Spellbreakers Ep. 174: Summer Abroad - The City of London

Host Matt Trump invites you to grab your passport for a summer abroad, trading the just-finished World Cup for a walking tour of one of the most talked-about square miles on Earth: the City of London. Styling himself as the Rick Steves of Badlands and armed with a guidebook he bought in London back in 2000 (and is only now actually reading), he drops you off at Bank Station and strolls past Mansion House, the Royal Exchange, the Bank of England, and streets with names like Threadneedle and St. Mary Axe. Along the way he untangles the "City of London" as both a literal place and a synecdoche for global financial power, muses on the difference between Greater London and its odd little self-governing core, and shares memories of his own stint doing foreign exchange out at Canary Wharf. Expect history, geopolitics, wry asides about Fort Knox, and a promise to continue the tour next week.