In the final episode of Season 8 of the We Society, our host Will Hutton is joined by economist and former Labour politician Ed Balls, Dr. Anna Stansbury, a researcher in labour and macroeconomics from MIT, and Dan Turner, Chief Research Officer for the Office of Gordon and Sarah Brown focused on national and regional inequalities. All three have recently collaborated on research to do with regional inequality in the UK and the lessons the UK can learn from Bidenomics. In this conversation, they...
Jul 09, 2025•40 min•Season 8Ep. 8
In the UK alone, around one in four adults are experiencing chronic pain. And nearly a quarter of the population live with some form of disability. Yet despite these numbers, pain and disability are still too often talked about in hushed tones, misunderstood, or entirely overlooked in public life. How do we talk about pain that doesn’t go away? How do people live in bodies that society isn’t built for? And how can we shift the narrative from individual burden to collective responsibility? Profes...
Jul 02, 2025•28 min•Season 8Ep. 7
Borders contain nations, act as fault lines, but are also meeting points, where different cultures, people, and ideologies come into contact. Nowhere has this been more visible, more painful, and more politically charged than the island of Ireland. In this episode, Will Hutton is joined by Professor Katy Hayward. She’s one of the UK’s leading voices on Brexit, the Irish border, and cross border tension and transformation. A political sociologist at Queen’s University Belfast and Co-Director of t...
Jun 25, 2025•29 min•Season 8Ep. 6
We speak with Lisa Harker, the Director of the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory, who gives us an insight into the alarming rise in the use of Deprivation of Liberty Orders on children. She explains how vulnerable children, many born into poverty and facing complex needs, are increasingly subjected to severe restrictions on their freedom through these court orders. According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Justice, 1,280 children were subject to applications to deprive them of th...
Jun 18, 2025•29 min•Season 8Ep. 5
What is the link between social science and entrepreneurship? To give us the answer, Will Hutton speaks to Professor Eleanor Shaw OBE, an academic specialising in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Strathclyde to delve into the social science dimension of entrepreneurship. Eleanor believes that entrepreneurial spirit stems from recognising and addressing unfulfilled societal needs. In the conversation, they discuss successful entrepreneurs who contribute to communities and not ...
Jun 11, 2025•30 min•Season 8Ep. 4
Professor Andy Tatem talks to us about WorldPop, the research programme he heads that is based in the School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton. The team at WorldPop uses satellite imagery and mobile phone data to map population distributions in areas of the Global South and this data is used by governments for resource allocation and policy-making. In this episode, Andy shares case studies emphasising the impact of timely data on healthcare decisions in countries ...
Jun 04, 2025•31 min•Season 8Ep. 3
We probe the UK prison system with Professor Alison Liebling, a Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Cambridge and the Director of the Institute of Criminology’s Prisons Research Centre. In this episode, she discusses the complexities surrounding prison officers, their often-underappreciated skills, and the critical role they play in maintaining order and humanity on the wings. Professor Liebling’s research on prisons spans over three decades with a particular inter...
May 28, 2025•29 min•Season 8Ep. 2
Gavin Kelly is the Chief Executive of the Nuffield Foundation and has spent the past 30 years of his career putting Britain’s economic inactivity problem under a microscope. For Gavin, one of the main problems is the nearly 1 million young people who are not in education, employment or training. They are the ones being left behind and their numbers are rising. But what can be done to solve this? The Nuffield Foundation is an independent charitable trust funding research that informs social polic...
May 21, 2025•33 min•Season 8Ep. 1
As US President Donald Trump threatens trade tariffs, the We Society invited the Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to share her thoughts during this period of uncertainty. The first woman and the first African to serve as Director General of the WTO, Dr Okonjo-Iweala also gives her perspectives on women in leadership positions and her history of fighting corruption in Nigeria that led to the kidnapping of her elderly mother. This is the final intervie...
Feb 26, 2025•35 min•Season 7Ep. 7
Professor Lee Elliot Major, who is Britain's first professor of Social Mobility based at the University of Exeter, is our guest in this penultimate episode of Season 7. In his latest book, Equity in Education, he argues for a new approach and language to improve upward mobility. In his book, children are not disadvantaged instead they are under resourced. Does language matter? Season 7 of the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences continues to tackle the big questions through a s...
Feb 19, 2025•31 min•Season 7Ep. 6
Around one in four women have experienced domestic abuse, according to the Crime Survey of England and Wales. But abuse is not usually a one off event, it’s part of a protracted pattern, and by studying the timeline, perhaps this shocking statistic and may change. Prof Jane Monckton-Smith has dedicated the majority of her career to studying this pattern and is Professor Of Public Protection at the University of Gloucestershire. She researched and created the Homicide Timeline, a tool for police ...
Feb 12, 2025•28 min•Season 7Ep. 5
'Eight hours labor, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest' was the rallying cry of Robert Owen, a Welsh textile manufacturer turned labour reformer in the early 19th century. For those toiling in factories, Owen’s slogan was a socialist dream that only became commonplace in the early 20th century. But, the 9 to 5 is still standard while technology has moved on - we have Artificial intelligence, automation, intuitive software at our fingertips. Shouldn’t we be more productive while spending fe...
Feb 05, 2025•29 min•Season 7Ep. 4
The Institute for Fiscal Studies - or IFS - has become the nation’s go to institution for judgements about tax, spending and borrowing. And the Office for Budget Responsibility – the OBR – is the independent official watchdog that assess the viability and sustainability of the government’s economic plans. Our guest today, Sir Robert Chote has run both organisations and knows better than anyone on the planet how they both work. He now heads the UK Statistics Authority. Season 7 of the We Society ...
Jan 29, 2025•34 min•Season 7Ep. 3
Pick, Pack, Post, Repeat….warehouses around the world are now using Artificial Intelligence to fulfil customer orders. So, are workers on their way out? As the speed of innovation when it comes to artificial intelligence accelerates, power sits firmly in the hands of Silicon Valley and big tech companies. Governments and the public are on the side-lines. How should we be feeling about this? To tell us is Anthony Elliott - Professor of Sociology at the University of South Australia who has just p...
Jan 22, 2025•29 min•Season 7Ep. 2
It's now 80 years since the end of the Second World War and the creation of the liberal world order: free trade, globally managed finance, and a commitment to liberal democracy. But these ideas seems to be in retreat with the re-election of Donald Trump, and the accompanying dramatic increase of right-wing populist nationalism almost everywhere, including Europe. Can liberal democracy survive? With us to discuss this and more is political scientist Professor Anand Menon, the director of the UK i...
Jan 15, 2025•28 min•Season 7Ep. 1
Join host Will Hutton for Season 7 of the We Society from next week to hear some of the best ideas to shape the way we live. Launching January 15th with an interview with Anand Menon, the Director of the UK in a Changing Europe. In this podcast series, you will hear interviews from social scientists, business leaders and public figures to hear their solutions to society's most pressing issues. Please subscribe, rate and share with your friends. This podcast is brought to you by the Academy of So...
Jan 08, 2025•2 min•Season 7Ep. 1
The recent riots in Britain, which emerged following the Southport stabbings, demonstrate how hate is bubbling just under the surface of our society, ready to erupt at any moment. Behind the violence and destruction are statistics. Between 2012 and 2023, hate crimes in England and Wales rose by 252%, according to research undertaken by the Home Office. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Professor Neil Chakraborti and Professor Matthew Williams join host Will Hutton to discuss the impact of...
Aug 21, 2024•38 min•Season 6Ep. 7
No war has been more of a failure than the war on drugs. Despite all the crackdowns, prison sentences and moral posturing, drug use in Britain is on an epic scale. Yet, drug debate and policy are full of moral declarations, with evidence often being made to take a backseat. Why is this? Alex Stevens is a professor of Criminology at the University of Sheffield (having recently moved from the University of Kent). He was a member of the UK Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs from 2014 to 2019, ...
Aug 14, 2024•30 min•Season 6Ep. 6
One in six people are said to have ‘very poor literacy skills’ according to the National Literacy Trust. As a country, we value Literature, high quality research skills and further education, yet our values are not reaching all sections of our society. Looking to challenge this is Professor Anna Vignoles, her past research focused on issues of equity and value in education, particularly the relationship between educational achievement and social mobility, and the role played by education and ski...
Aug 07, 2024•28 min•Season 6Ep. 5
Professor Saul Becker has studied the hidden world of young carers for 30 years. Nearly 1 million children in the UK find themselves – some as young as five - having to look after sick or elderly family members. Saul Becker is the pro vice chancellor for the Faculty of Health and Education at Manchester Metropolitan University and is regarded as the world leader in young carers research, policy, and practice. Season 6 of the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences continues to tac...
Jul 31, 2024•29 min•Season 6Ep. 4
Housing is one of the most pressing problems this new Government must fix. Will Hutton is joined by Vicky Spratt, the inewspaper's housing correspondent, and Auriol Miller, the CEO of Cynon Taf Community Housing Group, a major not-for-profit organisation providing affordable homes in Wales. Housing is an issue that has thwarted a long line of Governments, and it feels like we are no closer to solving the crisis. Latest figures show that almost 1.3 million people in England are on social housing ...
Jul 24, 2024•35 min•Season 6Ep. 3
Professor Sarah Hall’s job is to approach the emotive topic of Brexit with a cool head and focus only on the evidence. She is the 1931 Chair in Geography, a Fellow of St John’s College at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. Professor Hall is an economic geographer who specialises in going out in the field to imbue data with conversations with those in the thick of the action. Her latest work has looked at how financial services around the UK have been aff...
Jul 17, 2024•26 min•Season 6Ep. 2
Host Will Hutton hears from four leading social scientists on how the new UK government should tackle the country's most pressing challenges. In this special episode marking the end of the general election and the start of Season 6, we apply a social science lens to issues concerning the stagnating economy, the climate crisis, adult social care, and universities. We speak to Professor Jagjit S. Chadha , an economist who is the Director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, J...
Jul 10, 2024•21 min•Season 6Ep. 1
Lord Chris Patten is one of Britain’s big political beasts – not only as a commentator, thinker and writer, but he has had a formidable career where he has put ideas into action. He has been a British cabinet minister, chair of the Conservative party, European Commissioner for External Relations, Governor of Hong Kong, Chair of the BBC and most recently Chancellor of Oxford University. Taken together - including a stint as chair of the independent commission on policing in Northern Ireland - it ...
May 01, 2024•29 min•Season 5Ep. 7
Dr Ella Cockbain is not afraid to delve into topics that may make others uncomfortable, whether that's labour exploitation or child sexual abuse. As an associate professor in the Department of Security and Crime Science at UCL, she leads the research group on human trafficking and exploitation. In recognition of her impactful work, she received the prestigious Philip Leverhulme Prize last year along with 29 other exceptional researchers. Season 5 of the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Soc...
Apr 17, 2024•38 min•Season 5Ep. 6
Professor Andy Pike has placed local authorities under his microscope for us, trying to figure out how to solve the crisis, as Sir Henry Daysh Chair of Regional Development Studies at Newcastle University. He’s even written a book about the very topic called "Financialisation and Local Statecraft". When it was revealed in 2022 that Thurrock council in Essex faced a half-a-billion-pound black hole in its finances, it was assumed it was something that other local authorities couldn’t repeat. But s...
Apr 10, 2024•36 min•Season 5Ep. 5
Professor Rosie McEachan is leading one of the most exciting research projects in Britain - the Born In Bradford study. It's one of the largest research studies in the world, tracking the lives of over 30,000 Bradfordians to discover what factors most influence health and well-being. In particular, they are focussing on how genetic, nutritional, environmental, behavioural and social factors impact health and development during childhood and, subsequently, adult life. Thanks to the study, Bradfor...
Apr 03, 2024•33 min•Season 5Ep. 4
Dr Ed Jones is working to turn around Britain's ailing high streets. He is a financial economist at Bangor University who doesn’t consider himself a conventional academic. The British High Street once was the heart of our cities, towns and villages, but no more. The High Street is increasingly lifeless – the preserve of too many empty shops and countless charity shops that don’t have to pay burdensome business rates. A former centre of our communities is wilting before our eyes. Season 5 of the ...
Mar 27, 2024•30 min•Season 5Ep. 3
Professor Anna Lawson and Dr Shani Dhanda believe that the Social Sciences can improve the world for disabled people. Dr Shani Danda may be our first guest on the We Society podcast who has also been featured in Vogue magazine for her work. An entrepreneur and disability activist, she is at the start of her social science career but has already achieved so much. Professor Anna Lawson is a Professor of Law at the University of Leeds. Throughout her academic career, she has worked with disabled pe...
Mar 20, 2024•42 min•Season 5Ep. 2
Professor Lord Richard Layard is one of the first economists to look at happiness as a metric that Governments worldwide should strive to improve in their population. He was the founder-director of LSE's Centre for Economic Performance and is now the director of the Centre's Wellbeing programme. In 2005, he wrote Happiness: Lessons from a New Science , which was published in 20 languages. We all quest for happiness, but how do we measure a happy life? Is it linked to wealth, relationships or abs...
Mar 13, 2024•34 min•Season 5Ep. 1
