Episodes
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The recent riots in Britain, which emerged following the Southport stabbings, demonstrate how hate is bubbling just under the surface of our society, ready to erupt at any moment. Behind the violence and destruction are statistics. Between 2012 and 2023, hate crimes in England and Wales rose by 252%, according to research undertaken by the Home Office. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Professor Neil Chakraborti and Professor Matthew Williams join host Will Hutton to discuss the impact of hate crimes on the victims, their communities and wider British society. And what can be done to lower the incidences of hate crime.
Professor Chakraborti has been studying the impact of hate crimes on victims for the past two decades and is Director of the Centre for Hate Studies and the Director of the Institute for Policy at the University of Leicester.
Professor Matthew Williams is a Professor of Criminology in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University. He leads the HateLab there, a global hub for data and insight into hate speech and crime. He's the author of the popular science book, The Science of Hate, which was published by Faber and Faber in 2021.
Season 6 of the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences continues to tackle the big questions through a social science lens. Throughout this series, you'll be hearing some of the best ideas to shape the way we live.
Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.
Don't want to miss an episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on X https://twitter.com/AcadSocSciences
This is the final episode of Season 6, see you in the Autumn!
Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here: https://AcSS.org.uk -
No war has been more of a failure than the war on drugs. Despite all the crackdowns, prison sentences and moral posturing, drug use in Britain is on an epic scale. Yet, drug debate and policy are full of moral declarations, with evidence often being made to take a backseat. Why is this?
Alex Stevens is a professor of Criminology at the University of Sheffield (having recently moved from the University of Kent). He was a member of the UK Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs from 2014 to 2019, and President of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy from 2015 to 2019. And he’s just published a book, Drug Policy Constellations: The Role of Power and Morality in the Making of Drug Policy in the UK.
Season 6 of the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences continues to tackle the big questions through a social science lens. Throughout this series, you'll be hearing some of the best ideas to shape the way we live.
Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.
Don't want to miss an episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on X https://twitter.com/AcadSocSciences
Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here: https://AcSS.org.uk -
Missing episodes?
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One in six people are said to have ‘very poor literacy skills’ according to the National Literacy Trust. As a country, we value Literature, high quality research skills and further education, yet our values are not reaching all sections of our society.
Looking to challenge this is Professor Anna Vignoles, her past research focused on issues of equity and value in education, particularly the relationship between educational achievement and social mobility, and the role played by education and skills attainment in the economy and society.
She was Professor of Education and Fellow of Jesus College at the University of Cambridge, Professor of Economics of Education at the UCL Institute of Education and Research Fellow at the London School of Economics Centre for Economic Performance.
But now, Professor Vignoles is the Director of the Leverhulme Trust, one of the UK's most prestigious grant-making organisations.
Season 6 of the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences continues to tackle the big questions through a social science lens. Throughout this series, you'll be hearing some of the best ideas to shape the way we live.
Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.
Don't want to miss an episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on X https://twitter.com/AcadSocSciences
Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here: https://AcSS.org.uk -
Professor Saul Becker has studied the hidden world of young carers for 30 years. Nearly 1 million children in the UK find themselves – some as young as five - having to look after sick or elderly family members.
Saul Becker is the pro vice chancellor for the Faculty of Health and Education at Manchester Metropolitan University and is regarded as the world leader in young carers research, policy, and practice.
Season 6 of the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences continues to tackle the big questions through a social science lens. Throughout this series, you'll be hearing some of the best ideas to shape the way we live.
Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.
Don't want to miss an episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on X https://twitter.com/AcadSocSciences
Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here: https://AcSS.org.uk -
Housing is one of the most pressing problems this new Government must fix. Will Hutton is joined by Vicky Spratt, the inewspaper's housing correspondent, and Auriol Miller, the CEO of Cynon Taf Community Housing Group, a major not-for-profit organisation providing affordable homes in Wales.
Housing is an issue that has thwarted a long line of Governments, and it feels like we are no closer to solving the crisis. Latest figures show that almost 1.3 million people in England are on social housing waiting lists with a combined wait for council housing of 1844 years.
Vicky's book Tenants, which examines the UK rental crisis, was named one of the best books of 2022 by the Times. Prior to joining Cynon Taf Community Housing Group, Auriol was Director of the Institute of Welsh Affairs (IWA), Wales’ leading think tank, where she focused on opening up the organisation beyond its traditional reach.
Season 6 of the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences continues to tackle the big questions through a social science lens. Throughout this series, you'll be hearing some of the best ideas to shape the way we live.
Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.
Don't want to miss an episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on X https://twitter.com/AcadSocSciences
Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here: https://AcSS.org.uk -
Professor Sarah Hall’s job is to approach the emotive topic of Brexit with a cool head and focus only on the evidence.
She is the 1931 Chair in Geography, a Fellow of St John’s College at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.
Professor Hall is an economic geographer who specialises in going out in the field to imbue data with conversations with those in the thick of the action. Her latest work has looked at how financial services around the UK have been affected by Brexit, including the sunshine and warts.
Season 6 of the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences continues to tackle the big questions through a social science lens. Throughout this series, you'll be hearing some of the best ideas to shape the way we live.
Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.
Don't want to miss an episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on X https://twitter.com/AcadSocSciences
Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here: https://AcSS.org.uk -
Host Will Hutton hears from four leading social scientists on how the new UK government should tackle the country's most pressing challenges.
In this special episode marking the end of the general election and the start of Season 6, we apply a social science lens to issues concerning the stagnating economy, the climate crisis, adult social care, and universities.
We speak to Professor Jagjit S. Chadha, an economist who is the Director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, Jo Johnson, who is chairman of FutureLearn and a former Conservative party minister, Catherine Needham who is Professor of Public Policy and Public Management at the Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham, and Professor Lorraine Whitmarsh, the Director of the UK Centre for Climate Change & Social Transformations (CAST), University of Bath.
In the run-up to the UK election, the Academy of Social Sciences gathered over 100 social scientists to showcase their ideas on the policies the new government should prioritise based on robust evidence for our Academy of Social Sciences Campaign for Social Science Election 24 project.
In this special episode of the We Society, we bring you just a few ideas from this project, which covered key policy areas, including the cost of living crisis, immigration, and healthcare, to name just a few. To learn more about the project and the Academy, visit our website, www.acss.org.uk.
Season 6 of the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences continues to tackle the big questions through a social science lens. Hosted by Academy president and acclaimed journalist Will Hutton, you'll hear some of the best ideas to shape the way we live.
Don't want to miss an episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform, and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on X https://twitter.com/AcadSocSciences -
Lord Chris Patten is one of Britain’s big political beasts – not only as a commentator, thinker and writer, but he has had a formidable career where he has put ideas into action.
He has been a British cabinet minister, chair of the Conservative party, European Commissioner for External Relations, Governor of Hong Kong, Chair of the BBC and most recently Chancellor of Oxford University.
Taken together - including a stint as chair of the independent commission on policing in Northern Ireland - it is one of Britain's most distinguished and successful records of public service.
This is the final episode of Season 5 of the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences which tackles the big questions through a social science lens. Throughout this series, you've heard some of the best ideas to shape the way we live.
Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.
Don't want to miss a future episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on X https://twitter.com/AcadSocSciences
Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here: https://AcSS.org.uk -
Dr Ella Cockbain is not afraid to delve into topics that may make others uncomfortable, whether that's labour exploitation or child sexual abuse.
As an associate professor in the Department of Security and Crime Science at UCL, she leads the research group on human trafficking and exploitation. In recognition of her impactful work, she received the prestigious Philip Leverhulme Prize last year along with 29 other exceptional researchers.
Season 5 of the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences tackles the big questions through a social science lens. Throughout this series, you'll be hearing some of the best ideas to shape the way we live.
Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.
Don't want to miss an episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on X https://twitter.com/AcadSocSciences
Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here: https://AcSS.org.uk
Our final episode with Lord Chris Patten will be released on the 30th of April. -
Professor Andy Pike has placed local authorities under his microscope for us, trying to figure out how to solve the crisis, as Sir Henry Daysh Chair of Regional Development Studies at Newcastle University. He’s even written a book about the very topic called "Financialisation and Local Statecraft".
When it was revealed in 2022 that Thurrock council in Essex faced a half-a-billion-pound black hole in its finances, it was assumed it was something that other local authorities couldn’t repeat.
But since then, five other local authorities, including Nottingham, Birmingham, and Croydon, have fallen like dominoes, declaring bankruptcies and one in five local authorities in England is now projected to be insolvent by next year. Something is clearly going very wrong.
And it’s not just bin collections at stake but adult and child social care, schooling, libraries—the list goes on. Speak to anyone working in frontline council services, and they will tell you that any further cuts will decimate how we look after society’s most vulnerable.
Season 5 of the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences tackles the big questions through a social science lens. Throughout this series, you'll be hearing some of the best ideas to shape the way we live.
Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.
Don't want to miss an episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on X https://twitter.com/AcadSocSciences
Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here: https://AcSS.org.uk -
Professor Rosie McEachan is leading one of the most exciting research projects in Britain - the Born In Bradford study.
It's one of the largest research studies in the world, tracking the lives of over 30,000 Bradfordians to discover what factors most influence health and well-being. In particular, they are focussing on how genetic, nutritional, environmental, behavioural and social factors impact health and development during childhood and, subsequently, adult life.
Thanks to the study, Bradford has already seen the creation of Clean Air Zones, areas with limited traffic, and investment in green spaces.
Professor McEachan is the Director of the Born in Bradford Research programme. She is an experienced behavioural scientist with particular expertise in developing and evaluating complex interventions.
Season 5 of the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences tackles the big questions through a social science lens. Throughout this series, you'll be hearing some of the best ideas to shape the way we live.
Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.
Don't want to miss an episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on X https://twitter.com/AcadSocSciences
Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here: https://AcSS.org.uk -
Dr Ed Jones is working to turn around Britain's ailing high streets. He is a financial economist at Bangor University who doesn’t consider himself a conventional academic.
The British High Street once was the heart of our cities, towns and villages, but no more. The High Street is increasingly lifeless – the preserve of too many empty shops and countless charity shops that don’t have to pay burdensome business rates. A former centre of our communities is wilting before our eyes.
Season 5 of the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences tackles the big questions through a social science lens. Throughout this series, you'll be hearing some of the best ideas to shape the way we live. Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.
Don't want to miss an episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on twitter https://twitter.com/AcadSocSciences
Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here: https://AcSS.org.uk -
Professor Anna Lawson and Dr Shani Dhanda believe that the Social Sciences can improve the world for disabled people.
Dr Shani Danda may be our first guest on the We Society podcast who has also been featured in Vogue magazine for her work. An entrepreneur and disability activist, she is at the start of her social science career but has already achieved so much.
Professor Anna Lawson is a Professor of Law at the University of Leeds. Throughout her academic career, she has worked with disabled people and researchers to tackle the exclusion that disabled people face worldwide. She's also acted as an expert advisor within Parliament and the Council of Europe.
Season 5 of the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences tackles the big questions through a social science lens. Throughout this series, you'll be hearing some of the best ideas to shape the way we live.
Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.
Don't want to miss an episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on X https://twitter.com/AcadSocSciences
Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here: https://AcSS.org.uk -
Professor Lord Richard Layard is one of the first economists to look at happiness as a metric that Governments worldwide should strive to improve in their population.
He was the founder-director of LSE's Centre for Economic Performance and is now the director of the Centre's Wellbeing programme. In 2005, he wrote Happiness: Lessons from a New Science, which was published in 20 languages.
We all quest for happiness, but how do we measure a happy life? Is it linked to wealth, relationships or absence of pain? Professor Richard Layard doesn't believe that the Gross Domestic Product of a country tells us much about the well-being of its people.
On the eve of his 90th birthday in March 2024, Professor Lord Layard joins host Will Hutton to discuss the need to take well-being and happiness more seriously.
Season 5 of the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences tackles the big questions through a social science lens. Throughout this series, you'll be hearing some of the best ideas to shape the way we live.
Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.
Don't want to miss an episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on twitter https://twitter.com/thewesocietypod
Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here: https://AcSS.org.uk -
Join host Will Hutton for Season 5 of the We Society from March to hear more ideas that shape the world we live.
In this podcast series, you will hear interviews from social scientists, business leaders and public figures to hear their solutions to society's most pressing issues.
Tell us who we should be speaking to or what questions we should be asking by emailing [email protected]
This podcast is brought to you by the Academy of Social Sciences. -
For the final episode of Season 4, we have one of the chief architects of Britain's Levelling Up agenda: Andy Haldane. A fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences who brings you this podcast, Andy is in the middle of an illustrious career, from chief economist of the Bank of England to chief executive of the Royal Society of Arts. He has put Social Science in motion throughout his whole career.
In this episode, Andy speaks to host Will Hutton about his involvement in the Government's Levelling Up agenda which seeks to send more investment to areas which were previously sidelined.
Season 4 of the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences tackles the big questions through a social science lens. Throughout this series, you'll be hearing some of the best ideas to shape the way we live.
Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.
Don't want to miss an episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on twitter https://twitter.com/thewesocietypod
Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here: https://www.acss.org.uk -
Professor Lucie Cluver has spent her career improving the lot of children, especially during times of crisis.
Whether that's the AIDS pandemic or the Covid pandemic, Professor Cluver has been at the coalface and in this episode she talks about her time working as a social worker in South Africa all the way through to her work as Professor of Child and Family Social Work at the University of Oxford
From 2010 - 2012, she ran the Young Carers Study, which looked at the impact of being a 'young carer' on children's well-being in AIDS-affected families. Over 6000 children and 2500 caregivers were interviewed in the South African provinces making it the world’s largest study on children in AIDS-affected families.
In March 2020, when 1.9 billion children were in lockdown with their parents, she co-led the COVID-19 Emergency Parenting Response to develop evidence-based open-source resources. She worked with colleagues at international organisations including the World Bank with the knowledge that the numbers of child abuse victims rose when they sequestered with adults for long periods of time. These resources were translated into over 100 languages and disseminated to over 200 million people.
Season 4 of the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences tackles the big questions through a social science lens. Throughout this series, you'll be hearing some of the best ideas to shape the way we live.
Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.
Don't want to miss an episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on twitter https://twitter.com/thewesocietypod
Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here: https://www.acss.org.uk -
Minette Batters, President of the National Farmers’ Union of England and Wales, represents an estimated 55,000 farmers and farm workers. She has changed the course of history as the first woman to become president of the NFU.
Every single person in the UK owes a debt to our farmers - they ensure food is on our tables every single day, but there appears to be a dissonance in our minds of what’s on our supermarket shelves, and the producers behind our food.
Outside of the NFU, Minette runs a tenanted family farm in Wiltshire. Her focus has always been to leave her farm in a better state than when she inherited it, and that’s what she’s aiming to do at the NFU too.
But there have been a handful of pretty tough hurdles in her way - Brexit, Covid, the recent energy crisis, and not mention the need to balance sustainability with farmer’s profit margins.
Season 4 of the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences tackles the big questions through a social science lens. Throughout this series, you'll be hearing some of the best ideas to shape the way we live.
Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.
Don't want to miss an episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on twitter https://twitter.com/thewesocietypod
Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here: https://Acss.org.uk -
Sir Andrew Dilnot is an economist who believes that statistics hold a key role in lessening inequality and making Britain fairer.
He is now the warden of Nuffield College Oxford - a graduate college specialising in the social sciences. Before Nuffield, he was at the Institute for Fiscal Studies where he was the Director of the UK's leading independent economics research institute.
A fierce advocate for statistics, he believes that data is at the heart of solving a whole raft of issues whether that’s social care, education inequalities or faltering healthcare systems. And the UK's social care system is on a precipice. Two-thirds of people who have used or had contact with social care said they were dissatisfied with the service they had received or witnessed, according to a recent British Social Attitudes survey. And beyond just ‘dissatisfaction’ lies damning figures - there were over 165,000 adult social care posts left vacant last year.
What can be done? And what can the stats tell us? Season 4 of the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences tackles the big questions through a social science lens. Throughout this series, you'll be hearing some of the best ideas to shape the way we live.
Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.
Don't want to miss an episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on twitter https://twitter.com/thewesocietypod
Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here: https://A -
Ann Pettifor is an economist who is perhaps most famous for predicting the Global Financial Crisis two years before it happened.
But Ann is not just a savant, but a change maker. She was a core voice in the successful international campaign to cancel billions in debt accumulated by the Global South to mark the new millennium. And in 2008, she co-authored the report, A Green New Deal, which laid out plans for better regulation of the financial system while pursuing green objectives. It's a programme that's been backed by Al Gore, Nobel Laureates in Economics, and dozens of politicians around the world. Of course, there have been critics, Donald Trump being the most high-profile.
She joins host Will Hutton as they delve into how her early years in apartheid South Africa shaped her thinking, and what changes she'd like to see happening right now amidst the worsening climate crisis.
Season 4 of the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences tackles the big questions through a social science lens. Throughout this series, you'll be hearing some of the best ideas to shape the way we live.
Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.
Don't want to miss an episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on twitter https://twitter.com/thewesocietypod
Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here: https://AcSS.org.uk - Show more
