‘Never let a good crisis go to waste’ was Churchill’s infamous wartime quip, and the early days of the pandemic seemed the ideal opportunity to pivot to a fairer way of life in Britain. Cherished systems were re-invented wholesale, underpaid frontline workers propped up the nation and big state intervention saved millions of lives – prime conditions for a shake-up of priorities. But as the months passed, it seemed COVID only magnified existing disadvantage and entrenched poverty further. The cri...
Dec 09, 2021•48 min•Ep. 411
Regenerative Futures: redesigning the human impact on earth Dr Daniel Christian Wahl is awarded the 2021 RSA Bicentenary Medal in recognition of his outstanding contribution to regenerative design. In his Medal address, Dr Wahl will offer reflections on 20 years of research and professional practice exploring the role of design as a catalyst for the transition towards a future of diverse regenerative cultures everywhere. Find out more about the RSA Bicentenary Medal and the Regenerative Futures ...
Dec 08, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 410
From vaccine misinformation to racist and misogynistic abuse, the scale of harmful content online is a cause of increasingly widespread public concern. Meanwhile, recent whistle-blower accounts from within Big Tech have shed new light on the nature of the algorithm design and business models that are driving the amplification of toxic content and threatening both individual safety and wider societal health. As the UK government’s draft Online Safety Bill passes through its final scrutiny stages,...
Nov 29, 2021•46 min•Ep. 409
'Fashion has to reflect who you are' Pharrell Williams. Despite its fun reputation, the fashion industry isn't a trifling part of the climate change equation. The UN Environment programme estimates that it is responsible for 8-10% of global carbon emissions – more than international flights and maritime shipping combined. But it's not just a case of carbon - the industry is a systemic offender that impacts people, place and planet with its exploitative working practices, fossil fuel-based synthe...
Nov 19, 2021•49 min•Ep. 408
What would our cities look like if they were designed with mental wellbeing, equity, and restoration at their core? Many cities around the world are built on models that haven’t kept pace with growing urban populations and the imperative to halt damage to the climate – which means millions living high-cost, high-stress lives in polluted, overcrowded surroundings. How can cities be better geared towards living well together? A panel including health policy expert Layla McCay gathers to explore th...
Nov 16, 2021•42 min•Ep. 407
The pandemic exposed the risks and weaknesses of the market-driven global system like never before, revealing a critical lack of institutional preparation and failings of the basic apparatuses of state administration. It also revealed that states could exercise experimental policy and control over the economy when necessary: governments around the world introduced new measures and spent whatever it took to deal with Covid. The US stimulus was the largest on record, the UK government supported 11...
Nov 05, 2021•46 min•Ep. 406
We know climate change is the big existential challenge of our time and must be matched by the scale of our global response. Some have expressed scepticism about the potential for COP26 to bring about meaningful change, but with public appetite for climate action reaching new heights, is now the time when people power and formal politics could converge? It can’t all be left up to the people in charge – but without good leadership, we won’t achieve the whole-system change we need. What would bold...
Oct 28, 2021•39 min•Ep. 405
Work allows us to pay the bills – but for lots of people, it’s become about more than that. Many of us derive a sense of purpose or identity from our work: is this a consequence of more people being able to choose work that’s meaningful to them, or simply of work consuming more of our lives than ever? And what if we don’t get meaning or purpose from what we do for a living? Transforming work for the 21st century will mean rethinking lots of things beyond work itself: its relationship with our so...
Oct 18, 2021•39 min•Ep. 404
Now is the time to rethink our future and how we get there. Can we harness digital technology to tackle poverty and increase social mobility? Could reforming work help reverse the mental health crisis? And what could happen if we empower communities to imagine and shape their futures? We are facing big questions about the kind of society and economy we need and want. Technological and demographic change, economic and climate crisis are intensifying insecurity and inequality. The need to seed coh...
Oct 08, 2021•49 min•Ep. 403
The role of imagination for thriving and prosperous communities. As we emerge from the pandemic there is a collective opportunity to rethink and to create bold, community-led practices that can steer us towards a better future. This is the time for imagining radical initiatives that match the size and complexity of the challenges we face. The government’s overarching aim to ‘level up’ speaks to the need for community and social infrastructure to underpin recovery. Communities across the UK share...
Sep 30, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 401
As Chief Negotiator for the EU, Michel Barnier was at the very heart of the Brexit process over four turbulent years. He visits the RSA to reveal insights from one of the most complex sets of talks in modern political history, to share his perspective on the lessons learned on both sides of the negotiating table, and to look forward to a new chapter in EU-UK relations. At a time of interconnected crises, there is an urgent need to re-build trust between political leaders and institutions, and to...
Sep 30, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 402
r versus g? Or a Debt Jubilee? David Graeber’s bestselling book “ Debt: The First 5000 Years” revolutionised our understanding of the origins of money and the role of debt in human societies. But intellectual revolutions take time, and David’s sudden and untimely death left this revolution unfinished. David’s widow Nika Dubrovsky has established ‘The Fight Club’ to keep David’s unique way of challenging conventional wisdoms alive after him. Each ‘Fight’ will pit leading advocates of different vi...
Sep 24, 2021•57 min•Ep. 400
How can we make progress together when faced with increasingly complex challenges? The major challenges of our time demand creative and collaborative solutions. But they’re not always easy to come by: we face increasing complexity and, often, decreasing control. We need to work with people across more divides. How can we move forward in ever less straightforward situations? Adam Kahane presents transformative facilitation as a new way of creating change. By focusing on removing the obstacles to ...
Sep 24, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 399
How did the world become addicted to fossil fuels? How did we discover that electricity may be our saviour? Who first sounded the alarm bell for climate change, and how could we seemingly ignore all these papers from the 1960s or 1970s musing that “if” we didn’t do anything, climate change could worsen significantly after the year 2000? As we look forward to COP26, Alice Bell takes us back to explore the earliest signs and causes of climate change in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, thro...
Sep 17, 2021•42 min•Ep. 398
What is fear costing you? Your career; connection with others; believing in yourself? Fear is part of all of our lives but left unchecked it can drive many negative emotions and hold us back from finding fulfilment. Fear of failure, inadequacy and rejection can make us jealous, self-critical or turn us into perfectionists. Cultures of fear in the workplace, in family relationships and in friendships, can undermine intimacy, honesty and creativity. In a life ruled by fear we strive for success bu...
Jul 09, 2021•49 min•Ep. 397
Where are the opportunities for young people navigating an era rife with challenges? Studies show that many of the social and economic consequences of the pandemic have hit younger people the hardest, in a time when many were already facing adversity. Declining living standards, heightened insecurity, and deepening social divisions are changing what work, home, education, and community look like for younger generations – but young people are resourceful and resilient, and should have a voice in ...
Jul 02, 2021•43 min•Ep. 396
RSA Student Design Awards 2021 Keynote Address Join us for this special event celebrating the 2020/21 RSA Student Design Awards programme and the power of design to make a positive social impact. The 2021 SDA Keynote Address will be delivered by internationally renowned designer and social innovator, Jennie Winhall. System innovation is the challenge of an age in which society needs to make profound transitions to meet the challenges brought by climate change, ageing, growing inequality and the ...
Jun 30, 2021•51 min•Ep. 395
Homophobia, biphobia and transphobia within families and within communities drives thousands of young people into homelessness. In the US, studies show that LGBTQ+ youths make up 40% of the nation’s total homeless youth population, despite LGBTQ+ youth comprising merely 5% of the overall youth population. In the UK, it is estimated that one in four trans people have experienced homelessness. This is an international phenomenon, and one which has been greatly exacerbated by the pandemic. While re...
Jun 25, 2021•46 min•Ep. 394
Rethinking Education III | Beyond the School Gates: the role of schools in the wellbeing of communities Throughout the pandemic, schools have played a central role in the wellbeing of local communities, especially in the most disadvantaged areas. School leaders have provided high quality and safe learning environments, reassurance for staff, parents and students and maintained critical relationships with other key providers of support for the health and well-being of children and families. The i...
Jun 18, 2021•53 min•Ep. 393
Innovations are emerging worldwide to address the challenges of a rapidly changing future of work. The pandemic is likely to accelerate the pace of technological change and automation globally. To secure a future where good work is available to all, we will need new approaches to skills, training and lifelong learning, to economic security and to worker voice and power. To launch the RSA Good Work Guild , a panel of good work innovators gather to share the solutions they have pioneered to suppor...
Jun 15, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 392
As nation-states grapple with generation-defining issues from the Covid-19 pandemic to the climate crisis, what role does civil society play in addressing the issues of our time? For the first time since President Biden took office and the UK left the EU, the G7 countries will come together at the 2021 summit in England to discuss the pandemic, prosperity, climate change, and shared values. But without support, solidarity, and citizen engagement, these ambitions for a better world will come to n...
Jun 11, 2021•43 min•Ep. 391
In ordinary times, our exam system ensures that a third of young people finish school without the qualifications they need to progress. Now, after two years of cancelled exams, public dismay at algorithmic blindness to the true nature of student achievement, and after millions of the most disadvantaged children have missed out on key learning milestones, there has never been a more critical time to question our approach to assessment. The questions reach deeper than addressing the unfairness of ...
Jun 10, 2021•57 min•Ep. 390
The more we spend time with people unlike ourselves, doing things together, the more understanding, tolerant, and even friendly we become. And yet, increasingly, most of us spend less and less time with people who are different - as defined by age, race, or class, earning power or education. The pandemic may have forced us apart, but it also reminded us of what we share and value. We witnessed the power of community, connection and common cause. And we saw clearly the urgent work that needs to b...
Jun 04, 2021•53 min•Ep. 389
What if women’s untapped power to make change was harnessed to fight the climate crisis? Climate change affects us all globally – but it does not affect us all equally. Vast social and economic inequities mean we don’t all contribute to the climate crisis to the same degree; nor are its effects evenly distributed. Racialised women are the most likely to suffer the consequences of climate change, which they have done the least to cause. Meanwhile, women are marginalised in the spaces where climat...
May 28, 2021•43 min•Ep. 388
We need a solid base camp from which to map new routes forward for humanity. One that’s built on a shared understanding of how core human needs and motivations interact with social forces to shape and drive the dynamics of change. Imagine a theory that united perspectives from human psychology to anthropology, from the sociology of groups and organisations to political science and policy design. Imagine if this theory was simple enough for anyone to understand, yet nuanced and practical enough t...
May 23, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 387
Government policies in response to the Covid-19 pandemic have reignited the universal basic income (UBI) debate, showing us the vital lifeline that income support can provide. In the US, Congress has distributed nearly $850 billion through three rounds of stimulus checks. In the UK, the furlough scheme and self-employed income support schemes have helped millions to keep their heads above water. But these measures are temporary and specific, so what can they really tell us about the viability of...
May 21, 2021•48 min•Ep. 386
If the way we give to those in need reflects on our values and virtue as a society, what do we see today? Charitable giving has grown in response to the huge areas of need that the Covid crisis has exposed and intensified, in the form of mutual aid groups, donations, and volunteering. How has this changed our communities, our public values, and the ways we help one another? Writer and development expert Paul Vallely is joined by philanthropic activist Sir Bob Geldof and charity director Fran Per...
May 14, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 385
The speed with which Covid-19 vaccines have been developed represents a significant achievement for humanity and is providing hope for a way out of the pandemic, but the rollout so far has been unequal: high and middle-income countries are able to secure more vaccines than they need and vaccinate populations at speed, whilst low-income countries reliant on external supplies and funding are being left behind. Vaccine deployment is exposing deep health, political, racial and economic inequalities ...
May 07, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 384
Employees in low-skill, low-paid and insecure occupations constitute 45% of Britain’s labour market, and it is these workers that are turning their backs on the left in droves. In the 2019 election, Labour lost many seats in former strongholds in the post-industrial north and Midlands, and by contrast stacked up votes in London and other major cities. The collapse of the red wall signals a serious fracture in the left’s relationship with the working class. Can a transformation of work itself hel...
Apr 30, 2021•52 min•Ep. 383
How should we understand the ‘value’ of nature? The natural world provides all the building blocks of our lives and societies; we are embedded within it, and nothing without it. But our economies currently operate as though separate from nature, with consumption outstripping its supply of resources, and environmental degradation and instability worsening faster than ever. What we need, argues Sir Partha Dasgupta , is to redefine the relationship between ecology and economy. His recently publishe...
Apr 23, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 382
