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.
 
This is the final episode of Season 5 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've heard some of the best ideas to shape the way we live.

Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.

Don't want to miss a future episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on X https://twitter.com/AcadSocSciences

Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here: https://AcSS.org.uk

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 the best ideas to shape the way we live.

Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.

Don't want to miss an episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on X https://twitter.com/AcadSocSciences

Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here: https://AcSS.org.uk

Our final episode with Lord Chris Patten will be released on the 30th of April. 

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 bankruptcies and one in five local authorities in England is now projected to be insolvent by next year. Something is clearly going very wrong.

And it’s not just bin collections at stake but adult and child social care, schooling, libraries—the list goes on. Speak to anyone working in frontline council services, and they will tell you that any further cuts will decimate how we look after society’s most vulnerable. 

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 the best ideas to shape the way we live.

Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.

Don't want to miss an episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on X https://twitter.com/AcadSocSciences

Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here: https://AcSS.org.uk

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 is the Director of the Born in Bradford Research programme. She is an experienced behavioural scientist with particular expertise in developing and evaluating complex interventions.

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 the best ideas to shape the way we live.

Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.

Don't want to miss an episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on X https://twitter.com/AcadSocSciences

Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here: https://AcSS.org.uk

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 questions through a social science lens. Throughout this series, you'll be hearing some of the best ideas to shape the way we live. Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.

Don't want to miss an episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on twitter https://twitter.com/AcadSocSciences
Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here: https://AcSS.org.uk

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 face worldwide. She's also acted as an expert advisor within Parliament and the Council of Europe.  

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 the best ideas to shape the way we live.

Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.

Don't want to miss an episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on X https://twitter.com/AcadSocSciences 

Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here: https://AcSS.org.uk

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 country tells us much about the well-being of its people.

On the eve of his 90th birthday in March 2024, Professor Lord Layard joins host Will Hutton to discuss the need to take well-being and happiness more seriously. 

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 the best ideas to shape the way we live.

Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.

Don't want to miss an episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on twitter  https://twitter.com/thewesocietypod

Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here: https://AcSS.org.uk

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 [email protected] 

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 previously sidelined.

Season 4 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 the best ideas to shape the way we live.

Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.

Don't want to miss an episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on twitter  https://twitter.com/thewesocietypod

Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here: https://www.acss.org.uk  

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 and 2500 caregivers were interviewed in the South African provinces making it the world’s largest study on children in AIDS-affected families.

In March 2020, when 1.9 billion children were in lockdown with their parents, she co-led the COVID-19 Emergency Parenting Response to develop evidence-based open-source resources. She worked with colleagues at international organisations including the World Bank with the knowledge that the numbers of child abuse victims rose when they sequestered with adults for long periods of time. These resources were translated into over 100 languages and disseminated to over 200 million people.

Season 4 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 the best ideas to shape the way we live.

Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.

Don't want to miss an episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on twitter  https://twitter.com/thewesocietypod

Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here: https://www.acss.org.uk  

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 always been to leave her farm in a better state than when she inherited it, and that’s what she’s aiming to do at the NFU too. 

But there have been a handful of pretty tough hurdles in her way - Brexit, Covid, the recent energy crisis, and not mention the need to balance sustainability with farmer’s profit margins.

Season 4 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 the best ideas to shape the way we live.

Hosted by journalist and Academy President Will Hutton, we interview some of Britain’s top social scientists and public figures from across the globe to explore their evidence-led solutions to society’s most pressing problems.

Don't want to miss an episode? Follow the We Society on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on [email protected] and tell us who we should be speaking to or follow us on twitter  https://twitter.com/thewesocietypod

Find out more about the Academy of Social Sciences here:  https://Acss.org.uk