Podcast Ep 4 – How to make politics better – with Neal Lawson

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A new episode of my podcast is out today – and my conversation in this one is with Neal Lawson. I’ve been looking forward to sharing this one with you, as it’s important and fascinating!

Neal is a political commentator and a director of the centre-left pressure group Compass. He was an adviser to Gordon Brown when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, is the editor of the political journal Renewal and has regularly appeared on TV and in newspapers to talk politics.

Neal, like many people, feels that traditional politics is broken, and that to get a better, fairer and more sustainable future for everyone, we need to build a new vision of politics that is rooted in people’s lives, relationships and communities. A ‘bottom-up’ approach, where politicians listen to people, give them more power and shape policy based on their needs, rather than the current ‘top-down’ approach where ‘politicians know best’ and impose policies on the population.

In this conversation we explore the work Neal does and why it matters – as well as how we can all have hope and work towards a better future, even in difficult times.

The new episode is here – I hope you enjoy it! Please subscribe to the podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts and share it with everyone!

Podcast Ep 3 – How self affirmation can change our behaviour

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I’m very pleased to launch episode 3 of my podcast series today – and it’s one I’ve been looking forward to sharing with people, as it’s such an interesting topic. My conversation in this podcast is with Professor Peter Harris, who is a professor of Psychology at the University of Sussex.

His academic research investigates how people can be encouraged to respond less defensively to important information – especially about their lifestyles or behaviour. This can be particularly important when you’re trying to get people to make positive changes to their lives – from stopping smoking through to simply learning things. In other words, it could help to achieve social change on a range of issues.

In this conversation with Peter we explore the idea of ‘self affirmation’ and how it can help to change people’s behaviour. We also discuss where the research has got to and what the challenges are in turning it from an interesting academic idea into a real-world solution.

It’s a great topic and I hope you enjoy the episode! Please subscribe to the podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts and share it with everyone!