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PODCAST

The We Society

Beyond the politics, beyond our geography are the intangible connections that hold us together – The We Society. The We Society podcast is here to tell you about the thousands of ways the Social Sciences can help us understand and enhance this complicated and fascinating human network. What can we do to fix the NHS? How can we better manage climate change? How do we end the cost of living crisis? Brought to you by the Academy of Social Sciences in association with the Nuffield

science social sciences

All Episodes

27:34

S9 Ep5: Evidence for change: rethinking child poverty...

The We Society ·

2025/10/29

Our guest today, Alex Beer, joins us at a critical time as the UK Government prepares to publish its child poverty strategy this autumn.According to official numbers, there are 4.5 million children living in poverty in the UK and 1.1m children are in families that have used a food bank in the past year. The Nuffield Foundation launched a major new Strategic Review earlier this summer committing £30 million annually over the next five years to fund research and innovation that addresses some of

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34:48

S9 Ep4: Inoculating the mind: protecting against...

The We Society ·

2025/10/22

Professor Sander van der Linden explores the impact of misinformation and how to prevent its spread within the general public. His work as Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Cambridge and Director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab focuses on the origins of "fake news" and its role in societal divisions. In this conversation with Will Hutton, he discusses his research into proactive strategies like "pre-bunking" to build defences against manipulation through

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32:12

S9 Ep3: Our Love Affair with Travel with journalist...

The We Society ·

2025/10/15

Simon Calder is the man with the answers when it comes to any travel related questions. Having started as a travel journalist at the Independent newspaper in 1994, Simon has decades of knowledge and insight when it comes to the travel industry. He joins our host Will Hutton to impart some of his expertise and they tackle topics from the pros and cons of budget airlines to his love of train travel. There might even be a couple of holiday destination recommendations peppered in! In the We Society,

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33:13

S9 Ep2: Saving the 86 bus and designing better cities...

The We Society ·

2025/10/08

How can cities be better designed for the older generation and girls? These are the tough questions tackled in this episode of The We Society with Professor Tine Buffel and Dr. Julia King, prominent academics in urban sociology and architecture.In the conversation, Professor Tine Buffel highlights the barriers older individuals face in urban spaces. Dr. Julia King addresses the decline of youth spaces and safety concerns for young women. Both guests stress the need for participatory design, which

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33:21

S9 Ep1: Emergency planning is more about tea than...

The We Society ·

2025/10/01

Professor Lucy Easthope is a leading authority on recovering from disaster and she joins our host Will Hutton in the first episode of Season 9 of the We Society.They discusses the long-term implications of the COVID-19 pandemic and other disasters on societal resilience. Drawing from her experiences and insights in emergency planning, she highlights the importance of community responses and the emotional significance of preserving personal belongings after a disaster. To find out more about

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1:33

S8 Ep9: The We Society Season 9 Trailer

The We Society ·

2025/09/23

Join host Will Hutton for Season 9 of the We Society from next week to hear some of the best ideas to shape the way we live.Launching October 1 with an interview with Lucy Easthope, an international adviser on disaster recovery. 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. Please subscribe, rate and share with your friends. This podcast is brought to you by the Academy

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40:26

S8 Ep8: Solving the Productivity Puzzle with Ed...

The We Society ·

2025/07/09

In the final episode of Season 8 of the We Society, our host Will Hutton is joined by economist and former Labour politician Ed Balls, Dr. Anna Stansbury, a researcher in labour and macroeconomics from MIT, and Dan Turner, Chief Research Officer for the Office of Gordon and Sarah Brown focused on national and regional inequalities. All three have recently collaborated on research to do with regional inequality in the UK and the lessons the UK can learn from Bidenomics. In this conversation, they

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28:14

S8 Ep7: The Social Life of Pain with Tom Shakespeare

The We Society ·

2025/07/02

In the UK alone, around one in four adults are experiencing chronic pain. And nearly a quarter of the population live with some form of disability. Yet despite these numbers, pain and disability are still too often talked about in hushed tones, misunderstood, or entirely overlooked in public life.How do we talk about pain that doesn’t go away? How do people live in bodies that society isn’t built for? And how can we shift the narrative from individual burden to collective

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28:39

S8 Ep6: Borders, Brexit, and Fault Lines with Katy...

The We Society ·

2025/06/25

Borders contain nations, act as fault lines, but are also meeting points, where different cultures, people, and ideologies come into contact.Nowhere has this been more visible, more painful, and more politically charged than the island of Ireland. In this episode, Will Hutton is joined by Professor Katy Hayward. She’s one of the UK’s leading voices on Brexit, the Irish border, and cross border tension and transformation. A political sociologist at Queen’s University Belfast and Co-Director of

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28:31

S8 Ep5: Care or Incarceration? How some of the UK’s...

The We Society ·

2025/06/18

We speak with Lisa Harker, the Director of the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory, who gives us an insight into the alarming rise in the use of Deprivation of Liberty Orders on children. She explains how vulnerable children, many born into poverty and facing complex needs, are increasingly subjected to severe restrictions on their freedom through these court orders. According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Justice, 1,280 children were subject to applications to deprive them of

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29:59

S8 Ep4: Taking entrepreneurship beyond business with...

The We Society ·

2025/06/11

What is the link between social science and entrepreneurship? To give us the answer, Will Hutton speaks to Professor Eleanor Shaw OBE, an academic specialising in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Strathclyde to delve into the social science dimension of entrepreneurship. Eleanor believes that entrepreneurial spirit stems from recognising and addressing unfulfilled societal needs. In the conversation, they discuss successful entrepreneurs who contribute to communities and not

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30:51

S8 Ep3: Population, Data & Destiny with Andy Tatem

The We Society ·

2025/06/04

Professor Andy Tatem talks to us about WorldPop, the research programme he heads that is based in the School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton. The team at WorldPop uses satellite imagery and mobile phone data to map population distributions in areas of the Global South and this data is used by governments for resource allocation and policy-making. In this episode, Andy shares case studies emphasising the impact of timely data on healthcare decisions in countries

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28:59

S8 Ep2: Morality in UK prisons with Alison Liebling

The We Society ·

2025/05/28

We probe the UK prison system with Professor Alison Liebling, a Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Cambridge and the Director of the Institute of Criminology’s Prisons Research Centre.In this episode, she discusses the complexities surrounding prison officers, their often-underappreciated skills, and the critical role they play in maintaining order and humanity on the wings. Professor Liebling’s research on prisons spans over three decades with a particular

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33:29

S8 Ep1: How to get work working for everyone with...

The We Society ·

2025/05/21

Gavin Kelly is the Chief Executive of the Nuffield Foundation and has spent the past 30 years of his career putting Britain’s economic inactivity problem under a microscope. For Gavin, one of the main problems is the nearly 1 million young people who are not in education, employment or training. They are the ones being left behind and their numbers are rising. But what can be done to solve this? The Nuffield Foundation is an independent charitable trust funding research that informs social

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35:05

S7 Ep7: Keep Calm and Chill with Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

The We Society ·

2025/02/26

As US President Donald Trump threatens trade tariffs, the We Society invited the Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to share her thoughts during this period of uncertainty.The first woman and the first African to serve as Director General of the WTO, Dr Okonjo-Iweala also gives her perspectives on women in leadership positions and her history of fighting corruption in Nigeria that led to the kidnapping of her elderly mother. This is the final interview

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31:06

S7 Ep6: Improving social mobility through education...

The We Society ·

2025/02/19

Professor Lee Elliot Major, who is Britain's first professor of Social Mobility based at the University of Exeter, is our guest in this penultimate episode of Season 7.In his latest book, Equity in Education, he argues for a new approach and language to improve upward mobility. In his book, children are not disadvantaged instead they are under resourced. Does language matter? Season 7 of the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences continues to tackle the big questions through a

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28:29

S7 Ep5: Tracking and stopping domestic abuse with...

The We Society ·

2025/02/12

Around one in four women have experienced domestic abuse, according to the Crime Survey of England and Wales. But abuse is not usually a one off event, it’s part of a protracted pattern, and by studying the timeline, perhaps this shocking statistic and may change. Prof Jane Monckton-Smith has dedicated the majority of her career to studying this pattern and is Professor Of Public Protection at the University of Gloucestershire. She researched and created the Homicide Timeline, a tool for police

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29:20

S7 Ep4: Should the 9 to 5 be a thing of the past?...

The We Society ·

2025/02/05

'Eight hours labor, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest' was the rallying cry of Robert Owen, a Welsh textile manufacturer turned labour reformer in the early 19th century. For those toiling in factories, Owen’s slogan was a socialist dream that only became commonplace in the early 20th century. But, the 9 to 5 is still standard while technology has moved on - we have Artificial intelligence, automation, intuitive software at our fingertips. Shouldn’t we be more productive while spending

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33:42

S7 Ep3: Making a responsible budget with Sir Robert...

The We Society ·

2025/01/29

The Institute for Fiscal Studies - or IFS - has become the nation’s go to institution for judgements about tax, spending and borrowing. And the Office for Budget Responsibility – the OBR – is the independent official watchdog that assess the viability and sustainability of the government’s economic plans.Our guest today, Sir Robert Chote has run both organisations and knows better than anyone on the planet how they both work. He now heads the UK Statistics Authority. Season 7 of the We Society

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28:57

S7 Ep2: Anxiety, Artificial Intelligence and work...

The We Society ·

2025/01/22

Pick, Pack, Post, Repeat….warehouses around the world are now using Artificial Intelligence to fulfil customer orders. So, are workers on their way out? As the speed of innovation when it comes to artificial intelligence accelerates, power sits firmly in the hands of Silicon Valley and big tech companies. Governments and the public are on the side-lines. How should we be feeling about this? To tell us is Anthony Elliott - Professor of Sociology at the University of South Australia who has just

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