Cursed Objects

"Escape to the King's Cross Riviera," said the sign on the construction hoardings - so we did! And it forced us to ask questions like: 'What if you threw a major urban regeneration zone and lots of people came, but then they wanted a branch of All Bar One when they got there?'

In this brand new episode, Kasia and Dan are on an Outside Broadcast Adventure (OBA), captured live during the heart of the London summer in King's Cross, one of the capital's Regeneration Ground Zeroes, a bouji office and leisure district that has been transformed into shiny glass and steel towers in the last 20 years.

Kasia takes Dan on a public art walking tour, and they navigate the glitzy commercial areas, swish landscaped gardens and astroturf seating that have replaced the brick buildings stained with soot, heavy industry and brownfield sites - although clubs like The Egg are hanging on from its edgier era: the rogue nightclub you go to when all the others are shut.

We discuss Google's new side-scraper 'campus', how the knowledge economy and the creative industries became New Labour's engine of urban change, and how you bring joy and a settled identity to areas usually defined by transience, like major railway stations. Also, why are small children so interested in large infrastructure projects?

Regular free and regular Patreon-exclusive episodes are back, baby!

To listen to this episode and all the rest, in full - including a back catalogue of over 30 exclusive bonus eps - it is STILL only £4 a month to sign up, and support your favourite cultural historians:

https://www.patreon.com/c/cursedobjects

We are back with another brand new episode, another very special guest, the brilliant Fearghus Roulston, and another fascinating assembly of some very Cursed Objects subjects – histories of conflict, conviviality, getting pissed, listening to punk and misremembering our own lives and favourite counter-cultural spaces. 

Fearghus wants to make it clear he is not a “Punkademic”, but that it’s fine if other people are. Drawing on his fascinating oral history work on the Belfast punk scene, we start with a pack of cards, a set of pubs, and the internationalism of the Titanic Museum. We discuss gentrification and tourism in Belfast since the Good Friday Agreement – pacification by Guinness? – “defensive planning”, defensive pubs, international Irish pubs, luxury hotels and student housing.

How does history get cleaned up for international capitalism? Can tourism embed peace, and can peace embed tourism? What happens when a city designs a version of itself just for the tourist gaze? What gets fetishised, or turned into tourist souvenirs? 

Why are we all so emotionally drawn to these stories of unity and progress coming through sub-cultures? Fearghus has the answers: “Max Weber says that politics is drilling through hard boards, and I guess it’s nice to imagine change as not involving drilling through hard boards – as something that can happen in the back room of a pub.”

Fearghus Roulston is a history lecturer at Strathclyde in Glasgow. He’s working on a new book on temporality and the legacy of the Troubles. His last book, Belfast Punk and the Troubles: An Oral History, is available to buy here https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526182463/

And you can support this podcast by paying just £4 a month to become a Patreon subscriber - unlocking the 50% of episodes that are only available to Patrons, and earning Dan and Kasia's eternal gratitude: https://www.patreon.com/cursedobjects

This week, Dan and Kasia forage for meaning in the fertile terrain of culinary "movements", globalisation, multiculturalism and identity, megabucks fine dining, and the desperate search for authenticity in food.

Earlier in the summer, Dan was sent to Oslo - for work, not as punishment - to explore 20 years of New Nordic Cuisine, a hugely ambitious attempt by 10 Scandinavian chefs to overhaul the way we think about, source, cook, serve and eat our dinner. How did they get on? What was wrong with Old Nordic Cuisine - a bit too elk-y? What do pansies taste like? Has New Nordic changed us for the better, pushing us all towards more sustainable and inventive food, or was this just a bunch of white bro-chefs smugly railing against globalisation, while charging €500 a head for dinner, with a business model built on unpaid internships?

And where is the IKEA meatball in all this, not to mention the McHerring Burger?

Kasia gets very excited about a surprise manifesto, and introduces Dan to the upsetting term 'glocalisation'; three-cornered leeks get a long overdue shout-out, and the gang get briefly side-tracked by a Danish rave boat and 'the N-Dubz bridge'.

Thanks again for your support while we a) put on a very successful two-month-long exhibition, and b) had a vital summer break in July and August. Regular free and regular Patreon-exclusive episodes are back, baby!

To listen to them all (including a back catalogue of 30+ exclusive bonus eps), it is STILL only £4 a month:

https://www.patreon.com/c/cursedobjects

“I have been objectified as a vehicle”. We are delighted to welcome back our most-returning guest, as the brilliant historian and author Charlotte Lydia Riley talks us through the cursed world of being pregnant in public; about the way pregnant women – and, in different ways, mothers! – are treated by a frequently confused society. Why is there so much twee culture surrounding pregnancy, and how has it become so common to infantilise expectant mothers? And what is the role of the pin badge, as a way of announcing who we are?

This takes us into discussing public information films, government propaganda, behavioural ‘nudge’ messaging (“don’t swim in gravel pits!”), ‘chivalry’ and how people behave around each other on trains and buses.

Also: what does it mean that Starmer's government is one of fare evasion officers, not bus conductors?

Dr Charlotte Lydia Riley is a historian of twentieth-century Britain at the University of Southampton, specialising in questions about empire, politics, culture and identity. She is the author of Imperial Island: A History of Empire in Modern Britain and the co-author of Is Free Speech Under Threat? Listen to her first Cursed Objects episode here: https://www.cursedobjects.co.uk/episodes/rainy-empire-island

Also, thanks again for your patience while we a) put on a very successful two-month-long exhibition, and b) had a break over the summer. If you'd like to join our Patreon, it is still only £4 a month, and there are 30+ bonus episodes in there already - our next episode will be Patreon-only: https://www.patreon.com/c/cursedobjects 

Sit down please. We have something very serious to tell you. We have made a severe and continuous lapse in our judgement. We are sorry if you feel offended, for some reason. We are sorry if you feel like you've been scammed - please believe that that was never our intention. WE'RE SORRY, OKAY!!!!

After a summer taking some time to reflect on our mistakes and do the work, we are so back - talking public apology videos, Dapper Laughs, public accountability, crocodile tears, Blue Peter, Boris Johnson and why wearing a rollneck might be a sign that you have sinned.

One thing Kasia and Dan will never apologise for: being back (so back), with a bunch of great new episodes in the tank for the weeks ahead.

Thanks for your patience while we a) put on a very successful two-month-long exhibition, and b) had a break over the summer: especially huge thanks to our Patreon subscribers - you'll be getting regular Patreon-only episodes again now. If you'd like to join our Patreon, it is still only £4 a month, and there are 30+ bonus episodes in there already: https://www.patreon.com/c/cursedobjects 

Also a small content note: this is a light-hearted episode, but some of the things the public figures are apologising for include rape jokes and visiting a 'suicide forest', which are rather more grim, in case you'd rather avoid.

Coming to you LIVE from the Cursed Objects in Museum Shops exhibition, with three very special guests: Dr Charlotte Lydia Riley, Luke Turner and Kate Clements.

It's another lively live show, exploring war museums and their merch from several angles. How do war museums navigate ‘selling’ histories of death and destruction to their visitors? What can replica First World War trench whistles and Panzerfaust soft toys tell us about the changing relationship between the museum, its shop and its visitors? And what happens when museum shops themselves become sites of conflict, as in the recent ‘culture wars’ over the National Trust's ‘vegan’ scones?

This event was recorded live as part of the event series connected to the Cursed Objects in Museum Shops exhibition at the Peltz Gallery. The exhibition is FREE and runs until 26 June, Mon-Fri 10am- 8pm. For more information, see here. (You've still got a few days left to see it!!)

Our fabulous guests:

Dr Charlotte Lydia Riley is a historian of twentieth-century Britain at the University of Southampton, specialising in questions about empire, politics, culture and identity. She is the author of Imperial Island: A History of Empire in Modern Britain and the co-author of Is Free Speech Under Threat?

Luke Turner is an author and editor. His most recent book Men at War: Loving, fighting, lusting, remembering 1939-1945 explores masculinity and sexuality within the memory of the Second World War. His first book, Out of the Woods, was shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize. Luke co-founded the influential music website The Quietus.

Kate Clements is the author of Total War: A People’s History of the Second World War and The Royal Family in Wartime. She curated the award-winning Second World War Galleries at the Imperial War Museums, and is a former curator of the Churchill War Rooms. Kate is currently Curator of the Tower of London.

Coming to you LIVE... we are joined by two very special friends of the pod – artist Darren Cullen (aka Spelling Mistakes Cost Lives) and journalist and author Imogen West-Knights – as they explore the spirit of the millennium via the museum gift shop.

New Labour were great proponents of the culture industries, and made admission to the UK’s national museums free in 2001. Did this and grand projects like the Millennium Dome change our relationship with museums? The podcast also explores how the contents of the museum gift shop have changed in the 21st century – and what this might tell us about the evolving nature of consumer capitalism.

This event was recorded live as part of the event series connected to the Cursed Objects in Museum Shops exhibition at the Peltz Gallery. The exhibition is FREE and runs until 26th June, Mon-Fri 10am- 8pm. For more information, see here. (You've only got two weeks left to see it!!)

About the speakers:

Darren Cullen is a satirical artist, illustrator and writer, the creator of the ‘hell’ bus targeting oil companies’ greenwashing, and better known as Spelling Mistakes Costs Lives. In 2019 he co-curated the Museum of Neoliberalism, which was open until 2024.

Imogen West-Knights is a freelance journalist and novelist, focusing on culture and politics for the Guardian, NY Times, FT, Slate and others. Her Guardian Long Read on the inside story of the Millennium Dome was published in 2020.

Back by popular demand, our second-ever live show!!

Dr Kasia Tee and Dan Hancox take you behind the scenes of their recently opened exhibition ‘Cursed Objects in Museum Shops’ at the Peltz Gallery. What does the history of neon signs, Hokusai's The Great Wave off Kanagawa and Lewis Chessmen socks have in common? As ever, expect the answer to be how life under late capitalism is producing some highly questionable tat.

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If you missed this event, don't worry - we have two more coming up!

Millennium Tat - Wed 28 May, 7-8.30pm

Join Dan and Kasia and two special guests - artist Darren Cullen and writer Imogen West-Knights – as they explore the spirit of the millennium via the museum gift shop. Book your place here.

War, Memory and Tat - Wed 11 June, 7-8.30pm

Join Kasia, Dan and three special guests – historian Dr Charlotte Lydia Riley, author Luke Turner and curator Kate Clements – as they explore the presence of war in the museum shop. Book your place here.

We hope to see some of you IRL in the next two months! And don't worry, the actual full podcasts are going to keep on coming - there will be recordings of the above on your feeds soon, and a new flurry of fresh episodes...

For more Cursed Everything:

https://www.patreon.com/c/cursedobjects

To celebrate the launch of our first ever IRL exhibition, Cursed Objects in Museum Shops (2 May-26 June), we have several events coming in May and June. All of them are FREE, all are at Birkbeck Uni, 5 mins from Euston/King's Cross, but booking a place is essential - for full details, see our vibey new website, cursedobjects.co.uk

Exhibition private view - Thu 1 May, 6-8pm

Cursed Objects Live #2 - Thu 8 May, 7-8.30pm

Back by popular demand, this is our second-ever live show, for Birkbeck's Arts Week! Book your place here.

Millennium Tat - Wed 28 May, 7-8.30pm

Join Dan and Kasia and two special guests - artist Darren Cullen and writer Imogen West-Knights – as they explore the spirit of the millennium via the museum gift shop. Book your place here.

War, Memory and Tat - Wed 11 June, 7-8.30pm

Join Kasia, Dan and three special guests – historian Dr Charlotte Lydia Riley, author Luke Turner and curator Kate Clements – as they explore the presence of war in the museum shop. Book your place here.

We hope to see some of you IRL in the next two months! And don't worry, the actual full podcasts are going to keep on coming - there will be recordings of the above on your feeds soon, and a new flurry of fresh episodes... now that we have a moment to breathe, and the exhibition is finally in place.

For more Cursed Everything:

https://www.patreon.com/c/cursedobjects

The Simpsons are going to (have just been to) Japan! And they’re here to tell you about what they did on their holidays – to discuss sustainable Japanese craft techniques, heated toilet seats, and a proliferation of cheap disposable plastic. Here are some of our key findings: 

HUGE NEWS: Cursed Objects in Museum Shops, our first ever IRL exhibition, opens VERY soon. 2 May - 26 June, the Peltz Gallery near Euston station; details here. 

CURSED OBJECTS LIVE: 8 May 2025, tickets are free, but you need to sign up via our Patreon - only £4 a month! And you get 30+ free bonus episodes - with a lot more new bonus episodes to come (just as soon as the exhibition is in place, and we get a chance to breathe).

VISIT OUR NEW WEBSITE! https://cursedobjects.co.uk/ - designed by Sophie Monk.