Geography Matters
Episodes
The geopolitics of oil and gas....and that V........... country
03 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
This episode looks at the geography and geopolitics of oil and gas - its distribution, its production and consumption. Energy, and particularly oil an...
The urbanization of the world's population.
22 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The world is undergoing a process of rapid urbanization - the movement of population from rural to urban areas. This is very important because it mean...
America First: America's New National Security Strategy and its implications
16 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
At the end of November 2025 the US government published America's New National Security Strategy. This punchy, hard hitting, document did not mince it...
Is Geography Destiny?
30 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we discuss some aspects of how and why geography matters. If we go back a hundred years or so there was an intellectual argument about...
Unfrozen: the fight for the future of the Arctic
09 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode has a slightly different format. I discuss with Klaus Dodds, my co-host, and Mia Bennett of the University of Washington, their new book ...
Growing countries and Shrinking countries and population problems
09 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Global population changes are complex but it can be argued that many countries, but not all, fall into one of two groups, each with very different pr...
The Geography of global population change 1
27 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Global population change is important and it has a distinct geography. But first its important to note some general changes. Global population has inc...
Geopolitics: what is it, and why is it important?
10 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Geopolitics has a long history but it can be defined as how, where, when and why geographical factors, physical, economic and social influence the inf...
The geopolitics of food and fishing
05 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Geopolitics is, as its name suggests, where geography and politics intersect. The geopolitics of food focuses on how food production, trade, and ...
The global food system and its problems
18 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode follows on from the previous one 'Where does our food come from?' This episode focuses more on food consumption but also touches on food ...
Where does our food come from?
12 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The geography of food production is an important topic. We all need to eat, and at some times and in some places many people have not had enough to ea...
The Geography of Religions
11 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The recent election of Pope Leo, an American, who had worked most of his life in Peru, replacing Pope Benedict from Argentina, raised debates about wh...
Conflict in the South China Sea
25 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The South China Sea is a region of growing international importance and growing conflict. It occupies an area of about 3.5 million sq km and it is bou...
The geography of global warming
27 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Whatever the arguments about causes, there is no doubt that the world has been getting considerably warmer over the last 50 years and much warmer over...
The American Empire
06 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Suggesting that America is an empire may seem a bit bizarre as America does not have any colonies at present but if we take a wider perspective, Ameri...
The rise and fall of european empires
10 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
European empires have a long history and can be traced back to the late C15th when Spanish and Portugese explorers were pushing further and further so...
The geography of empires
01 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
British and European listeners will probably be familiar with the fact that many European countries developed extensive overseas empires from about 15...
Welfare geographies
15 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Most developed western countries have got some form of welfare state or welfare support for their population. These started in some countries in a rud...
Panama, Suez, Hormuz, Malacca: global choke points
01 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In mid January 2025 President Trump announced that he wanted to take back control of the Panama Canal. We might ask what this is all about and the par...
Greenland here we come? 200 years of American territorial expansion
26 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In early January 2025 President Trump shocked the world by announcing that the US wanted to buy Greenland. The Danish government said it was not for s...
Water wars: the conflicts over water, dams and power
11 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Drinking water is crucial for human survival and for agriculture. But, as the world's population grows and pressure on resources increases, water is i...
International Migration
24 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
People have always migrated from place to place or country to country whether it is to escape hunger, drought, war or persecution or to search for sta...
National borders: lines on maps and barriers on the ground
15 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Borders are extremely important, both in terms of national sovereignty and for human mobility and limits to it. In nomadic societies people often move...
The postcode lottery
01 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The term 'postcode lottery' became popular in Britain in the late 1990's to refer to the variations in health care from one area or region to another....
The Falkland Islands/Ilas Malvinas
16 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Falkland Islands are very remote: 8,000 miles south of London, 700 miles north of the northern most part of Antarctica and 300 miles east of Argen...
Svalbard: its geographical and strategic importance
13 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Svalbard, or Spitzbergen, as it used to be called, is an archipelago in the Arctic ocean about midway between the north of Norway and the North Pole a...
Geography Matters Trailer: what the podcast series is about
10 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This is a taster for the Geography Matters podcast series. It explains why geography matters for understanding the world and how it intersects with hi...
How has London changed socially since the 1960s
07 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This first episode of the Geography Matters series looks at some aspects of social change in London over the last 50 years and reflects briefly on Rut...