Awe is a complex and mysterious emotion. Summoned by the extraordinary, it can be inspired by the divine, the beauty of nature or the force of human achievement. Awe stimulates curiosity and allows us to see the deep patterns in life. It can boost our mood, social connections and improve our life satisfaction. Yet in our modern world, we have become awe deprived. Our culture has become more materialistic and less connected to others. We spend more time on our phones and less time outdoors. In an...
Jan 20, 2023•37 min•Ep. 471
We all know that innovation, invention, and change are essential to economic and social development. But innovation can also fuel inequality, decimate livelihoods, harm mental health and destroy the planet. How can we uplift the benefits of innovation while reducing its potential harms? How can we uplift the benefits of innovation while reducing its potential harms? The answer: Inclusive Innovation . Join the authors of a ground-breaking new study to learn just what Inclusive Innovation is and h...
Jan 12, 2023•37 min•Ep. 470
This December, BBC World Service launches a major new audio dramatisation of Susan Cooper’s classic family novel The Dark Is Rising . Commissioned by Simon Pitts for BBC World Service, co-produced by Complicité and Catherine Bailey Productions, and adapted by writer Robert Macfarlane and actor/director Simon McBurney , the story - set in the depths of winter - follows young Will Stanton on an epic quest to drive back the rising forces of darkness. In an extra special midwinter event at the RSA, ...
Dec 19, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 469
In its 100 years on air, the BBC has witnessed huge cultural change, reported on major political moments, and evolved alongside a digital revolution. Its broadcasting has acted as a mirror to British culture, politics and society and it has become a true national treasure. BBC programming has also shaped domestic routines and united people in their homes and across great distances – especially at Christmas. From the royal address to iconic Christmas specials, BBC broadcasting has become a centra...
Dec 16, 2022•50 min•Ep. 468
We see colour everywhere we look. From the bright green of a soda can, the deep red of Valentine’s roses, to the green and black of power tools. But have you ever stopped to think why we associate certain colours with certain feelings, objects and flavours? We know that girls’ toys are often pink and boys’ are often blue, but why these colours? What is the social impact of these colour choices and who is making these choices for us? At the RSA, internationally renowned graphic designer Riccardo ...
Dec 08, 2022•47 min•Ep. 467
On 26 March 2020, a new law appeared that confined us to our homes. Passed under a state of emergency that was meant to be short but lasted 763 days, this law was one of over 100 lockdown laws that were never debated in parliament. Though certainly justified by the rapid spread of Covid-19, these laws increasingly confused the public and restricted our freedoms more than ever before. New laws like the Public Order Bill are bringing in limitations to free speech and our right to protest. Just lik...
Dec 01, 2022•38 min•Ep. 466
From Roe v Wade and Black Lives Matter to gun control and immigration, US politics in 2022 looks as partisan as ever, with debates framed in moralistic terms and parties focusing on mobilising the faithful rather than wooing the sceptical. People increasingly write one another off instead of seeking to win one another over. In this age of continued polarisation, democracy looks close to breaking point. But while it’s easy to fall into despair, there are grounds for hope, if we look close enough....
Nov 29, 2022•46 min•Ep. 465
Raj Chetty , professor of public economics at Harvard University will share the findings from research analysis of Meta data on the relationship between the social connections of individuals and economic mobility in the US. Research led by Harvard’s Opportunity Insights used large-scale privacy-protected social network datasets to study social capital in neighbourhoods, schools and colleges. Professor Chetty is joined by Lucy Makinson , head of policy at the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) to ex...
Nov 28, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 464
Our capacity to survive, adapt and flourish relies on designing a future that is concurrently sustainable and resilient. Whereas sustainability is accepted as a key tenet of good design, resilient design is still in its infancy seeking greater understanding and definition. Dame Jo da Silva RDI has earned global recognition as an engineer who has applied her knowledge and design expertise to improve safety, promote inclusivity, and enhance resilience of communities, cities, and infrastructure glo...
Nov 18, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 463
The Grenfell Tower disaster was the worst residential fire in Britain since World War II and it didn’t have to happen. The fire climbed up cladding as flammable as solid petrol. Fire doors failed to self-close. There was no alarm to warn sleeping residents and no evacuation plan. As smoke seeped into their homes, all were told to ‘stay put’ and 72 people would lose their lives. Five years on, many of the resulting public inquiry’s recommendations remain unmet. Many high-rise buildings have yet t...
Nov 17, 2022•42 min•Ep. 462
Black African communities have had a seismic impact across British culture, sports, politics, and more. Immigration from countries like Nigeria, Ghana and Zimbabwe has created many vibrant communities across Britain, especially in London. Across food, faith, and culture, the nation's capital has become a melting pot of ideas of what it is to be Black, African, and British. What can the eclectic nature of African London teach us about ties that bind immigrant communities together and to their hom...
Nov 10, 2022•50 min•Ep. 461
Small change can have a big impact on our lives. Through knock-on effects and cumulative action, little shifts have the potential for great harm and great good. And when it is easy to feel overwhelmed at the scale of change needed to solve big, structural problems, we need to recognise the value of practical change we can enact on a daily basis. In recent times, the twin plagues of Covid-19 and anti-Black police violence have caused Ruha Benjamin to rethink the importance of these every day, ind...
Nov 03, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 460
When the economist Ha-Joon Chang arrived in Britain in the eighties, he was struck by how bland and homogeneous the British diet was. But it wasn’t just the food – in mainstream economic thinking too, there seemed to only be one item on the menu – the Neoclassical tradition. Whilst our diet has expanded and diversified since then, our economic preference has remained stubbornly singular. Chang argues that just as a nourishing and appetising diet needs a variety of flavours and nutrients, our eco...
Oct 27, 2022•46 min•Ep. 459
Is there scope for the introduction of a universal basic income as a transformative public health intervention? As part of an academic partnership, funded by Wellcome, the RSA is exploring the potential for a UBI, how it could work in practice and what its impacts might be. The research brings together new analysis which shows that even a fiscally neutral UBI could have a significant effect in reducing poverty and insecurity and bring health benefits to those benefiting from the scheme. Speakers...
Oct 26, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 458
Households, businesses and even essential services are feeling the pressure, with the poorest in our society most harshly affected. To add to the burden, wages and salaries have failed to rise in line with inflation. The past summer saw several sectors push back on this, as train operators, posties, barristers, dock workers and more went out on strike. Some success was achieved, but for many, their battle is ongoing. With cost of living pressures expected to worsen over the winter, what kind of ...
Oct 24, 2022•42 min•Ep. 457
Rejecting both New Labour’s embrace of free markets and the statism of Corbynism, Blue Labour thinking sought to reconnect Labour with its working-class base, and to bring assets, power and dignity back to local communities. As workers' rights and futures - and the future of the places they live - take centre-stage in politics once more, Blue Labour’s founder, political scientist Maurice Glasman , is joined by Shadow Levelling-Up Secretary Lisa Nandy MP to explore what left-conservatism has to o...
Oct 21, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 456
But, despite affording billions greater material wealth, health and freedom, the age of plenty has not delivered the utopia it initially seemed to promise. Brad DeLong , one of the world’s leading economists, argues that instead of ushering in an era of prosperity, wellbeing and unlocked human potential, the gains of what he terms the ‘long twentieth century’ have not only been equivocal and double-edged, but also unfairly distributed. DeLong’s magnum opus, Slouching Towards Utopia was an instan...
Oct 13, 2022•44 min•Ep. 455
Across the 19th and 20th centuries, the Huxley family reshaped how we think about humanity and our relationship with the natural world. Within a family of scientists, educators, novelists, mystics, and filmmakers, two men led the way: ‘Darwin’s Bulldog’, the zoologist T.H. Huxley and his grandson and intellectual inheritor, the ecologist and conservationist, Julian Huxley. From religion to genetics, to human psychology, the Huxleys’ impact was felt across some of the most controversial and signi...
Oct 13, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 454
Estimates suggest that the planet’s average temperature could rise by up to four degrees Celsius. From heatwaves and hurricanes to flooding and droughts, the extreme weather this would bring could render certain parts of our planet unliveable. Changes on this scale may leave many people with no other option but to migrate to more liveable parts of the planet. Those who do migrate may have to navigate national borders and a public image that paints migration as a problem that needs to be solved. ...
Oct 06, 2022•46 min•Ep. 453
There’s no scientific impediment - even with present knowledge - to achieving a sustainable world in this century. We live under the shadow of new hazards - but these can be minimized by reprioritizing the thrust of the world’s technological effort - and optimizing the educational system and the institutions where research is done. Astronomer Royal Martin Rees has spent a lifetime exploring science’s most profound questions, and advocating for its place in our common culture, at the heart of our...
Sep 30, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 452
Society tells us that to be successful we must be tough, stubborn, and resilient. We can all achieve success if we just work hard enough. Across all corners of society, from sport to science and beyond, there are many examples of people who have overcome great hardship to achieve next-level success. However, this view focuses on individual achievement and can easily ignore many of the external factors that can undermine our confidence, take away our agency and stack the odds against us. When we ...
Sep 30, 2022•45 min•Ep. 451
The ways we work have seen huge changes in recent years. Technology has reformed entire sectors, remote working has become commonplace and age demographics have shifted as more people retire early or rethink their chosen careers. Such huge change means that the ways we measure good work are now outdated, with familiar notions of productivity criticised as being unfair to women and having more relevance to the industrial economy than to the knowledge economy. There is much to reflect on and much ...
Sep 23, 2022•46 min•Ep. 450
The design industry’s relationship to the field of business has long been established and continues to become further entangled each year. But designers aren’t just satisfied with only disrupting the business sector—they’re keen to disrupt the social sector too. Unfortunately, the weaknesses baked into the discipline of design (that have been present from the start) are readily exposed when designers enter complex social issues and treat them like any other human-centred innovation challenge. Th...
Sep 23, 2022•55 min•Ep. 449
Andrew Mawson and Sam Everington first pioneered social prescribing at the Bromley by Bow Centre in East London by offering services that go beyond what people typically receive at GP surgeries. Their approach recognises how patients often have more than one need and makes it easier for individuals to access different levels of practical and emotional support in their local area. RSA Chief Executive Andy Haldane will present Sam Everington and Andrew Mawson with the 2022 RSA Albert Medal for the...
Sep 22, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 448
In his lecture to the RSA, Professor Sir Michael Marmot will explain that in developing strategies for tackling health inequalities we need to confront the social gradient in health, not just the difference between the worst off and everybody else. There is clear evidence when we look across countries that national policies make a difference and that much can be done in cities, towns and local areas. But policies and interventions must not be confined to the health care system; they need to addr...
Sep 15, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 447
Emotions shape the way we interact with the world and how we are perceived by others. Yet the ways that we interpret those emotions and act on them has been heavily gendered. Hidden patterns of bias sit beneath the language we use and reach across our lives and society, from politics and the media to the workplace and our personal relationships. But how did this come to be? What factors have influenced the gendered stereotypes, double standards, and assumptions that influence the reading of our ...
Sep 15, 2022•44 min•Ep. 446
Feminism has reached the mainstream: but it’s often commodified, exclusionary, or sidetracked from the goal of liberation. Feminist writer and organiser Lola Olufemi explores how feminism can be reclaimed as an emancipatory tool for fighting state violence, reproductive injustice, transmisogyny, gendered racism, and much more – and achieve justice for everybody. We can start by imagining that a better world is possible… then building power to get there. #RSAWilderness Become an RSA Events sponso...
Sep 01, 2022•37 min•Ep. 445
Professor David Wengrow is an archaeologist and professor at University College London, and in 2021 was ranked #10 on ArtReview’s Power 100 list of the most influential people in art. His work challenges long-held views about the origins and development of human society and tells new stories of how we came to be, drawing on groundbreaking archaeological and anthropological evidence. He shares on the Wilderness stage the dazzling thinking in his latest book, ‘The Dawn of Everything: A New History...
Sep 01, 2022•40 min•Ep. 444
Being misty-eyed about the past is nothing new; but what does romanticising our history mean for our present? Historian and star of University Challenge Hannah Rose Woods investigates why nostalgia has been such an enduring state in Britain over hundreds of years, revealing the vast influence that its backwards glance has had on British society, politics, and identity. Debunking pervasive myths about our past, she shines a light on how our nostalgic country’s history has been written, re-written...
Sep 01, 2022•39 min•Ep. 443
For almost three centuries the RSA has played an important role in many of our major social reforms and innovations. It helped construct the public education system, encouraged the planting of more than sixty million trees, sought technological alternatives to child labour, and even once purchased and restored an entire village. And did plenty more in-between. Drawing on exclusive access to a wealth of rare papers and artefacts from the RSA Archives, historian Anton Howes shows how this vibrant ...
Jul 15, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 442
