Here There Be Dragons is a podcast inspired by the strategies city residents use to navigate fear and uncertainty in their cities. The show takes lived experiences seriously as credible data that reveals the impact of public policy and cultural attitudes on our feelings of safety and insecurity in urban space. Through interviews and research it takes a new perspective on urban insecurity, revealing how our mental maps evolve over time as we shed old fears, myths, and biases while picking up new ones. Each episode asks city residents to talk about the strategies that they deploy, the risks they take, and the boundaries they draw within their cities. Season three of Here There Be Dragons focuses on Stockholm, exploring how the rise of urbanization, the struggle to become a diverse city, and the uncertainty of a sustainable future affects residents’ feelings of safety and belonging.

Jess Myers is an urbanist, podcaster, and editor focusing on urban planning and architecture. In 2017, she received a master’s in city planning from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She also holds a bachelor’s in architecture from Princeton University. Outside of her work as an assistant professor in the Rhode Island School of Design’s Architecture Department, Myers is the editor of Taking Freedom, a social justice book series, forthcoming from a coalition of the Service Employees International Union, MIT’s Community Innovators Lab, and the City University of New York (CUNY)’s School of Labor and Urban Studies. She also serves as the chapter steward for the Architecture Lobby’s New York chapter. In the past, Myers has worked in diverse roles—archivist, translator, analyst—in both New York and Paris, within cultural practices that include Bernard Tschumi Architects and the Pompidou Center. Her personal interests and research engage multimedia platforms as a means to explore culture and urban space.