We raise over a trillion every year in tax, and spent a hundred billion more than that. But where do we get it from? Where do we spend it? And is it used fairly, efficiently and wisely? Nick Spencer talks to Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Paul Johnson, about his book Follow the Money: How much does Britain cost?
We need to decarbonise, and fast. But 'going green' is not straightforward, not only practically but ethically. There is great potential there, but also huge risks. What are they? Who will win? And who might lose? Nick Spencer talks to journalist and author Henry Sanderson about his book Voltrush: The Winners and Losers in the Race to Go Green
Journalism is bit like politics. As a rule, we say we don’t really trust either profession, and neither seems to be in particularly good health at the moment. But we definitely can’t live without them. Nick Spencer talks to former editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, about his book Breaking News: the remaking of journalism and why it matters now
The ability to manipulate genetic material has never been greater, and is increasing all the time. With it comes the claim that genetics can makes sense of life - controlling, directing, shaping who we are? Can it? Nick Spencer talks to Prof. Sheila Jasanoff about her book Can science make sense of life?
Money is changing – and its changing fast and in a way that many of us find bewildering. Is cash on its way out? What is fintech? What actually is a cryptocurrency, or stablecoin, or a CBDC? Are they the future? Nick Spencer talks to Prof. Eswar Prasad about his book The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution is Transforming Currencies and Finance
The death of the self, of the soul, of the mind: time and again, science (or parascience) has declared the demise of a core dimension to human nature. But can we live without such concepts? And can they be rescued by religion, philosophy and literature? Nick Spencer talks to Marilynne Robinson about her book Absence of Mind: The Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self
Science and religion have a long history. According to some, it's a history of warfare; to others they are (or at least should be) non-overlapping. Nick Spencer argues that neither view is right, and that the two have long been entangled, especially over the questions of what do we think of the human, and who gets to say. Buy a copy of Magisteria here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/9780861544615
The late great American novelist David Foster Wallace, who had worked in a tax office, once remarked, “The whole subject of tax policy and administration is dull. Massively and spectacularly dull.” But he was wrong, massively and spectacularly wrong. Tax is ultimately about the different ways we live together, and express our values - and there is nothing more interesting than that. In this episode, Nick Spencer talks to Michael Keen and his book Rebellion, Rascals, and Revenue.
The UK has a religoius Prime Minister - yet again! Rishi Sunak is the first Hindu to occupy the role, but there have been plenty more of the faithful before him - even in the more secular atmosphere of the 20th century. Who did God most? Who least? Who was most sincere? And for whom did the divine actually make a difference? In this episode, Nick Spencer talks to Mark Vickers about his book God In Number 10
Are we are losing our civility and, with it, the space to disagree productively? Why? Where did the idea of 'civility' come from, where is it going, and why does it matter? In this episode, Nick Spencer talks to Ann Hartle about her book What happened to civility?
We spend a lot of money on aid - although not as much as we used to. Does it work or is it, as some claim, a waste? And behind that, why do some countries develop and others not? In this episode Nick Spencer talks to Stefan Dercon about this book Gambling on Development
For all the fears over growing levels of creationism, evolution is widely accepted in the UK. But 'accepted' does not necessarily mean understood, particularly when the theory itself is subject to so many myths and fanciful interpretation. In this episode, Nick Spencer talks to Simon Conway Morris about his book From Extra-terrestrials to Animal Minds: Six Myths of Evolution
Everyone knows that terrorism is wrong but - a tough question to answer objectively - does it work? And, depending on your answer to that question, how then should we respond to it? In this episode, Nick Spencer talks to Richard English about his book Does Terrorism Work?
Whereas once we read books and newspapers, and read them whole, the world is now mediated to us through screens, usually in much smaller gobbets. What is this doing to our brains - and does it matter? In this episode, Nick Spencer talks to Maryanne Wolf about her book Reader, Come Home: The reading brain in a digital world
The liberation of the sexual revolution is increasingly looking anything but liberating, particularly for young women who are suffering a culture of the endlessly commercialised female body, casual sex, and sometimes violent pornography. What is going on, why, and what can we do about it? In this episode, Nick Spencer talks to Louise Perry about her book The Case Against the Sexual Revolution
What will the world be like a generation from now? Warmer and more crowded, certainly. But… richer? More peaceful? Healthier? Better educated? On Mars? Or at war? Predicting the future is risky but also, arguably, necessary if we hope to navigate the path before us. In this episode, Nick Spencer talks to Hamish McCrae about his book The World in 2050: How to Think About the Future
Whatever else has happened to religious practice over the last 40 years, it doesn’t seem to have affected the way we talk about, or believe in, the soul, with as many people doing so today as they did 40 years ago. But what we mean by the ‘soul’ is far from clear. Is it a thing, a process, or just a figures of speech? In this episode, Nick Spencer speaks to Prof. John Cottingham about his book In Search of the Soul.
Even allowing for the fact that relationship between the sexes has never been easy, we surely live in strangely anxious times when it comes to such matters, with accusations of misogyny and toxic masculinity rife. Are men a problem? How do men and women differ? And what, if anything, do we want or need from each other? In this episode, Nick Spencer speaks to Nina Power about her book What do men want?: masculinity and its discontents.
Anti-vaxxers, creation science, astrology – for supposedly rational times, irrational and pseudoscientific beliefs appear to be doing quite well. Why? Which pseudosciences are flourishing, and for what reasons? And where even is the border between science and pseudoscience? In this episode, Nick Spencer speaks to Prof. Michael Gordin about his book On the Fringe: Where Science meets Pseudoscience.
We live in strange, unsettling, perhaps even exceptional times. How did we get here? In particular, how have our dependence on energy, our need for economic growth and our distrust in politics combined to shape our unstable 21st century. In this episode, Nick Spencer speaks to Prof. Helen Thompson about her book Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century.
The more religion dies, the more it stays alive, predictions of its imminent demise being as popular now as they were a hundred years ago. Why? Where did religion come from? Why is it so deep rooted in human nature? And where, if anywhere, is it going? In this episode, Nick Spencer speaks to Prof. Robin Dunbar about his book How Religion Evolved and why it endures.
Strange as it may seem given what they do, ethics is very important to the intelligence services. But how do you – how even can you – spy ethically? In this episode, Nick Spencer speaks to Prof. Cécile Fabre about her book Spying Through a Glass Darkly: The Ethics of Espionage and Counter-Intelligence.
Science is the basis of so much in the modern world that to ask why we should trust it seems unnecessary, even wrong. Yet, people do, and not all of them for the best motives. In this episode, Nick Spencer speaks to Prof. Naomi Oreskes about her book Why Trust Science? which answers ‘science sceptics’ of all stripes, and opens up new perspectives on the importance of diversity in science.
Covid-19 was not the first pandemic in history, and it won’t be the last. We have lived with disease throughout our history, and our history has accordingly been shaped, sometimes transformed, by disease. But how? In the final episode of this series of Reading Our Times, Nick Spencer talks to the historian Kyle Harper about his new book Plagues upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History.
The Common Good is a remarkably popular phrase, used widely by the left and the right, the religious and the secular. But does it actually mean anything? Is it so elastic as to have no real content? In this episode, Nick Spencer talks to Anna Rowlands about her new book Towards a Politics of Communion, about what the Common Good means and what it offers a society like ours.
Even as formal religious adherence wanes (at least in the West), people go on talking about God and spiritual matters. But how is that even possible? How can you talk about someone (or something) that is beyond language? Is all God-talk literally nonsense? In this episode, Nick Spencer speaks to Prof. Janet Soskice about her classic 'Metaphor and Religious Language' and her forthcoming 'Naming God' about how on earth we can hope to talk about God.
Secularism is supposed to epitomise reasonableness and fairness – the refusal to favour one (non/religious) group over another. Yet, it is coming under fierce pressure across the world. Why? In this episode Nick Spencer talks to Prof. Sumantra Bose about his book 'Secular States, Religious Politics' and looks at the future of secularism in the 21st century.
Debates around sex, gender and identity have emerged as some of the most important, and heated, of our time. But what are the issues – scientific, philosophical, ideological, anthropological – that lie beneath them? In this episode, Nick Spencer talks to the journalist and author Helen Joyce about her book Trans, and the tensions underlying the debate.
Iain McGilchrist rose to public prominence with his book 'The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World'. Now, in his long–awaited follow up ‘The Matter with Things’, he develops his ideas about the divided brain into a remarkably detailed and comprehensive vision of reality, “a whole philosophy – … [with] new answers to the questions of what the world is and who we are.” Nick Spencer talks to him about materialism, truth, humanity, and God.
There was a time (and not so long ago) we thought animals were 'mere machines’, incapable of inner life or emotions. Now we know better and are beginning to understand the extraordinarily rich inner life of primates and some other species. In the first episode of this series of Reading Our Times, Nick Spencer talks to the eminent primatologist Frans de Waal about his book 'Mama's Last Hug' which explores the moving and fascinating world of animal emotions and what they tell us about ourselves.
