What's Your Map?
From historians, scientists and writers to creatives and cultural custodians, people have used maps as a source of knowledge, guidance, and inspiration for centuries. Winner of the Gold award at the British Podcast Awards 2025 in the Education category! 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 your map? What’s Your Map? is brought to you by Oculi Mundi (‘eyes of the world’), the online home of The Sunderland Collection of antique maps and atlases. For a fully immersive experience, visit Oculi-Mundi.com/podcast to explore each of the maps as you listen. Follow the official Instagram @oculimundimaps to learn more about the collection. For press enquiries, contact podcast@oculi-mundi.com
Episodes
In this episode, host Jerry sits down with broadcaster, producer, writer and DJ, Zakia Sewell. Together they discuss her latest book, Finding Albion, which chronicles her journey across the British Isles to explore its seasonal myths, enduring legends, and deep-rooted rituals.
Zakia shares the map featured in the book, created with artist Alex Merry - a playful illustrative map of England, Scotland and Wales pinpointing th...
In the first episode of series six, Jerry speaks with Dr. Jost Schmid, the Head of Maps and Panoramas at the Zentralbibliothek Zürich (Zürich Central Library). Jost is a specialist in historical geography and this year marks his 20th year working at the Library! He has chosen a 500-year-old map that is both one of the earliest printed maps bound into a bible and the first map to be printed in Zürich, Switzerland.
The map...
In this special episode, live from Hay Festival 2026, Jerry was joined by former diplomatic editor at Sky News and author Tim Marshall; award winning historian, broadcaster and author David Olusoga OBE; and BAFTA-nominated screenwriter and novelist Emma Jane Unsworth.
To explore the maps as you listen visit Oculi-Mundi.com/wym-live-hay-2026
From historians, scientists and writers to creatives and cultural custodians, people ha...
In this episode we have a roar-some treat: our intrepid host Jerry Brotton journeys to the legendary Barbaric Archipelago with best-selling children's author and illustrator Cressida Cowell.
Cressida’s chosen map shows the landscape she created for her acclaimed children’s series, How to Train Your Dragon (2009-2015), which charts the adventures of the young Viking, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III and his dragons Too...
In this episode, Jerry meets master navigator, sailing expert and award-winning author David Barrie. Together, they discuss a British Admiralty chart of the North Atlantic Ocean that tracks David’s incredible 1973 Transatlantic voyage aboard a 35-foot yacht named Sæcwen, from Halifax in Nova Scotia east across the Ocean to Falmouth in Cornwall, UK
We learn about David’s fascination with celestial navigation and the...
In this episode, Jerry meets master craftsperson, globemaker and conservator Jonathan Wright. Jonathan brings with him a twelve-inch celestial globe produced by Scottish firm James Kirkwood & Sons from 1810.
For Jonathan, this globe marks a significant career milestone: it was the first one he ever restored. In his discussion with Jerry, we hear about some of the intricate conservation methods he used, the challenges he en...
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 ma...
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 col...
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.languag...
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 t...
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 ho...
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 y...
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 ...
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 d...
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 escap...
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 t...
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...
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...
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&rsqu...
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 ...
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