Richard Docwra

All articles by richard

I’m very excited to announce that my fourth book ‘Humanise: How knowing ourselves could change the world’ will be out on Friday 25th October 2024. A summary of the book is here, but the core aim of the book has been to provide an accessible yet reasonably accurate picture of how human beings think and
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Building a world fit for humans

Our understanding how human beings think and behave is one of the most important tools we have available to make our world and our lives better. Yet, we are failing to use this knowledge. A couple of decades ago, psychology was released into the real world in a discipline that has become known as ‘Behavioural
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Reflections on human beings

We are a number of episodes into ‘Humans & Hope’, my podcast series about human beings and the challenges and expectations we face. This feels like a good time to reflect upon some of the key themes that have been appearing regularly in the episodes so far. A central issue issue is that human thinking
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Join me at a special event on 8th Nov 2021!

Exciting news today as I’d like to invite you to a live online recording of a new episode of my ‘Humans & Hope’ podcast. It’s on Monday 8th November at 3pm GMT, and is about how we can seek social change more effectively – from standing up to discrimination through to building more successful campaigns.
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New podcast series out now!

I’m very pleased to report that my new podcast series is out now!  ‘Humans and Hope’ is a podcast about human behaviour – and our hopes of building a better world. Check it out here – and you’ll find links there to all the usual podcast providers. In this new series, I want to challenge
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People and possibilities

We need to understand human beings better. In fact, I believe that understanding how human beings think and behave is the first thing we should do when trying to address any human issue – whether personal or global. Over the last century, psychologists, neuroscientists and other researchers have made some remarkable discoveries about how we
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New book out now!

I’m delighted to say that my new book ‘Life – and how to think about it’ is out today. It provides a guide to navigating life in a thoughtful and well-informed way. More details here. You can buy it here and at all other good bookshops. I love looking at the big picture – of
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New podcast – ‘The Big Questions’ – out now!

I was very pleased last week to see the first episode of my new podcast series reaching the light of day! This one is a joint effort between me and Andrew Copson, Chief Executive of Humanists UK. In it, we have a chat about some of the big questions of life – from the meaning
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It’s Farage we should be worried about

Following the shocking (but predictable) events of right wing mobs storming the US Capitol, the phrase ‘Britain Trump’ is trending on social media – referring to Boris Johnson and the desire to get him out of office next. Regular readers will know I’m not a fan of the Prime Minister, his political views or his
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100 places that changed the world

Here’s a new idea rather than a new, fully formed initiative – putting it out there to see if people would find it interesting. There are hundreds of places and sites around the world that have an amazing story to tell – from the Trinity site in the Nevada desert where the first atomic bomb
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US Election 2020 – a second chance for America

We are in much less control of our lives than we think we are. In reality, the key to living a happy and successful life is often simply to be able to react well to the events that happen to you (from taking opportunities to accepting disappointments) rather then vainly attempting to control everything that
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New Life Squared website!

I’m thrilled to announce that the website for Life Squared (of which I am the founder) has had an upgrade and redesign, and it’s going live today – check it out here. We’ve spent a long time making the site as user friendly as possible, enabling people to navigate the wealth of amazing resources on
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Podcast ep #10 – How to make a happier world (Part 2) – with Prof Richard Layard

Out today in the latest episode of my podcast ‘Making the world better’, it’s the second part of my conversation with Professor Richard Layard, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the LSE. If you’ve not listened to the first part about his work on the subject of happiness and mental health, check it out after you’ve
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Podcast ep #9 – How to make a happier world – with Richard Layard

I’m very excited about the new episode of my podcast that’s out today. In it I talk to Lord Richard Layard, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the LSE. Richard is an economist who spent much of his life working on how to reduce unemployment and inequality. In more recent years though he has become one
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Podcast Ep 8 – How eating insects could save the world

My conversation in episode 8 of my podcast ‘Making the world better’ – out now – is with Dr Tilly Collins. Tilly is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College, London. She runs research projects in a range of environmental areas, but in this episode we talk about her work
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Podcast Ep 7 – How to seek Remain – with Mike Buckley

My guest in the latest episode is Mike Buckley. Mike is a political campaigner who has been seeking social and political change for many years, most recently as head of the ‘Labour for a public vote’ campaign. I got to know Mike after my social change consultancy Praxis had prepared a report in 2019 to
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Podcast Ep 6 – How to improve old age – with Prof Tom Kirkwood

In the new episode of my podcast (out today), I talk to Professor Tom Kirkwood, a biologist who for several decades has been a leading figure in the study of aging – how and why we age. He has published several books, including Time of Our Lives: The Science of Human Aging and The End
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Podcast Ep 5 – How to raise funds and campaign – with Tim Walker

In the new episode of my podcast ‘Making the world better’ – out today – I speak to Tim Walker. Tim is a direct response copy writer and campaigner. Tim’s been a colleague and friend of mine for many years, and is the founder of the fundraising agency TWCAT, now On agency, and is a
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Podcast Ep 4 – How to make politics better – with Neal Lawson

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
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Podcast Ep 3 – How self affirmation can change our behaviour

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
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New podcast – Making the world better

I’m very excited to announce that my new #podcast ‘Making the world better’ is now live! In the podcast, I talk to people who are making the world better – not just those tackling big issues at a global scale but also those working at a local level or in less obvious areas too. I
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New podcast launching 20th Jan 2020!

I’m very excited to announce that my new #podcast ‘Making the world better’ will be launching on 20th January 2020! In the podcast, I talk to people who are making the world better – not just those tackling big issues at a global scale but also those working at a local level or in less
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Beyond words

I’ve recently become tired of hearing people’s words – both those of others and my own. This evening I went for a walk on the hills of the South Downs as the sun set, and it reminded me of the joy of being without words. Just standing silently and letting the sights and sounds of
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Carbon disarmament – a new solution to climate change?

Decades on from my first involvement in the fight against climate change, we have still not found a way to get the change we need on this issue, and the urgency of the crisis is becoming greater every day. I was recently at a talk at the Hay literature festival by a leading environmentalist who
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How British politics is changing – for the better

Many of us with pro-environmental and liberal values have been feeling battered and under threat over the last three or four years as we’ve watched the rise of right-wing populism in our own country, in the US and around Europe. The evidence suggests however that this is not the whole picture – and in fact,
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The event that changed my world

I’ve been thinking recently about my emotional reaction to a particular event in human history. I’ve felt it chipping away at me in recent years as I’ve continued to research it, and realised recently that it has had a profound effect on the way I see the world. I’d like to share it here –
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Seeing through the fog

We’re living in a time when it’s increasingly difficult to tell fact from fiction, discern a real news story from a PR puff piece, understand what a politician is really trying to say, escape from the influence of advertising or work out how to manage our kids’ lives online. We’re surrounded by hot air, interest
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New book – The Life Trap

Today at Life Squared we are launching an important new publication – our first book, in fact. It’s called ‘The Life Trap – and how to escape it’, and is available as a free download or audiobook,here. Using the latest insights from psychology and neuroscience, the book argues that human beings are not as rational
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Influence – a problem that goes beyond obesity

An article has appeared today in The Guardian which talks about the many ways in which our everyday environments have been built to encourage us to consume fatty, sugary, junk food, and that we need to see some policy interventions from the government to change aspects of our daily environment in order to address the
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How to stop the rise of manipulation

Communication is power. In the modern world, one of the most effective tools used by the powerful to build and exercise their power is communication. More specifically, it’s the ability to understand how human beings think and behave and then use this knowledge to influence people – both individually and in massive numbers. This power
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The Life Trap – coming soon

I’ve just completed a booklet for Life Squared that has turned into a book!  It’s a piece of work that I’ve been putting off for years as I knew it would be large and complex, but I’m delighted to have finished it as I think it’s a critical issue, yet one that hasn’t been exposed
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Be a light in the darkness in 2018

We live in difficult political times. Rarely does a week pass without Donald Trump’s administration ignorantly destroying yet another important piece of hope for the world – whether in foriegn policy or its attitude towards climate change. Under such circumstances, it’s easy to feel a sense of complete despair and powerlessness. With this powerless can
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New guide to life!

What is the meaning of life? How should we live? What happens when we die? This weekend Humanists UK has published a new guide I’ve written for them on these and some of the other big questions of life. You can download it (for free) here. Over the last two thousand years we’ve been led
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New video – the problem with consumerism

So here’s the new video we produced for Life Squared to support their popular guide on ‘The Problem with Consumerism‘.  Check it out!
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New stuff coming soon…

It’s been a while since I posted on this blog, and that’s mainly because I’ve had my head down working on a load of different projects, as well as in running my agency ChangeStar. The good news is that these projects – including a video on ‘The problem with consumerism’, a new Life Squared guide
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Conservative voter? Here’s why you should vote smart in the General Election

Remember how shocked you felt waking up to the result of the Brexit referendum? Or how devastated you felt upon hearing that Trump had become President of the United States? Well, if you don’t want to wake up with this feeling on June 9th 2017, you can do something about it. Politics has taken a
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Green Party voter? Here’s why you should vote smart in the General Election

Remember how shocked you felt waking up to the result of the last General Election? Or how devastated you felt upon hearing that Trump had become President of the United States? Well, if you don’t want to wake up with this feeling on June 9th 2017, you can do something about it. Politics has taken
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Labour voter? Here’s why you should vote smart in the General Election

Remember how shocked you felt waking up to the result of the last General Election? Or how devastated you felt upon hearing that Trump had become President of the United States? Well, if you don’t want to wake up with this feeling on June 9th 2017, you can do something about it. Politics has taken
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Liberal Democrat voter? Here’s why you should vote smart in the General Election

Remember how shocked you felt waking up to the result of the last General Election? Or how devastated you felt upon hearing that Trump had become President of the United States? Well, if you don’t want to wake up with this feeling on June 9th 2017, you can do something about it. Politics has taken
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Why we should keep working for a Progressive Alliance

Yesterday, some new media reports emerged that questioned just how much impact a Progressive Alliance between Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Greens could really have on reducing the Tory majority in the forthcoming General Election. We’ve seen a lot of stories like this before, and there are a wide range of reasons why polls at
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A progressive alliance in Lewes – and beyond

Last night I attended the Progressive Alliance event in Lewes, my home town. It was not just well attended – it was packed. There was standing room only, at a hastily-assembled event that had only been publicised for a few days. The evening had everything – from the ejection of a rather over-refreshed gentleman by
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A vision for a better Britain

In my post yesterday I explored how we might build a strong, attractive view of a progressive future – one that a large number of people might want to get behind. As promised, below is a first go at how to present the vision and what to include in it. No doubt it needs more
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What a new progressive movement should look like

The world is in a chaotic state right now. Right wing populist parties are on the rise in western democracies as citizens vent their anger at a political process and economic system that has left them feeling powerless and without decent lives, jobs or self respect. People are willing to turn to almost any option
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How to wake up happy on June 9th

Remember how shocked you felt waking up to the result of the last General Election? Or how devastated you felt upon hearing that Trump had become President of the United States? Well, if you don’t want to wake up with this feeling on June 9th 2017, you can do something about it. Politics has taken
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Don’t mention the E-word

It’s been baffling and annoying this morning to see so much news coverage of the non-story that the National Trust and Cadbury have dropped the word ‘Easter’ from their annual Easter Egg Hunt event. First, it’s hard to work out who planted this story in the media as a bit of speculative PR.  The most
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We must all fight Trump

Donald Trump’s first week in office, and particularly his decision to temporarily ban people entering the US from predominantly Muslim countries, proves something – we are all now engaged in a battle to protect civilised values, wherever we live in the world. The nauseating stench of fascism had been hanging around his campaign for some
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Moral impotence and the tragedy of Aleppo

Like many people, I’ve been watching the reports of the destruction and terror in Aleppo with a sense of utter horror. Perhaps the most frustrating thing about the situation is a feeling that I’m unable to do anything useful about it. And as someone who helps charities show people how to take action and make
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The future of the left

In the current political climate, I’ve not been surprised to see a particular question raised more than once – namely, does a proper left wing movement/party stand a chance in Britain? I’ve seen articles saying it doesn’t, and arguing that no really left wing party has held power since the early 70s. So, is Britain
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Economics for the people

One significant reason for Trump’s election victory is that Clinton represents a discredited system. Politicians that people don’t trust.  An economic system that isn’t working for people. And the two things are connected. Because politicians have lost trust through desperately trying to defend, promote and support the economic system that isn’t working. So, the only
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A new vision

“Politics has failed through a lack of competing narratives (to neoliberalism). The key task now is to tell a new story of what it is to be a human in the 21st century. It must be as appealing to some who have voted for Trump and Ukip as it is to the supporters of Clinton,
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