Ben Yeoh Chats
67 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 months ago - ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsBen Yeoh chats to a variety of thinkers and doers about their curiosities, ideas and passions.
If you are curious about the world this show is for you.
I have extended conversations across humanities and science with artists, philosophers, writers, theatre makers, activists, economists and all walks of life.
Disclaimer: Personal podcast, no organisational affiliation or endorsement.
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Episodes
Rasheed Griffith: Progress, Caribbean, Policy, Food, Music, Talent Assessment, Culture
May 14, 2024 18:33 - 1 hour - 52.2 MBRasheed Griffith discusses the factors impeding progress in the Caribbean and shares his optimism for the region. He identifies the decline in public sector quality since the 1960s as a major obstacle. Transcript and links here. Griffith suggests that reforming the public sector could significantly advance the Caribbean by attracting international talent and improving policy implementation. He also discusses the historical impact of British technocracy in the Caribbean, proposing that adopt...
Henry Oliver: Late Bloomers, Second Act, Hidden Talent, Biography, John Stuart Mill
April 19, 2024 20:19 - 1 hour - 69.6 MBA conversation with Henry Oliver, author of 'A Second Act', exploring the concept of late bloomers. Transcript here. Oliver elaborates on societal pressures, hidden talents, and how these impact individual successes at various life stages, advocating for a broader recognition of potential beyond conventional timelines. The dialogue includes themes such as the significance of networks, the role of luck, and the historical context of late blooming, challenging prevailing notions of talent a...
Alyssa Gilbert: Climate Tech Innovation, Policy, Technology
March 01, 2024 13:29 - 47 minutes - 36.2 MBAlyssa Gilbert, the director of the Center for Climate Change Innovation at the Grantham Institute, talks about the current gaps in climate technology investments. She discusses her research into areas that are currently underfunded, including transport and energy. She also covers the importance of energy efficiency, especially in relation to the built environment. Alyssa emphasizes the necessity of various models in the fight against climate change, including private sector initiatives, phi...
Garrett Graff: Aliens, Mysteries Of UFOs, Watergate, 9/11, Government Trust
February 14, 2024 15:00 - 54 minutes - 41.8 MBGarrett Graff, a writer and historian who specializes in 'near history', discusses his book, 'UFO', about the US government's search for alien life. He touches upon how we often misunderstand UFO sightings, suggesting they could be due to a mix of physical anomalies and governmental or adversary secret flight technologies. Graff also shares his belief in the possibility of alien civilizations, arguing probabilities suggest the existence of life outside Earth. He then relates UFO conspiracies...
Hannah Ritchie: Not the End of the World, sustainability, climate, progress
January 26, 2024 15:29 - 1 hour - 50.3 MBIn this in-depth conversation, data scientist and researcher Hannah Ritchie delves into key insights from her new book 'Not The End of The World', which challenges the pervasive idea that human society is doomed due to environmental degradation. She explores various environmental problems, including climate change and plastic pollution, and emphasizes the potential for progress in tackling these critical issues. Hannah also discusses the essential role of technology and outlines the importan...
Hana Loftus: Architecture, Regeneration, Planning, Resilience, Design, Jaywick Sands
January 10, 2024 22:29 - 1 hour - 74 MBHana Loftus is a co-founder of HAT Projects. HAT are award winning architects, planners and enablers for the built environment. Projects include: London’s Science Museum Smith Centre, transformation of Trinity Works (a disused church), Ely Museum, Jerwood gallery and Jaywick Sands’ Sunspot. As well as practising planning and design, she writes on the subject and plays a great fiddle and violin. Transcript and Video here: https://www.thendobetter.com/arts/2024/1/10/hana-loftus-architectu...
Lucy Easthope: Disaster Recovery, Risk, Hope, Planning, Memoir, When The Dust Settles
December 10, 2023 14:20 - 1 hour - 60.6 MBLucy Easthope is a professor, lecturer and leading authority on emergency planning and recovering from disaster. Lucy has advised on major disasters over the last decades including the 2004 tsunami, 9/11, the Salisbury poisonings, Grenfell, and the Covid pandemic and most recently the war in Ukraine. She challenges others to think differently about what comes next after tragic events, and how to plan for future ones. Her book When the Dust Settles is both memoir of her life in disaster rec...
Nina Gené: Venture Philanthropy, Jasmine Social Investments, Impact Investing
November 29, 2023 14:18 - 1 hour - 52.5 MBNina Gené is CEO of Jasmine Social Investments. Nina leads Jasmine’s investment strategy and diligence process, guiding the team to identify and support the next generation of great social entrepreneurs. Jasmine funds high-performing social ventures and outstanding social entrepreneurs who are solving a basic need of the very poor. Ben and Nina discuss what venture philanthropy means and the Jasmine strategy on philanthropy. We delve into the investment process that Jasmine uses. How Nina...
Pen Vogler: Food History, Culture, Class, Strawberries, Sugar, Industrialisation, Eating Habits
November 03, 2023 16:05 - 1 hour - 70.4 MBPen Vogler is a food historian. Her latest book is Stuffed: A History of Good Food and Hard Times in Britain. Her previous books include work on food in the life and works of Dickens and Jane Austen - Dinner with Dickens: and Dinner with Mr Darcy. In the podcast, Ben and Pen discuss various aspects of British culture and history we can learn from the British relationship with food. The discussion delves into several fascinating topics surrounding the transition from hunting-gathering socie...
Joanne Limburg: Autism, Feminism, Motherhood, Grief, Writing, Jewishness, Letters to my Weird Sisters
September 14, 2023 20:44 - 1 hour - 49 MBJoanne Limburg is an award-winning British writer known for her poetry, novels, and memoirs. In the podcast, she discusses her latest book Letters to My Weird Sisters: On Autism, Feminism, and Motherhood, in which she feels a kinship with historical female figures and addresses letters to them. Some notes on the conversation: - On Virginia Woolf: Joanne found connections in Woolf's personal writings about feeling like an outsider and struggling to dress appropriately for society. This res...
Fuchsia Dunlop: Chinese Cuisine, Culture, History, Philosophy, Knife skills, Texture and Mouthfeel
August 30, 2023 08:00 - 1 hour - 152 MBFuchsia Dunlop is a cook and food writer specialising in Chinese cuisine. She was the first Westerner to train as a chef at the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine, and has spent much of the last two decades exploring China and its food. In her latest book, Invitation to a Banquet, Fuchsia explores the history, philosophy and techniques of China's rich and ancient culinary culture. Each chapter examines a classic dish, from mapo tofu to Dongpo pork, knife-scraped noodles to braised pomelo ...
Fergus Butler-Gallie: priesthood, frocks, scouse, faith, Liverpool, and Mummified Hearts
July 19, 2023 09:59 - 1 hour - 153 MBFergus Butler-Gallie is a priest and writer. His latest book, Touching Cloth, is a memoir on his time as a priest in Liverpool. We cover many topics relating to Fergus's life, work, and perspectives on faith and the Church of England. I also ask him what he would do with the Church of England if he had a magic wand. Fergus provides insights into life in Liverpool, discussing local culture, diversity, and the famous Liverpool accent. He argues that many stereotypes and assumptions about th...
David Edmonds: Derek Parfit, future selves, paradox, effective altruism, philosophy, biography
July 02, 2023 12:30 - 1 hour - 179 MBDavid Edmonds is a philosopher, writer, podcaster and presenter. His most recent book is a biography of Derek Parfit. Parfit: A philosopher and his mission to save morality. “Derek was perhaps the most important philosopher of his era. This scintillating and insightful portrait of him is one of the best intellectual biographies I have read.” -Tyler Cowen Other books include: The Murder of Professor Schlick, Would You Kill the Fat Man? and (with John Eidinow) the international best-seller ...
David Ruebain: disability, protest movements, law, equality, inclusion, interdependence
June 05, 2023 18:30 - 1 hour - 50.5 MBDavid Ruebain is one of the most thoughtful thinkers I know on disability, equality and the law. He is currently a Pro-Vice Chancellor at the University of Sussex with strategic responsibility for Culture, Equality and Inclusion including dignity and respect. He is an adviser to the football premier league, the former director of legal policy at the equality and human rights commission and has been in the top 25 most influential disabled people in the UK. (Link to transcript below) We chat...
Jennifer Doleac: reducing crime, policing, justice, policy
May 08, 2023 12:27 - 1 hour - 68.3 MBJennifer Doleac studies the economics of crime and discrimination. In July 2023, Jenn will join Arnold Ventures as the Executive Vice President of Criminal Justice. We chat about trends and causes of crime. How guns, drugs and policing interact with crime trends. …there was this huge increase in violent crime in particular in the late early eighties, early nineties. And suddenly violent crime started falling dramatically in the mid-1990s. We still aren't entirely sure why that is the case, ...
Patrick House: Neuroscience and Understanding Consciousness
March 28, 2023 20:48 - 1 hour - 81.9 MBPatrick House is a neuroscientist and writer. His research focused on the neuroscience of free will and in particular how mind-control parasites altered a rat’s behaviour. We once had a long chat on the rainy streets of Glasgow. This chat – which I may not fully recall – involved speaking on what consciousness is, and touched on his work on mind-control bugs. He’s written a collection of essays: Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness “Consider different translations of a poem: Each h...
Chris Stark: 2023, Climate Policy, NetZero, Adaptation, Heating, Buildings, Incentives
February 24, 2023 17:17 - 1 hour - 66.2 MBChris Stark is the Chief Executive of the UK’s Climate Change Committee. The committee is an independent statutory body which advises the UK and the devolved governments on emissions targets and preparing for and adapting to the impacts of climate change. I think he is one of the most important and thoughtful thinkers on climate change policy today. This is his second time on the podcast. We covered many topics in 2022 which you can check out here. This time I ask on: How does it matter ...
Jade O'Brien: stock broker to teacher, reflections on finance and education, women in finance
February 03, 2023 15:26 - 1 hour - 72.3 MBJade O’Brien was a stock broker (equity sales) for over 7 years. She then retrained as a teacher and has taught in both the state sector and the private sector in the UK. Jade used to pitch me stock ideas and speak about the investment world. I was very curious on why she decided to change careers to become a teacher. We chat about what drove Jade to the world of finance. What she viewed as the pros and cons, and what it is like as a woman in a male dominated world and advice she has. Ja...
Kanjun Qiu: AI, metascience, institutional knowledge, trauma models, structure of knowledge, creativity and dance
January 17, 2023 19:30 - 1 hour - 227 MBKanjun is co-founder and CEO of Generally Intelligent, an AI research company. She works on metascience ideas often with Michael Nielsen, a previous podcast guest. She’s a VC investor and co-hosts her own podcast for Generally Intelligent. She is part of building the Neighborhood, which is intergenerational campus in a square mile of central San Francisco. Generally Intelligent (as of podcast date ) are looking for great talent looking to work on AI. We get a little nerdy on the podcast but...
Florence Evans: Mud Larking, Art Collecting, Dealing and Curating
December 29, 2022 11:40 - 1 hour - 99.7 MBFlorence Evans is an art dealer, historian, curator, collector and mud larker. We chat on what does mudlarking tell us about history ? What does art tell us about being human ? …we mustn't forget is that ultimately there's a real human connection with beauty. So conceptual art aside which serves an important purpose and helps us to think and challenges us in many ways. On the other hand, there's a human need, I think, a kind of nesting instinct to have art for the home, things of beauty to...
Michael Nielsen: metascience, how to improve science, open science, and decentralisation
November 15, 2022 21:15 - 1 hour - 79.2 MBMichael Nielsen is a scientist at the Astera Institute. He helped pioneer quantum computing and the modern open science movement. He is a leading thinker on the topic of meta science and how to improve science, in particular, the social processes of science. His latest co-authored work is ‘A Vision of metascience: An engine of improvement for the social processes of Science’ co-authored with Kanjun Qiu . His website notebook is here, with further links to his books including on quantum, mem...
Saloni Dattani: making science better, important questions in science, open science, reforming peer review, vaccines and optimism.
November 08, 2022 22:42 - 1 hour - 48.8 MBSaloni Dattani is a founding editor at Works in Progress, a researcher at Our World in Data and a commissioning editor at Stripe Press. She has recently been profiled by Vox as part of the Future Perfect 50. Saloni is an excellent thinker on progress and science with recent articles for Wired (on making science better) and Guardian (on challenge trials). Saloni tells me what are the most important questions in science that we should be working on. We discuss making science better and thin...
Jérôme Tagger: sustainability, ESG as a negotiation, impact, investing, preventable surprises
November 02, 2022 21:17 - 51 minutes - 119 MBJérôme Tagger is CEO of Preventable Surprises. Jérôme is a thinker on long term ESG trends (a catch-all phrase for extra-financial environment, social and governance) and systemic risks. He was a Director at the Global Impact Investing Network, the founding COO of the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment, Head of Research at Eurosif and Chief Revenue Officer at ImpactAlpha. Link to video and transcript: www.thendobetter.com/investing/2022/11/2/jrme-tagger-sustainability-esg-as-a-...
Mark Koyama: How the World Became Rich, economic history, intangibles, culture, progress
October 09, 2022 12:40 - 1 hour - 51.8 MBMark Koyama is an Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason. Mark researches comparative national state economic development and the rise of religious tolerance. He is interested in how historical institutions functioned and in the relationship between culture and economic performance. Transcript: www.thendobetter.com/investing/2022/10/9/mark-koyama-how-the-world-became-rich-economic-history-intangibles-culture-progress-podcast I ask why it has taken economists and historians s...
Jacob Soll: History of Free Market ideas, Adam Smith, Hamilton, Cicero, Machievelli, History of Accounting
September 24, 2022 19:22 - 1 hour - 62.1 MBJacob Soll is a professor of philosophy, history and accounting. His latest book is Free Market: The History of an Idea. Jake has works on the history of accounting, The Reckoning: Financial Accountability and the Rise and Fall of Nations (2014); the influence of Machiavelli, "The Prince" (2005) and Louis XIV’s First minster, Jean-Baptiste Cobert, The Information Master (2009). Jake works on accounting standards and financial transparency as well as the history of ideas. Transcript, video a...
Naomi Fisher: home education, unschool, agency in learning, meltdowns, child-led learning, cognitive psychology
August 31, 2022 21:48 - 1 hour - 60 MBNaomi Fisher is a clinical psychologist. She has written a book: Changing Our Minds: How children can take control of their own learning. The book is an excellent look at self-directed education also known in the UK as home education, or in the US as home school or unschooling. We discuss her background as a psychologist and her work with autistic people. We chat about her experience of eleven schools and why she has ended up asking questions about control. Why we control people and parti...
Kana Chan: living in a zero waste village in Japan, Kamikatsu
August 10, 2022 22:32 - 47 minutes - 35 MBKana Chan is living in Kamikatsu which is Japan’s first “zero waste” village in rural Japan. She writes a substack at Tending Gardens and runs INOW which is an educational homestay programme to stay to at Kamikatsu. In 2021, she was selected as an Emerging Climate Leader Asia-Pacific through the ProSPER.Net Leadership Programme. She has lived and worked in Bangladesh, and travelled widely as a photographer and story teller. Kana cares deeply about climate action, sustainable tourism, and ...
Larry Temkin (pt 2): Critiques of Effective Altruism, long-termism, potential problems of international aid, philosophy
July 27, 2022 16:16 - 1 hour - 61.2 MBLarry Temkin is a moral philosopher. He has major works on inequality (book: Inequality); transitivity and social choices (when A > B > C, A > C ?; book: Rethinking the Good) and recently on the philosophies of doing good (critiquing some aspects of Effective Altruism, long-termism, international aid, utilitarianism | book: Being Good in a World of Need). As of 2022, he was Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. The podcast is in two parts. The second part focuses on ...
Larry Temkin (pt 1): Moral Philosophy, transitivity, critiques of effective altruism, international aid, pluralism
July 27, 2022 16:14 - 1 hour - 63.7 MBLarry Temkin is a moral philosopher. He has major works on inequality (book: Inequality); transitivity and social choices (when A > B > C, A > C ?; book: Rethinking the Good) and recently on the philosophies of doing good (critiquing some aspects of Effective Altruism, long-termism, international aid, utilitarianism | book: Being Good in a World of Need). As of 2022, he was Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. The podcast is in two parts. The second part focuses on ...
Leigh Caldwell: cognitive economics, power of stories, how the mind consumes dreams and plans future actions
July 22, 2022 11:02 - 1 hour - 74.8 MBLeigh Caldwell is a cognitive economist. Leigh has done excellent work around the psychology of pricing and exploring how people consume intangible products with their mind. He has founded several software companies and is co-founder of the Irrational Agency. We chatted on Leigh graduating from university at 18, what attracted him to the internet and wanting to start companies and what lead him to the path of psychology, behavioral economics and ultimately to cognitive economics. How the ...
David Finnigan: Making Theatre, Improving Creativity, Learning From Failure, Art In A Time Of Climate
July 05, 2022 19:00 - 1 hour - 69.8 MBDavid Finnigan is an award winning theatre maker, writer and games creator from Ngunnawal country, Australia. David produces performances and writing that explores concepts from Game Theory, Complex Systems science, Network Theory and Resilience. He has also had the dubious honour of performing on stage with me, in our performance lecture collaboration, Thinking Bigly. He has a show coming up at The Barbican, London, 27 September, 2022: You’re Safe Til 2024: Deep History. We discuss how all...
Sophie Purdom: Climate Tech Investing, Brown Spinning, Venture, Sustainability, newsletters, investment philosophy, life advice
June 26, 2022 17:25 - 55 minutes - 40.8 MBSophie Purdom co-writes a climate and innovation newsletter read by tens of thousands, ClimateTech VC. Sophie has worked in start ups as an operator. She is a venture capitalist investor. She has written widely on sustainable investing. We speak on how Sophie came to climate tech investing, the importance of knocking on doors and being helpful. What Sophie learned working for local government (Providence) and how climate has always been her through line into investing. We discuss what ar...
Francesca Sanderson: impact arts investing, social impact, creativity, living off-grid
June 19, 2022 23:14 - 58 minutes - 48 MBFrancesca Sanderson managed an ethical equities fund at JPMorgan as an asset manager but quit that to live for a year living off grid. She then became a social impact investor with Big Society Capital and now runs the Arts Impact programmes currently at Nesta. We chat about what she learned, missed and loved about living off-grid. How she has a more pluralist world view. Fran talks about what she learned at JP Morgan. The power and the weaknesses of institutional and organisational streng...
Nadia Asparouhova: Future Of Philanthropy, Science Funding, Creator Economy, Family Stories and Independent Research.
June 11, 2022 12:01 - 1 hour - 47.7 MBNadia Asparouhova (previously writing under Nadia Eghbal) is an independent researcher with widely read essays on a range of topics most recently philanthropic funding including effective altruism and ideas machines, and recent ideas in funding science. She’s written books about the open source community. She has worked in start ups and venture. She set up and ran Helium grants, a microgrant programme. She is an Emergent Ventures fellow. We speak about what she learned from microgranting a...
Carl Saxton-Pizzie: Building A £30m Sustainable Grocery Delivery Company, Mental Health, Sustainability
May 20, 2022 10:32 - 1 hour - 55.6 MBCarl Saxton-Pizzie trained as an actor and worked in tv before founding a sustainable grocery delivery company, Wholegood, in 2007 (with a van and £500). Wholegood is on track for £30m in revenue and employes 160 people. This is a small business success story, a start up in the “old economy” but very much touching “new economy” ideas such as sustainability and delivery services. You can find Wholegood products in most UK retailers, Ocado one of the largest examples. We talk about Carl’s ent...
Annemarie Naylor: Public Goods, Sovereign Health Fund, Technology And Future Of Justice
April 22, 2022 15:32 - 1 hour - 62.3 MBAnnemarie is Director of Innovation for the Seetec Group. Before that, she was, Director of Policy and Strategy at Future Care Capital - a national charity that uses the insight gathered through evidence-based research to advance ideas that will help shape future health and social care policy to deliver better outcomes for society. We chat about what is under appreciated about libraries and how to think about public goods and common ownership of those goods. Annemarie discusses the idea of...
Sophie Woolley: Deaf culture, hearing culture and her creative journey
April 10, 2022 10:59 - 1 hour - 59.2 MBWhat is it like to go deaf and then gain back your hearing? On this episode, I speak to Sophie Woolley. Sophie is a writer, performer and theatre maker. We have been friends for a while and I have learned a lot about Deaf culture and from her personal journey and one as a creative. We have a meandering chat about her creative journey, how felt she had to write about her story of going deaf and then gaining hearing again via a cochlear implant. We recorded the podcast while Sophie is in Ta...
Stian Westlake on the intangible economy, recession, stagnation, inequality, BS jobs and new institutions
March 21, 2022 11:13 - 1 hour - 71.6 MBStian Westlake is the chief exec at the Royal Statistical Society, and before that he was a policy advisor to government and the executive director at Nesta. He is the co-author with Jonathan Haskel of Capitalism without Capital, and they have a new book out, Restarting the Future (22 March 2022). Stian discusses how recessions might be different under an intangible economy. I ask him (H/T Tyler Cowen) how national security concerns might be different in a very intangible world. Part of hi...
Stephan Guyenet On Diet, Obesity Models, and Obesity Drugs
March 14, 2022 18:03 - 1 hour - 73.4 MBStephan Guyenet completed a PhD in neuroscience, then went on to study the neuroscience of obesity and eating behavior as a postdoc. He’s also been involved with Givewell and Open philanthropy projects. In 2017, he wrote the book the Hungry Brain. We discuss two competing obesity models: one based around a model of energy balance with the brain as one of the main central controllers. And one model which s based more around an insulin - carbohydrate pathway. The carbohydrate - insulin mod...
Alec Stapp: policy for progress, under-researched areas, science of science, biosecurity
February 28, 2022 19:55 - 1 hour - 81.7 MBAlec is the co-founder and co-CEO of the Institute for Progress. The IFP is dedicated to to accelerating scientific, technological, and industrial progress while safeguarding humanity’s future. Alec and co-founder Caleb Watney are supported by prominent progress thinkers such as Tyler Cowen and Patrick Collinson. We discuss the competing interests that prevent physical infrastructure such as power lines, or cafe “parklet” structures from being easily built. Alec explains how using a fram...
Chris Stark: CEO UK's Climate Change Committee; climate policy, NetZero, adaptation, innovation, cost-benefit and what we should be doing
February 07, 2022 20:09 - 1 hour - 68.3 MBChris Stark is the Chief Executive of the UK’s Climate Change Committee. The committee is an independent statutory body which advises the UK and developed governments on emissions targets and preparing for and adapting to the impacts of climate change. I think he is one of the most important and thoughtful thinkers on climate change policy today. We discuss what is most misunderstood about climate policy, the likely co-benefits and the scale of investments needed especially in the UK in rep...
David Spiegelhalter: COVID statistics, thinking about risk in life and medicine
January 11, 2022 15:17 - 1 hour - 65.1 MBDavid Spiegelhalter is an expert on medical statistics. He was the president of the Royal Statistical Society and is Chair of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence communication. He is also a World Champion, in a version of pool called Loop and hosts his own podcast, Risky Talk. David has a new book out (with Anthony Masters), COVID by Numbers, which is an excellent book on COVID statistics. This follows his previous bestseller, the Art of Statistics. David discusses what was most surpr...
Stephen Unwin: Theatre Over The Decades, What Disability Teaches Us
January 05, 2022 10:08 - 1 hour - 50.8 MBSteve Uwin is a theatre director and writer. Amongst many accomplishments he has been the artistic director of the Rose theatre, founder of ETT, English Touring Theatre. He is also chair of the charity Kids, which provides services to children with disabilities. We speak about whether we need language to be human and what non-verbal people teach us. We chat on how theatre has developed over the decades and Steve’s appreciation of Brecht and the Berliner Ensemble. We touch on Steve’s exper...
Zeke Hausfather: State Of Climate Science, Energy Systems, Post COP26, Tipping Points, Tail Risks
November 22, 2021 22:52 - 1 hour - 51.5 MBZeke Hausfather is a climate scientist and energy systems analyst whose research focuses on observational temperature records, climate models, and mitigation technologies. He spent 10 years working as a data scientist and entrepreneur in the cleantech sector, where he was the lead data scientist at Essess, the chief scientist at C3.ai, and the cofounder and chief scientist of Efficiency 2.0. He also worked as a research scientist with Berkeley Earth, was the senior climate analyst at Project...
Aella: escort work, home school, rationalism, circling, working in a factory, losing faith, polls and endless questions | Podcast
November 14, 2021 18:52 - 1 hour - 54.8 MBAella is perhaps most famous on twitter for shining a light on the life and economics of Camgirls and escorts; and asking challenging questions. But her independent research is larger than that and has encompassed reporting on LSD and psychedelics use, circling, the nature of faith, and enlightenment. She grew up homeschooled in a fundamental Christian household before leaving home at 17. The transcript and conversation includes adult themes and mild profanity from Aella and is recommended ...
Jason Mitchell: poetry, sustainable investing, hedge funds, carbon tax, offsets, regulation, activism and stakeholder capitalism
November 08, 2021 21:51 - 1 hour - 51.5 MBJason Mitchell is Co-Head of Responsible Investment at Man Group. He was a hedge fund manager and he is a poet. He’s a deep thinker on all things sustainable and finance. He hosts a brilliant podcast on sustainability, A Sustainable Future. We chat on his poetry and how he witnessed refugees in the Mediterranean sea.And what poetry has taught him. “rescued by our boat one morning, the man asked me, is it true what they tell us, the traffickers, about these waters, that the sea has no botto...
Dan Goodley: what disability teaches us about being human, social models, technology, interdependence, medicalisation and advice
November 01, 2021 21:39 - 1 hour - 48.9 MBDan Goodley is a professor of disability studies and education at the School of Education, University of Sheffield. Dan co-directs iHuman, which sits at the intersections of Critical Disability Studies and Science and Technology Studies. iHuman is addressing ome significant questions of contemporary society including: what does it mean to be human? Dan has written the thought provoking book: Disability and Other Human Questions. We chat about who and how do we decide who gets to be human?...
Bec Hill: Comedy, The Right To Offend, Faith, Arts And Crafts, ADHD And Best Uses For Duct Tape
October 24, 2021 15:54 - 1 hour - 127 MBBec Hill is an actor, comedian and writer famous for flip charts with misheard music lyrics. She has a wide array of talents including as a writer, a recent children’s book series: Horror Heights, The Slime and hosting make-away takeaway for children's ITV. She has her own podcast A Problem Squared which she co-hosts with Matt Parker. We speak about the use of arts and craft in comedy and thinking about children’s comedy. How she found acting as a “straight actor” in David Finnigan’s Kill C...
Meaghan Kall, epidemiologist: COVID advice, Long COVID, vaccine waning, disability, HIV, social determinants of health; career advice
October 11, 2021 19:40 - 1 hour - 151 MBMeaghan Kall is an epidemiologist at what used to be known as Public Health England but is now the UK Health Security Agency. She and her colleagues have been working flat out for two years producing some of the world's best COVID data. We speak about annoying and funny COVID myths. She gives her view on COVID vaccine waning, Long COVID and risk in children; and how we are going to come to terms with COVID as an endemic disease (think about managing flu, although with different outcomes)....
Clare Montagu: Running a hospice during COVID, how to die well, being a special advisor to government; economics of a hospice.
October 03, 2021 18:20 - 1 hour - 144 MBClare Montagu was the Chief Operating Officer of one of London’s largest hospice groups, Trinity Hospice. Before that, she was a UK government minister special advisor. We talk about the challenges and joys of running a hospice. Much of great hospice care is looking after people in their own homes and in the community. Hospice care goes beyond the medical. For instance, letting a patient die in the garden under a tree because that’s their wish. This is care a hospital can not give. The hosp...