PlannerPod

How do we talk about the places we live in, work in and plan for? How do we talk about these places in ways that uncover their history and character, their stories and their meaning? And what does talking about places in this way mean for planners and the work that they do?

In this episode of PlannerPod, Simon, Ben and guest host Rachel chat with author and urbanist Tom Bolton about his work and the inspiration behind it. Tom's written a number of books focusing on places, from London's lost rivers, to the Essex coastline. His latest book, Atomic Albion, takes us on a tour of the UK's nuclear power stations and their impact on the landscapes they sit within - and vice-versa.

Over 48 minutes, the team discuss:

• Atomic Albion - where Tom got the idea of the book from and how it's affected him
• Where Tom draw inspiration for his work
• There relationship between his writing ands professional work in urban design
• The attitude of planners towards his books
• What writing about place in a creative way can offer planning and planners.

Simon, Ben and Planner regular Nicola Gooch are joined by London planning maven Brett Leahy, and there's only one thing on their minds: the recently released draft London Plan. 

Brett, who was recently appointed interim growth and transformation lead at Brentwood Borough Council and Rochford District Council, spent nearly a decade in high-level planning roles at Enfield and Redbridge Councils. From green belt, housing targets, and nature recovery, he's well placed to dig into whatever the capital's new planning blueprint throws up... 

The team also runs through some of their highlights of the July/August issue of The Planner. 

The tenth episode of PlannerPod sees the team welcome CityEd (AKA Ed), a YouTuber and practising planner who’s amassed 40,000 subscribers and more than more than 2.2 million cumulative views (!) across his videos. 

Ed sat down with Simon and Ben from The Planner to talk about all things placemaking, planning, and knitting: from his tentative first steps in creating videos to (relative) YouTube stardom. 

How did he get started? What sort of community has built up around his channel? How has the planning sector reacted to it? Where does he get those jumpers? We covered plenty in our chat with Ed – listeners will be disappointed to hear that editor Simon Wicks’ sartorial guidance on dressing for extreme heat didn’t make the final cut. 

Hosts:

• Simon Wicks
• Ben Gosling

Guest: CityEd

Even in places that are experiencing war, planning continues to function. But how? And how is the work of planners influenced by the need to contribute to healing in a post-conflict society?

Marina Milosev, a 2026 Planner woman of Influence, has spent much of the last year working on local plans in Ukraine, on behalf of UN-Habitat. She also lived through conflict during a childhood in Serbia.

In a conversation that ranges across the challenges of working in a region afflicted by armed conflict, the upheaval and trauma created by war and the need to support societies to heal, Marina talks about her work in Ukraine and how it aligns with the themes of equality and inclusiveness that have characterised her career to date.

The team also discuss the latest issue of The Planner, take a lengthy diversion into the work of Stephen Sondheim and consider the relationship between planning and music. 

In which The Planner team meets Rachel Fisher, the new chief executive of the Royal Town Planning Institute, to chat about why she applied for the role, her thoughts about the future direction of the RTPI, the importance of town planning to social cohesion and the RTPI's role in building bridges between the profession and the public.

Along the way, the team also delves into the latest issue of The Planner, taking a closer look at our interview with Nick Tyler of the PEARL facility that monitors how people behave in real-world environments, and the growing role of large language models and artificial intelligence in planning. Is it a good thing? Or, as our article suggests, an innovation to be approached with caution?

Hosts:

• Simon Wicks
• Laura Edgar
• Ben Gosling

Guest: Rachel Fisher

In which, to mark International Women's Day, the Planner team chats with Anna Sabine, MP for Frome and East Somerset, about the failure to mention women's safety in the draft National Planning Policy Framework for England.

During the course of our conversation, Anna and Laura (The Planner's news editor) discuss why women's safety in public spaces is such a pressing issue; Anna laments the absence of joined-up thinking between government departments which have failed to relate the government's violence again women and girls strategy with the planning for the built environment; and the team discuss eswhat planning policies devised with women and girls in mind might look like.

Anna then talks about her experiences as a new MP and Laura draws attention to the Planner's newly published Women of Influence list.

After nearly eight years as the RTPI's chief executive, Dr Victoria Hills is moving on at the end of December. For episode 6 of PlannerPod, we caught up with the outgoing chief to look back on her time at the helm, her successes, her disappointments and her hopes for the institute and for planning. It's a relaxed and candid interview that digs beneath the surface of what drives Victoria and how she's grown into the role, including the revelation of the 'Hillsey gene' and ideas for a t-shirt for planners.

We also catch up with outgoing RTPI Young Planner of the Year, Frances Keenan, who chats about what the young planner of the year actually does, how she's balanced it with work and her advice for her successor.

Presenters: Simon Wicks, Laura Edgar

Guests: Dr Victoria hills, Frances Keenan

Key moments:

00:00 | Intro | Simon Wicks

01:27 Planner picks: Planning for prisons | Cover art | Children's play

04:10 Interview: Dr Victoria Hills | Reasons for leaving | Highlights and successes | Any regrets? | Motivation | Growing into the role | future of planning | Next steps for the RTPI | Victoria's new role

39:03 Interview: Frances Keenan | Being Young planner of the Year | Highlights | Balancing the role with work | Advice for her successor

48:50 Wrap-up and Women of Influence reminder

49:50 Close

In which, The Planner team chats with planners – and social media content creators – Mahsa Ige and Nouvella Kusi about how the planning profession can use social media to talk about planning, urbanism and development with a wider audience.

To coincide with the launch of the RTPI's It Takes Planners & You campaign, we delved into the use of social media platforms to expand the planning profession's reach and to improve its communication with the people who are most affected by planning projects and decisions – the general public.

Over the course of this discussion Mahsa and Nouvella share their thoughts on:

• How to get started
• Their approach to creating engaging content
• How they're building an audience
• Dealing with negativity
• The impact maintaining a social media channel on them and their working lives

You can find Mahsa and Nouvella on Instagram at

• @theurbanplan_her (Nouvella)
• @urbanistonamission (Mahsa)

What's the relationship between housing and economic growth? What's required to translate development into healthy economic activity? 

In this National Planning Conference preview, The Planner's Simon Wicks and Nicola Gooch speak to Danny Collins, head of economics for Iceni Projects, and Shanika Mahendran, the cabinet member for planing and placemaking in Milton Keynes about the relationship between housing and economic growth. What makes good growth and the prospect of a new swathe of new towns. Following this, Nicola Gooch delves into some of the planning issues relating to water - the need for it to support new development and the regulation of pollution.

Key moments:

00:00 |Intro | Simon Wicks

01:00 Planner picks: Anglesey engagement | Cover art | National Planning Conference

04:17 Interview: Danny Collins and Shanika Mahendran | Housing and growth | Planning for growth in Milton Keynes |  Securing 'good' growth | Utopian visions | The political backdrop | Infrastructure and growth | New towns and 'renewal' towns

34:38 Spotlight | The water issue

Episode 3 of The Planner magazine's PlannerPod podcast, in which our editorial team is joined by guest host and regular Planner columnist Nicola Gooch to delve into the transformation of the UK's electricity grid with special guest Rob Shaw. We also share our thoughts on the potential of storytelling in planning: can we do a better job of engaging the public with the work of planners?

Hosts: Ben Gosling, Nicola Gooch, Simon Wicks

Guest: Rob Shaw MRTPI, managing director of Third Revolution Projects

Key Moments

00.00 Intro | Ben Gosling

00.43: Planner picks | Strategic planning, L7 apprenticeships, gambling venues, solar overplanting

07.24 The PlannerPod interview | Rob Shaw MRTPI on the UK's grid transformation and the role of planning in facilitating this

40.50 Spotlight | Storytelling and planning