Skip to main content
Radical with Amol Rajan

Radical with Amol Rajan

Podcast | United Kingdom | Centre
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0gg4k6r

Amol Rajan speaks with pioneers and innovators about radical ideas reshaping how we live, work, and govern—from BBC Radio 4 and Sounds.

Engagement Insights

31
Discussions
0
Participants
0
Total Votes
31
Articles

Discussions from Radical with Amol Rajan

Environment

Could Climate Engineering Do More Bad Than Good for the Environment? (Your Radical Questions with Professor David Keith)

Professor David Keith, one of the world’s leading researchers in geoengineering, answers Your Radical Questions. In the main episode, David told Gabriel Gatehouse why deliberately reflecting a small amount of sunlight away from Earth could slow global warming. Now, you ask him whether we could ever know the unintended consequences before trying it, and whether sunlight reflection could be stopped safely once it had begun. David’s also challenged on whether carbon capture and carbon removal ge...

Global
Join Discussion
Environment

Engineering the Climate: Can Injecting Chemicals in the Sky Help Save the Planet? (Professor David Keith)

What if the answer to climate change is not only to cut carbon emissions, but to make the Earth more resilient using tech? Professor David Keith is one of the world’s leading researchers of geoengineering which aims to do just that. Efforts to capture carbon are already underway, but Professor Keith is particularly interested in sunlight reflection - the controversial idea of cooling the planet by reflecting the sun’s rays back into space. To do this, he wants to release sulphur high into the...

Global
Join Discussion
Culture

The Best of Radical with Amol Rajan

On Amol’s last day as the host of Radical, he shares five conversations that really stand out. Matt Clifford, Emma Grede, Jacob Dunne, Katherine Burbalsingh and James Marriott. Next week, Gabriel Gatehouse speaks to Professor David Keith about geoengineering, deliberate large-scale interventions in the Earth’s climate system designed to fight human-caused climate change. If you have a question for Professor David, get in touch: - WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480 - Email: [email protected] Episodes of ...

Global
Join Discussion
Education

Why Do People Pretend to Be Working Class? (Your Radical Questions with Sophie Pender)

Sophie Pender, founder of The 93% Club, returns to answer your questions on class, privilege and education. In the main episode, Sophie told Amol why she thinks Britain needs to stop talking politely about social mobility and confront the power of private schools. Now, listeners ask whether class identity has become too slippery, whether people downplay their own privilege, and whether support for state-school students risks helping those who are already advantaged. Sophie also discusses orac...

United Kingdom
Join Discussion
Education

We Need to Talk About Class: Is It Time to Abolish Private Schools? (Sophie Pender)

Sophie Pender grew up on council estates in North London, became the first in her family to go to university, trained as a corporate lawyer - then walked away from a six-figure salary to fight Britain’s class problem. She’s the founder of ‘The 93% Club’, a network for state-educated students and professionals, named after the proportion of people in Britain who go to state schools. But Sophie argues that “social mobility” has become too polite a phrase for something much deeper: how much clas...

United Kingdom
Join Discussion
Society

What Is The Secret To Happiness? (Your Radical Questions with Lord Richard Layard)

For this week’s Q&A, Amol is joined by the economist, author, Labour peer, and happiness champion Lord Richard Layard. In their previous conversation, Lord Layard outlined his radical idea; that government policymaking should be decided first and foremost by how it impacts overall happiness and wellbeing. Now, he answers your questions on the NHS and mental health, how we should measure success, the ethics of farming animals for food, and whether pacifism is the answer for how we achieve grea...

United Kingdom
Join Discussion
Politics

Happiness Rules: Should Wellbeing Dictate Government Policy? (Lord Richard Layard)

This week, Amol sits down with Lord Richard Layard, the author, economist, and Labour peer who has spent decades making the case for happiness and wellbeing. He successfully helped implement talking therapy to the NHS, and was key figure in persuading the UK government to measure wellbeing. But he wants to go further - in this conversation, Lord Layard outlines why he wants happiness to become the main objective of all government policy, and argues that this radical change would even pay for ...

United Kingdom
Join Discussion
Culture

Should Phones Be Banned in Pubs? (Your Radical Questions with Oisín Rogers)

Oisín Rogers takes your questions on how pubs can not only survive, but thrive. In the main episode we heard Oisín’s radical ideas about why he thinks pubs are essential not just for our history and identity, but also for the problems of the modern age. Today, Oisín considers the old-fashioned pub customs some people cherish and others find faintly terrifying: no laptops, no swearing, no sprawling groups and even a landlord who is not desperately pleased to see you. Are these traditions part ...

United Kingdom
Join Discussion
Society

Last Call for the Local: Are Old Pubs the Solution to Modern Crises? (Oisín Rogers)

The British pub has played a huge part in our lives for hundreds of years: it’s a place to eat, drink, grieve, flirt, celebrate and put the world to rights. Yet thousands have disappeared, and many more are fighting to stay open. This week, Amol speaks to Oisín Rogers, co-founder of The Devonshire in Soho. For Oisín, saving pubs isn’t just about nostalgia - it’s about defending the everyday places that make communities feel less isolated and more human. He’s got some radical ideas on how to s...

United Kingdom
Join Discussion
Infrastructure

Can Britain Change Its Ways on Housing? (Your Radical Questions with Shiv Malik)

This week, Shiv Malik, the man behind the proposals for ‘Forest City 1’, takes your questions. He’s a former investigative journalist turned campaigner: instead of writing another book about Britain’s housing crisis, he’s trying to build his way out of it. Forest City is his ambitious pitch for Britain’s first new city in more than 50 years: a million-person settlement east of Cambridge, with around 400,000 homes, new rail links and thousands of acres of new woodland. We hear Shiv talk about ...

United Kingdom
Join Discussion
Infrastructure

The Great British Housing Crisis: Is a Brand New Mega-City the Answer? (Shiv Malik)

This week, Amol is joined by the author and journalist Shiv Malik, to discuss his plan to build a new mega-city from scratch in East Anglia. In 2010 Shiv Malik wrote a book called the Jilted Generation, which argued that anyone born since 1979 has been robbed of their future because of how expensive home ownership has become. Now, he’s dedicating his life to a plan for a new city that he thinks will save Britain, and prove that we can be builders again. Shiv wants to build ‘Forest City’ on 45...

United Kingdom
Join Discussion
Economy

Is Our Idea of Economic Success Completely Broken? (Your Radical Questions with Kate Raworth)

Kate Raworth believes that mainstream economists have got it wrong for decades. For her, reducing everything to a simple measure of gross domestic product and increasing that number every year is a huge mistake that is harming both people and planet. In 2017 she proposed a radical alternative in a book called ‘Doughnut Economics’. It proposes a new economic model that priortises social and environmental needs instead of how much we produce and consume. Many of you asked us to invite her on th...

Global
Join Discussion