Jerry meets Bill Rankin, a cartographer, author and Professor of History at Yale University. In this episode of What’s Your Map? they discuss two fascinating infographic maps that feature in Bill’s latest book Radical Cartography: What Maps Tell Us About Who We Are (2025). Radical cartography uses the method of mapmaking as a tool to challenge and educate on social, cultural, and political affairs. Radical maps are thematic maps that aim to give agency to the people who are represented within th...
May 19, 2026•32 min•Season 5Ep. 5
In this episode, Jerry speaks with Dr. Rohini Rai, a sociologist of race, ethnicity, and migration, and lecturer at Brunel University in London. She is also the co-founder of the Critical Himalayan Collective, a scholarly, activist network focused on reimagining Eastern Himalayan studies through Indigenous knowledge, art, and critical dialogue. Rohini shares a map from the Royal Geographical Society Collections showing the colonial borders imposed on her home, Sikkim. The ‘Sketch Map of Sikkim a...
May 05, 2026•30 min•Season 5Ep. 4
This week, Jerry meets Ross Perlin, a linguist, writer, and translator focused on exploring and supporting linguistic diversity. Ross is the co-director of the Endangered Language Alliance (ELA), a non-profit organisation dedicated to documenting Indigenous, minority, and endangered languages, and supporting a mosaic of languages in New York City - Lenapehoking and beyond. Ross shares an incredible interactive map ( www.languagemap.nyc ) that illustrates the rich tapestry of languages in New Yor...
Apr 21, 2026•38 min•Season 5Ep. 3
This week, Jerry meets Dr. Richard A. Pegg, the Director and Curator of Asian Art at the MacLean Collection, Asian map aficionado, and proud owner of Blue China Map shoes! The MacLean Collection is an astonishing private collection of Asian art and global cartography. Based in Chicago, it is home to over 5,000 historic artefacts and more than 35,000 maps. In this episode, Richard and Jerry discuss two majestic maps from the Qing Dynasty, known colloquially as the ‘Blue China Maps’: the ‘Complete...
Apr 07, 2026•33 min•Season 5Ep. 2
In this episode of WHAT’S YOUR MAP? we are transported to the wild mountains of Southern Norway as Jerry speaks with adventurer, climber, and trained nurse Cecilie Skog. An extremely accomplished explorer, Cecilie has climbed all seven of the world's tallest mountains, trekked unsupported across Antarctica, and skied to the North Pole! In this intimate conversation, Cecilie guides us through an area close to her home and her heart: the Hurrungane Range in Jotunheimen, known as the ‘Home of the G...
Mar 25, 2026•36 min•Season 5Ep. 1
The British Podcast Awards GOLD winning podcast returns on March 25th! From historians, scientists and writers to creatives and cultural custodians, people have used maps as a source of knowledge, guidance, and inspiration for centuries. Join award-winning expert Professor Jerry Brotton, as in each episode he invites a guest to share a map close to their heart - and unfurl the ideas, inspirations, and stories behind it. So if you’re fascinated by history, art, adventure and culture, why not beco...
Mar 11, 2026•2 min
In this episode, Jerry meets with acclaimed nature and travel writer Michaela Vieser. The focus of their conversation is an interactive map that charts 98 distinct sounds and silences from around the globe. The creation of this geographical sound archive is connected to her new book co-written with Isaac Yuen, The Sound Atlas: A Guide to Strange Sounds Across Landscapes and Imagination. From the swaying, lush meadows of the Altai Mountains, to the unique jingles at Tokyo’s train stations, Michae...
Jan 14, 2026•28 min•Season 4Ep. 6
In this episode, Jerry meets with Dr. Jago Cooper to examine a map of an ancient cave network on Isla de Mona in the Caribbean Sea. The map pinpoints the locations of markings that depict Indigenous beliefs and also trace 500 years of cross-cultural encounters. Jago is the Director of the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, a world class art museum based in Norwich with a unique perspective on how art can foster cultural dialogue and exchange. It is the first of its kind in formally recognising ar...
Dec 31, 2025•33 min•Season 4Ep. 5
In this episode, Jerry speaks with the illustrious Barbara A. Bond, the former cartographic researcher in the UK’s Ministry of Defence. Together, they pour over an important but unassuming silk escape map of Danzig (Gdansk) port from World War II. What information is presented on the map, and what has been intentionally excluded? More importantly, how did this map end up in the hands of a Prisoner of War hoping to escape the enemy in Europe? We gain access all areas to Barbara’s astounding caree...
Dec 17, 2025•34 min•Season 4Ep. 4
In this second live episode from the British Library, Jerry speaks to explorer and Chief Scout Dwayne Fields, who is accompanied by Head of the Scout Heritage Collection, Caroline Pantling. They shine a spotlight on the innovative, hand-drawn maps of the Scout movement founder Lieutenant-General Robert Baden-Powell (1857-1941), and talk about the importance of imagination and adventure. The maps they discuss in the episode are illustrations from Baden-Powell's 1915 book "My Adventures as a Spy"....
Dec 10, 2025•31 min
In this special live episode at the British Library, Jerry speaks to celebrated geographer, author, broadcaster and former President of the Royal Geographical Society, Nicholas Crane. They discuss the discreet War Department takeover of an area of the Wiltshire countryside for British Armed Forces training, and the Military Manoeuvres Act of 1872 as demarcated on James Wyld's map of Salisbury Plain. We learn more about the importance of map projections and the world's first scientific atlas by G...
Dec 10, 2025•31 min
In this episode, Jerry Brotton meets Dr. Animesh Sinha from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, or Doctors Without Borders). Animesh is an infectious diseases specialist who has spent his career caring for people in remote regions with HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and hepatitis. Animesh is the principal investigator in a project named Zero TB where his team are using GIS data and maps to treat, and hopefully eradicate, TB in a city called Kulob which is located in Southern Tajikistan. MSF is a humanitarian...
Dec 03, 2025•29 min•Season 4Ep. 3
In this episode, Jerry takes another excursion to meet with Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) and English visual artist, Hannah Claus. Hannah is in London exhibiting at the High Commission of Canada in the U.K. as part of their commitment to show work by Indigenous Canadian artists. Her body of work titled tsi iotnekahtentiónhatie - éntie nonkwá:ti [where the waters flow - south shore] tells the story of the Kahrhionhwa’kó:wa [the Great River, or Saint Lawrence River]. Her artwork éntie nokwá:ti ne Kaniat...
Nov 19, 2025•29 min•Season 4Ep. 2
In the first episode of Season 4, our host Jerry Brotton finds himself at one of the world's largest and most active exploration-focused institutions: the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) in London. He meets with Cartographic Collections Manager Dr. Katie Parker to pore over a mid-sixteenth century treasure that both the RGS and The Sunderland Collection are privileged to own an example of. Produced in around 1550, this atlas by Battista Agnese is a luxurious curation of 13 hand-drawn portolan c...
Nov 05, 2025•31 min•Season 4Ep. 1
From historians, scientists and writers to creatives and cultural custodians, people have used maps as a source of knowledge, guidance, and inspiration for centuries. Join award-winning expert Professor Jerry Brotton, as in each episode he invites a guest to share a map close to their heart - and unfurl the ideas, inspirations, and stories behind it. So if you’re fascinated by history, art, adventure and culture, why not become part of a global community of fellow explorers as we ask - What’s yo...
Oct 20, 2025•3 min•Season 3Ep. 7
Jerry journeys to the Arctic polar region with Dr Djoeke van Netten from the University of Amsterdam, following the attempts by Dutch navigator Willem Barentsz and his crew to reach China via the northeast passage. Djoeke explains the backstory of the Dutch trade missions that took place in 1594, 1595, and 1596 and how the 1596 mission was stranded in Novaya Zemlya [an island chain in present day Northern Russia] for almost a year. These European explorers kept fascinating records of landscapes ...
Aug 19, 2025•26 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Jerry interviews Melbourne based artist-cartographer Anton Thomas, who discusses his latest project: a meticulously hand-drawn world map titled "Wild World." Wild World centres the animal kingdom, showcasing over 1,600 animals across a world without national borders. This intricate artwork emerged from Anton’s deep-rooted passion for mapping, which reaches back to his childhood. It also reflects his belief in the profound connection between humans and nature. Anton walks Jerry through the artist...
Aug 05, 2025•29 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Jerry and University of Denver Professor Susan Schulten delve into the groundbreaking work of Richard Edes Harrison, an artist cartographer whose innovative mapping style emerged in the tumultuous early 20th century, particularly during the lead-up to World War II. They discuss two of Harrison’s maps published in Fortune magazine, the business magazine founded by Henry Luce in 1929. Harrison’s maps challenged Americans' isolationism at the start of World War II. He wanted to shake the country ou...
Jul 22, 2025•30 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Neuroscientist and Harvard Professor Jeff Lichtman walks Jerry through his astonishing work mapping the human brain. In 2024, with the help of Google Research, Jeff’s team developed the most detailed map of a human brain sample ever created, producing 1,400 TB of data from a sample the size of a pinhead. Jeff also talks about how he and Harvard biologist Dr Joshua Sanes pioneered the Brainbow process, a breakthrough that allows scientists to easily identify individual neurons in the brain by col...
Jul 08, 2025•31 min•Season 3Ep. 3
In this episode, Jerry visits the Library of Congress in Washington DC to meet senior librarian Iris Taylor, who has nearly five decades of experience in the map department. Iris shows Jerry a series of beautiful pictorial maps, created in the 1940s by the pioneering geographical storyteller Louise E. Jefferson. In particular, she highlights a map of ‘Americans of Negro Lineage’ from 1946. This map showcases notable African-Americans from throughout history, including figures like Harriet Tubman...
Jun 24, 2025•31 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Welcome to What’s Your Map? In this episode, Jerry speaks to Elizabeth Hogan, a marine biologist, Programme Director at the National Geographic Society, and a passionate advocate for marine conservation. Having spent over 15 years dedicated to protecting marine ecosystems, Elizabeth shares her experience while discussing a unique map that reorients our understanding of the world's geography.. She explains how this ocean-centric map from the Environmental Systems Research Institute illustrates th...
Jun 10, 2025•33 min•Season 3Ep. 1
From historians, scientists and writers to creatives and cultural custodians, people have used maps as a source of knowledge, guidance, and inspiration for centuries. Join award-winning expert Professor Jerry Brotton, as in each episode he invites a guest to share a map close to their heart - and unfurl the ideas, inspirations, and stories behind it. So if you’re fascinated by history, art, adventure and culture, why not become part of a global community of fellow explorers as we ask - What’s yo...
May 27, 2025•3 min
Every society has myths and legends that are passed down through the generations, some of which can be read in features of the landscape. In this episode, Professor Margo Neale guides Jerry around the story of the Seven Sisters: a songline from Australia. She delves into the intricate symbolism of her map, revealing that it charts not just physical spaces, but also spiritual and ancestral connections within Australian Indigenous culture. Margo Neale recently retired as the Head of the National M...
Apr 08, 2025•31 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Mike Yamashita is a distinguished photographer with over 40 years of experience working for National Geographic. Among his stunning collections of works that capture landscapes, peoples, and animals, Mike filmed two documentaries about Marco Polo for National Geographic in 2004 and 2022. In this episode of What's Your Map, Mike and Jerry explore Fra Mauro’s legendary world map from 1450. Measuring two metres across, this astonishing record of ancient trade routes, territories, ships, and cities ...
Mar 26, 2025•33 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Have you ever seen a shooting star? Did you know that there are different stars in the sky during winter and summer? In this episode, Dr Heidi Hammel takes Jerry on a jaunt around the constellations, and talks to him about the cutting edge of space exploration. Heidi is an interdisciplinary scientist at NASA and Vice President of Science at the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA). In her role at AURA, Heidi works with some of the world’s most famous telescopes such as Hu...
Mar 12, 2025•33 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Matthew Edney, Osher Professor at the University of Maine and Director of the History of Cartography project, takes Jerry to 16th century Amsterdam, where silver from the New World is flowing copiously, and maps have been elevated from the scientific designs to sumptuous works of art. Joan Blaeu’s vibrant 1662 world map shows the world in twin hemispheres, surrounded by celestial Roman gods, the four seasons, beasts and birds. It is the centrepiece of his family’s master work: the Atlas Maior , ...
Feb 26, 2025•31 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Jerry meets journalist and best-selling author Sathnam Sanghera, to discuss the impact of a single line on a map. Splitting families, communities, and religions, and leading to horrific loss of life and displacement, the Partition of India in 1947 sent shockwaves through Southeast Asia and has been described as the “central historic event” in the region’s recent history. Sathnam examines a map of the Partition from the UK National Archives, drawn in 1948. He and Jerry discuss the impact on ident...
Feb 12, 2025•32 min•Season 2Ep. 2
In this episode, Ed Parsons, digital geographer and geospatial wizard at Google, traces the history of digital mapping. He leads Jerry from its roots in Gerard Mercator’s iconic map projection, to the Google Maps we use today – and beyond…. Ed’s chosen map is the “Christian Knight” map, produced in Amsterdam by Jodocus Hondius in 1597. It is the first map to use Mercator’s projection after his death. The projection was hugely influential because it changed the way maps were drawn - but the Chris...
Jan 29, 2025•32 min•Season 2Ep. 1
From historians, scientists and writers to creatives and cultural custodians, people have used maps as a source of knowledge, guidance, and inspiration for centuries. Join award-winning expert Professor Jerry Brotton, as in each episode he invites a guest to share a map close to their heart - and unfurl the ideas, inspirations, and stories behind it. So if you’re fascinated by history, art, adventure and culture, why not become part of a global community of fellow explorers as we ask - What’s yo...
Jan 24, 2025•3 min
Jerry is joined by self-confessed map geek and wine expert Jane Anson, to talk about the remarkable maps that she created for her book ‘Inside Bordeaux’. Jane travelled the world as a journalist before moving to Bordeaux over twenty years ago. A passionate connoisseur of French wines, she is a writer, critic, and tutor. In this episode, Jane unfurls a beautiful map of the chateaux and terroir of the Central Médoc region. Uniquely, it shows both what lies beneath and above the ground. She explain...
Dec 04, 2024•32 min•Season 1Ep. 6
