logo
episode-header-image
Mar 2020
28m 3s

Loneliness

Bbc Radio 4
About this episode

Loneliness - Fay Bound Alberti, Reader in History at the University of York, charts the emergence of loneliness as a contemporary emotional state. Also, Janne Flora, postdoctoral scholar at Aarhus University, explores the deep connections between loneliness and modernity in the Arctic, tracing the history of Greenland and analysing the social dynamics that shaped it.

Producer: Jayne Egerton

Up next
Jul 8
Learning Disabilities
Laurie Taylor talks to Simon Jarrett, Research Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London, about the social history of people with learning disabilities, from 1700 to the present days. Using evidence from civil and criminal court-rooms, joke books, slang dictionaries, novels, art a ... Show More
27m 41s
Jul 1
The Irish in the UK
Laurie Taylor talks to Louise Ryan, Professor of Sociology at the London Metropolitan University, about her oral history of the Irish nurses who were the backbone of the NHS for many years. By the 1960s approximately 30,000 Irish-born nurses were working across the NHS, constitut ... Show More
28m 7s
Jun 24
Russian Propaganda
Laurie Taylor talks to Nina Khrushcheva, Professor of International Affairs at The New School in New York City about her research into the propaganda formulas deployed by Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin over the last two decades. As the great granddaughter of Nikita Khrushchev, th ... Show More
27m 53s
Recommended Episodes
Jun 2024
Sean Redmond, "The Loneliness Room: A Creative Ethnography of Loneliness" (Manchester UP, 2024)
The Loneliness Room: A Creative Ethnography of Loneliness (Manchester University Press, 2024) by Dr. Sean Remond is a remarkably unique book takes the conceit of the loneliness room to show how everyday artistic practice opens up loneliness to new definitions and new understandin ... Show More
52m 42s
Dec 2023
Feeling Lonely? Your Brain May Process The World Differently
The U.S. is in the midst of a loneliness epidemic. And for a lot of people, the feeling is even more pronounced during the holidays. In addition to its emotional impact, chronic loneliness and social isolation have some dramatic health consequences: increased risk of heart diseas ... Show More
15m 24s
May 2022
Are we in a ‘loneliness pandemic’? With Louise Hawkley, PhD
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic scrambled our social connections, Americans were worried about an epidemic of loneliness. Louise Hawkley, PhD, principal research scientist at NORC at the University of Chicago, talks about the difference between being alone and being lonely, how ... Show More
37m 36s
Apr 2020
Meditations On Loneliness
We're a social species now living in isolation. But loneliness was a problem well before this era of social distancing. This hour, TED speakers explore how we can live and make peace with loneliness. Guests on the show include author and illustrator Jonny Sun, psychologist Susan ... Show More
49m 20s
Jul 2020
Listen Again: Meditations on Loneliness
Original broadcast date: April 24, 2020. We're a social species now living in isolation. But loneliness was a problem well before this era of social distancing. This hour, TED speakers explore how we can live and make peace with loneliness. Guests on the show include author and i ... Show More
50m 9s
May 2024
Why being alone can be good for you
We talk to Heather Hansen, co-author of Solitude: The Science and Power of Being Alone, about what can be gained from finding positivity in solitude. 
23m 44s
Jun 2014
The Philosophy of Solitude
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the philosophy of solitude. The state of being alone can arise for many different reasons: imprisonment, exile or personal choice. It can be prompted by religious belief, personal necessity or a philosophical need for solitary contemplation. Ma ... Show More
47m 6s
Jun 2014
The Philosophy of Solitude
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the philosophy of solitude. The state of being alone can arise for many different reasons: imprisonment, exile or personal choice. It can be prompted by religious belief, personal necessity or a philosophical need for solitary contemplation. Ma ... Show More
47m 6s
Apr 2024
Loneliness
What can we learn about loneliness, and how to avoid it, from two countries in two different continents? As Sophia Smith Galer and Scaachi Koul continue their quest for true women’s wellbeing, this time they’re exploring social connections from a global perspective. They hear fro ... Show More
32m 12s