4 Exciting Things Near Our Upcoming Live Podcast In London
Hey there, folks! I'm Alex Schmidt, your pal who hosts The Cracked Podcast. I want you to take a look at this poster:
That's right, we are live in London soon. It's a real show and everything! "How real, Alex?" Great question, Voice In My Head With A British Accent. It's so real that it has a date, a handy link for tickets, and a seat on an 11-hour flight with my name on it. Yes sirree, I'm about to be a world traveler! A globetrotter! I'm basically Indiana Jones!
I don't know about you, Potential UK Live Podcast Attendee, but when I go out to see a show, I like to tack on one or two additional adventures. I work in a meal, or an experience, or a third thing that makes missing my cat worthwhile.
So that's why I'm here in a text format today. I don't just want you to buy a ticket for our live podcast in London. I want you to supplement it with one of these incredible experiences that are all around the venue.
Islington
Yes, Islington! Our live podcast is at the lovely venue Kings Place. It's also part of a big honkin' London Podcast Festival -- or as you Brits spell that, "a big hounkin' Loundoun Poudcast Festival." I'll be staying near Kings Place when I'm in town ("touwn"?), and in the process of booking that lodging, I made a wonderful discovery. A discovery so wonderful that I broadcast it worldwide on my country's Official Presidential Announcement System:
If you know your Douglas Adams, you'll remember the part in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy when Arthur Dent goes to a party at somebody's flat, and it's not that good, but he does meet Trillian. The flat is in Islington! Later, the Earth explodes. Total science fiction!
Anyway, that book is dedicated to Adams' former roommates in Islington. Because he once lived there! Right near our show! You can go see the front of their place and everything. Also, blogger Nelson Noven wrote this wonderful rundown of Islington's other literary ties, plus its movie locations. Islington is key to everything from the funny TV show Spaced to the great Neil Gaiman novel Neverwhere. So buy a ticket to our live podcast in London, because you can bank some time to swing by the Order of the Phoenix on the way to the show. Live a little!
Tourist Stuff
Speaking of living a little, I've visited London once before. So yes, of course I got a picture taken doing the Platform 9 3/4 thing.
Platform 9 3/4 is at King's Cross Station, directly next to our venue. Platform 9 3/4 is also tourist stuff. Like most tourist stuff, it is fun. Do it! Or if you already Pottered there, may I recommend looking closely at the real-life King's Cross Station? Take yourself on an architecture tour of it. Or if you're coming to our show from south of King's Cross, why not stop by Charles Dickens' actual house? Or Sir John Soane's apparent insanity, represented by his insane house?
I could suggest a hundred things like that for any cardinal direction you're coming from. London is the Oops! All Berries of notable old things. And guess what? You need a new "What I did the other day" for the next time you're in a conversation or courting a lover. So buy a ticket to our live podcast in London, and map a route to the venue that includes a conversation piece.
Edgy Stuff
Ah, London. No other city has more spooky sad landmarks that are now a nice street with a Nando's. (NOTE: If you are a non-Brit who's reading this article for funsies, open another tab right this second and find your nearest peri-peri chicken joint.)
Do you know what a plague pit is? If not, can you presume what it is? Dear reader, you can. According to your beloved BBC, one fifth of London's population died in a plague epidemic in 1665 CE. Much of the city now features pretty green spaces and winding Underground routes that are accommodating centuries-old mass graves. If you're in the mood, you can visit those plague pits in Shoreditch, Stepney, Walthamstow, and other places with Monty-Python-ass names I assume are a practical joke on me.
Plague pits are the tip of London's dark-stuff iceberg. London has one of the world's most famous public execution sites. It's got a heinous torture prison that's somehow too mainstream of a tourist destination. It's got an entire neighborhood whose chief industry is Jack the Ripper. Of course, you don't have to go see any of that. If I'm you, I go see the live Cracked Podcast, then hit up this fun-looking nearby bar for some not-scary Sega Mega Drive.
But if you want a live podcast day that includes the ominous WWII propaganda offices that inspired 1984's Ministry of Truth, you can make it happen. Buy a ticket to our live podcast in London and creep yourself out to your heart's content.
An Urban Legend Ghost Chicken
Lemme leave you with a fun spooky chicken story that'll give you a taste of our live show in London.
Our episode is about "Little-Known Funny & Strange Stories From The Lives Of Great Scientists." I'm joined by incredible guests like Robin Ince, who merge science with comedy better than anybody. And the show's packed with amazing stories, like the last one in this delightful article by Jonathan Wojcik.
It's a story from the year 1626. That year saw the death of scientist Sir Francis Bacon, who I am amazed to learn was not Porky Pig in full plate armor. According to legend, Sir Bacon died from a spur-of-the-moment refrigeration experiment. He killed a chicken, hand-packed it in snow to preserve it, and got so cold in the process he died of pneumonia. This maybe-apocryphal event happened in Highgate, a London neighborhood made famous by the British singer-songwriter Dame Taylor Swift.
Ever since Bacon's death, Highgate locals keep seeing a ghost. Not the ghost of Father of Empiricism Sir Francis Bacon. No, they keep seeing the ghost of the chicken Bacon killed. It keeps squawking around town spookily! You can swing up there and look for it if you want! Isn't that wild? It is. Please buy a ticket to our live podcast in London for more tales like that, about scientific titans from Einstein to Newton to Ibn al-Haytham. It'll be fun, it'll be one-of-a-kind, and I'd love to meet you in person in your wonderful weird confusing old city.
