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) 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
8) Prison violence, sound and survival
The winner of the British Society of Criminology Book Award in 2025 was Kate Herrity. Her study looks at the way our different senses contribute to the experience of prison life and is called Sound, O...Show More
9) The go-along research method
How does the environment we move through shape the way we see and experience the world? Laurie Taylor talks to Alex Prior (London South Bank University) about his research inside Westminster, where he...Show More
10) Colour in Film
How did the arrival of colour and film technology transform cinema and its cultural politics? Laurie Taylor explores the intertwined histories of technology, aesthetics, and identity.Swarnavel Eswaran...Show More