The 6 Best Thinking Allowed Podcast Episodes
1) The 'Happiness Industry' - The 'Wellness Syndrome'
The Happiness Industry: Laurie Taylor talks to Will Davies, Professor in Politics at Goldsmiths, University of London, who asks why policy makers have become increasingly focused on measuring happines...Show More
2) Motorbikes
Motorbikes: Born to be wild. Randy McBee, Professor of Labor and Social History at the Texas Tech University, considers the rise of the American Motorcyclist from its largely working-class roots to ...Show More
3) Drugs in warfare
DRUGS IN WARFARE: Laurie Taylor talks to Lukasz Kamienski, Lecturer in Political Science at at Jagiellonian University, Poland, and author of a book which examines how intoxicants have been put to the...Show More
4) Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault - Laurie Taylor presents a special programme on the life and work of the iconoclastic French philosopher and theorist. He's joined by Professor Stephen Shapiro, Professor Vikki Bell an...Show More
AUDIO REMOVED: The podcast creator has removed the audio for this episode.5) Beauty - Ugliness
Beauty and ugliness - to what extent are our ideas about physical perfection culturally and socially constructed? Laurie Taylor talks to Gretchen Henderson, Lecturer in English at Georgetown Universit...Show More
6) Cool
'Cool' - Laurie Taylor traces the trajectory of the notion of ‘cool’ with Joel Dinerstein, Professor of English and American Studies at Tulane University, and author of a study which suggests it orig...Show More
7) Debt and Wealth Inequality
What does an 18-month study of residents on a housing estate in southern England tell us about living with debt? Laurie Taylor talks to Ryan Davey from Cardiff University about his new book The Person...Show More
8) Extreme Sports
What can the worlds of mountaineering and endurance running reveal about changing ideas of freedom, identity and the body? Laurie Taylor talks to Sarah Lonsdale, Senior Lecturer in Journalism at City,...Show More
9) The demise of Grand Theory?
What explains the apparent decline of grand theory in sociology, and what does this shift mean for the discipline today? Laurie Taylor asks whether sociologists are now less inclined to engage with la...Show More
10) Gentrification in Detroit and London
What do we learn when a city’s future is defined not by rapid change, but by who leaves and who stays? Laurie Taylor looks at two neighbourhoods in different countries, during different periods in his...Show More