Mike Wendling

Season 38, episode 13, London Derangement Syndrome.

Why has one of the world's most favored cities developed a bad reputation? Talking with Mike Wendling.

London is the capital of the United Kingdom.

With a population of 9 million people, its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe at 15.4 million people.

But a growing perception fed by social media is that it's become a crime-ridden hellhole with no-go areas that the police are afraid to enter, and cultural alienation is rife, again fed by social media.

How has this mischaracterization taken root? And we have to remember that in 2025, London came in number one in the index of world's best cities.

Joining us today to dismantle this negative profile is Mike Wendling, reporter, broadcaster, editor, and writer.

You may remember Mike from his 20-year career at the BBC, including as editor and presenter of the award-winning BBC World Service programme, Trending Specialties, where he covered social networking and social media investigations.

Skeptics with a K is produced by Skeptic Media in association with the Merseyside Skeptic Society, a non-profit organization for the promotion of scientific skepticism on Merseyside around the UK and internationally.

I'm your host, Mike Hall.

With me today is Marsh.

Hello.

The final thing to talk about this is privacy, because people are also worried.

Does that mean that people can tell that the text came from my Claude account? Not just a Claude, but my Claude.

If I write this and put it up on a website, can somebody track that back and say that was written by Mike's Claude specifically?

I mean, probably my instinct would be no, and that's a shame.

That is the full lineup of speakers that we have booked for the event.

So that is going to include Jim Al-Khalili, Sheena Cruikshank, Chantal Dondas, Onyeka Nubia, Lili O'Farrell, Massimo Polidoro, Christina Poggle, James Shakespeare, and Mike Wendling.

We also have got a panel session.

So Alice, we've got your panel discussion on supplements.