLondon--eastern division. Within are the very words which wereupon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put thepapers on the sundial.'""What have you done?" asked Holmes."Nothing.""Nothing?""To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, whitehands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poorrabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be inthe grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresightand no precautions can guard against.""Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you arelost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time fordespair.""I have seen the police.""Ah!""But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced thatthe inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are allpractical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were reallyaccidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected withthe warnings."Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredibleimbecility!" he cried."They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain inthe house with me.""Has he come with you to-night?""No. His orders were to stay in the house."Again Holmes raved in the air."Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did younot come at once?""I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to MajorPrendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come toyou.""It is really two days since you had the letter. We should haveacted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, thanthat which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail whichmight help us?""There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coatpocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tintedpaper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance,"said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers Iobserved that the small, unburned margins which lay amid theashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheetupon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that itmay be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out fromamong the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyondthe mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I thinkmyself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing isundoubtedly my uncle's."Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper,which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn froma book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were thefollowing enigmatical notices:"4th. Hudson came. Same old platform."7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and John Swain, of St. Augustine."9th. McCauley cleared."10th. John Swain cleared."12th. Visited Paramore. All well.""Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning itto our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose anotherinstant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have toldme. You must get home instantly and act.""What shall I do?""There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You mustput this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brassbox which you have described. You must also put in a note to saythat all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and thatthis is the only one which remains. You must assert that in suchwords as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, youmust at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Doyou understand?""Entirely.""Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. Ithink that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have ourweb to weave, while theirs is already woven. The firstconsideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatensyou. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish theguilty parties.""I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on hisovercoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shallcertainly do as you advise.""Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself inthe meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt thatyou are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do yougo back?""By train from Waterloo.""It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust thatyou may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself tooclosely.""I am armed.""That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case.""I shall see you at Horsham, then?""No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seekit.""Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with newsas to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in everyparticular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outsidethe wind still screamed and the rain splashed and patteredagainst the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have cometo us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheetof sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by themonce more.Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunkforward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then helit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the bluesmoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling."I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases wehave had none more fantastic than this.""Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four.""Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seemsto me to be walking amid even greater perils than did theSholtos.""But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as towhat these perils are?""There can be no question as to their nature," he answered."Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursuethis unhappy family?"Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon thearms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The idealreasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown asingle fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all thechain of events which led up to it but also all the results whichwould follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a wholeanimal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer whohas thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidentsshould be able to accurately state all the other ones, bothbefore and after. We have not yet grasped the results which thereason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the studywhich have baffled all those who have sought a solution by theaid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highestpitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able toutilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and thisin itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of allknowledge, which, even in these days of free education andencyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not soimpossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledgewhich is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I haveendeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on oneoccasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limitsin a very precise fashion.""Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document.Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, Iremember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards themud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistryeccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crimerecords unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, andself-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were themain points of my analysis."Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, asI said then, that a man should keep his little brain-atticstocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and therest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where hecan get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one whichhas been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to musterall our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you.Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may bededuced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strongpresumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason forleaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all theirhabits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida forthe lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme loveof solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear ofsomeone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesisthat it was fear of someone or something which drove him fromAmerica. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that byconsidering the formidable letters which were received by himselfand his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of thoseletters?""The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and thethird from London.""From East London. What do you deduce from that?""They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship.""Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt thatthe probability--the strong probability--is that the writer wason board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In thecase of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat andits fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days.Does that suggest anything?""A greater distance to travel.""But the letter had also a greater distance to come.""Then I do not see the point.""There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the manor men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always sendtheir singular warning or token before them when starting upontheir mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the signwhen it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in asteamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter.But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that thoseseven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat whichbrought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought thewriter.""It is possible.""More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadlyurgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw tocaution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time whichit would take the senders to travel the distance. But this onecomes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay.""Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentlesspersecution?""The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vitalimportance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I thinkthat it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them.A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a wayas to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several init, and they must have been men of resource and determination.Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may.In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of anindividual and becomes the badge of a society.""But of what society?""Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward andsinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?""I never have."Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here itis," said he presently:"'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance tothe sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secretsociety was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in theSouthern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed localbranches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee,Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power wasused for political purposes, principally for the terrorising ofthe negro voters and the murdering and driving from the countryof those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usuallypreceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantasticbut generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in someparts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving thisthe victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or mightfly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death wouldunfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange andunforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of thesociety, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly acase upon record where any man succeeded in braving it withimpunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to theperpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spiteof the efforts of the United States government and of the betterclasses of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there havebeen sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.'"You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "thatthe sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with thedisappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It maywell have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and hisfamily have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track.You can understand that this register and diary may implicatesome of the first men in the South, and that there may be manywho will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered.""Then the page we have seen--""Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sentthe pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning tothem. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, orleft the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, asinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may letsome light into this dark place, and I believe that the onlychance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I havetold him. There is nothing more to be said or to be doneto-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget forhalf an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserableways of our fellow-men."It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with asubdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over thegreat city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I camedown."You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, Iforesee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case ofyoung Openshaw's.""What steps will you take?" I asked."It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries.I may have to go down to Horsham, after all.""You will not go there first?""No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and themaid will bring up your coffee."As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table andglanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent achill to my heart."Holmes," I cried, "you are too late.""Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was itdone?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved."My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'TragedyNear Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account:"Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the HDivision, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help anda splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark andstormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, itwas quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, wasgiven, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body waseventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentlemanwhose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in hispocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham.It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catchthe last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste andthe extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edgeof one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The bodyexhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt thatthe deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident,which should have the effect of calling the attention of theauthorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages."We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed andshaken than I had ever seen him."That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a pettyfeeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personalmatter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set myhand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and thatI should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chairand paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with aflush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping andunclasping of his long thin hands."They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How couldthey have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on thedirect line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was toocrowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson,we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!""To the police?""No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they maytake the flies, but not before."All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late inthe evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmeshad not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before heentered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard,and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously,washing it down with a long draught of water."You are hungry," I remarked."Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing sincebreakfast.""Nothing?""Not a bite. I had no time to think of it.""And how have you succeeded?""Well.""You have a clue?""I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall notlong remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilishtrade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!""What do you mean?"He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces hesqueezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five andthrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote"S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "CaptainJames Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia.""That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling."It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure aprecursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him.""And who is this Captain Calhoun?""The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first.""How did you trace it, then?"He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered withdates and names."I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registersand files of the old papers, following the future career of everyvessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in'83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which werereported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,'instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reportedas having cleared from London, the name is that which is given toone of the states of the Union.""Texas, I think.""I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship musthave an American origin.""What then?""I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became acertainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at presentin the port of London.""Yes?""The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to theAlbert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river bythe early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wiredto Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, andas the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past theGoodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight.""What will you do, then?""Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as Ilearn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others areFinns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three awayfrom the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who hasbeen loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-shipreaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, andthe cable will have informed the police of Savannah that thesethree gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder."There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans,and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive theorange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and asresolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and verysevere were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long fornews of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. Wedid at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic ashattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the troughof a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that isall which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star."
Having signed the guide dogs contract and handed over my 50p, signifying our qualification together, whilst waiting for the sun to go down, Gio and I walked across Waterloo Bridge back to the station. #GuideDog #Training #Class #Dog #Gio #2016 #home #richmond #london #UK #Blind #VisuallyImpaired #VI #Learn #Independence #Mobility #AudioDiary #Audio #Diary #GermanShepherd # GoldenRetriever #gdba #qualification #waterloo #bridge #night
Ep 2: Hester Abrams meets construction expert Sandi Rhys Jones under Waterloo Bridge and hears the secret of this London landmark. She finds out what's missing from the bridge, how Herbert Morrison got the gender wrong and what the bridge's story has to do with today's women engineers.
Naho Ollason and Tanya Geddes walk through Southbank, London on 4th September, in the evening. They talk about “Don’t miss the donut by looking through the hole” (anonymous). This is the first of a weekly series of podcasts where a philosophical thought is discussed by two people walking and talking in the streets of London. Package by: Tanya Geddes Southbank :: Waterloo Bridge :: Time Out London :: London Walks :: Philosophy Quotes :: Back to Camden Community Radio :: Follow Camden Community Radio on Twitter :: File Download (6:53 min / 6 MB)
This week Charles Adrian puts on his poetry voice to read from some poetry pamphlets that he has found beneath Waterloo Bridge. That’s it. He encourages his listeners to embrace poetry.
Claude Monet's painting Waterloo Bridge, Veiled Sun is described in detail for the visually impaired visitor.
The Screen Director's Playhouse. From 01/09/49 to 09/28/51 this series was greatly enjoyed by the radio listening audience. It opened as NBC Theater and was also known as The Screen Directorâs Guild and The Screen Directorâs Assignment. But most people remember it simply as Screen Directorâs Playhouse. THIS EPISODE:WATERLOO BRIDGE is perhaps best described as one of a number of films "with an English accent" that played to American sympathies for England in the years when England largely stood alone against Nazi Germany. The story itself has a wartime setting: Beautiful ballerina Myra (Vivien Leigh) meets and falls passionately in love with officer Roy Cronin (Robert Taylor), only to be parted from him when he is called to duty during World War I. Alone and increasingly destitute, she learns that he has been killed in action--and so, broken hearted and unconcerned for herself, she drifts into prostitution, plying the world's oldest profession along Waterloo Bridge. Although Robert Taylor is a bit miscast, Leigh carries the film with a truly remarkable performance. In the opening portion of the scene, she is at the height of her youthful beauty, and cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg makes the most of it; later, when experience has hardened her, she turns the graceful charm of her earlier scenes upside down to create the bitter, brassy tart that Myra has become. The cast also features an exceptional performance by Lucile Watson as Lady Margaret and notable turns by Maria Ouspenskaya, C. Aubrey Smith, and a host of others. Although less well known than such tragic romances as Garbo's CAMILLE, WATERLOO BRIDGE is easily the equal of such and considerably better than most. The romantic aura is powerful, the production values are meticulous, the direction, photography, and script are first rate. And at the center of it all we have perhaps the single most beautiful actress of her era, Vivien Leigh, in one of her finest performances. You'll need a box of tissues for this one; don't miss it. Text From: Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer
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