Alex Turner

This image features the logo and title for Bristol Unpacked, a podcast presented by The Bristol Cable. It includes stylized illustrations of host Neil Maggs and this week's guest, Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer in yellow circles against a grey abstract background.

Listen: Bristol Unpacked with Neil Maggs

Listen: Bristol Unpacked, with Labour councillor Kirsty Tait on the Just Transition and how best to spend £20m in Hartcliffe

Neil asks Hartcliffe and Withywood representative Kirsty Tait about the government money the neighbourhood is getting – and about the importance of putting working-class voices at the centre of climate conversations.

Listen: Bristol Unpacked – from Wigan to LA, via Eastville, with Bristol Northern Soul Club

Listen: Bristol Unpacked – high sheriff Kalpna Woolf on connecting people through food and battling for boardroom diversity

Illustration of rows of orange and green houses plus cards from the game Monopoly.

Investigations

Bristol council paying huge sums of money to rent homes from banned landlord

Back in 2022, Bristol City Council obtained a five-year court order barring landlord Naomi Knapp from renting out her homes. Now, it’s spending hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money to use her properties as emergency accommodation.

Listen: Bristol Unpacked with Neil Maggs

Listen: Bristol Unpacked – council leader Tony Dyer on a year of Green power in Bristol

Investigations

Revealed: how two Bristol men lifted the lid on their union’s failures to tackle racism

Listen: Bristol Unpacked with David Jubb of Citizens in Power – can citizens’ assemblies relight our democratic fires?

Neil sits down with David Jubb to talk citizens' assemblies: how do they work, why are they a better way of doing politics, and what's the new one he's helping run here in the West of England all about?

Listen: Bristol Unpacked with the BBC’s Pete Simson on the WECA mayoral election, making politics interesting and why snacks matter

Neil talks to Pete Simson, BBC Politics West editor, about the race to become the new mayor of the West of England Combined Authority and whether an upset in the 2025 election is likely after Arron Banks' entry.

Listen: Bristol Unpacked with photographer Colin Moody on documenting the city, and the threats to its nightlife

In the first of a new season of Unpacked, Neil talks to Colin about his new book collaboration with Jasmine Ketibuah-Foley, celebrating Bristol's nightlife – and the challenges venues face in the post-Covid era.

Listen: Bristol Unpacked with barrister Lucy Reed, on opening the secretive family courts to scrutiny

The family courts, which make orders for children to be taken into care, have long been a hidden world, but that's now changing. Neil talks to barrister and transparency campaigner Lucy about why this matters, and how the system needs to change.

Listen: Bristol Unpacked, with former Lord Mayor Paul Goggin on homelessness, mental health and the struggle for south Bristol votes

'It's been eventful', says Paul Goggin, of a life that has featured both rough sleeping and local politics. He joins Neil Maggs to talk housing, faith, and whether Labour should fear Reform in wards like Hartcliffe and Withywood.

Listen: Bristol Unpacked with Amanda Sharman on leading the charge for boat-dwellers’ rights

Who are the boat-dwellers living around Bristol's harbour, and why have they been at loggerheads with Bristol City Council? Neil Maggs chats to Bristol Boaters' Community Association co-chair Amanda Sharman to find out.