The We Society

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 interest in the moral landscapes of prison life. Her research has led to a prestigious Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship. This Fellowship allows...

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 policy, primarily in education, welfare, and justice. The Foundation is also the founder and co-fu...

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 interview in Season 7 of the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences  which tackles t...

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 social science lens. Throughout this podcast, you'll hear some of the best ideas to shape t...

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 officers and criminal justice professionals to understand the pattern of domestic abuse tha...

'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 fewer hours at work? 

To give us an insight into alternative models of working is Profess...

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 Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences continues to tackle the big questions through a...

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 published a book, 'Algorithms of Anxiety, Fear in the Digital Age'.

...

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 in a Changing Europe. He is a dedicated social scientist, an approach that defines the think tank he leads, t...

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 Social Sciences. 

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 hate crimes on the victims, their communities and wider British society. And what can be done to lower the...

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, and President of the International Society for the Study...

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 skills attainment in the economy and society.  

She was Professor of Education and Fellow of Jesus College at the U...

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 tackle the big questions through a social science lens. Throughout this series, you'll be hea...

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 waiting lists with a combined wait for council housing of 1844 years.

Vicky's book Tenants, which...

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 affected by Brexit, including the sunsh...

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, Jo Johnson, who is chairman of FutureLearn and a former Conservative party minister, Catherine Needham who...

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 is one of Britain's most distinguished and successful records of public service.
...

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 Social Sciences tackles the big questions through a social science lens. Throughout this series, you'll be hearing some of...

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 since then, five other local authorities, including Nottingham, Birmingham, and Croydon, have fallen like dominoes, declaring bankr...

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, Bradford has already seen the creation of Clean Air Zones, areas with limited traffic, and investment in green spaces.

Professor McEachan i...

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 We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences tackles the big ques...

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 people and researchers to tackle the exclusion that disabled people f...

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 absence of pain? Professor Richard Layard doesn't believe that the Gross Domestic Product of a...

Join host Will Hutton for Season 5 of the We Society from March to hear more ideas that shape the world we live. 

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.   

Tell us who we should be speaking to or what questions we should be asking by emailing wesociety@acss.org.uk 

This podcast is brought to you by the Academy of Social Sciences. 

For the final episode of Season 4, we have one of the chief architects of Britain's Levelling Up agenda: Andy Haldane. A fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences who brings you this podcast, Andy is in the middle of an illustrious career, from chief economist of the Bank of England to chief executive of the Royal Society of Arts. He has put Social Science in motion throughout his whole career.

In this episode, Andy speaks to host Will Hutton about his involvement in the Government's Levelling Up agenda which seeks to send more investment to areas which were...

Professor Lucie Cluver has spent her career improving the lot of children, especially during times of crisis.

Whether that's the AIDS pandemic or the Covid pandemic, Professor Cluver has been at the coalface and in this episode she talks about her time working as a social worker in South Africa all the way through to her work as Professor of Child and Family Social Work at the University of Oxford

From 2010 - 2012, she ran the Young Carers Study,  which looked at the impact of being a 'young carer' on children's well-being in AIDS-affected families. Over 6000 children a...

Minette Batters, President of the National Farmers’ Union of England and Wales, represents an estimated 55,000 farmers and farm workers.  She has changed the course of history as the first woman to become president of the NFU.

Every single person in the UK owes a debt to our farmers - they ensure food is on our tables every single day, but there appears to be a dissonance in our minds of what’s on our supermarket shelves, and the producers behind our food. 

Outside of the NFU,  Minette runs a tenanted family farm in Wiltshire. Her focus has alw...

Sir Andrew Dilnot is an economist who believes that statistics hold a key role in lessening inequality and making Britain fairer.  

He is now the warden of Nuffield College Oxford - a graduate college specialising in the social sciences. Before Nuffield, he was at the Institute for Fiscal Studies where he was the Director of the UK's leading independent economics research institute. 

A fierce advocate for statistics, he believes that data is at the heart of solving a whole raft of issues whether that’s social care,  education inequalities or faltering healthcare systems.  And the UK's social...

Ann Pettifor is an economist who is perhaps most famous for predicting the Global Financial Crisis two years before it happened.

But Ann is not just a savant, but a change maker. She was a core voice in the successful international campaign to cancel billions in debt accumulated by the Global South to mark the new millennium. And in 2008, she co-authored the report, A Green New Deal,  which laid out plans for better regulation of the financial system while pursuing green objectives. It's a programme that's been backed by Al Gore, Nobel Laureates in Economics, and dozens of p...

Neil Adger, Professor of Human Geography at the University of Exeter, examines human movement as a strategy and adaptation to climate change.

From the Somerset levels to Chittagong in Bangladesh, he's traversed the globe to discover why some communities are more climate resilient than others.

But it’s not just physical changes that Neil has been studying.  While climate disasters such as flooding can cause financial turmoil for a family, they can also wreak long-term psychological harm. His team at Exeter University are studying the long term effects of flooding on mental health.

Hosted by...

Economist Daniel Susskind has been studying the nature of work and automation for years, long before ChatGPT entered the chat.

But Daniel's work has never been more important with AI progressing at seemingly breakneck speed. As a research professor in Economics at King's College London and a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Ethics in AI at Oxford University, he is one of the foremost experts on AI and work.  He joins host Will Hutton as they delve into how livelihoods are set to change in the next decade and what Governments should do to prepare.

Vivienne Stern is the chief executive of Universities UK, a membership organisation that represents 140 UK universities. In this role, she's had to weather a raft of challenges from Brexit to the Covid pandemic. 

Host Will Hutton joins her in this conversation where they delve into just how important universities are for Britain, and how these treasured institutions can be protected for future generations. 

This is the first episode of Season 4 of the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences which tackles the big questions through a social science lens. Throughout this series, you'll be he...

The We Society returns on Wednesday (4 October) for Season 4. Expect to hear more conversations on ideas that shape the world we live from the world of Social Science. 

Our host, Will Hutton, is speaking to: Vivienne Stern from Universities UK, Daniel Susskind on the future of work in the age of AI, Neil Adger on the ongoing climate crisis, Ann Pettifor on global debt and many other fantastic guests. So join us from Wednesday and don't forget to subscribe so you're the first to know when a new episode is released. 

Our host, Will Hutton, chooses some 'must listen' moments from the past three seasons featuring Hillary Clinton, Ai Weiwei, Mariana Mazzuccato, Gary Younge, and Heaven Crawley.

To listen to the full episodes, you can find them all on the We Society page on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back in the Autumn with a roster of new guests who are changing the world for the better with the help of the Social Sciences.

Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists to ex...

Novelist Ian McEwan is one of Britain's finest fiction writers whose canon of work has won him the Booker Prize amongst countless other awards and accolades. 

He joins host Will Hutton as they delve into a discussion on freedom, writing, and the importance of Social Science for human progress. 

This is the final episode of season 3 of The We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences which tackles the big questions through a social science lens and brings you some of the best ideas to shape the way we live. 

Hosted by journalist and...

Kenan Malik is an Observer columnist, a political thinker, and a seasoned broadcaster whose work mainly focuses on moral ethics and racism. 

He joins host Will Hutton in a wide-ranging discussion on racism following the publication of his latest book, Not So Black and White: A History of Race.

In this conversation, Kenan sets out his case that racism is a modern concept that emerged from a post-Englightenment world. He explains how, in his view, racism could end and how the answer isn’t found in identity politics. 

Kenan Malik studied neurobiology at the Univ...

Professor Nicholas Crafts is an economic historian whose work engages with contemporary Britain.

He joins host Will Hutton in a wide-ranging conversation that starts with the long-term merits of Britain’s Industrial Revolution and ends with how Artificial Intelligence could usher in a new Industrial Revolution. 

In this discussion, Professor Crafts sets out his view that Britain’s Industrial Revolution may have hindered us in the long run and explains what we can learn from the past in
making the most of the new tech revolution.

Professor Nicholas Crafts CBE is Professor of Econo...

Professor Louise Mansfield has dedicated her working career to improving the physical and mental health of the nation through her research on sport and exercise.

She tells host Will Hutton how sport engagement is a microcosm of society by reflecting existing inequalities. They delve into issues around gender stereotypes, class, and access to facilities in this fascinating conversation along with an exploration of the London 2012 Olympic legacy. 

They talk about how her recent research in Hounslow, London could lead to positive change in the rest of the UK. 

Professor Mansfield is Professor of Sport, He...

Polly Neate is the CEO of Shelter, a charity which champions housing and tenant rights in Britain. 

She joins Will Hutton in a conversation that touches on the critical need for more social housing, the spiralling number of rough sleepers, the need for a radical rethink in landownership practices, and how we perceive housing in the UK. 

She brings us solutions that could see an end to 120,000 Children waking up homeless every day. 

Before her role at Shelter, Polly Neate headed the women’s domestic charity Women’s Aid. She isn’t afraid to take the...