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This episode of The Thought Exchange is a conversation with guerrilla geographer and creative explorer Dan Raven-Ellison. I first met Dan 11 years ago when our sons became friends and I have followed his work with great interest ever since, as he has developed a series of fascinating projects and achieved major success in his field. Dan is a National Geographic explorer and an Ordnance Survey Get Outside Champion. He is passionate about walking through all landscapes, whether rural or urban. He has walked across London, Mumbai, Mexico City and Guatemala City, aswell as through all of the UK’s National Parks and many other places across the UK and internationally. Dan credits his freedom to roam in childhood as the foundation of his passion for being and exploring outdoors, preferring the slower experience of walking to the speed of cars, trains and bikes which is how the majority of people interact with the geography of our developed world. Dan focuses on projects which disrupt the ways in which we relate to the landscapes we encounter. Walking through all 15 of the UK’s national parks inspired Dan to campaign for a declaration of London as the world’s first National Park City, which he achieved in July 2019 with the support of thousands, including Mayor Sadiq Khan. He has recorded the use of land in the UK and Netherlands with a series of 100 second long films where each second relates to 1% of the land use. Dan is a radical and progressive thinker, with core values which include trying to encourage others, especially children and young people, to share his love of being outside and exploring. A brilliant speaker and an engaging teacher, he is a true pioneer who changes the way people think about the world around them