50 Shades of Planning
Hosted by Sam Stafford · Samuel Stafford
5.0from 25 ratings
- 180
- Episodes
- 66
- Transcribed
- 25
- Ratings
- Daily
- Cadence
- 2019
- First episode
- 2K
- YouTube views
About 50 Shades of Planning
50 Shades of Planning is Sam Stafford’s (https://linktr.ee/samuel_stafford) attempt to explore the foibles of the English planning system and its aim is to cover the breadth of the sector both in terms of topics of conversation and in terms of guests with different experiences and perspectives. 50 Shades episodes include 'Hitting The High Notes', which are a series of conversations with leading planning and property figures. The conversations take in the six milestone planning permissions or projects within a contributor’s career and for every project guests are invited to choose a piece of music that they were listening to at that time. Think Desert Island Discs, but for planners. 50 Shades episode also include the 'All Around the World' series, which is being led by friend of the podcast, Paul Smith (https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-smith-b10aa820/). Paul put it to Sam that debates about the planning system in England tend, for the most part, to focus solely on the planning system in England. Planners here very seldom look to other countries for inspiration and ideas. Paul wanted to remedy that and so in this series he chats with planning professionals and academics from a number of countries to find out what works well there, what works less well, and what can be learnt. Sam is on Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/samuelstafford.bsky.social) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/samuel__stafford/), and his blogs can be found here (http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/). The 50 Shades platforms are expressions of Sam's personal opinions, which may or may not represent the opinions of his past, present or future employers. 50 Shades of Planning is by planners and for planners and so if you would like to use the podcast or the YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@FiftyShadesofPlanning) channel for sharing anything you think that the sector needs to be talking about then do please feel free to get in touch with Sam via samstafford@hotmail.com or the 50 Shades WhatsApp Community (https://chat.whatsapp.com/H11rwg1qlCn58EJ3t8eoI7). Why Fifty Shades? Well, town and country planning is very much not a black and white endeavour. There are at least fifty shades in between....
- Publisher
- Samuel Stafford
- Category
- arts · business · government · news · science
- Language
- en
- Explicit
- No
- First episode
- 15 Apr 2019
- Latest episode
- 26 Sept 2026
Latest episodes
66 of 180 episodes have a transcript.
26 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT
A Framework-Led Conversation
19 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT
Meet a MP and an AM - Reform UK
5 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT
We Can't Stop Planning
Inside a recent episode
A Framework-Led Conversation
Published 26 Sept 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] There was a LinkedIn thing from Stacey, but when I looked at the aerial photograph, it looked as though it had housing surrounding it and to the south being developed. Is it the settlement boundaries? had gone, I don't know why I'm using my finger on an audio podcast, for your purposes, if not the listeners' purposes. If the settlement boundary had gone like that, it's clearly an infill plot, but the settlement boundary had gone. So many boundaries are historical, aren't they? […]
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See plansWho has been a guest on 50 Shades of Planning
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
- Simon Ricketts
- Andrew Taylor
- Mike Kiely
- Alex Wilson
- Richard Tice
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
- YouTube views
- 1,782
- Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
- Spotify
- 5.0 / 5
- 25 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 87 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
- Quality
- 90
- Social presence
- 91
- YouTube
- 74
- Engagement
- 90
Contact 50 Shades of Planning
- Guest appearances
- Books guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
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Questions about 50 Shades of Planning
Who hosts 50 Shades of Planning?
Sam Stafford host the show. Published by Samuel Stafford.
How often do new episodes come out?
The show publishes daily, based on its RSS feed.
Does 50 Shades of Planning take guests?
Yes. Guests have been identified in episode analyses.
Where can I read transcripts?
66 of 180 episodes have a transcript on Pod Engine. Full transcripts are available with a Pod Engine plan.
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