Rafael Behr talks to Demos ' CEO Polly Curtis about the urgent case for upgrading our democracy and repairing the broken relationship between citizen and state. The conversation is loosely based around this new Demos paper released today (2 July) that sets out the challenges of the global democratic emergency, how this is threatening the political landscape in Britain and what we can do about it. Help shape the future of Politics on the Couch We’d love your input to make Politics on the Couch ep...
Jul 02, 2025•38 min•Ep. 51
Host Rafael Behr is joined by political scientist Prof. Michael Bang Petersen, whose research challenges the common belief that those who share misinformation are simply uninformed or gullible. Instead, Petersen suggest that many of these individuals are politically savvy and highly motivated, not by truth, but by the usefulness of information in advancing their political goals. The conversation also explores the concept of the "need for chaos": a psychological drive found in a significant minor...
May 14, 2025•44 min•Ep. 50
A conversation between Rafael Behr and writer and broadcaster David Aaronovitch, about ripples from the pandemic that still shape politics, with a digression on the ways that Britain is not America and whether that makes 'Maga-populism' less contagious. Links David Aaronovitch's substack - https://davidaaronovitch.substack.com BBC's Briefing Room presented by David Aaronovitch - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002bj77 This is a Behr and Berman podcast production Help shape the future of Polit...
Apr 30, 2025•55 min•Ep. 49
An anniversary episode in which host Rafael Behr and producer Philip Berman look back over a tumultuous time and ponder what they have learned from putting politics on the couch. Links to Politics on the Couch episodes discussed in this podcast Anti-vaxxers – fear, anxiety and the psychology of misinformation The authoritarian personality - why some voters feel drawn to populism and how to lure them away The Madness of King Don - a journey to the dark side of charisma, with Drew Westen Help shap...
Apr 21, 2025•45 min•Ep. 48
To coincide with the launch of her new book ( The Ideological Brain - A Radical Science of Susceptible Minds ) Rafael Behr talks to Dr Leor Zmigrod , a political psychologist and neuroscientist, about the ingredients of dogmatic thinking, why some of us are more prone than others, and how we can protect ourselves. Help shape the future of Politics on the Couch We’d love your input to make Politics on the Couch episodes more frequently, and even better. Do please take a moment to complete our lis...
Mar 19, 2025•54 min•Ep. 47
Rafael Behr talks to Paula Surridge Professor of Political Sociology about the fragmentation of support for the two big parties since Brexit, what's causing it and what it means for parties trying to maintain their voter coalitions. Questions also covered: What drives support for Reform UK, and how vulnerable is their voter base? Are the Liberal Democrats benefiting from tactical voting, and can they sustain their recent gains? Why the Conservative Party faces so many difficulties in defining it...
Mar 05, 2025•59 min•Ep. 46
Host Rafael Behr talks to author, policy expert and podcaster Sam Freedman about his new book Failed State: Why Nothing Works and How We Fix It Sam Freedman is a senior fellow at the Institute for Government and an Ark Schools adviser. He writes about policy and politics for numerous outlets, including the Financial Times , Sunday Times , Guardian and New Statesman . With his father, he runs ‘Comment is Freed’, Britain’s most popular politics Substack. He has spent his career working in differen...
Aug 22, 2024•59 min•Ep. 45
In a week of protests, counter-protests and riots in the UK, 5000 miles away in Bangladesh student-led uprising led to 300 people being killed, the toppling of a corrupt PM and violent regime, and a Nobel Peace Prize winner being installed as head a new interim government. In this edition, we're talking about the violent and momentous events in Bangladesh with award-winning British-born investigative journalist David Bergman, who has been following and reporting on the country for almost 30 year...
Aug 09, 2024•55 min•Ep. 44
In this summer bonus episode, Raf and (producer) Phil discuss the changing mood around British politics since Labour's election victory, the restoration of seriousness after years of triviality, why some people can't adapt, why others want to believe that Keir Starmer can deliver the change he has promised and whether they are right. Links to stuff mentioned in the podcast More in Common report Tony Judt's essay Reform came 2nd in 89 of the seats that Labour won . Lowest voter turnout for a Gene...
Jul 22, 2024•58 min•Ep. 43
In this edition host Rafael Behr talks to Nichola Raihani , Professor of Evolution and Behaviour in the School of Psychology at the University of Auckland. She's also the author of, ' The Social Instinct: How Cooperation Shaped the World ' Professor Raihani has unique insight into a problem that has appeared in various forms on this podcast over the years. It's a question of collective action, solidarity, and cooperation. What motivates people to form units of political organisation or cooperati...
May 27, 2024•50 min•Ep. 42
In the wake of October 7th and Trump's bid to become US President again, Rafael Behr sits down with fellow Guardian columnist and friend - Jonathan Freedland - to discuss the current state of geopolitics, liberal politics, Israel and Jewish identity. Events featuring Rafael Behr Shoreham, West Sussex, Wed 24 April An evening with Guardian columnist Rafael Behr and television producer Rob Burley in conversation with Ayesha Hazarika MBE, political commentator and broadcaster, and former special ad...
Apr 21, 2024•59 min•Ep. 41
Rafael Behr talks to Tom Gray from Gomez about his bid to become a Brighton MP. Tom's had a hugely successful career in music with Gomez rocketing to fame in 1998, beating Pulp and Massive Attack, among others, to the Mercury Prize . More recently he launched the Broken Record campaign , calling for a fairer deal for musicians from streaming services, among other industry reforms. And now, having banged on the doors to demand political change from the outside, Tom wants to get on the inside. He'...
Dec 05, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 40
In a departure from our normal format Rafael Behr (host) and Philip Berman (the show's producer) agreed to press record when they met yesterday (Thursday 28 September) to discuss a new series idea for Politics on the Couch. And this podcast is the end result, instead of a meta-cast talking about what we could talk about this Autumn, it's more of a casual ramble around Phil's break from Twitter, his despair about the state of political discourse and Raf's one-stop solution for all. Topics covered...
Sep 29, 2023•41 min•Ep. 39
Raf Behr talks to journalist, author and broadcaster David Aaronovitch about his recent visit to the National Conservatives conference, and what it taught him about state of the Tory party. They discuss: Was there really a re-alignment in British politics post-Brexit? What do the Nat Cons have to offer us Brits apart from hardline anti-immigration vibes? Why do some parts of the commentariat spend so much time talking about 'culture wars' when there are so many other issues to cover? If, as expe...
Jul 20, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 38
Rafael Behr talks to Rob Hutton, parliamentary sketch writer at the Critic, about the uneasy relationship between Westminster lobby journalists and MPs. Often political journalists cultivate close relationships with politicians to find out what's really happening in the corridors of power. But does a journalist's 'insider status' cloud their judgement when working out how to write about political stories or policy ssues, or whether to cover them at all? Does it inevitably become a trade-off betw...
Jul 07, 2023•59 min•Ep. 37
On this edition Rafael Behr talks to Professor Ben Ansell about his new book Why Politics Fails: The Five Traps of the Modern World & How to Escape Them Ben Ansell is Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at Nuffield College, University of Oxford. He was made Fellow of the British Academy in 2018, among the youngest fellows at that time. His work has been widely covered in the media, including in the World Bank's World Development Report , The New York Times , The Economist , The ...
May 17, 2023•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 36
Host Rafael Behr talks to Claudia Hammond about political empathy, its power and its limits. Claudia is probably best known as the presenter of BBC Radio 4's long-running show, 'All in the Mind' which covers psychology, neuroscience & mental health. She is also the Visiting Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Sussex. Her latest book, 'The Keys to Kindness,' looks at what constitutes kindness, effective strategies to build more of it into our lives and the...
May 04, 2023•50 min•Ep. 35
In this wide-ranging and informal conversation*, Rafael Behr chats to former colleague Helen Lewis about whether Whatsapp has changed the way politics is conducted, her favourite Tik Tok channel, the incestous nature of Scottish politics, what's really behind the UK government's immigration policy, what we can learn from Florida culture wars, why the middle ground is so hard to occupy, what we have learnt from the pandemic, and Helen's take on why so many men love listening to other men on podca...
Mar 30, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 34
Rafael Behr talks to Meg Russell, Director of the Constitution Unit and co-author, along with Research Fellow Lisa James, of a new book called: The Parliamentary Battle over Brexit, a detailed account of the extraordinary way the Brexit process played out in parliament. Since the 2016 referendum, the hotly contested issue of Brexit has raised fundamental questions about the workings of British democracy. Nowhere was this more true than regarding the role of parliament. This book addresses import...
Mar 21, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 33
Host Rafael Behr talks to Prof. Tim Bale about why people join political parties and how the members impact democracy. Topics covered inlcude: what people get from joining a political party; what parties get from their members; why membership of parties has declined; in particular why so many Conservative women joined, and then left in their droves; how membership differs between the two major parties; how the role of members has changed; and members impact on the democratic health of the nation...
Mar 14, 2023•51 min•Ep. 32
Ahead of the first bilateral summit between the two countries' leaders for five years, Rafael Behr talks to Georgina Wright, from the Institut Montaigne in Paris, about what the French really think about us Brits, and what we often get wrong about French discourse, customs and political culture. Quite a lot, as it happens. Georgina Wright is Senior Fellow and Director of Institut Montaigne’s Europe Program. She is also a Visiting Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, associate...
Mar 08, 2023•52 min•Ep. 31
In this edition, Rafael Behr talks to England's most prodigious political screenwriter and playwright - James Graham. He's probably most well known for writing the recent BBC1 hit drama 'Sherwood', which aired on BBC One in 2022 to rave reviews, and will return for a second series. James also wrote Quiz (ITV) in 2020, which was one of the most watched UK television dramas of the year; and Brexit: An Uncivil War, which garnered huge public attention and critical acclaim in 2019. It was broadcast ...
Mar 04, 2023•58 min•Ep. 30
Host Rafael Behr talks to Fuschia Sirois, Professor of Social and Health Psychology at Durham University, and co-Editor-in-Chief at the British Journal Of Health Psychology, about procrastination. In this free-flowing conversation, Fuschia and Rafael talk about what procrastination is, how it impacts politics and public policy, what we can do about it, and why Rafael may have incorrectly compared himself to Brad Pitt when he was a lot younger ( Raf that is) For more on Rafael Behr , and to order...
Feb 22, 2023•52 min
One year on from Russia's Invasion of Ukraine, host Rafael Behr talks to Anne Applebaum about why so many US Republicans and conservatives are still seduced by Putin’s anti-West rhetoric and tropes. Anne, a Pullitzer-prize winning historian, is particularly well positioned to discuss this, and associated issues, given that her most recent book Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism looked at why some of her contemporaries had abandoned liberal democratic ideals in favor of...
Feb 14, 2023•32 min
In this episode host Rafael Behr talks to Prof Anand Menon about what the latest polling on 'bregret' means for identity politics, Starmer's strategy on future EU relations, and the economic and democratic health of the UK. Anand Menon is Professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at King's College London in the United Kingdom, and was appointed in January 2014 as director of the UK in a Changing Europe initiative. Prior to arriving at King's College, London, Menon lectured at Birmingham...
Feb 07, 2023•1 hr 8 min
Anil Seth is Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex alongside other eminent roles in the field of advanced research into the nature of consciousness and perception. His bestselling book ‘Being You: A New Science of Consciousness’ is a masterpiece of making complex scientific issues accessible to the non-expert reader. Anil demonstrates that same skill in this relaxed and free-flowing discussion with Politics on the Couch host Rafael Behr. They talk abou...
Dec 22, 2022•1 hr
In this episode host Rafael Behr talks to Dr Karen Stenner, the political psychologist & behavioral economist best known for long ago predicting the rise of Trump-like figures uner the kinds of conditions we now confront. Her research on authoritarianism and 'Far Right' politics uses psychological theories and methods (in particular, Randomized Controlled Trials) to explain human behavior. She also use those same theories and methods (particularly RCTs) to shift human behavior via communicat...
Jul 14, 2022•1 hr 18 min
Rafael Behr talks to pollster and political strategist James Johnson about what's next for Labour, a matter of minutes after PM Johnson announced his resignation. Help shape the future of Politics on the Couch We’d love your input to make Politics on the Couch episodes more frequently, and even better. Do please take a moment to complete our listener survey which will only take 2-3 minutes. Many thanks! This is a Behr and Berman podcast production Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more ...
Jul 07, 2022•1 hr 2 min
This week, Rafael Behr and Professor Helen Thompson discuss her new book Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century. The book, which was released on the day Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, recounts three histories—one about geopolitics, one about the world economy, and one about western democracies. She explains how a confluence of different crises, building over many years, has created the current mood of global, epoch-defining disorder. It shows how much of this turbulence originated in...
May 05, 2022•1 hr 7 min
Human beings routinely make terrible choices but humanity still achieves amazing things. How does this paradox work? And is it still working when technology seems to amplify the worst in us. In this episode, Politics on the Couch host Rafael Behr talks to Professor Steven Pinker about the constant struggle between evidence and emotion for control of the political agenda; whether truth and fact are winning the long war against superstition and falsehood, and why rationality always has the last wo...
Oct 29, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 22
