Image Rights

Image Rights

Author: Samuel Stafford May 24, 2019 Duration: 46:36

Sam Stafford and his guests David Diggle, Tom Whitehead and Andrew Jalali discuss whether modern design is s***, whether the planning profession has an image problem, and the role of planning in tackling climate change.


Samuel Stafford hosts 50 Shades of Planning, a podcast that digs into the often perplexing world of the English planning system. Rather than offering dry policy lectures, these conversations embrace the sector's inherent complexities and occasional absurdities. The aim is to provide a wide-ranging view, bringing in diverse voices from across the fields of planning, property, design, and development. You'll hear from practitioners, thinkers, and critics, each sharing their unique experiences and perspectives on how places are shaped. A recurring series within the podcast, titled 'Hitting The High Notes', features in-depth discussions with leading figures, examining pivotal career moments and influential projects. These talks are structured around six key planning milestones, offering a concrete framework for understanding professional journeys and systemic challenges. By weaving together themes from government, business, arts, and social sciences, this podcast reveals how planning sits at a crowded intersection of politics, economics, and community life. Tune in for thoughtful, sometimes surprising, explorations of the forces that decide what gets built, where, and why.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 164

50 Shades of Planning
Podcast Episodes
Think Differently [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:13:35
When we think of diversity, and the awareness and inclusion in public life of people of different identities, we perhaps instinctively think of ethnicity, sexuality and age. We perhaps do not think instinctively of neuro…
No Little Plans [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:00
Is planning for America anathema to the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness? Is it true, as ideologues like Friedrich Von Hayek, Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand have claimed, that planning leads to dictatorship, that the…
An Amassing of Think Tanks [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:35
Who are the people and the organisations that have had the most influence over planning during the past couple of years? One could make a case for Jack Airey and Policy Exchange. Airey, who joined Localis having graduate…
Hitting the High Notes - Wayne Hemingway [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:37
Hitting The High Notes is town planning’s equivalent of Desert Island Discs. In these episodes Sam Stafford chats to preeminent figures in the planning and property sectors about the six planning permissions or projects…
Life on the Front Line [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:47
"Are you planning a 50 Shades on the local authority staffing crisis?" Sam Stafford usually likes it when people get in touch with him to suggest topics for 50 Shades episodes, but found this message from a team leader a…
Call for Evidence - Life on the Front Line [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 3:39
"Are you planning a 50 Shades on the local authority staffing crisis?" Sam Stafford usually likes it when people get in touch with him to suggest topics for 50 Shades episodes, but found this message from a team leader a…
The Only Constant is Change [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:32
Sam Stafford gets back to 50 Shades basics and enjoys in this episode a gently meandering conversation with some of his friends about planning. Sam could not though resist a typically verbose introduction... ""It is comm…