Episode description

Consumerism: a history of our modern, material world and the endless quest for more 'things'. Laurie Taylor talks to Frank Trentmann, Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London and author of a study which examines how the purchase of goods became the defining feature of contemporary life. They're joined by Rachel Bowlby, Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London.

Also, the middle class bias in work/life balance research. Tracey Warren, Professor of Sociology at the University of Nottingham, suggests that working class experience of precarity complicates the debate.

Producer: Jayne Egerton.