Geography Expert
My geography podcasts on Geography Expert will cover a range of geographical topics which might be of interest to teachers and students of geography.
Topics may vary from Polar geography to marine geography, and from population geography to rural geography. You can also see similar topics on my Geography Expert Substack Geography Expert Substack | Ritchie Cunningham | Substack
Music intro and ending -We Are One by Vexento https://soundcloud.com/vexentohttps://www.youtube.com/user/VexentoFree Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/2PaIKcRMusic promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/Ssvu2yncgWU
Episodes
86 episodes
Wildfires at Every Scale
2026: A Record-Breaking Summer, and It’s Only Halfway DoneLet’s start with the raw numbers, because they’re genuinely eye-popping. By 29 July 2026, satellite data showed that around 91,000 hectares had burned in France so far in 2026 — s...
Why Yemen’s Location Shapes Global Power
“Why Yemen’s Location Shapes Global Power” Hey everyone — today we’re diving into a place that doesn’t often make the headlines in your world, but quietly shapes global politics, trade, and even the price of things you buy.We’r...
Global Food Uncovered
Food is one of the most familiar parts of our daily lives, but behind every banana, chocolate bar, or carton of orange juice lies a story of geography, climate, economics, and global interdependence. When you walk into a supermarket in Scotland...
Understanding Migration
Today we're talking about something that touches almost every corner of the modern world, whether we notice it or not: human migration. Why do people leave the place they call home? And why do they choose to go where they go?Geographers...
Why People Move
One of the most useful ways to understand migration is through the push-pull model.Push factors are conditions that encourage or force people to leave their home country or region.Pull factors are conditions that att...
The Earth's moving puzzle
Understanding the forces that shape our planetThe Earth may appear solid and stable beneath our feet, but in reality it is constantly moving and changing. Mountains rise, oceans widen, volcanoes erupt, and earthquakes shake the ground be...
El Niño Unpacked
Imagine a change in ocean temperatures thousands of kilometres away causing floods in South America, droughts in Australia, crop failures in Africa, and unusually warm winters in North America. This is exactly what can happen during an El Ni...
Ageing Populations and the Old‑Age Dependency Ratio
Hello and welcome back to the Geography Expert podcast. Today we’re exploring one of the most important demographic challenges facing modern societies — ageing populations and the old‑age dependency ratio.This ratio compares the number ...
Mangroves are back!
Mangrove Forests: The Amazing Comeback of Nature's Coastal GuardiansImagine a forest that can protect people from tsunamis, provide homes for thousands of marine animals, and help fight climate change all at the same time. It might sou...
The Hunger Gap — How Climate Change Threatens Food Security
Today we're talking about something that touches almost every corner of the modern world, The Hunger Gap — How Climate Change Threatens Food SecurityToday we're tackling a question that sounds simple but isn't: why is it getting harder ...
Bhutan's Population Crisis
Bhutan, a small Himalayan country between India and China, is trying to encourage families to have more children. The government has announced monthly cash payments for families with a third child or more, showing how population change can beco...
Landscapes Built From Below
External weathering and erosion processes gradually become the dominant factors in the development of the landscape as tectonic activity ceases or becomes very slow. The influence of geology remains important but passes to a more detailed level...
Banda's Burning Crisis
In May 2026, the district of Banda in northern India experienced temperatures of 47–48°C, making it one of the hottest places in the country. At these temperatures, daily life changes dramatically. By early morning, conditions already feel like...
China's Road to the Top
In 2000, almost every one of the world’s ten biggest carmakers came from Japan, Europe or North America.By 2025, China had become the world’s largest car market, the world’s largest exporter of cars and home to some of the ...
Why Hurricanes Went Quiet
If you’ve been half-listening to the news this summer, you might have noticed something odd: hurricane season is underway, but the Atlantic has been almost silent. For anyone studying geography, this is actually a brilliant real-world case stud...
Mountains Are Breaking Down
Climate change, landslides, and the science of predicting disastersImagine standing beside a beautiful glacier lake in Alaska. Tour boats move across the water. Mountains rise high above the valley. Everything looks calm.But hidde...
A Deep Earthquake Beneath Italy
Just after midnight on 2 June 2026, a magnitude 6.26.2 earthquake struck deep beneath the sea off southern Italy. Although this sounds serious—and it is—the effects at the surface were surprisingly mild. Most people only felt light shaking, and...
Why Your Electricity Bill Lies
If Germany is such a leader in renewable energy, why are electricity bills still so high there? And why do France and Spain often have cheaper power?That’s the big geography question today. The answer is not just about how much renewable...
The EV transition
Electric cars are becoming a big part of the global shift away from fossil fuels. In 2025, about one in four new cars sold worldwide was electric, up from one in five the year before. That is a major change in transport geography because it sho...
Why Cities Need Trees
Picture two places on a hot summer day. One is a city full of roads, rooftops, and concrete. The other is full of trees, grass, and shade. Which one feels cooler?Most of us would say the green place — and that’s exactly what geography te...
Ebola in Central Africa
When you hear the word Ebola, you probably think of a deadly disease — and that’s because it is. But Ebola is also a geography story. It’s about where the disease starts, how it spreads, and why some places are much harder to protect than other...