The We Society
Beyond the politics, beyond our geography are the intangible connections that hold us together – The We Society. The We Society podcast is here to tell you about the thousands of ways the Social Sciences can help us understand and enhance this complicated and fascinating human network. What can we do to fix the NHS? How can we better manage climate change? How do we end the cost of living crisis? Brought to you by the Academy of Social Sciences in association with the Nuffield Foundation and Leverhulme Trust, this podcast tackles the big questions through a social science lens and brings you some of the best ideas to shape the way we live. Join acclaimed journalist and Academy president Will Hutton, as he invites guests from the world of social science to explore the stories behind the news and hear their solutions to society’s most pressing problems. Don’t want to miss an episode? Follow the show on your favourite podcast platform and you can email us on wesociety@acss.org.uk and tell us who we should be speaking to. The We Society podcast is brought to you by the Academy of Social Sciences in association with the Nuffield Foundation and the Leverhulme Trust.
Episodes
We end Season 10 with an intimate interview between the Nobel Prize winning economist Philippe Aghion and Will Hutton.
They delve into the concept of "creative destruction," a term coined by economist Joseph Schumpeter, which highlights the dual nature of innovation in driving economic growth while simultaneously rendering older methods and certain industries and jobs obsolete. Aghion believes that for an economy to thrive cr...
Professor Carissa Véliz is a philosopher who is examining the threats and possibilities of today’s digital world. She is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Institute for Ethics in AI at the University of Oxford – and fellow at Hertford College. She currently holds a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship and her work has been featured by the Ada Lovelace Institute.
In her first landmark book, Privacy is Power (2020), s...
The consequences of climate change are everywhere. From record-breaking wildfires to catastrophic floods, climate disasters are killing hundreds of thousands and displacing millions. In the past decade alone, climate-related disasters have forced an estimated 250 million people from their homes.
So why aren’t we moving faster? What’s holding back the systemic shifts needed to avoid disaster? Professor Tim Lenton is one of the ...
Artificial Intelligence is now at our fingertips, in our homes, and governing what we see and how we see it. We are currently riding a great wave of change.
But while private companies have embraced AI, how is the public sector keeping up? How can public institutions build and maintain trust amongst all this change?
Our guest today is Imogen Parker, she is Associate Director in Social and Economic Policy at the Ada Lovelace I...
Our guest, Professor Jan-Emmanuel De Neve shares with us the top findings from the recently released 2026 World Happiness Report. He is Professor of Economics and Behavioural Science at the University of Oxford and Director of the Wellbeing Research Centre. A leading voice in the science of happiness and wellbeing, Jan’s work brings data and empirical methods to questions once thought too subjective to measure. He has advise...
Professor Stephani Hatch has dedicated her career to making workplaces - especially the NHS - more inclusive by reducing discriminatory practices. She is the Vice Dean for Culture, Equality, Diversity & Inclusion, and Professor of Sociology and Epidemiology at King's College London.
Her work has seen her introduce 360 degree Virtual Reality headsets to NHS managers and staff to allow them to ‘walk in the shoes of’ racial...
In this episode of the We Society with Will Hutton, we are joined by two esteemed academics placing journeys to adulthood under a Social Science microscope.
Carey Oppenheim is a project lead on the Nuffield Foundation's Grown Up? Journeys to adulthood programme. Using young people's voices and robust data, Carey and her team are exploring the challenges and opportunities young people face as they transition into adulthood. B...
In the first episode of Season 10, we are joined by Professor Richard Wiseman who has spent his career studying the intangible ways humans communicate with one another - not just through language, but with humour, magic tricks and belief in one’s own luck.
He is professor of the public understanding of psychology at the University of Hertfordshire and one of the world’s leading experts on why some people seem to attract oppor...
Join host Will Hutton for Season 10 of the We Society from next week to hear some of the best ideas to shape the way we live.
Launching Wednesday 4th March with an array of great guests starting with Richard Wiseman who is going to talk to us about the psychology of luck and magic.
But we also wanted to celebrate this milestone - ten seasons! Through this journey, our host Will Hutton has met some incredible individua...
In the conversation, Professor Mitter argues that we should look past the often prevailing sense of doom regarding U.S.-China relations to explore the realities - both nations have distinct aspirations that do not...
Eleanor is one of the Programme Heads for Education at the Nuffield Foundation, which tackles the UK’s b...
He is an academic practitioner in the field of forensic linguistics - teaching and leading research as a professor at Aston University. As the former director of the Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics at Aston University he spearheaded the Institut...
Our guest today, Alex Beer, joins us at a critical time as the UK Government prepares to publish its child poverty strategy this autumn.
According to official numbers, there are 4.5 million children living in poverty in the UK and 1.1m children are in families that have used a food bank in the past year.
The Nuffield Foundation launched a major new Strategic Review earlier this summer committing £30 million...
In this conversation with Will Hutton, he discusses his research into proactive strategies...
In the conversation, Professor Tine Buffel highlights the barriers older individuals face in urban spaces. Dr. Julia King addresses the decline of youth spaces and safety concer...
They discusses the long-term implications of the COVID-19 pandemic and other disasters on societal resilience. Drawing from her experiences and insights in emergency planning, she highlights the importance of community responses and the emotional significance o...
Launching October 1 with an interview with Lucy Easthope, an international adviser on disaster recovery.
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.
Please ...
All three have recently collaborated on research to do with regional inequality in the U...
How do we talk about pain that doesn’t go away? How do people live in bodies that society isn’t built for? And how can we sh...
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