116. The biggest story in the world

This week, we’re off to China. Now the U.S. bureau chief for the South China Morning Post, Robert Delaney spent many years as a foreign correspondent reporting from the world’s most populous country.

He now has a novel out: The Wounded Muse, based on real events that played out in Beijing as the 2008 Olympic Games approached. He spoke to us about how China, its economy and its cities have changed over the past two decades.

This episode we also go back to the Centre for Cities’ Paul Swinney to ask another big question. If agglomeration – being able to get more people to more jobs – is the key to economic success could lack of good transport be the thing that’s holding England’s cities back?

Skylines is the podcast from the New Statesman’s cities site, CityMetric. It’s hosted by Jonn Elledge and produced by Nick Hilton.

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