Robyn Travis believes that labelling children as criminals is counterproductive in the fight against violence. He says they need to be freed from the mentality that keeps them as "prisoners to the streets". "It deeply saddens me that the media, film makers and rappers alike see a beneficial gain in telling stories which further criminalise the youth of today and yesterday without losing sleep. I don't see gang members, I see prisoners to the streets." He believes in prevention rather than interv...
Sep 22, 2021•20 min
Laura Dockrill describes her frightening experience of post partum psychosis after giving birth to her son. She calls for a wider conversation about risks to parental mental health and for help to be open to everyone. "This almost invisible illness was an assassin. An apparition that nobody else could see." "Silence only inflames the symptoms, the stigma and creates an ideal culture for a mental illness to thrive. Shame, judgment and fear follow fast in the wake and it's a perfect storm, one tha...
Sep 15, 2021•23 min
Angela Frazer-Wicks tells her extraordinary story of being a mother. Years ago, Angela's sons were taken into care and adopted, and in this powerful talk she describes her heartbreak as they gradually lost contact and she lost faith in the future. But as she explains, with support from some very unexpected places, Angela is now in a position to help other women and families going through similar experiences. Producer: Giles Edwards
Sep 08, 2021•21 min
Simon Morden argues that we should resist the privatisation of space. Simon is a scientist and science fiction writer, and in this talk he reflects on what science fiction has taught us. "We know about the hubris of science through Frankenstein, we know of totalitarian state-controlled media through 1984, and we also know it’s a terrible idea to break quarantine protocols through the film Alien," he says. "Science fiction doesn’t prevent us from doing those things, but we can’t say we didn’t kno...
Sep 01, 2021•21 min
Jessica Barker argues that we should rediscover overlooked sculptures of women. She didn't know it at the time, but as a child Jessica spent part of every Christmas day looking at a famous medieval monument. Later, when she became an expert in medieval art, she was angered by the phrase 'and his wife', so often associated with such monuments. Yet as she dug into the stories behind the women depicted in them, she discovered a more surprising, more subversive, and more interesting story. Producer:...
Aug 25, 2021•20 min
Steven Dowd's life changed in an instant one spring morning in 2016. In this inspiring talk, Steven describes what happened, and how a promise to his wife enabled him to regain control of the change - and his life. Producer: Giles Edwards
Aug 18, 2021•24 min
Professor Atul Shah draws on his background as a Jain to argue that we need a healthier relationship with finance: people often feel afraid of money matters because they lack knowledge and are prey to unplanned debt. He calls for more teaching about finance in schools and in the home, plus a more balanced attitude to consumption. “When money was invented, it was supposed to serve society – instead today it has become our master.” Professor Atul Shah is Professor of Accounting and Finance at City...
Aug 11, 2021•21 min
Joe Friedman, who grew up with deaf parents, reflects on what it means to hear. As a young psychotherapist, treating one particularly challenging client taught him the difference between listening that was only "skin deep" and really hearing someone else's pain. It helped him to lose his "deaf ears". "I assumed, like my parents, that being Hearing meant you could communicate, listen and hear - naturally. On reflection, of course, this is obviously idiotic. We all know people whose ears function ...
Aug 04, 2021•20 min
Sian Ejiwunmi-Le Berre argues against the tyranny of positivity which forms part of a culture of "performative wellness", which she says sees illness as a form of personal failure. When extrapolated to other aspects of human life, this attitude is a "poison to society". Presenter; Olly Mann Producer: Sheila Cook
Jul 28, 2021•22 min
Leon Bosch reflects on the power of classical music to transform lives, beginning with his own. He overcame the obstacles of racism in apartheid era South Africa to study the classical double bass. Despite encountering prejuduce in the UK, too, after moving here to study, he went on to build a distinguished international career as a virtuoso performer, conductor and teacher. He is currently Professor of double bass at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and director of the chamber ens...
Jul 21, 2021•28 min
Luke Rigg argues that more young magistrates will improve justice. When Luke told his friends and family he wanted to be a magistrate aged just 20, they all had one question: "Why are you doing that, Luke?" In this talk Luke takes us inside the magistrates' courts where for six years he has been convicting, sentencing, and acquitting offenders, many of his own age, to explain how he answers that question. Luke is introduced by host Olly Mann. Producer: Giles Edwards.
Jul 14, 2021•21 min
Tracey Follows explores how virtual assistants can help us survive after death. Tracey is a futurist who has become fascinated by the memories of people after they die, and in this talk she asks who and what is being memorialised - is it us, or something else altogether? Producer: Giles Edwards
Jul 07, 2021•21 min
Dr Shona Minson argues that we shouldn't punish children if their parents go to prison. Years ago, as a barrister specialising in care cases, Shona was familiar with the Children Act, and in particular its central principle: that the child's best interests are the paramount consideration of the court. And so when she was asked to write about what happened to children when their mums were imprisoned, she assumed something similar would apply, or at least that she could find some research about wh...
Jun 30, 2021•22 min
Dr. Tamsin Ellis is a GP who looks for ways to improve her patients' health and the environment. Welcoming us into her consulting room to meet her patients, Tamsin describes her journey to climate activism, and why she's convinced that looking for 'double wins' is the way forward. From giving a lecture about the environment to a sea of faces all sipping coffee from plastic cups, to the challenges of winning over already hard-pressed colleagues, in this witty talk Tamsin describes the realities o...
Jun 23, 2021•21 min
Jak Beula says statues and memorials matter because they show who a society values. His organisation is working to erect more to honour people of colour, including a new statue which he has designed for Windrush and Commonwealth nurses and midwives at the Whittington Hospital in London. "It helps to improve equality and inclusion, to uncover the stories of historic characters who have positively impacted Britain, but for whatever reason remain unknown, unsung and unheralded." Dr Jak Beula is the...
Jun 16, 2021•22 min
Helena Goodwyn interrogates the near universal practice of giving children their father’s - not their mother’s - surname. She and her husband plan to buck the trend in a stand against structural inequality when their first baby is born. "We have the feminist movement to thank for many of the changes that have led us to our present moment, where broadly speaking, British society no longer stigmatises people based on whether they were conceived in or outside of marriage but in the case of cohabiti...
Jun 09, 2021•20 min
Sergeant Rhys Rutledge of the Welsh Guards explains why he thinks people deserve a second chance after turning his own life around from convicted drug dealer to successful soldier. He's set up a project with the Army's backing called Defeat Don't Repeat to help prisoners and young people who might be at risk of offending to stay away from crime. Through presentations and a residential training course involving physical challenges and teamwork, he aims to communicate a message of hope. "I want to...
Jun 02, 2021•19 min
Dina Rezk describes how she made a friend of fear following the murder of her mother. The trauma of her mother's violent sudden death risked leaving her with a crippling sense of fear which she called "the beast". Over time she has found an ultimately life affirming way to live with it. "My life force had to match its presence. I had to exist in conversation with it rather than deny or repress its existence." Dr Dina Rezk is Associate Professor and lecturer in Middle Eastern History at the Unive...
May 26, 2021•25 min
Alastair Hendy explains why he thinks we've lost our food culture and how we can rediscover it. Remembering the seventies when convenience food was less available and it was normal to cook from scratch, he urges us to understand more about where our food comes from and calls for basic cookery skills to be taught again in schools. Presenter: Olly Mann Producer: Sheila Cook aghendy.com
Nov 25, 2020•23 min
Penny Wincer reflects on what it means to be a carer, drawing on her own and other people’s experiences. Especially during the pandemic when support services have been unavailable, it’s time, she argues, for society to take care of the carers. Presenter: Olly Mann Producer: Sheila Cook
Nov 18, 2020•21 min
As one of Britain’s youngest imams, Sabah Ahmedi, of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, is on a mission to overcome Islamophobia. Conversation, he believes, is the way to tackle misconceptions and prejudice surrounding Islam. A relaxed chat over a coffee is his ideal forum for answering difficult questions. Presenter: Olly Mann Producer: Sheila Cook
Nov 11, 2020•23 min
Adam Morse, who is registered blind, explains how he directed an award winning film by seeing differently. When he was diagnosed at the age of nineteen with a rare eye condition, he feared at first that his ambitions to act and direct might be thwarted. A decade later, his dreams are being fulfilled and he hopes to blaze a trail for other artists with disabilities. Presenter: Olly Mann Producer: Sheila Cook Adam Morse @themorseforce
Nov 04, 2020•23 min
Ranjit Saimbi explains why he doesn't want to be defined by his cultural heritage. In this talk, by turns intimate, by turns expansive, Ranjit describes the disconnect he felt from the Sikh culture in which he was born and raised, and proclaims his wish to be able to assert his own identity, free both from the constraints of that community and those in the rest of society who wish to put him in a particular box. Producer: Giles Edwards
Oct 28, 2020•22 min
Anne-Marie Douglas discusses her own experience of empathy-infused services, and why we need to see more of them. Anne-Marie's charity, Peer Power, works with children, young people and adults who have experienced significant trauma and adversity, using an empathy-focused approach to support them. In this powerful, personal talk, she outlines how her own experiences prompted her to focus on this approach. Producer: Giles Edwards.
Oct 21, 2020•24 min
Lydia Furse looks at the personal and political benefits of playing women's rugby. Lydia has long played rugby, and in this passionate talk discusses the harmony of bodies working together, a well-executed try, and how being in a scrum has made her feel differently about her physical image. She argues that women's rugby - much more than a game - is empowerment, it is boundary breaking, and it needs to be feminist. Producer: Giles Edwards.
Oct 14, 2020•23 min
Rufaro Mazarura discusses what the graduating class of 2020 have learned from the pandemic. A year ago, Rufaro carefully marked 23rd March in her diary - the day on which she'd be printing out and handing in her final year dissertation, and starting the transition to her new life, out of full-time education. But when the day arrived, she instead submitted her dissertation by email, and travelled home on an empty train, arriving just before the coronavirus lockdown. Rufaro has always been interes...
Oct 07, 2020•21 min
Ann Morgan, who read a book from every country in the world to broaden her homogeneous reading habits, commends the challenge of reading outside your comfort zone. "When you break out of that hall of mirrors and open yourself up to what the world's stories offer, amazing things can happen." Presenter: Olly Mann Producer: Sheila Cook
Sep 30, 2020•24 min
Sarah Corbett explains the power of 'craftivism', a form of activism which uses craft to create gentle protest. Activists craft objects which communicate respectful messages calling for social change. She explains how words embroidered on a handkerchief, for example, can be just as effective as louder forms of protest. Presenter: Olly Mann Producer: Sheila Cook
Sep 23, 2020•23 min
Tiffany Atkinson rehabilitates the concept of embarrassment, seeing its potential to be a positive force in social encounters, in contrast to the negative power of shame. "Sometimes shame may be appropriate, but we do not have to file all errors and pratfalls and misunderstandings under shame. Is this a healthy way to live with others? Would an embarrassment culture not be a useful counterbalance?" Presenter: Olly Mann Producer: Sheila Cook
Sep 16, 2020•23 min
Stephen Bourne thinks we are short changing young people by failing to teach them about the history of black Britons, especially their contribution in the armed forces and on the home front when Britain was at war. Their stories, he believes, deserve wider recognition. Presenter: OIlly Mann Producer: Sheila Cook
Sep 09, 2020•23 min
