logo
episode-header-image
Yesterday
28m 6s

Debt and Wealth Inequality

Bbc Radio 4
About this episode

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 to understand how debt affects people emotionally as well as economically.

Laurie is also joined by Sarah Kerr (LSE International Inequalities Institute), whose book, Wealth, Poverty and Enduring Inequality - Let’s Talk Wealtherty, investigates the stubborn persistence of inequality in the UK. Kerr argues that the gap between top and bottom earners has become entrenched and normalised across generations.

Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Up next
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
Feb 17
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 history and explores the human cost of gentrification - and what happens when the p ... Show More
27m 54s
Recommended Episodes
Jan 2022
Carol J. Oja and Charles Garrett, "Sounding Together: Collaborative Perspectives on U. S. Music in the 21st Century" (U Michigan Press, 2021)
Edited by Charles Hiroshi Garrett and Carol J. Oja, Sounding Together: Collaborative Perspectives on U.S. Music in the Twenty-21st Century (University of Michigan Press, 2021) is a multi-authored, collaboratively conceived book of essays that tackles key challenges facing scholar ... Show More
43m 39s
Jan 2021
Ari Y. Kelman, "Shout to the Lord: Making Worship Music in Evangelical America" (NYU Press, 2018)
How do songwriters, worship leaders, and music industry professionals collaborate to make music that can become prayer? Ari Y. Kelman explores this question in his excellent study, Shout to the Lord: Making Worship Music in Evangelical America (New York University Press, 2018). P ... Show More
43m 1s
Aug 2025
A multigenerational musical journey | Yijia Tu
In an enchanting talk and performance, singer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Yijia Tu traces a path from the world’s biggest stages to a family lullaby passed down through the generations, showing how music carries memory across centuries and cultures. Blending East Asian ... Show More
11m 6s
Aug 2022
Ballad of a thousand years
Previously, we introduced to you a grand piece titled "The Epic of Manas," which narrates the story of a Kirgiz hero called Manas and his seven generations of descendants leading their people in preserving peace, unity and protecting their way of life. With 230,000 lines in total ... Show More
17m 49s
Aug 2025
A multigenerational musical journey | Yijia Tu
In an enchanting talk and performance, singer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Yijia Tu traces a path from the world’s biggest stages to a family lullaby passed down through the generations, showing how music carries memory across centuries and cultures. Blending East Asian ... Show More
11m 6s
Sep 2022
Emily Bingham, "My Old Kentucky Home: The Astonishing Life and Reckoning of an Iconic American Song" (Knopf, 2022)
Any song as old and as familiar as “My Old Kentucky Home” is bound to have accrued many different meanings and an interesting history. Emily Bingham’s book, My Old Kentucky Home: The Astonishing Life and Reckoning of an Iconic American Song (Knopf, 2022) delivers on the promise o ... Show More
58m 34s
Oct 2024
Chaka Khan's "I'm Every Woman" with Danyel Smith
If there’s anything you want done, baby, just turn to a legendary artist who knows how to do it naturally. On this episode of One Song, award-winning journalist, author, and podcaster Danyel Smith (Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop) joins Diallo and LUXX ... Show More
1h 28m
Jul 2024
The Sound of Patriotism
<p>Every year on the Fourth of July, households across America embrace the aesthetics of patriotism. On this week’s On the Media, find out how the early country music industry got a major boost from the US military and became associated with the “sound of patriotism.” Plus, how a ... Show More
50m 38s
Jul 2025
David Byrne on How Music Connects Us
<p>Music helped former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne come out of his shell and connect with others—and research shows he's not alone. We explore the science behind how music shapes our social lives.</p><p>Summary: Musician and artist David Byrne reflects on how music opened ... Show More
24m 38s
Jun 2023
Pop Stars of the Second World War
In this episode, James Holland talks to legendary music journalist, David Hepworth about the popular songs and singers of the wartime years, and particularly those recorded at the world’s most famous recording studio, Abbey Road. From Al Bowlly and Noel Coward, to Gracie Fields, ... Show More
48m 22s