The Monkey Mayor of Hartlepool (2002) w/ Tim Harford

It’s April 28th. This day in 2002, the northeastern English town of Hartlepool is gearing up for a mayoral election, where they would end up voting in… the local football club’s monkey mascot to run their government.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Tim Harford to discuss the story of how H’Angus the Monkey got elected, and how the man inside the suit, Stuart Drummond, went on to be a very effective administrator.

Be sure to check out Tim’s excellent podcast “Cautionary Tales” from Pushkin Media.

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And don’t forget about Oprahdemics, hosted by Kellie, out now from Radiotopia.

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Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Julie Shapiro and Audrey Mardavich, Executive Producers at Radiotopia