Pod Academy

Wilfred Bion (1897 – 1979) was an influential (if at times 'gnomic') psychoanalyst who spent much of his working life at the Tavistock clinic in London.  He is perhaps best known for Experiences in Groups (London:Tavistock 1961), a key text in the emerging group psychotherapy and encounter group movements of the 1960s,and for Learning from Experience (1962) Podcast produced and presented by Naomi Wynter-Vincent. Naomi writes: The title of this podcast, Making the best of a bad job.'  refers to an essay written by Wilfred Bion in his final year (in 1979, when he was 81. Both the essay and its title are classic Bion: wryly self-deprecating, yet devastating in its emotional impact, the essay describes the way that 'when two personalities meet, an emotional storm is created' and the way that psychotherapy can only ever aim to 'make the best of a bad job' by turning that storm between the two people in the room to good account. I chose it as a title not least as an ironic reference to the progress of my own PhD.

"We know the jockey wants to win the race, and it is beguiling to imagine the horse knows what the challenge is, knows somehow the significance of the finishing post and therefore is a willing participant in this endeavour. If you buy into that framework you can imagine the horse views the whip strikes purely as a form of encouragement.  'Thanks for the encouragement, I needed that....'" The use of the whip in horse racing is an issue.  It is banned in some countries and there are regulations governing its use in others. It is widely used and as Dr Paul McGreevy explains in this podcast, it can be misused. This is our second podcast on animal welfare and horse racing in collaboration with Knowing Animals, a podcast show from Australia which looks at academic research in the field of animal rights and animal welfare. In this podcast, vet Dr. Paul McGreevy from the University of Sydney talks about his paper Whip use by jockeys in a sample of Australian thoroughbred races – an observational study ( authors: P

New Zealand is an important place for thoroughbred breeding and racing. Most races are on the flat, but jumps racing is conducted in the cooler months. At the 2013 National Jumps Day at Te Rapa, Hamilton, two horses were put down after bad falls over the jumps.  In this conversation Dr Siobhan O'Sullivan of the podcast show, Knowing Animals talks to Professor Phil McManus of Sydney University about what happened that day and how these horse deaths were then represented on social media. The discussion revolves around Prof McManus's recent paper, The construction of human–animal relations: National Jumps Day 2013 at Te Rapa, Hamilton, New Zealand (Phil McManus, Raewyn Graham and Karen Ruse, New Zealand Geographer Journal) which explores competing narratives of the horses' deaths that day at Te Rapa and demonstrates how animals, people, activities and places are constructed, including making animal deaths unrecognisable to perpetuate activities that are questioned by contemporary animal geographies This podcas

Journalism is changing, and so is the way we consume journalism.  On the eve of the 2015 Future of Journalism Conference, Tess Woodcraft talks to Angela Phillips, Professor of Journalism at Goldsmiths, University of London and author of Journalism in Context (Routhledge 2015) about how strong news journalism is crucial for informed citizenship, and how our increasing reliance on Facebook and YouTube for news may have serious implications for democracy.   Prof Angela Phillips:  I’m interested in the way in which news journalism is changing, and in particular how news audiences are changing in relation to changes in the industry.  So I have looked at audiences in my book, Journalism in Context, but I have also been looking at young news audiences in an international context to see how young people are accessing news. Tess Woodcraft: What’s been happening in journalism? AP: News journalism is changing and so is the way we consume it.  Facebook is now a major source of news for young people. TW: What are the

We have a lifetime's association with our bodies, but for many of us they remain uncharted territory. In Adventures in Human Being, Gavin Francis leads the reader on a journey through health and illness, offering insights on everything from the ribbed surface of the brain to the secret workings of the heart and the womb; from the pulse of life at the wrist to the unique engineering of the foot. This podcast is produced and presented by Craig Barfoot, and first appeared on Ideas Books. Drawing on his own experiences as a doctor and GP, Gavin Francis blends first-hand case studies with reflections on the way the body has been imagined and portrayed over the millennia. If the body is a foreign country, then to practise medicine is to explore new territory: Francis leads the reader on an adventure through what it means to be human. Both a user's guide to the body and a celebration of its elegance, this book will transform the way you think about being alive, whether in sickness or in health. Published in asso

In this podcast Dr Sonja Schillings explores how the use of the Latin term Hostis Humani Generis (the enemy of all mankind), which was originally applied to pirates, now creates an extralegal space which is being used to legitimise the assassination of international terrorists all over the world. This is just part of her forthcoming book, Hostis Humani Generis and the Narrative Construction of Legitimate Violence. Podcast presented and produced by Tatiana Prorokova. Tatiana Prorokova: Hello and welcome to Pod Academy. My name is Tatiana Prorokova and I am glad to have here Dr. Sonja Schillings to discuss her forthcoming book based on her dissertation titled Hostis Humani Generis and the Narrative Construction of Legitimate Violence. Before we proceed, however, I’d like to say a couple of words about Dr. Schillings’ academic career. She wrote her dissertation at the graduate school of North-American Studies at Freie-Universität Berlin in Germany, where she also held a position of a substitute junior profes

This podcast is about how a group of women campaigners and academics worked together and achieved a change in the law - making the possession of rape pornography illegal. It features author and former barrister Elizabeth Woodcraft in conversation with Professor Erica Rackley, University of Birmingham, Dr Fiona Vera Gray of Rape Crisis South London and Sarah Green Acting Director & Campaigns Manager of End Violence Against Women Campaign (EVAW). Rape pornography has been widely available, including on free porn sites, in the UK - ensuring that boys and men can freely access porn that eroticises rape and violence against women.  In 2006 the government began a consultation process to see whether the laws on pornography should be updated to reflect the growth of pornography via the internet.  This resulted in legislation in 2008 which outlawed some 'extreme' pornography, but excluded images of rape. The Scottish Parliament however, enacted separate legislation, which did include rape pornography. So, in Engla

In the ‘old game’, the analogue world of centralised knowledge institutions, knowledge was power.  But now that knowledge is everywhere, the rules of the game have changed. In his essay “Digital tailspin: 10 rules for the internet after Snowden” writer and activist Michael Seemann  (@mspro) examines how we’ve lost our ability to control the way information is spread online. Discussing everything from flashmobs to whistle-blowers, twitter to email encryption. Michael takes us from the ‘old game’  into the ‘new game’ – where information is no longer easily controlled. Anyone who has been the victim of revenge porn, or found themselves the star of a viral video is acutely aware of how helpless we are to fight the spread of information in the ‘new game’. What’s more, with sites like Wikileaks even governments and large corporations have found themselves similarly powerless. In his essay, Michael calls this idea the ‘kontrolverlust’ (‘loss of control’ – German) or ‘digital tailspin’, and lays out ten strategi

14th January 1795 ANN HAWKINS was indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 7th of January , a feather bed, value 20s. a flock and feather bolster, value 10d. two woollen blankets, value 3s. a linen sheet, value 2s. a linen counterpane, value 12d. a looking glass in a walnut-tree frame, value 4s. a pair of tongs, value 6d. a brass candlestick, value 6d. a wooden pail, value 6d. and a tin kettle, value 4d. the goods of Thomas Norwood , in a lodging room .   How can we discover whether it was changing tastes and fashion that drove consumption during the industrial revolution or if it was falling prices (as goods were increasingly mass produced)? One place we can look for evidence is the court reports of the time. The records of the Old Bailey give a good idea of what ordinary people owned, because they record what was stolen! In this podcast Dr Sara Horrell, Senior Lecturer in the Economics Department of Cambridge University, and Fellow of Murray Edwards College, discusses with Scarlett MccGwire how she and

"Current economic orthodoxy", says Christian Felber, "confuses means and ends.  It says we should strive for the accumulation and maximisation of money and capital, but they are the means, not the ends......The end is the common good." He proposes a new approach to economics, putting the system on a new course. Key to this new economy is moving from evaluating the 'means' to assessing the 'goals', and grounding them in shared values.  It means redefining economic success.  Indeed, one of the main objectives of his work is to demonstrate that there are alternatives to the current economic order. Listing the values of the common good as human dignity, solidarity, social justice, ecological sustainability, democracy and freedom, he points out that many democratic consitutitions already contain a commitment to these values, but  goals are not based on them. These ideas are set down in his book, Change Everything: Creating an Economy for the Common Good (2015, Zed Books). Felber is magister philosopiae, Vienna

"We are developing the discipline of feminist legal history, which scarcely even exists in this country...Feminist history asks a different set of questions."  (Rosemary Auchmuty) In this podcast about the Women's Legal Landmarks project, author and barrister Elizabeth Woodcraft talks to Professor Rosemary Auchmuty of Reading University's School of Law and Professor Erika Rackley of Birmingham Law School.at the very start of the project.  Their conversation ranges over the aims and methodology of the work, some of the landmarks they will be exploring and, importantly, their aspirations for the project. 2019 marks the centenary of women’s formal admission into the legal profession.This was a key legal landmark for women but, of course, it was not first. Feminists have a long history of engaging with law and law reform with the result that women’s legal history is full of landmarks – key events, cases and statutes – shaping and responding to women’s lives and (diverse) experiences. To commemorate the centenar

Podcast produced and presented by Craig Barfoot Cloning extinct species - such as woolly mammoths - presents massive ethical as well as practical challenges.  And at the moment there is no legal oversight of the issues. Beth Shapiro, author of How to Clone a Mammoth explores the complexities - both ethical and scientific - in this interview with Craig Barfoot. We may get excited by the idea of cloning dinosaurs (not possible as dinosaur DNA has long since turned to stone) or woolly mammoths (so far only 9 of the hundreds of genes needed have been identified), but why would we do it?  The ethics of creating a creature, only to put it on display in a zoo, are surely questionable. And genes are only half the story. Environment is also a key part of species development - and we cannot re-create the environment (herd, terraine etc) of a mammoth. This is a fascinating and eye-opening podcast.  Listen and share it.

There's a little red-faced man, Which is Bobs, Rides the tallest 'orse 'e can- Our Bobs. If it bucks or kicks or rears, 'E can sit for twenty years With a smile round both 'is ears- Can't yer, Bobs? That is the ditty British troops would recite about Field Marshall Lord Roberts (1832-1914) veteran of the Boer War and the 19th century wars in Afghanistan.  In this podcast, produced by Love Archaeology for Pod Academy, Tom Horne and Terence Christian explore the life of Lord Roberts whose statue in Kelvingrove, Glasgow has been restored recently.  They talk to his biographer, Dr. Rodney Atwood (The Life of Field Marshall Lord Roberts) and then take a walk in the rain to Kelvingrove to see the statue. Popularly known as ‘Bobs,’ Roberts was born in 1832 and died on the Western Front in 1914. Roberts won the Victoria Cross, as his son would go on to do, in the Boer War in South Africa. He’d also be involved in the strategic defence of India. As a course of this, he campaigned successfully in Afghanistan. Later on

There is growing concern about the widening gap between rich and poor. The 99% and the 1% are much written and talked about, not just by campaigners, but even by the Managing Director  of the IMF. However, people rarely talk about solutions – it is as if there are at work natural forces that are beyond human control. Not so, says Sir Tony Atkinson  Fellow of Nuffield College and Centenial Prof at LSE, and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, 'The world faces great problems but collectively we are not at the mercy of forces outside our control, the future is very much in our hands’. The economy is about political and economic choices and the means to reduce inequality are within our grasp..  In this interview with Fran Bennett,  Senior Research and Teaching Fellow in the Dept of Social Policy and Intervention at the University of Oxford, he challenges academics and politicians to rethink the economy Tony Atkinson, who has been dubbed the ‘Godfather of

Drones are widely used in the 'war on terror'.  Unmanned airplanes with hellfire missiles on board, controlled from another country,  they kill from the sky.     Drones and drone warfare are highly controversial - on ethical, legal and utilitarian grounds -  as Andrew Cockburn explains in this conversation with Craig Barfoot about his latest book Kill Chain.  Cockburn is an assiduous investigator and delivers a trenchant critique of the people he call the 'High Tech Assassins'. Picture:  Peace Quilt

There is well documented evidence that if you change how a stammerer hears they way they are speaking, they will stammer less.  Using this finding, 10 years ago saw the introduction of new devices (especially in-ear devices) that purported to help people stop stammering.  But these fluency aids have not lived up to early promise- indeed many  people who were thought to be 'cured' have found their stammer is back, as marked as before. Now Oliver Cheadle has been conducting new research at UCL, this time using vibration, through the skin, rather than sound.  He discusses his findings with Lee Millam in this podcast. Oli used a vibrotactile device.   On average, the device reduced stuttering by 22%, but the average figure masks massive variation. Vibrotactile speech feedback significantly reduced stuttering, albeit much less so than in previous studies (an average 22% reduction in stuttering as compared to an average 71-80% reduction in earlier studies). The different types of vibrotactile speech feedback u

With the increasing frequency, complexity and sophistication of cyber attacks - such as Stuxnet, the Sony Hack - how is attribution done? This podcast is an interview with Ben Buchanan about a paper he recently published with Thomas Rid, Professor of Security Studies at Kings College, London on Attributing Cyber Attacks The paper can be found in the Journal of Strategic Studies. Additional information about the various reports mentioned in the podcast are linked throughout the transcript. This podcast was produced and is hosted by Adriene Lilly.   Adriene Lilly: With the increasing frequency of cyber attacks in the media I think it's worth taking a few minutes to try and understand how attribution is done - how do we find out who is doing it, why, how, and where from.  What exactly is attribution in the cyber context, why do we try to attribute attacks? How is it different than it's offline equivalent in criminal investigations? Where does data and forensic evidence come from? And who – be it the governme

The late Stuart Hall said cultural studies, within a Marxist tradition,  enables us "to understand culture - cultural discourse - the place and relationship of the ideological." In this podcast, which is part of our Marxism in the 21st Century series, Steve Edwards, Professor of History of Art at the Open University talks to Kieron Yates about Marxism and Culture.  They explore how Marxism can be seen as a profoundly aesthetic philosophy, with many of its central categories coming from thinking about art and aesthetics, the organisation of sensibility......   VOICE: STUART HALL:  It's not that Marxism is not around but that the kind of conversation which Cultural Studies conducted with …   against some aspects of … around the questions… expanding a Marxist tradition of critical thinking... that is absent and that is a real weakness. I think important gains were made which enable us to understand culture... cultural discourse… the place and relationship of the ideological. So I think a lot of ground was cov

These days many of us check out TripAdvisor if we are booking a hotel.  We want to see what people like us think of the service, the staff, the food, the pool....... It's a great idea for bed and breakfast, but is the TripAdvisor approach, where consumers are encouraged to give their unvarnished views, the right approach for Fertility Clinics, where life changing decisions are being made? The UK's Human Fertility and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has decided to give more prominence to patient views and an event, A Trip Advisor for Fertility Clinics - Would You Recommend It? was held at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in London's Regent's Park last month (April 2015) organised by Progress Educational Trust and sponsored by the British Fertility Society, to look at how best to do so. The HFEA's plans are consistent with an emphasis on patient choice and patient empowerment in recent health policy. Since 2007, for example, the NHS Choices website has published patient feedback on NHS hospi

Is it possible to describe the origins of the universe, dark matter, planets, alien worlds, particle physics, galaxies and telescopes in just 1000 words? Yes, says astrophysicist, Dr Roberto Trotta in this interview with Craig Barfoot. Roberto Trotta, Senior Lecturer in Astrophysics at Imperial College, University of London has written The Edge of the Sky, a tale of the great discoveries and outstanding mysteries in modern cosmology, all in the 1000 most common words in the English language, and in the process has created an entrancing and lyrical account of the wonders of the universe.       Through the eyes of a female scientist (student-woman) looking for dark matter in far-away galaxies (Star-Crowds) with one of the biggest telescopes (Big-Seers) on Earth (Home-World), Dr Trotta explains what we have learnt about the universe (All-There-Is) and our place in it. Photo of Night Sky in Grand Canyon National Park, by Grand Canyon National Park