Urban Broadcast Collective

CarPoolXXX is a special series of podcasts and vodcasts (hosted by Paul Maginn) that explores the issue of Porn Performers as a Migrant Community. Los Angeles has been the epicentre of global porn production since the 1980s and as such thousands of people from across the US and internationally - especially Europe - have migrated to California in order to be in the porn industry. Academic studies of migrant communities tend to focus on people who come from certain countries, nationalities, or religious/cultural backgrounds. Whilst economic migrants have been a feature of migration studies, again the focus often tends to be on particular types of migrants - i.e. the 'illegal' or 'undocumented' who come from particular countries. Porn performers, I argue, constitute a minority migrant community on the basis that a relatively small proportion of people are engaged in this form of labour, and many, if not most, of the people who work in porn both in front of and behind the camera have migrated to LA from elsewhere in the US or from overseas. Despite our mass consumption of pornography plus the contribution of the porn industry to the economy, technology, entertainment, the arts and our culture in general, porn performers continue to endure stigma and discrimination in relation to things like housing, banking and employment opportunities outside of porn. As such, all of this begs the question: In what ways are the migration and resettlement experiences of porn performers similar/different to other minority migrant communities who seek to make a life in a new city/country? The CarpoolXXX series seeks to lift the lid on this question by exploring the experiences of a mix of porn performers who are based in Los Angeles and/or Las Vegas. Episode 1 of the CarpoolXXX series –͞Show Me the Monet͟ - features Melissa Monet, a native New Yorker, who entered the porn industry in the early 1990s. Melissa has starred in, written, directed and produced adult films. Recently retired from the industry, Melissa devotes much of her time to helping and rescuing lost dogs and making custom jewellery. This episode was recorded in late January 2018 whilst Melissa and I drove around Venice, Santa Monica and the Pacific Pallisades.

Many cities around the world pride themselves on their live music scenes. But music cities don’t generally happen by accident - they are planned for, organised, marketed and protected. In this episode of the The Urban Squeeze, Tony and Jason examine how music cities are regulated and what good and bad regulations involve. They discuss the role for planning in promoting music as a cultural driver in cities. They also reflect on the question of whether good planning can leverage music as a way to make some cities more liveable while avoiding gentrification.

This episode of This Must be the Place is the first of our ‘walking tours’ – we are revisiting the walks of the 1980 book “Melbourne on Foot: 15 Walks Through Historic Melbourne”. This episode starts with David speaking with one of the authors of that book, Professor Graeme Davison of Monash University, about the genesis of the book in general. They are then joined by Elizabeth to discuss the Richmond tour specifically. (Confusingly this all takes place in St Kilda, ahead of a walking tour included in a later episode). Back in time, but later in the episode, Elizabeth and David retrace the 1980 tour of the inner suburb of Richmond. While some things have changed since then (beginning with tram routes, and also a cable tram station that has since been swallowed up by Punt Road), many of the houses and landmarks of Richmond’s layers of history remain. The tour takes in Richmond’s genteel hill area (now home to many urologists and cosmetic surgeons), down to the flat and the mix of 19th century housing and factory buildings (many of them now disguising, ‘iceberg house’ style, James Bond style apartments behind), and the civic buildings and shops of Bridge Road. It also takes in what is now known as the Dogs in Space house (reference to the 1987 film), but in 1980 was noted as an unusually large house for such a small street. Graeme had written ‘The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne’ while living in Canberra. On his return to Melbourne, some of the walks in the book originated as urban history material both for his students and for himself. They were also partly inspired by the book ‘Chicago on Foot’ and the Chicago school tradition of urban walking. Plus, they were also pitched at a wider readership. The authors – who comprised a mix of academics and of community activists - consciously did not pick (then) fashionable suburbs such as East Melbourne or Parkville, but instead encouraged readers to visit parts of the city that they perhaps overlooked or were reluctant to see historic merit in. Graeme’s 4th year dissertation was on Richmond and he was once picked up by the police there, for looking shifty with a bag. It was that kind of place then. Nowadays many of us probably couldn’t afford to live in places like Richmond, but you can still take a walk there. Or visit a urologist, as you see fit.

Female Chinese Australians: A Feminist Tale of Multiculturalism by SoundMinds Radio. Stella Sun is a Chinese Australian woman who was born on Thursday Island in 1931. Stella travelled to mainland Australia when she was 17 years old. Dr Alanna Kamp has been interviewing women like Stella about their experiences of belonging and exclusion as female Chinese Australians during the White Australia Policy era. The women Alanna is interviewing piece many memories together to tell rich stories about migration, settlement and family. In this episode, Dallas (https://twitter.com/DallasRogers101) talks to Alanna about researching Chinese Australian women during the White Australia period. He learns she is putting these women front and centre of her research to produce a feminist reading of about the birth of Australian multiculturalism. Alanna Kamp (BA BSc (UNSW); PhD (WSU)) is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Urban Research Program/School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney University (WSU). As an historical and cultural geographer, Alanna is interested in feminist and postcolonial understandings of the migrant experience and attitudes to immigration in Sydney. She is particularly interested in the ways in which historical geographies of migrant experience have contemporary relevance and shape current community experiences and identities. Alanna is also a member of the Challenging Racism Project at WSU.

In this episode of the The Urban Squeeze, Tony and Jason talk about the rise of sport and leisure in the city and the role of sport in city-building, with particular attention on large-scale sporting events, including the 2018 Commonwealth Games, being held in Gold Coast City, Australia. They ask what role can planners play in fostering sport and leisure activities in the city? How does sport contribute to city-making and the lives of residents? What are some advantages and disadvantages of large-scale sporting events? Do cities always "win" in hosting these large-scale sporting events like Olympics and Commonwealth games?

This must be the place on everything I needed to know about life I learned from an old British comic strip. Actually it’s an interview by David Nichols in Helsinki at the International Conference on Urban History with Lucie Glasheen, a PhD student at the School of Geography, Queen Mary University at London. Lucie’s research looks at the representation of children in urban environments in British children’s comics of the 1930s. The episode also features an intro with Elizabeth discussing, with her sister Sarah Taylor, what was to be learned from an early over-exposure to British comic strips like Dandy and Beano.

In this episode of Radio Reversal, Anna (@annajcarlson), Jo (@joanna_horton) & Nat (@DrNatOsborne) talk about privacy, particularly philosophies, politics, and technologies of privacy. They explore questions of digital and spatial forms of privacy and ‘publicness’ & of surveillance and facial recognition & how these intersect with race, gender, colonialism & labour, the Internet of Things, Smart Cities & gentrification, data breaches, and what your Data Doppelgänger is saying about you. (A great show to revisit in light of Cambridge Analytica “revelations”).

There are more than 24 million pets in Australian homes. But our cities are not the easiest places to own a pet. You can’t take your dog on the train in Australia, and if you’re a renter owning a pet, well that can make things really difficult when you try to secure a home. In this episode of City Rd Podcast we talk with Drs Emma Power from the University of Western Sydney and Jen Kent from Sydney University, about why Australian cities don’t necessarily share Australians’ love of pets. Dr Jennifer Kent is a University of Sydney Research Fellow in the Urban and Regional Planning program at the University of Sydney. Jennifer’s research interests are at the intersections between urban planning, transport and human health and she publishes regularly in high ranking scholarly journals. Her work has been used to inform policy development in NSW and Australia, including Sydney’s most recent metropolitan strategy – A Plan for Growing Sydney. Prior to commencing a career in academia she worked as a town planner in NSW in both local government and as a consultant. Dr Emma Power is a Senior Research Fellow at Western Sydney University. She is an urban cultural geographer who researches housing, home, ageing and human – animal relations. A particular focus is on everyday practices of homemaking and neighbouring, and the governance of everyday life within home. Emma’s research interests include: companion animals and community making; and the governance of companion animals in urban Australia, including in strata apartments and through tenancy policy; the place of wildlife in cities and suburbs. Twitter: @CityRoadPod Host: (https://twitter.com/DallasRogers101) Website: cityroad.org

‘Smart cities’ represent the integrated, digital future of cities. Also called the “wired”, “networked” or “ubiquitous” city, the “smart city” is the latest in a long line of catch-phrases, referring to the development of technology-based urban systems for driving efficient city management and economic growth. These can be anything from city-wide public wifi systems to the provision of smart water meters in individual homes. In this episode of The Urban Squeeze, Tony and Jason discuss the journey of some cities towards ‘smart city’ status. They examine some positive and negative implications of this new frontier and ask how good planning can help make cities 'smarter'?

This Must Be the Place (for now): In this episode of This Must Be the Place Elizabeth speaks with Robin Chang, a Research Associate and Lecturer in the Department of European Planning Cultures at TU Dortmund in Germany. Robin’s research looks at temporary urbanism: uses that contravene formal zoning, which last for a time frame that is not intentionally permanent, and which are spontaneously initialized. ‘Temporary urbanism’ is a growing field of study including tactical urbanism, pop-up shops, food markets, and squatters’ collectives. Robin has five such case studies in the port city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and will add more from Bremen in Germany. In a context of post-industrial transition, urban shrinkage, and fallout from the financial crisis, municipalities and communities in these areas have found ways to activate vacant and brownfields sites. Some of Robin’s case studies of temporary uses are now major tourist and gastronomic attractions for the city. Robin discusses the role of temporary use for entrepreneurs, for communities, and for Rotterdam in particular (which has a history of experimentalism). She also discusses the unintended consequences of laws discouraging risk, and how temporality challenges the field of planning. Also, the shifting role of planners when past plans have not materialized. (The Ruhr for example was planned for twice the population it now has). Robin suggests it isn’t impossible to have long term planning in parallel with short-term mixed uses and uncertainty. The challenge is how to manage the specifics spatially, legally, and financially. Post-industrial regions are at the cusp: compared to other cities (say, Melbourne) that have other developmental pressures or other industries to count on and which are, as Robin suggests, maybe just 20 years behind. Temporality is here to stay. (No-one ever steps in the same Ruhr River twice?). Alternative river pun: if you wait by the Ruhr river long enough, the bodies of your industrial plans will float by? p.s. The music in this episode is “We are all Detroit”, by Taylor Project (www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3Wnm14Lyl0)