logo
episode-header-image
Jan 2017
28m 11s

Age of noise - British drinking

Bbc Radio 4
About this episode
<p>The 'age of noise': How a preoccupation with unwanted sounds came to characterise modernity. The 20th century saw the expansion of cities and technological change. The sounds of motor cars, vacuum cleaners and gramaphones filled the air, leading social commentators to forecast the end of civilisation and a breakdown in mental health. Did noise provide peo ... Show More
Up next
Mar 10
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 Personal Life of Debt - Coercion, Subjectivity and Inequality in Britain, which tries ... Show More
28m 6s
Mar 3
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, University of London, about her new book Wildly Different - her study of early ... Show More
27m 58s
Feb 25
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 large, overarching theoretical frameworks, and explores the reasons behind this ch ... Show More
27m 35s
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2021
46. Human Behaviour with Dame Theresa Marteau
<p>Theresa Marteau is a British health psychologist, professor, and director of the Behaviour and Health Research Unit at the University of Cambridge. Her initial research concerned communicating risk information and found out that people usually don’t change their behaviours des ... Show More
58m 34s
Apr 2025
Jonathan Shepherd on a career as a crime-fighting surgeon
Surgeons often have to deal with the consequences of violent attacks - becoming all too familiar with patterns of public violence, and peaks around weekends, alcohol-infused events and occasions that bring together groups with conflicting ideals.Professor Jonathan Shepherd not on ... Show More
28m 38s
Nov 2022
Will Hutton on the State of Social Science
<p>Political economist and journalist Will Hutton, author of the influential 1995 book <em>The State We're In</em>, offers a state of the field report on the social sciences in this Social Science Bites podcast. Hutton, who was appointed in 2021 to a six-year term as president of ... Show More
21m 48s
Jun 2024
Escapism
<p>Travel, reading, cinema and psychedelic drugs are all means people have used to try to escape. But do they ever really lead us where we want them to? With the election looming, Glastonbury in full swing and lists of beach read suggestions starting to appear -</p><p>Matthew Swe ... Show More
56m 58s
Mar 2025
LOUD: Is noise an invisible killer?
BBC health correspondent James Gallagher investigates how our noisy world is damaging our health. He finds out why noise increases our risk of health problems, like heart attacks, sleep problems and anxiety, and can even affect how long we live. James spends two days in Barcelona ... Show More
49m 29s
Sep 2025
The Life Scientific: Jonathan Shepherd
Surgeons often have to deal with the consequences of violent attacks - becoming all too familiar with patterns of public violence, and peaks around weekends, alcohol-infused events and occasions that bring together groups with conflicting ideals.Professor Jonathan Shepherd not on ... Show More
26m 29s
Mar 2022
Day Twenty-Six: The Shock
India considers the role of the femcare industry in perpetuating menstrual stigma and single use products with Chris Bobel, an Associate Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston and Co-Editor of the Critical Guide to Menstruatio ... Show More
14 m
Jul 2024
Dawn Bonfield on inclusive engineering, sustainable solutions and why she once tried to leave the sector for good
The engineering industry, like many other STEM sectors, has a problem with diversity: one that Dawn Bonfield believes we can and must fix, if we're to get a handle on much more pressing planetary problems...Dawn is a materials engineer by background, who held roles at Citroën in ... Show More
28m 21s
Mar 2025
Ben Bowles, "Boaters of London: Alternative Living on the Water" (Berghahn Books, 2024)
Boaters of London is an ethnography that delves into the process of becoming a boater, adopting an alternative lifestyle on the water and the political impact that this travelling population has on the state. London and the Southeast of England in general is home to many people a ... Show More
1h 7m
Sep 2024
Predicting everything
The Royal Society recently announced the shortlist for their annual Science Book Prize – and nominated is science writer and journalist Tom Chivers, author of the book Everything is Predictable. He tells us how statistics impact every aspect of our lives, and joins Marnie as a st ... Show More
34m 50s