Humanities and Social Sciences – Pod Academy: Recent Episodes
Humanities and Social Sciences – Pod Academy
“My grandchildren are so busy with all their extra classes that I seem to spend most our time together acting as a taxi service.”
“When the children come to stay I’m constantly worried about keeping them safe.”
“ I’d love to have fun with them, but my daughter expects me to supervise their homework and test them on their spelling.”
Are today’s grandmothers too protective and anxious? Benedetta Cappelini, Professor of Marketing at the University of Durham, certainly thinks so. She talks to Sally Feldman, who is currently writing a book of advice for new grannies, about the effects of the new trend in intensive parenting.
‘Intensiveparenting’, with its emphasis on extra curricular activities, supervised ‘playdates’ and conversations about thoughts and feelings is fast becoming the norm for this generation of parents, requiring the investment of significant amounts of time, money and energy in raising children. What are the implications for grandparents who did not raise their own children in this way, but who regularly look after their grandchildren?
The post Grandmothers and ‘intensive parenting’ appeared first on Pod Academy.
“My grandchildren are so busy with all their extra classes that I seem to spend most our time together acting as a taxi service.”
“When the children come to stay I’m constantly worried about keeping them safe.”
“ I’d love to have fun with them, but my daughter expects me to supervise their homework and test them on their spelling.”
Are today’s grandmothers too protective and anxious? Benedetta Cappelini, Professor of Marketing at the University of Durham, certainly thinks so. She talks to Sally Feldman, who is currently writing a book of advice for new grannies, about the effects of the new trend in intensive parenting.
‘Intensiveparenting’, with its emphasis on extra curricular activities, supervised ‘playdates’ and conversations about thoughts and feelings is fast becoming the norm for this generation of parents, requiring the investment of significant amounts of time, money and energy in raising children. What are the implications for grandparents who did not raise their own children in this way, but who regularly look after their grandchildren?
The post Grandmothers and ‘intensive parenting’ appeared first on Pod Academy.
What are grandmothers for? That’s what Sally Feldman wondered when she first learned that her daughter was pregnant. As a former editor of BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour she was familiar with so many aspects of female experiences. But faced with the prospect of a grandchild, she realised she was clueless. So now she’s writing a book of advice for new grandmothers. This podcast is a conversation with four grandmothers. Their discussion is a taster of the forthcoming book, featuring some of the joys and challenges of this most precious role.
Sally would love to hear from other grandmothers, so do send your comments here, or else contact her at: sallyjoyfeldman@gmail.com
The post How to be a (nearly) perfect grandmother appeared first on Pod Academy.
With Covid rates remaining stubbornly high and a huge pent-up demand for hospital care, the UK’s National Health Service faces a tough winter and intensive care wards are the canary in the mine. Pod Academy talks to doctors on the front line.
The post NHS: A cold Covid winter ahead? appeared first on Pod Academy.
It’s not about individual countries. It’s not about individual regions. It’s not even about blocks. This doesn’t work unless we vaccinate everybody. But is geopolitics getting in the way of good public health policy as we strive to overcome COVID-19?
The post COVID-19 and the geopolitics of health appeared first on Pod Academy.
The death of writer and activist Nawal el Saadawi has just been announced. In 2011 Tess Woodcraft interviewed her at a conference organised by the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Right Organisation for Pod Academy.
The post Nawal el Saadawi – writer and activist appeared first on Pod Academy.
Journalism has sometimes been a dangerous profession during the Covid-19 pandemic, but there has been real innovation, too. Rachael Jolley considers how Covid 19 has influenced the future of journalism
The post Journalism in the pandemic: challenges and innovation appeared first on Pod Academy.
Authoritarian restrictions on the press, attacks on journalists in the streets and more accusations of ‘fake news’
The post The dangerous business of journalism in the pandemic appeared first on Pod Academy.
Local newspapers are in decline, exacerbated by the Covid pandemic. Can a new type of hyper-local journalism be the answer for local information and local democracy?
The post Local journalism in the pandemic appeared first on Pod Academy.
18th century Scottish Laird, James Bruce, becomes Lord of the Bedchamber in the Abyssinian/Ethiopian court and finds the source of the Nile.
The post James Bruce: an 18th century Scotsman’s journey to Abyssinia appeared first on Pod Academy.
What does it mean to be a ‘good man’? With so much talk about toxic masculinity, there is, perhaps. a pre-supposition that there is no good masculinity.
The post Masculinity appeared first on Pod Academy.
Is it right to brand all populism – Left and Right – as the same? No, argues Dr Marina Prentoulis in this lecture, part of the IF project series, Thinking between the Lines: Truth, Lies and Fiction in an age of populism.
The post Left Populism appeared first on Pod Academy.
“No one has ever doubted that truth and politics are on rather bad terms with each other” said political philosopher Hannah Arendt. Do all politicians lie?
The post Hannah Arendt – Truth and Politics appeared first on Pod Academy.
Who is allowed to make things up? What does fiction writing have to do with life? Is a novel a document? The second lecture in the series, Thinking Between the Lines: truth, lies and fiction in an age of populismexplores writing by women.
The post Making things up: what does it mean to ‘make things up’ in literature? appeared first on Pod Academy.
Why can’t we agree on what is true anymore? First lecture in the series Thinking Between the Lines: truth, lies and fiction in an age of populism
The post Nervous States appeared first on Pod Academy.
A social and political history of Britain from 1900 to the present.
The post Divided Kingdom appeared first on Pod Academy.
What is the real cost of IVF – not just the economic cost, but also the emotional and psychological costs. Is unsuccessful fertility treatment more devastating than no treatment at all, or is it better to at least have had the chance to try?
The post The Real Cost of IVF appeared first on Pod Academy.
We are at the beginning of a bio-medical revolution, a revolution the British government hopes will be one of the drivers of our post-Brexit economy. But what are the promises and pitfalls of putting our genome to work.
The post Putting our genome to work appeared first on Pod Academy.
Who are the Alt-Right? What are their ambitions? What do they really think of Donald Trump? And where do they go from here?
The post The Alt-Right – a journey into mainstream politics? appeared first on Pod Academy.
Journalism has been called ‘the first draft of history’, and like any first draft it may be written over, forgotten, ignored, as in this story from the build up to war in Iraq in 2003.
The post Journalism – the first draft of history? appeared first on Pod Academy.
We are living in an important moment, when politics is in flux. The alt-right has become a potent force that has shifted political discourse. But who or what is the alt-right?
The post “Kill all Normies”: the rise of the alt-right appeared first on Pod Academy.
Does the murderess offer unique insights into the gender dynamics, and broader cultural climate, of the society in which she lives?
The post Murder by women in eighteenth century London and Paris appeared first on Pod Academy.
What is the scorecard for President Donald Trump after the first 100 Days? “C minus overall,” says Professor Peter Trubowitz
The post Trump: the first 100 days appeared first on Pod Academy.
The explosion of social media has changed the political landscape – nowhere more than in the circulation of dubious ‘facts’. Fact-checking is an increasingly important branch of journalism.
The post Lies, damned lies and statistics: Fact-checking, the new journalism appeared first on Pod Academy.
We live in the ‘expository society’ says Prof Harcourt. Always on our digital devices, driven by desires, we expose ourselves, surrendering our thoughts, whereabouts and personal lives. But at what cost?
The post Digital exposure appeared first on Pod Academy.
The 2016 US election is ‘a referendum on how polarised the country is’ says Prof Trubowitz. So, which version of America will win the day? An insightful look at the candidates.
The post appeared first on Pod Academy.
“The American dream is dead. I will bring it back and we will make America great again…..” In nine months Donald Trump has stunned the political establishment, brushing aside other contenders to become the Republican nominee in the race for the…
The post The rise and rise of Donald Trump appeared first on Pod Academy.
“We always write – and read – history thought the prism of our contemporary concerns,” This podcast offers a thoughtful perspective on history, heritage, historiography, and historical sources.
The post Thinking and dying in London appeared first on Pod Academy.
In the fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel left a trail of breadcrumbs. Every day we leave a trail of digital breadcrumbs – locations tracked by phone companies, transport providers, banks and social apps. Our activities, our likes/dislikes, our contacts are mapped and stored. Who benefits?
The post Digital breadcrumbs: the data trail we leave behind us appeared first on Pod Academy.
Can a melody resist oppression? Can music be a weapon for change?
The post Music and Resistance appeared first on Pod Academy.
China asserts its cyber sovereignty using the internet’s architecture of the Domain Name System (DNS). The control techniques it has pioneered are now used by governments around the world.
The post Cyber sovereignty: The global Domain Name System in China appeared first on Pod Academy.
Most people with autism report being upset by their encounters with the police, yet police officers say they handle these situations well. Recent research suggests they need special training.
The post Autism – police practice needs to change appeared first on Pod Academy.
Emergency, emergency……Spike Lee’s film Chi-raq draws on the Lysistrata story for a searing indictment of gun violence in America
The post ‘It’s a war zone now, here’ appeared first on Pod Academy.
Academic theories on international relations are sometimes best explained through science fiction says Stephen Dyson – illustrating his thesis with Game of Thrones, Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica.
The post Otherworldly Politics – how science fiction can help us understand realpolitik appeared first on Pod Academy.
Norway’s liberal prisons have a 20% recidivism rate, whereas in UK and US 70% of prisoners re-offend. But it would take a daring politician to suggest moving from retribution to rehabilitation.
The post Prison – Does it work? Can it work? appeared first on Pod Academy.
For the UK, climate change will mean more rain and more flooding. We must think long term and invest now if we are to avert problems later. But are politicians listening?
The post The next big flood – Britain underwater appeared first on Pod Academy.
Clinics decide to provide treatment using donors; patients make a decision to receive treatment using donors; donors decide to donate. But donor-conceived children do not decide to be born. The implications.
The post Debating donor conception 10 years after the removal of anonymity appeared first on Pod Academy.
Lise Vogel’s Marxism and the Oppression of Women is regarded as one of the founding texts of Marxist Feminism. This recording of the relaunch of the book is part of our Marxism in the 21st Century series.
The post Marxism and the Oppression of Women appeared first on Pod Academy.
Masculinity is the issue at the heart of films about the Vietnam War.
The post Gender Ambiguity in Vietnam War Films appeared first on Pod Academy.
The initial optimism of the 2011 Arab Spring has been replaced by oppressive government or brutal civil war. Intervention by the West has been unsuccessful, the US should have learned the lessons of the Vietnam war.
The post The Arab Spring – a premature celebration appeared first on Pod Academy.
Dench, moist, punk, galivanting! All languages, at all times in history, have had slang – words that are new, controversial, exotic, that mark out the insider from the outsider.
The post Slang: a ‘dench’ podcast appeared first on Pod Academy.
‘When two personalities meet, an emotional storm is created’, said Wilfred Bion, one of the fathers of psychoanalysis. So can psychotherapy only ever ‘make the best of a bad job’ by turning that storm between the two people in the room to good account?
The post Making the best of a bad Job: An introduction to the life and work of Wilfred Bion appeared first on Pod Academy.
The whip is widely used in horse racing, but can the Stewards police its use adequately?
The post The use of the whip in horse racing appeared first on Pod Academy.
Horse racing over jumps is dangerous and sometimes horses have to be killed after suffering devastating injuries. Does the reporting of those deaths perpetuate the activities?
The post Horse Racing and Animal Welfare: Horse deaths over jumps appeared first on Pod Academy.
Journalism is changing and so are its audiences. Strong news journalism is crucial for citizenship, so does our increasing reliance on Facebook and YouTube for news and information have serious implications for democracy?
The post Journalism and its audiences appeared first on Pod Academy.
Does the legal term Hostis Humani Generis (the enemy of all mankind), create an extralegal space where the assassination of terrorists can be seen as legitimate?
The post Hostis Humani Generis – enemy of all mankind? appeared first on Pod Academy.
The possession of pornography depicting rape is now illegal in the UK as the result of campaigns by women’s organisations and academic lawyers.
The post Rape Pornography – winning a change in the law appeared first on Pod Academy.
In the ‘old game’, the analogue world of centralised knowledge institutions, knowledge was power. But now that knowledge is everywhere, the rules of the game have changed.
The post Digital tailspin: rules for the internet after Snowden appeared first on Pod Academy.
Unravelling a consumption conundrum – was it changing tastes and fashion that drove increased consumption during the industrial revolution or was it falling prices?
The post Did fashion drive the industrial revolution? appeared first on Pod Academy.
Universities should be places for innovation and ideas, challenging orthodoxy and asking radical questions. In this podcast we look at a new economic approach that hundreds of companies, universities, local governments and indviduals are signing up to.
The post Creating an Economy for the Common Good appeared first on Pod Academy.
A new project is developing the discipline of women’s legal history – and its work ranges from ostrich feathers to Greenham Common
The post Women’s Legal Landmarks appeared first on Pod Academy.
Born in India in 1832, and commemorated with statues in Glasgow, London and Kolkata, Lord Roberts was a veteran of Britain’s colonial wars in S Africa and Afghanistan.His is a darkness and light story of empire, fame, notoriety and charity. .
The post Field Marshall Lord Roberts VC appeared first on Pod Academy.
The world faces great problems but collectively we are not at the mercy of forces outside our control, the future is very much in our hands, says Prof Tony Atkinson
The post Inequality: What can be done? appeared first on Pod Academy.
Globalisation has improved nutrition and child mortality, increased income and life expectancy. But turbo-charged globalisation contains systemic risks – growing inequality, pandemics, cyber and terrorist attacks. Are our international institutions up to the challenge?
The post The Butterfly Defect: How globalization creates systemic risks, and what to do about It appeared first on Pod Academy.
We eat about 3 times more sugar than is healthy. Sugar is killing us. But still the food industry stuffs cheap food with more and more sugar, salt and palm oil, and markets it to some of the most vulnerable people in society.
The post Sugar, sugar everywhere appeared first on Pod Academy.
This podcast is a fascinating exploration of our urban smellscapes. It is part of our Feast for the Senses series.
The post Urban Smellscapes appeared first on Pod Academy.
The hauntingly beautiful music of the BayAka people, and their deep and abiding relationship to the rainforest in the Central African Republic.
The post Pitt Rivers Collection: The rainforest music of the BayAka appeared first on Pod Academy.
Growth is a fundamental tenet of capitalism, and growth is driving climate change and environmental degradation. So can capitalism provide a sustainable future for our planet? We explore the views of Marx and Engels, and current Marxist thinkers.
The post Marxism and the environment appeared first on Pod Academy.
For 90,000 British families, au pairs are the only workable solution to the ‘childcare crisis’ but at what cost to the young women who thought they were part of a cultural exchange, and found themselves as domestic workers, working 50 hours per week?
The post Au pair wanted: look after children, do shopping, walk dog, clean house, cook, teach violin – £50pw appeared first on Pod Academy.
Most of us don’t really understand what money is, or what it might be. Can it be wrested from the domination and mismanagement of banks and governments and restored to its fundamental role as a “claim upon society”?
The post The Social Life of Money appeared first on Pod Academy.
On Friday 7th November 2014, Manchester Metropolitan University and the Centre for the Study of Football and its Communities hosted a conference entitled ‘Football and Culture 2014.’ The event aimed to explore the relationship and interaction between football and wider…
The post Football and Culture appeared first on Pod Academy.
Greece is going to the polls, against the background of austerity measures that have signally failed to reduce the public debt. Further austerity measures cannot work argues economist Yannis Kitromilides, the only way forward is radical reform of the EMU.
The post Greece, Austerity and the European Monetary Union appeared first on Pod Academy.
If you have seen ‘Pride’, the movie – or even if you haven’t – you will enjoy these conversations between the real activists involved in LGSM and the Miners’ Strike and their reflections on politics then and now.
The post Pits and Perverts revisited: ‘Pride’ the movie, and politics now appeared first on Pod Academy.
The recording of this interview lay forgotten in an attic for years. Now on the centenary of the ‘soldiers’ truce’ in WWI, it is broadcast for the first time. Could the soldiers have stopped the slaughter that followed?
The post Christmas Truce 1914 appeared first on Pod Academy.
A conversation about comics as a scurrilous gutter medium, about Milo Minara’s Spiderwoman, about Judge Dredd and Watchmen, how the work of Hogarth and Gilray speaks across the centuries – and much more…
The post Comics: unrepentantly in the gutter? appeared first on Pod Academy.
“Gracefully stitching one’s own traditions onto the fabric of the national and / or culturally dominant cloth and by doing so highlighting one’s previous omission, makes it impossible for anyone to ever look again at the source material in quite the same way again” says author Caryl Phillips in this presentation on the Star Spangled Banner.
The post The Star-Spangled Banner appeared first on Pod Academy.
Wai Chee Dimock‘s radical new reading of William Faulkner, at the Rupture, Crisis, Transformation conference on the future of American Studies held at Birkbeck in November 2014.
The post Faulkner Networked: Regional, Indigenous, Trans-Pacific appeared first on Pod Academy.
What will the future archeologist and the future historian make of American in the 21st Century? The post Future Readers: Narrative Knowledge in the Anthropocene appeared first on Pod Academy.
This is a fun piece, and a tragic piece, about the energy unconscious in US studies.
The post Petrochemical Gothic: True Detective and the Energy Unconscious of American Studies appeared first on Pod Academy.
What is the role of technology in contemporary geopolitics at the end of the ‘American Century’? Is technology pushing us too fast? Do we need time to catch up?
The post New perspectives on US Studies: Technologies of Crisis appeared first on Pod Academy.
It’s the start of the UN’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, but as the austerity cuts – to refuges and legal aid – have a devastating impact on women’s safety, what is the economic cost of violence against women?
The post The economic cost of violence against women appeared first on Pod Academy.
“Nature has been defined as a woman, and both nature and women were then defined into objectification and therefore into objects of violence. Ecofeminism is a celebration of the creativity of nature and the creativity of women,” says Dr Vandana Shiva, world…
The post Ecofeminism appeared first on Pod Academy.
An estimated 1% of children worldwide are described as autistic. But what is autism? The EU AIMS project is searching for causes and treatments – what do autistic people and their families think?
The post Treating autism: the promises, perils and politics of pharmaceutical intervention appeared first on Pod Academy.
More and more women are going into the law as solicitors, barristers, legal executives and academics. Two women barristers talk about how their feminism informs their legal practice.
The post Being a feminist barrister appeared first on Pod Academy.
If economics is about ‘choice under constraint’, then virtual economies are all around us in the digital sphere – retweeting, clicks on facebook, bitcoin, game play. Can our behaviour in virtual economies teach us anything about ‘real world’ economics?
The post Virtual Economies – what can they teach us about the real world? appeared first on Pod Academy.
What makes us happy? Research suggests that it is not just how we think, but how we act, and we need a balance between things we find fun and things we find fulfilling.
The post Happiness by Design: finding pleasure and purpose in everyday life appeared first on Pod Academy.
Susan Sontag said smelling ‘gives one a sensation of knowledge rinsed clean of thought’. The effect of smell is powerful, but rarely articulated and therefore rarely recorded. So how does an historian of smell go about his work?
The post The odoriferous 18th century appeared first on Pod Academy.
What makes us human? When, why and how did the human brain evolve? Prof Gamble explains his ‘social brain’ hypothesis.
The post Thinking Big: Evolution and the Human Mind appeared first on Pod Academy.
Research suggests that 10% of children are victims of bullying and 5% of children are involved in bullying others. Why are some children bullies and others victims?, What can parents do to help?
The post Understanding school bullying appeared first on Pod Academy.
This podcast was presented and produced by Jo Barratt This year marks 25 years since the publication of Geoff Dyer’s first novel, The Colour of Memory. Geoff is a multi-award winning writer who has written 4 novels and is also…
The post Colours of memory: a conversation with Geoff Dyer appeared first on Pod Academy.
A look at the highs and lows of living high up. And how high rise flats could be the answer to the housing crisis, if planning regulations allow.
The post The High Life: Living high up appeared first on Pod Academy.
What are the relations between the social sciences and the neurosciences, and what might it mean to do interdisciplinary work between these areas?
The post Neuroscience and Social Science: Experimental Imaginations appeared first on Pod Academy.
Hari Kunzru has cemented his role as one of Britain’s most acute observers of modern life and its intricacies with his novels The Impressionist, Transmission and Gods Without Men – a roller-coaster ride of surrealism, dystopia and satirical humour.
The post Transmission: A Conversation with Hari Kunzru appeared first on Pod Academy.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is one of the most common mental health problems, and one of the most debilitating. Now neuroscience research from Goldsmiths suggests that part of the brain called the precuneus may be responsible, bringing effective treatment closer.
The post Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD): new research, new hope? appeared first on Pod Academy.
Three of Europe’s biggest football clubs – Legia Warsaw, Borussia Dortmund and Roma – are the subject of a UEFA funded study of racism and anti-racist strategies in European football.
The post Football: racism in the beautiful game appeared first on Pod Academy.
Money. We all know what it is, but who creates money? The answer is actually surprising. 97% of money in our economy is created by private banks when they make loans, and this is carried out by these banks simply typing numbers into a computer. In doing so, private banks invariably divert this newly created money into house price bubbles and other forms of financial speculation.
The post Economics and Everyday Life – Part Two appeared first on Pod Academy.
These days we are used to hearing about the power of banks, GDP percentages, hedge funds, shareholders, stock market reports, house prices, the business cycle, deficits, debts, surpluses – but has it always been this way? Has money and finance always been such a prominent focal point for the popular consciousness? And if so, how has the representation of money changed and what does this tell us about our society?
The post Economics and Everyday Life – Part One appeared first on Pod Academy.
The ethos is the genius of the institution. ‘Civitas’ is the ethos of The Ark Academy in Wembley, London – a concept supporting the development of altruism, persistence and thoughtfulness in their pupils.
The post In search of a moral compass: the role of schools in developing ‘character’ appeared first on Pod Academy.
Have you ever stepped off a plane and been aware of a different smell in the air – the smell of a country, a city, a terrain? This podcast explores our urban smellscapes – how we live and navigate using our noses.
The post Urban smellscapes appeared first on Pod Academy.
Richard Benda’s father was Tutsi, his mother Hutu. He recalls what it was like to live through the genocide that ripped his country and his family apart.
The post 20 years after the Rwanda genocide: a survivor’s memories appeared first on Pod Academy.
“Why would you choose to keep basing your politics on a concept which is as destructive as ethnicity? By opening the debate, we can find a better solidarity which is ‘Rwandaness’,”
The post 20 Years after the genocide: Ethnicity and democracy in Rwanda appeared first on Pod Academy.
It is 20 years since the Rwandan genocide that left a million people dead. There here has been little or no violence since then. Is this because of deep religious faith, strong government, or the forbearance, patience and intelligence of the people?
The post 20 years after the genocide: Religion and reconciliation in Rwanda appeared first on Pod Academy.
Richard Branson, Tom Cruise, Darcy Bussell and Noel Gallagher are all dyslexic. Is it a useful diagnosis that can lead to extra help? or a meaningless label that attracts quack remedies?
The post What does it mean to be dyslexic? appeared first on Pod Academy.
A huge longitudinal study is throwing light on the impact of poverty on child development and identifying the most effective interventions to ensure children can reach their full potential.
The post Big study looks at impact of child poverty in Peru, India, Vietnam and Ethiopia appeared first on Pod Academy.
Coming of age rites of passage, solstice gatherings, baby naming ceremonies, funerals and wakes – rituals are universal. So is the need for ritual hard-wired in human beings?
The post Shamans and Sacraments: the meaning of rituals appeared first on Pod Academy.
Newspapers are dying. There may be a brighter digital future ahead – but is the industry capable of realising it?
The post The death of print in a digital age appeared first on Pod Academy.
Celebrated author and commentator, Ahdaf Souief, talks about the ongoing revolution in Egypt in her lecture for the International State Crime Initiative, and describes the brutality, corruption and criminality that mark both the current and former regimes.
The post Egypt: the ongoing revolution appeared first on Pod Academy.
Why is it that the United States continues to enforce the death penalty when the rest of the Western world abolished its use a little over three decades ago?
The post Why does America still have the death penalty? appeared first on Pod Academy.
Filipino workers are found in every country around the world, from Spain to HongKong, from Saudi Arabia to South Africa. This ‘labour brokerage’ is a response to neo-liberal policies and globalisation, it demands a re-imagining of citizenship and gender.
The post The Philippines – providing a workforce for the world appeared first on Pod Academy.
The UN has called for an end to female genital mutilation. Is ‘zero tolerance’ the most effective way to end this abusive practice?
The post Female Genital Mutilation – is zero tolerance the right approach? appeared first on Pod Academy.
There has been no satisfactory explanation for the plane crash in 1961 in which UN Secretary General, Dag Hammarskjöld died while on a peace mission to Congo. Was it sabotage or an accident? New leads from the Hammarskjöld Inquiry.
The post Dag Hammarskjöld: assassination or accident? appeared first on Pod Academy.
We are wealthier, seem healthier and we are certainly living longer. But around the world, depression, stress and anxiety are increasingly common. Neuroscience and ancient wisdom appear to agree that ‘mindfulness’ may hold the key to a happier life.
The post Mindfulness: a new/old treatment for depression appeared first on Pod Academy.
Ethnomusicology is the study of musicin culture, and musicas culture. Whether it is gamelan, techno, Bollywood or English folk ethnomusicologists want to understand the music – and the society that made it.
The post Ethnomusicology appeared first on Pod Academy.
It’s official. The English are a nation of couch potatoes. 80% don’t even hit modest government targets for exercise according to a major study of 1 million people..
The post Exercise: we just don’t get enough appeared first on Pod Academy.
Children develop language and literacy skills in all sorts of settings. Often overlooked is the learning that goes on in church, mosque and temple.
The post Reading for Real? Children’s literacy in religious settings appeared first on Pod Academy.
Globalisation has winners and losers. In the slums of Kolkata live communities at the wrong end of globalisation.
The post On the wrong end of globalisation: The Kolkata slums appeared first on Pod Academy.
Neuroscience is offering interesting new approaches to help drug addicts come off, and stay off, drugs. But is it all too much like Clockwork Orange?
The post Rewriting Addiction appeared first on Pod Academy.
Clasificadores trundle round Montevideo on horse drawn carts, collecting and sorting rubbish. Now the authorities want to clean up their act.
The post Clasificadores of Montevideo: cleaning up a way of life? appeared first on Pod Academy.
Will the UN’s new offensive approach in the DRC risk escalating a national conflict into a regional conflagration? And could the UN even be seen as an occupying force?
The post UN in DRC 2: The challenges of the UN’s new offensive approach appeared first on Pod Academy.
The Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford has hours of music from thousands of cultures all over the world. Ethnomusicologist Noel Lobley explains how the music, some recorded on silver foil 100 years ago, is being curated.
The post Pitt Rivers Collection: Reel to Real appeared first on Pod Academy.
The UN is changing tack in the Democratic Republic of Congo. After years of standing by as ‘peacekeepers’, they are now deploying an aggressive intervention Brigade.
The post On the offensive – the UN forces’ new mandate in DRC appeared first on Pod Academy.
This podcast looks at how even disadvantaged kids in Vietnam are educationally years ahead of their counterparts in India, despite per capita GDP being broadly the same in both countries. Amanda Barnes talked to Professor Jo Boyden, director of the Young…
The post Education in Vietnam and India – huge differences in achievement appeared first on Pod Academy.
Are drones a vital piece of modern weaponry, or inhuman and illegal weapons that galvanise potential recruits for Al Qaeda?
The post Drones: the law and ethics of drone strikes appeared first on Pod Academy.
The conflict in Syria demonstrates the growing importance of crowd-sourced news, but it is crucial to cut through the fakes and the propaganda to verify it.
The post From Syria to Hurricane Sandy – verifying crowd-sourced news appeared first on Pod Academy.
As the world changes, so sexual identities are in flux. Have globalisation and mass communication disrupted and reshaped traditional patterns of identity and intimacy?
The post Me, myself, I: changing gay male identity appeared first on Pod Academy.
Why is there such a marked disengagement from politics among the white working class? And why such widespread cynicism about politicians?
The post White working class disengagement from politics appeared first on Pod Academy.
The Cinema Memories Project: British cinema-going in the 1960s and the nature of cultural memory.
The post Lives through a lens – cinema memories appeared first on Pod Academy.
We are all familiar with the idea of the tortured genius. Recent research appears to bear this out, finding a strong link between high intelligence and bi-polar disorder.
The post No great mind ever existed without a touch of madness appeared first on Pod Academy.
Why Latin America has moved from the neo-liberal consensus of the 1980s and 1990s to the 'pink revolution' of Chavez, Morales and Correa over the past 10 years.
The post The rise of the new left in Latin America appeared first on Pod Academy.
Discontent has been building for some time in Turkey. Andrew Finkel explains what is behind the protests sweeping the country.
The post Turkey – protests waiting to happen appeared first on Pod Academy.
Anosmia is to smelling what blindness is to sight, or deafness is to hearing. It is living with no sense of smell. This podcast is based on a lecture at Birkbeck by photojournalist, Eléonore de Bonneval, who has been documenting the lives of people with anosmia.
The post Anosmia: lives without sense of smell appeared first on Pod Academy.
The 'precariat', those precarious people who have no secure foothold in the world of work, are a dangerous new class, argues Professor Guy Standing.
The post The precariat – the making of a new class appeared first on Pod Academy.
One in ten adults in Britain is in a relationship but not living with their partner. They have no official status and are most often counted as single in government statistics. Listen here to the launch of a groundbreaking research report on people living apart together…
The post Living Apart Together appeared first on Pod Academy.
To celebrate National Walking Month (May 2013), Pod Academy finds out about nightwalking in London from Medieval times to the Romantics.
The post Nightwalking appeared first on Pod Academy.
Does it really rob children of their innocence to introduce them to the idea that some people fall in love with members of the same sex? Might it even be important to do so?
The post Don’t say gay! Introducing children to alternative sexualities appeared first on Pod Academy.
Today's hyper-connected world faces big challenges e.g. pandemics, climate change, cyber-crime, financial crises. Can the UN and other international institutions provide adequate global governance?
The post Divided Nations: global challenges, global governance appeared first on Pod Academy.
Asylum seekers - the role of the media in moulding public opinion.
The post Asylum seekers and the media appeared first on Pod Academy.
Why did the Malian Army stage a coup? Why did the French send in troops? Françafrique? Get the backstory.
The post French troops in Mali – another example of Françafrique? appeared first on Pod Academy.
It is 10 years since the invasion of Iraq. Was the war worth it? A panel of speakers including Clare Short, Owen Jones, David Aaronovich and Haifa Zangana debate the issues at Goldsmith's University of London.
The post The Iraq War – was it worth it? appeared first on Pod Academy.
Free societies are robust, argumentative, noisy. The citizens in them have a right to criticise, satirise and mock. They also have the right to be offended.
The post Freedom of speech: the right to be offended appeared first on Pod Academy.
With over 1 million young people out of work in the UK, there is growing evidence that a period of youth unemployment scars people for life, both emotionally and financially, and costs £5bn in welfare payments and £10bn in lost economic output. What can be done?
The post A Demanding Job: youth unemployment in the UK appeared first on Pod Academy.
As the gap between rich and poor widens, epidemiologist Richard Wilkinson, author of The Spirit Level, explains that more unequal societies are bad for almost everyone within them and suggests steps that need to be taken for the good of all of us.
The post The Spirit Level – why equality is better for everybody appeared first on Pod Academy.
Is the USA an Empire? We look at the differences and similarities between the USA and historical empires - the characteristics of USA relations with non-state actors, civil societies and other global powers.
The post EMPIRE: The features of American global power appeared first on Pod Academy.
Join us for a night of speed dating, where body language is under scrutiny.
The post Body language and speed dating appeared first on Pod Academy.
The British public was outraged by the MP's expenses scandal - but this had virtually no impact on the way they voted in the 2010 general election - why ever not?
The post MPs’ expenses scandal – little impact on elections appeared first on Pod Academy.
The illegal drugs trade is worth $321bn dollars a year worldwide. An increasing number of high-profile activists, including former presidents and UN officials, are calling for an alternative to the failed 'war on drugs'.
The post Fixing drugs appeared first on Pod Academy.
Lord Leveson's inquiry into the culture, practice and ethics of the British press will report on 29 November. Angela Phillips looks at what motivated the tabloids to get stories by hacking phones and considers the options for reform. …
The post Leveson Inquiry – the backstory appeared first on Pod Academy.
In the nineteenth century, dramatic discoveries and new theories were turning the world upside-down. And much of this groundbreaking scientific research was conducted, at home, by scientific families like the Herschels.
The post Scientific families appeared first on Pod Academy.
It is a hundred years since the Titanic sank. Out of 2224 passengers and crew, only 722 survived. In his book, Titanic, the last night of a small town, social historian John Welshman has developed a new narrative based on the accounts of 12 of the survivors. Here he explains how he approached the task.
The post Titanic: re-telling the story appeared first on Pod Academy.
In the second podcast in our series on Belief and Non-Belief, author Francis Spufford suggests that despite everything Christianity can still make surprising emotional sense in the 21st century, and explains what he and Sarah Palin have in common.
The post Does Christianity still make sense? appeared first on Pod Academy.
A guide through the Syria conflict with one of Britain's most experienced foreign correspondents…
The post A Guide to the Syria Conflict appeared first on Pod Academy.
Dr. Hilary Rose considers the promise of interdisciplinarity, and explains her concerns about what she thinks might be the dulling of criticality through such endeavours.
The post It’s hard to be critical these days…. appeared first on Pod Academy.
As the gap between rich and poor widens, we look at the corrosive effects of poverty and how positioning it as a human rights issue might strengthen campaigns for greater equality.
The post Poverty appeared first on Pod Academy.
Public services should help people create good health, respecting and drawing on the assets in their communities - passions,perseverance, skills, family, friends - rather than treat them as a bundle of deficits that need remedial treatment. …
The post What makes us healthy? appeared first on Pod Academy.
"Lots of people just passively accept the religious identity they’re born with." Alom Shaha, author of the Young Atheist's Handbook, describes how he came to give up Islam. This is the first podcast in our new series on religion and non belief in contemporary society in partnership with New Humanist magazine.
The post Religion and identity: the young atheist’s handbook appeared first on Pod Academy.
George Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier is still a shocking book to read. By revisiting the road to Wigan, this podcast explores to what extent things have changed since Orwell's time.
The post Back on the road to Wigan Pier appeared first on Pod Academy.
Sujatha Fernandes discusses the power of hip hop in political movements around the world.
The post Hip hop: The global voice of revolution? appeared first on Pod Academy.
The death of writer and activist Nawal el Saadawi has just been announced. In 2015 I interviewed her at a conference organised by the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Right Organisation for Pod Academy. Typically, and at 84 years old, she had stopped off at the Occupy encampment around St Paul’s Cathedral on her way from the airport, before coming on to the conference.
The post Nawal el Saadawi – writer, activist appeared first on Pod Academy.
Are career politicians responsible for the disengagement of the electorate?
The post Sound-bites, u-turns and populism appeared first on Pod Academy.
IPPR researcher Rick Muir, author of the report, Pubs and Places: The Social Value of Community Pubs, talks to Claire Cain about the dramatic decline of pubs, their role in society and the actions we can take to hold on to a British institution.
The post The state and future of the pub appeared first on Pod Academy.
A new UK think tank, British Future, has been set up to look into identity, integration, migration and opportunity in modern Britain. Their new research report, Hopes and Fears, looks at what it means to be British in 2012.
The post What does it mean to be British? appeared first on Pod Academy.
We are all familiar with Dickens, James Joyce, Henry James. But what about those authors who achieved huge commercial success when first published, wrote real literary gems, but 50 years later are forgotten?
The post Forgotten fiction appeared first on Pod Academy.
Left-handedness is certainly an everyday phenomenon. We all probably know somebody who writes with their left hand or possibly do so ourselves. But how often do we pause to think about what might be the cause of such a preference…
The post Left-handedness appeared first on Pod Academy.
Mladen Ostojic explores the impact of international justice on post-conflict states that are undergoing a political transition. He asks whether international tribunals are a threat to stability in targeted countries - do justice and truth, or justice and peace, always go hand-in-hand?
The post Trials and tribulations – war crimes tribunals appeared first on Pod Academy.
In the last ten years the humanities has become obsessed with stuff – things, ephemera, paraphernalia and possessions. Writer and critic Brian Dillon speaks to Steven Connor, Professor of Modern Literature and Theory at Birkbeck College, London, about the curious magic of everyday things.
The post A philosophy of everyday things appeared first on Pod Academy.
Noam Chomsky is a world renowned linguist and one of America’s foremost social critics. He is Institute Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at M.I.T. He is the author of numerous books for Pluto Press, including Pirates and…
The post Changing contours of world order appeared first on Pod Academy.
Anupama Srinivasan argues that what we know about gender violence in South Asia – dowry harassment, domestic violence, acid attacks – is just the tip of the tip of the iceberg. Anupama is Programme Director at the Gender Violence Research…
The post Gender violence in south Asia appeared first on Pod Academy.
The invention and reception of change ringing in seventeenth-century England…
The post Change ringing appeared first on Pod Academy.
Speakers explore the merits, practicality and value of maintaining a multiplicity of languages at the University of Reading.
The post Cultural hegemony vs. linguistic diversity appeared first on Pod Academy.
The Researchers' Night is a Europe-wide event bringing together the public and academic researchers. The aim is to showcase university research, exploring its relevance and importance for all of us.
The post Researchers’ Night appeared first on Pod Academy.
1 in 10 children in the UK suffers from a diagnosable mental health problem. What can be done to prevent depression, stress and anxiety amongst children?
The post Improving children’s mental health appeared first on Pod Academy.
Most judges are men, and although they would consider themselves to be neutral, feminists are increasingly concerned that their judgments are underpinned by a male view of the world. So a group of lawyers has rewritten some important legal judgments from a feminist perspective. …
The post Feminism and the law appeared first on Pod Academy.
Special friends, group hugs, someone to talk to - it all sounds idyllic, but Rosalyn George describes how, for girls at primary school, friendship can be more like walking through a minefield.
The post Young girls’ friendships appeared first on Pod Academy.