Here There Be Dragons

We're very excited to bring you this new episode after a bit of a break. While the first half the of the season was very focused the built environment, the second will focus on urban intangibles in Odes[s]a. The vibe, if you will. And what better way to start off than taking a walk? Instagram: @dragons_podcast
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To return from a bit of a hiatus, let's take a walk with Boris through Gorky Park in the south of the city by Cheremuski District. Here surrounded by peaceful family moments, Boris reflects on the war's lack of trace on the park even as it deeply impacts his orientation towards public space. Instagram: @dragons_podcast
 Website: www.htbdpodcast.com
 Sign up for our newsletter: htbdpodcast.substack...

Although much of the conflict of urban life is focused on public space there’s a lot to be said for the negotiations we all maintain indoors. Through the restaurant kitchen downstairs or the noisy neighbor next door the city tends to extend inside. This episode is sort of an audio gatecrashing, I’m inviting myself into a few Odes[s]an interiors, and you listeners are welcome to join me.  Instagram...

Every so often we’re going to bring you something we’ve been calling off-cuts and footnotes. These are extended scenes and deep dives that didn’t make the final cut of the main episodes. This is also a place where we can talk about your questions and comments. So feel free to send your thoughts to htbdpodcast@gmail.com in a voice note or a quick message. In this off-cut we're taking a walk with Bo...

This episode lets catch the 145 bus to Kotovsky or the 149 to Tairova and end up in the Sleeping Districts, where most Odesiti live. We'll discover the pains and strange pleasures of concrete panel houses and enter the Soviet housing worm hole, where Odes[s]a's shifting demographics meet a repetitive urban landscape that some residents prefer to overlook. Instagram: @dragons_podcast
 Website: www....

Every so often we’re going to bring you something we’ve been calling off-cuts and footnotes. These are extended scenes and deep dives that didn’t make the final cut of the main episodes. This is also a place where we can talk about your questions and comments. So feel free to send your thoughts to htbdpodcast@gmail.com in a voice note or a quick message. This episode is a footnote. We’re going to...

In this episode we’re wandering west of the city center to a neighborhood made famous by writers, TV shows, and movies; Moldavanka. However the neighborhood’s story is told and whatever is understood of its reputation, there have always been working people making a life there somewhere in between the myths of legendary criminals and shared toilets. Instagram: @dragons_podcast
 Website: www.htbdpod...

Every so often we’re going to bring you something we’ve been calling off-cuts and footnotes. These are extended scenes and deep dives that didn’t make the final cut of the main episodes. This is also a place where we can talk about your questions and comments. So feel free to send your thoughts to htbdpodcast@gmail.com in a voice note or a quick message. In the changing neighborhood of Moldavanka...

Every so often we’re going to bring you something we’ve been calling off-cuts and footnotes. These are extended scenes and deep dives that didn’t make the final cut of the main episodes. This is also a place where we can talk about your questions and comments. So feel free to send your thoughts to htbdpodcast@gmail.com in a voice note or a quick message. It was an enormous pleasure to receive fiel...

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

After ten years of conducting interviews for Here There Be Dragons, there’s one question that Jess particularly loves to ask: “Where is the heart of the city for you?” Usually, we wait until the end of the season to reveal the many hearts that residents leave all over their city maps. But in Odes[s]a, these hearts seemed to coalesce in one neighborhood in particular, the City Center. So, this epis...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As many of you know, in addition to hosting and producing Here There Be Dragons, I also teach architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design. And for the past year, I’ve been working on A Pause Is Not A Break. An exhibition for the architecture department about the intersection of sound and architectural practice. Learn more at https://www.htbdpodcast.com/apauseisnotabreak. A PAUSE IS NOT A BRE...

Don’t be alarmed. We’re working on a few experiments in between seasons. This is an episode swap with the experimental Berlin-based cultural magazine Errant Journal. We’re swapping an interview they did with Brazilian practitioner Felipe Altenfelder about his project Mida Ninja. We start off with an interview with the magazine and podcast editor Irene de Craen. Irene will be reposting the Moving e...

My city of New York is known more for it’s skyline than its outdoor offering. But in Stockholm, nature seemed to appear out of nowhere, intertwined within the city fabric. Even neighborhoods constantly labeled “dangerous” have pretty stunning views. How has Stockholm grown, and keeps growing, with natural spaces in mind ? Twitter/Instagram: @dragons_podcast Support us: patreon.com/htbdpodcast Sign...

The subway can tell you a lot about the geography of a city. Who gets off where and why? But at the central station all those wires get crossed and people are there for all types of reasons to work, to shop, to hustle, to hand out, to protest, to get out as fast as possible. So T-Centalen ticks a lot of factors on the Stockholm spectrum between fear and security. 1) Crowded and 2) Unpredictable an...

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

Families are a common political battle ground. What’s good or bad for families is a regular explanation for everything from censorship to over-policing to immigration intolerance. So if families are so worth providing for and so worth protecting, what exactly are they afraid of? What do kids and parents feel they need to be safe in the city? This episode we’ll be discussing how parents and kids na...

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