Geography Expert: Recent Episodes
Ritchie
My podcasts on Geography Expert will cover a range of geographical topics which might be of interest to teachers and students of geography. 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
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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 become a major geography issue.
Bhutan’s population is under 800,000, and recent figures show that births have been falling. At the same time, many young people are leaving the country to look for jobs and opportunities abroad, especially in Australia. This means Bhutan is facing both a shrinking younger population and an ageing society.
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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 in which’ rock type (lithology) and structure may strongly influence local relief features. In all landscapes, the critical factor is not so much the absolute resistance of a rock as its resistance relative to the rocks around it. It is this which creates the pattern of high and low relief. For instance, in south-east England, chalk is a relatively resistant rock in relation to adjacent strata, but in Northern Ireland, it is soft compared to surrounding basalts.
The granite, clays and limestones that form the landscapes are found in entirely different environments today from those in which they originated.
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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 midday, and even at night, temperatures remain around 30°C. As a result, people say that “mornings and nights no longer exist.”
Banda is located near the Tropic of Cancer, a region that naturally experiences intense solar heating. However, recent heatwaves have become more extreme and longer-lasting, raising concerns about climate change and environmental degradation.
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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 fastest-growing manufacturers on Earth.
For most of the twentieth century, the global car industry was dominated by a handful of famous names. Companies such as Ford, General Motors (GM), Volkswagen and Toyota built millions of vehicles every year and became symbols of industrial success. But over the last 25 years, the industry has undergone one of the biggest transformations in its history. New technologies, changing consumer tastes, environmental concerns and the rapid rise of China have reshaped the global automotive landscape.
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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 study — it shows how weather systems on opposite sides of the planet are secretly wired together, and how “quiet” doesn’t always mean “safe.” Let’s unpack it.
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Climate change, landslides, and the science of predicting disasters
Imagine standing beside a beautiful glacier lake in Alaska. Tour boats move across the water. Mountains rise high above the valley. Everything looks calm.
But hidden inside the mountains, the ground is slowly moving.
In some places, entire sections of rock are creeping downhill by several feet every year. Scientists fear that one day these slopes could suddenly collapse, creating enormous landslides and giant tsunami waves.
And climate change is making the danger worse.
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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 there was no major damage.
Why? The answer lies in how deep the earthquake occurred.
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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 energy a country uses. It’s about the whole energy system — what kind of electricity is produced, how it gets to homes, and how governments set prices.
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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 shows how quickly technology can spread from one country to another.
China is leading the way, with electric cars making up more than half of new car sales. In Norway, nearly all new cars are now electric, and Denmark has also made very rapid progress. By contrast, the United States has seen much slower growth, with electric cars stuck at around 10% of new sales for several years. These differences show that transport change is not happening evenly across the world.
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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 tells us. Cities are often much hotter than the countryside, especially during heatwaves. But trees and parks can make a huge difference.
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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 others.
In 2026, Central Africa was dealing with a fast-growing Ebola outbreak, with most cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and some spreading into Uganda. Within weeks, the number of cases rose sharply. So what makes Ebola so dangerous, and why is geography such a big part of the story?
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When people talk about climate change, they usually focus on carbon dioxide. And that makes sense — CO₂ traps heat and drives global warming. But there’s another player in the climate system that doesn’t get as much attention: aerosols.
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What matters more is where those people live… how populations grow… and why some places are booming while others are shrinking.
Because population geography quietly shapes almost everything.
Cities. Migration. Housing. Food supply. Climate pressure. Economic growth. Political power.
Even the future of entire countries.
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You flush a toilet, turn on a tap, or throw something in the bin… and then you stop thinking about it completely.
For many people, infrastructure is invisible. Water disappears down pipes. Waste gets taken away. Electricity arrives with the flick of a switch.
Cities are designed to make all of this feel effortless.
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Imagine a glacier the size of a city… slowly bulldozing its way across the landscape. What kind of mess does it leave behind?
Because here’s the thing—glaciers don’t just carve mountains. They completely redesign entire regions. Valleys, plains, even farmland today—all shaped by ice that disappeared thousands of years ago.
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Imagine standing on a hillside after heavy rain. The ground looks stable enough at first glance, but deep inside the slope, things are changing. Water is seeping in, particles are loosening, and gravity is waiting. Eventually, the slope gives way. That is mass movement: the downslope transfer of weathered material under gravity.
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From Baby Boom to Baby Bust
For most of the 20th century, population debates focused on rapid growth, “overpopulation” and pressure on resources. Today, the story is shifting. Global total fertility has more than halved since around 1950, falling from about 5 children per woman to roughly 2.2 in 2021. According to recent UN and Lancet‑linked analyses, over half of all countries already have fertility below the “replacement” level of about 2.1 children per woman needed to keep populations stable without immigration.
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As countries become richer and improve living conditions, they move from a pattern dominated by infectious diseases and high mortality to one dominated by chronic (degenerative) diseases and lower mortality. This shift is closely linked to changes in demography (falling death rates, then falling birth rates), urbanisation, and improvements in health care, nutrition and hygiene.
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Geographers measure population change by looking at how many people are born, how many die, and how many move in or out of a place. In other words, population change is driven by three main components: fertility, mortality and migration.
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For much of recent history, people have equated population change with population growth. Over the last two centuries, global population has risen dramatically, with especially rapid growth between the 1950s and the late 20th century. However, this is only part of the story: some regions still grow quickly, others are close to zero growth, and several countries now face population decline.
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Critical thinking in geography means slowing down, asking sharp questions about places and patterns, and using evidence and logic (not just opinions) to reach a better conclusion.
Geography is more than maps and place names; it is about the “whys of where” – why things are located where they are, and how places are connected. Critical thinking in geography means making sense of spatial patterns, questioning sources, and linking local places to global processes.
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The world of work is changing fast. New jobs pop up overnight. Others disappear just as quickly. You’re constantly hearing that AI is replacing workers and that traditional education doesn’t matter anymore. On top of that, you’re expected to choose a major—and basically predict your entire future—before you’ve even had time to explore what you’re good at or what you enjoy.
A lot of students feel stuck thinking:
“I want options… but I’m scared that choosing something broad is risky.”
That fear makes sense. But here’s the truth: in today’s world, flexibility isn’t a weakness—it’s a superpower.
And that’s where Geography comes in.
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The mainstream media always seems keen to talk down “Green Energy” and expects us to believe that “Fossil Fuels” will not only be dominant but will continue to increase until at least 2050. Where do they get their assumptions from? Often, they use data from the IEA, but tend to misquote the source.
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Tropical cyclones are powerful weather systems that develop over warm tropical and subtropical oceans. They are associated with extremely low air pressure, meaning that air at the Earth’s surface is rising rather than sinking. As air rises, pressure at the surface decreases, which helps draw in surrounding air and fuels storm development. Tropical cyclones are sometimes referred to as tropical storms, hurricanes, or typhoons depending on where they form, but they are all the same type of atmospheric phenomenon.
Tropical cyclones gain their energy from warm ocean water, which provides heat and moisture. As the storm strengthens, surface winds begin to rotate around the centre in a continuous circular pattern known as closed circulation. The direction of this rotation depends on the hemisphere: storms rotate anticlockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere due to the Coriolis effect, which is caused by the Earth’s rotation.
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The industrial system
The industrial system is a multifaceted web of economic activities and processes dedicated to the large-scale production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. This system encompasses diverse sectors, including manufacturing, mining, energy production, transportation, and infrastructure, all of which collaboratively drive economic growth and development. At its essence, the industrial system involves transforming raw materials into finished products through a series of interconnected activities. This intricate process often begins with the extraction or procurement of raw materials, such as minerals, metals, or agricultural produce sourced from natural resources or primary producers.
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Counter-urbanisation, also known as de-urbanisation, refers to the movement of people and economic activities away from major cities and into suburban or rural areas. This process represents a significant reversal of the traditional urbanisation trend that dominated the 19th and 20th centuries, where people migrated in large numbers from rural areas to cities in search of employment and opportunities. Counter-urbanisation has gained considerable prominence in recent decades, particularly in More Economically Developed Countries (MEDCs), as a response to various push and pull factors. This demographic shift has had notable and far-reaching effects on society, the economy, and the environment as rural populations increase and the character of these areas transforms.
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Urbanisation is the process by which an increasing proportion of a country’s population comes to live in towns and cities rather than in rural areas. This process has been one of the most powerful forces shaping society during the 20th and 21st centuries. It has changed where people live, how they work, and how they interact with the natural environment.
In 1900, only about 16% of the world’s population lived in urban areas. By 1960 this had risen to 34%, and by 2040 it is expected to reach around 67% — meaning two-thirds of all people will live in cities or towns. The shift has been global but has taken place at different speeds in different regions.
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Moisture in the Air - From Invisible Vapour to Wild Weather
Atmospheric moisture is all about how water moves between the surface and the air, constantly cycling through evaporation, condensation, clouds and precipitation. Think of the atmosphere as a leaky storage tank whose capacity depends strongly on temperature: warm air can hold a lot of water vapour, while cold air can only hold a little.
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Climate change is now widely accepted as one of the biggest global challenges, influencing not only temperatures but also how water moves through the environment. Around the world, patterns of rainfall and snowfall—known collectively as precipitation—are changing. These shifts affect rivers, lakes, groundwater, and even the timing of floods and droughts.
Precipitation changes can vary by region: some areas are becoming wetter, while others are drying out. These changes have strong effects on drainage basins, the land areas where all the water that falls eventually drains into a river or lake. The way a drainage basin reacts to changing precipitation depends on its climate, geology, vegetation, and human activity. Scientists are studying these systems to predict how rainfall changes might affect river flow, groundwater levels, and overall water balance in places such as deserts, temperate plains, rainforests, and mountains.
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Venezuela and the Global Geography of Oil
Oil, often referred to as “black gold,” is one of the most crucial resources in our modern world. Understanding its geography can help us grasp its impact on economies, politics, and our environment. This introduction will explore where oil is found, how it is extracted, and its significance on a global scale.
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Collecting Population Data in Developed and Developing Countries
Counting the heads
Accurate population data is a fundamental resource for governments worldwide, whether in developed or developing countries. It provides essential insights into the size, distribution, and characteristics of populations, enabling informed decision-making and effective planning across multiple sectors.
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This podcast examines how well the world is doing, cutting carbon emissions.
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Rainforest deforestation is not confined to the Amazon
Rainforest deforestation is not just a problem in the Amazon; it affects tropical forests across the globe. In 2024 and 2025, record-breaking deforestation has been reported in Southeast Asia, Central Africa, and other parts of South America. For example, Indonesia and Malaysia have seen their primary rainforest losses slow, but the Congo Basin, which contains the world’s second-largest rainforest after the Amazon, has reached its highest-ever rates of untouched forest loss. Agricultural expansion for crops like soy and palm oil, cattle ranching, illegal logging, and especially wildfires driven by climate change have been key causes. In Bolivia, forest loss has increased almost fivefold since 2020, driven by drought, fires, and policies promoting cash crops and livestock.
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China, home to over 1.4 billion people, stood as the world’s most populous country until recently, surpassed by India in 2023. Its demographic trajectory, however, presents a mounting challenge that threatens to reshape the nation’s economic and social fabric profoundly. After decades of sustained population growth, which fuelled rapid industrialisation and urban expansion, China is now encountering a steep demographic transition characterised by a rapidly aging population and a declining birth rate.
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Air masses and the inter-tropical convergence zone
The inter-tropical convergence zone (ITCZ) is where the trade winds converge; it is an area of uplift of air. The air that converges on the ITCZ does not have the differences in temperature and density that are typical of convergence at the polar front, and therefore there are no weather fronts. Equatorial weather, despite this, is far from placid. Heating the tropical air can cause instability and periods of heavy rainfall, which is of vital importance to some tropical regions. This rainfall occurs when mT (maritime Tropical) air is drawn in over the land but, when the source region is a continent, dry weather persists. This conflict between mT and cT (continental Tropical) is played out each year over the west coast of Africa.
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The comparison of London and Mumbai illustrates how the issues of urbanisation are universal but are shaped and expressed in drastically different ways by a city’s stage of development. London, as a post-industrial city, grapples with issues of social inequality, gentrification, and the challenges of managing a highly regulated, yet ageing, infrastructure. Its environmental challenges are being met with sophisticated policy tools and technological solutions. In stark contrast, Mumbai, as a rapidly urbanising EDC city, faces more fundamental challenges, from extreme poverty and a lack of basic services to environmental crises rooted in rapid, often unregulated, growth.
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An explanation of Atmospheric and Oceanic circulation
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An ever-improved understanding of atmospheric processes is required if popular interest in the weather and climatic change is to be satisfied. Satellites with a range of remote sensing devices can now give us an almost instantaneous picture of global weather. This vast increase in information has to be matched with improved computer capacity and software, in order to arrive at an understanding of the atmosphere’s behaviour.
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Factories faded, suburbs sprawled, and glass towers rose where cranes once loaded coal. We dive into the three forces that rewired modern cities—deindustrialisation, decentralisation, and the rise of the service economy—and map how they still shape jobs, housing, transport, and climate today.
We start with the collapse of manufacturing in the UK, US, and beyond, unpacking the combined punch of globalisation, automation, and policy. From the textile exodus to robotics on car lines, we connect the dots between job losses, urban decline, brownfield legacies, and the human cost felt in places built around a single industry. Detroit’s long fall lays out the consequences: population flight, abandoned assets, and fiscal crisis—and the lessons any city can use to avoid repeating them.
Then we shift to the outward pull of decentralisation. Affordable cars, expanded highways, and better telecoms moved people and firms to the edge, birthing suburban hubs and business parks while draining traditional high streets. London’s multi-nodal evolution—from Croydon and Stratford to Canary Wharf—shows how a polycentric metropolis grows, and the complex inequalities it can generate. We weigh the environmental toll of sprawl, car dependence, and fragmented public services against the lifestyle gains that attracted millions.
Finally, we chart the service economy’s ascent. Finance, tech, healthcare, education, and creative industries revived cores left empty by factory closures, powered by digital transformation and rising consumer demand. Regeneration of London’s docklands and Manchester’s media and university clusters reveal how strategic planning, skills, and placemaking can turn dereliction into durable growth—while highlighting the skills gap that leaves many workers behind.
Throughout, we draw the threads together to ask what comes next as climate change, automation, and digitisation reshape work and space again. If you care about urban policy, equitable growth, and the future of cities, this deep dive offers clear language, sharp case studies, and practical takeaways. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves cities, and leave a review with the one change you’d make to your own city’s future.
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Lifelines in Earth's Arid Lands
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Some hints for senior school students preparing for exams.
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In an era where the impacts of climate change are increasingly evident, climate literacy has emerged as a critical component of education. Climate literacy refers to an understanding of the climate system, the scientific principles that underpin it, the ways human activities influence climate, and the potential consequences of climate change.
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A brief introduction to the structure of the earth, plate tectonics and earth forces.
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Survival of the long-term leader by Geography Expert:
The video is about the speaker's experience as a head teacher for 23 years.
The speaker shares his insights on how to stay motivated and effective in a long-term leadership position. He emphasizes the importance of embracing change, looking for new challenges, and developing new projects. He also stresses the need to be self-aware and guard against one's ego getting in the way of the job. Additionally, he recommends accepting board or community positions to broaden one's experience and network. Finally, he encourages leaders to enjoy their work, be creative, and not get stuck in a rut.
Here are some specific examples from the video:
- The speaker describes how he set up a charity to support his school, a community interest company to look for new ways of funding, and a school farm to offer vocational and support opportunities.
- He also talks about how he developed his accounting skills in order to submit annual accounts to company's house and the Charity's regulator.
- He admits to being outspoken and sometimes impatient, and he shares how he has worked on delegating tasks and communicating more effectively with his subordinates.
- He also describes how he has served on several boards, including a local Enterprise company, local FE College, and local University, as well as some local charities.
Overall, the video provides valuable insights for anyone in a long-term leadership position. The speaker's advice is based on his own experience and is sure to be helpful for others who are looking to stay motivated and effective in their roles.
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Exploring how I survived! and enjoyed 23 years as a secondary headteacher.
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A brief podcast to explain how a question on Corrie formation would be maked.
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A short podcast explaining to students - how to answer examination questions in Geography. Giving hints on how exams are marked and what markers are looking for in an answer. The sample exam question is from the Atmosphere topic. The hints are from a former Principal Examiner of Geography who was responsible for setting and marking exams for 10 years.
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This podcast is to help senior students revise the Population topic in Geography. It is accompanied by a downloadable pdf from my website which also has sample examination questions and some answers.
https://www.ritchiecunningham.com/_files/ugd/9d30e8_9d64b6d5194e4917b1e4c25068370947.pdf
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This episode describes the main topics in the Geography topic "Atmosphere" and is aimed at senior students revising for examinations. My revision notes (Atmosphere Revision) to assist students are available free to download from my website www.ritchiecunningham.com in the senior secondary resources section.
This is a short chapter in my short novel 4C, available through Amazon. The novel is a collection of funny stories and situations, set in a 1960s Grammar School.
It is nostalgic, amusing and reflects on the experience of being a teenager in a large school.
This podcast is a nice short bedtime story.
This is a right old grump bemoaning the trend for more and more pets, with the consequent costs to the environment.
This story recounts a prank, played by some geography teachers on a senior pupil, in the late 1970s.
A speech originally delivered at the Rehearsal Dinner for my son Gregor and his bride Cristina on 27th May 2022.
This is the first in a series of Leadership Podcasts. This introduction concentrates on School Leadership for most of the exemplars.
A speech originally delivered at the Rehearsal Dinner for my son Gregor and his Bride Cristina 27th May 2022
This story recounts a prank played by some Geography teachers on a Senior pupil in the 1970's
An examination of some issues relating to Migration, both internal and international migration. Examining "Push" and "Pull " factors. Forced migration, rural-urban migration and counter-migration. As well as some theories of migration.
A short introduction is followed by an examination of methods used to determine past climates and the natural causes for these changes in climate. Examining astronomical factors as well as more earth-bound factors which can influence the climate.
Pollen analysis, dendrochronology and isotope analysis are explained.
This podcast introduces key terms in relation to population distribution as well as the human and physical factors which influence population distribution and density of poulation.
This is a brief introduction to the topic Population and Migration. It introduces some basic concepts and terminology.
This podcast examines the natural and human-induced phenomena that lead to climate change. The first part of the podcast examines climate change over the millennia while the last part concentrates on climate change caused by a rapidly growing human population and its use of the earth's resources. An excellent introduction to the topic of climate change.