
This Way Up: When Maps Go Wrong (and Why it Matters) with The Map Men

Saturday 10 October 2026
3.30-4.30pm
£12
The Exchange Studio
Join Mark Cooper-Jones and Jay Foreman, the brilliant minds behind The Map Men, for a hilarious look at cartography's biggest blunders. Combining their passion for maps, history and storytelling, the duo will reveal some of the very best wrong maps.
These include world maps, colonial maps, corporate maps, Soviet maps, pioneer maps, news maps and maps whose intended use was hijacked for a French surrealist political movement in the 1950s.
Whether you’re an avid map junkie or simply ‘map-curious’, you will uncover a unique tale of adventure, error and unexpected humour as they attempt to answer the question: ‘What on earth happened here?’
So, ditch the compass (or disable location services) and set out on a journey with the Map Men into a world of cartographic chaos and mappy mishaps.
Because the worst maps are the best maps.
Comedians, cartography enthusiasts, YouTubers and educators, Map Men are JAY FOREMAN and MARK COOPER-JONES.
A former geography teacher, Mark has always loved the subject of geography. After performing a series of acclaimed Edinburgh Festival stand-up shows about being a geography teacher (see also: ‘therapy’), Mark joined forces with Jay Foreman, with his preexisting YouTube channel and similar geeky-geography-esque interests, to create ‘Map Men’, a YouTube series about the stories behind maps, and curious geographical questions. Jay Foreman is a comedian from London best known as half of the YouTube duo ‘Map Men’. Jay began his comedy career in 2009 as a musical comedian, performing shows at the Edinburgh Fringe and around the UK.