Crossing Channels

Rory Cellan-Jones and leading experts Sarah Dillon and Manvir Singh discuss the value of stories, the possible dangers of endorsing stories and the need for narrative evidence to inform decision-making. This episode unpacks the value of stories to understand the past and inform current policy debates. Leading experts from the University of Cambridge and the Institute for Advanced Studies in Toulouse discuss the origin of stories, the status of storytellers, and the crucial need to listen to stories to improve policymaking. This episode is hosted by Rory Cellan-Jones (former technology correspondent for the BBC) and features guest experts Sarah Dillon (University of Cambridge) and Manvir Singh (Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse). Listen to this episode on your preferred podcast platformEpisode 5 TranscriptFor more information about the podcast and the work of the institutes, visit our websites at bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk and iast.frTweet us with your thoughts at @BennettInst and @IASToulouseAudio production by Steve HankeyAssociate production by Stella ErkerVisuals by Thomas DevaudAbout our guestsSarah Dillon is Professor of Literature and the Public Humanities in the Faculty of English at the University of Cambridge. She is a scholar of contemporary literature, film and philosophy, with a research focus on the epistemic function and value of stories, on interdisciplinarity, and on the engaged humanities. She is the co-author of “Storylistening: Narrative Evidence and Public Reasoning”. Sarah is also a member of the Bennett Institute Management Board. @profsarahdillonManvir Singh is a cognitive and evolutionary anthropologist at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse. His research asks why human societies everywhere give rise to practices and beliefs with striking similarities, with a focus on behaviours such as music, story, shamanism, and punitive justice. His toolkit combines ethnographic research, psychological experiments, and the analysis of cross-cultural databases. He received a PhD from the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University in 2020. @mnvrsnghRory Cellan-Jones is a former technology correspondent for the BBC. His 40 years in journalism saw him take a particular interest in the impact of the internet and digital technology on society and business. He has written multiple books, including his latest “Always On” which was published in 2021. @ruskin147

Tymofiy Mylovanov, president of the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE), and Nataliia Shapoval, head of KSE Institute, discuss how their research priorities have shifted during the war on Ukraine, how the University has operated throughout these challenging times, and why the higher education system is integral to Ukraine’s future. This episode is hosted by Rory Cellan-Jones (former technology correspondent for the BBC), and features guest experts Tymofiy Mylovanov (Kyiv School of Economics) and Nataliia Shapoval (Kyiv School of Economics). Listen to this episode on your preferred podcast platform: https://pod.fo/e/15661fSeason 2 Episode 4 transcript: https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/CC-S2-ep4-transcript.pdf Relevant linksListen to our first episode on Ukraine with Nataliia Shapoval here: Ukraine Invasion: context, consequences and the information war.Keep up to date on events in Ukraine by following the Kyiv School of Economics @kse_ua, the Kyiv Institute @KSE_Institute, Tymofiy Mylovanov’s daily morning and evening updates @Mylovanov and Nataliia Shapoval @Nataliia_Shapo.The Kyiv School of Economics, together with Ukrainian businesses and state-owned companies, have launched a humanitarian aid campaign for Ukraine. You can also help (link to KSE website). Tweet us with your thoughts at @BennettInst and @IASToulouseAudio production by Steve Hankey.Associate production by Stella Erker. Visuals by Thomas Devaud. More information about our guests:Tymofiy Mylovanov is the President of Kyiv School of Economics, Associate Professor at the University of Pittsburgh and former Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine. He received his M.A. in Economics from KSE and earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin Madison. Tymofiy’s research interests cover such areas as theory of games and contracts, and institutional design. His articles on these topics have been published in the leading international academic magazines, including Econometrica, American Economic Review, the Review of Economic Studies. @Mylovanov @kse_uaNataliia Shapoval is the Vice President for Policy Research and Director of the Center of Excellence in Procurement at the Kyiv School of Economics in Ukraine. She worked on policy research projects on public health’s cost and resource allocation, and on youth unemployment in Ukraine and Europe. She is also a member of the Editorial Board of Vox Ukraine, and a contributor to the Ukraine reform monitoring project of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. @Nataliia_Shapo @KSE_InstituteRory Cellan-Jones is a former technology correspondent for the BBC. His 40 years in journalism saw him take a particular interest in the impact of the internet and digital technology on society and business. He has written multiple books, including his latest “Always On” wh

Rory Cellan-Jones and leading experts Charlotte Cavaillé, Ailbhe McNabola and Jack Shaw discuss the causes of income and regional inequality, why policymakers should care, and what policy interventions work best to reduce them.Guests discuss recent trends in income and regional inequality, and evaluate the effectiveness of different policy approaches. They debate the opportunities and challenges of (de)centralisation, what works best to revive ‘left behind’ places, and whether the assumptions built into the Levelling Up White Paper will deliver to reduce inequalities. This episode is hosted by Rory Cellan-Jones (former technology correspondent for the BBC), and features guest experts Professor Charlotte Cavaillé (Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan and IAST), Ailbhe McNabola (Bennett Institute for Public Policy and Power to Change) and Jack Shaw (Bennett Institute for Public Policy). Season 2 Episode 3 transcriptFor more information about the podcast and the work of the institutes, visit our websites at https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/ and https://www.iast.fr/.Tweet us with your thoughts at @BennettInst and @IASToulouse.Audio production by Steve Hankey.Associate production by Stella Erker. Visuals by Thomas Devaud. Relevant links and publicationsShaw, J., Garling, O. and Kenny, M. (2022). Townscapes: Pride in Place. The Bennett Institute, https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/publications/pride-in-place/ Charlotte Cavaillé (forthcoming). Fair Enough? Support for Redistribution in the Age of Inequality, https://charlottecavaille.wordpress.com/book-project/ More information about our guests:Professor Charlotte Cavaillé is a visiting Research Fellow at the IAST and an Assistant Professor at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. Her research examines the dynamics of popular attitudes towards redistributive social policies at a time of rising inequality, high fiscal stress and high levels of immigration. In her forthcoming book, Fair Enough? Support for Redistribution in the Age of Inequality, Charlotte proposes a new framework to explain why, in countries where inequality has increased the most, voters are not asking for more income redistribution.Ailbhe McNabola is an Affiliated Researcher at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy and Director of Policy and Communications at Power to Change, a charitable trust that supports communities to run businesses that reinvest profits into their local area. She is also Co-Chair of the Social Research Association, a membership organisation that promotes excellence in social research, and a CAPE Policy Fellow. Her career has encompassed management consultancy in the financial services and public sectors, and the commissioning and production of research, evaluation and policy analysis reports for a range of UK government bodies.Jack Shaw is an Affiliated Researcher at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy and recently co-authored a report on pride in place with Professor Michael Kenny and Owen Garling, also at the Bennett Institute. His background is in local government and economic development and currently works at the Institute for Public Policy and Research.Rory Cellan-Jones is a former technology correspondent for the BBC. His 40 years in journalism saw him take a particular interest in the impact of the internet and digital technology on society and business

Rory Cellan-Jones and leading experts Gordon Harold, Laura Nurski and Zoe Purcell discuss why mental wellbeing in the workplace is essential, and what policymakers can do to promote a healthy workforce. This episode unpacks the impact of the future of work on mental wellbeing, and its implications for policy. Leading experts discuss the major trends shaping the future of work, how job quality and AI (artificial intelligence) impact wellbeing, and whether it is the job of businesses or governments to promote positive mental health in the workplace. This episode is hosted by Rory Cellan-Jones (former technology correspondent for the BBC), and features guest experts Professor Gordon Harold (University of Cambridge), Dr Laura Nurski (Bruegel) and Dr Zoe Purcell (Institute For Advanced Study in Toulouse). Season 2, Episode 2 transcriptFor more information about the podcast and the work of the institutes, visit our websites at https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/ and https://www.iast.fr/Tweet us with your thoughts at @BennettInst and @IASToulouseAudio production by Steve Hankey.Podcast production by Stella Erker. More information about our guests:Professor Gordon Harold is the inaugural Professor of the Psychology of Education and Mental Health at the University of Cambridge. His primary research interests focus on (1) examining the role of family relationship dynamics as a factor underlying differences in child and adolescent mental health outcomes and future life chances, (2) understanding the interplay between genetic factors and family relationship factors and young people's mental health and development, and (3) promoting the implementation and evaluation of evidence-based practice and policy guidelines aimed at enhancing mental health outcomes for young people. Dr Zoe Purcell is a cognitive psychologist interested in reasoning and decision-making. Her research focuses on the factors — in particular, expertise, confidence, and uncertainty — involved in the transition between intuitive and effortful thinking. Alongside this theoretical work, she investigates applied and contemporary questions such as: “How do we reason with and about AI?” and “What are the psychological drivers of innovation?”. Currently, Zoe is working as a post-doc at the University of Toulouse with the Artificial and Natural Intelligence Institute of Toulouse (ANITI) and the Institute of Advanced Studies Toulouse (IAST).Dr Laura Nurski holds a PhD in Industrial Organization, an M.Sc. in Economics and an M.A. in Business Engineering from KU Leuven. Currently, she leads the Future of Work and Inclusive Growth project at the European think tank Bruegel. The project analyses the impact of technology on the nature, quantity and quality of work, welfare systems and inclusive growth. Laura is passionate about data and technology. As a former data scientist in the financial and retail sector, she developed machine learning models and big data analytics.Rory Cellan-Jones is a former technology correspondent for the BBC. His 40 years in journalism saw him take a particular interest in the impact of the internet and digital technology on society and business. He has written multiple books, including his latest “Always On” which was published in 2021.

Rory Cellan-Jones talks to leading economists Diane Coyle, Jacques Crémer and Jean Tirole, about why productivity growth has slowed in spite of immense technological progress and what policy can do about it.This episode unravels the impact of digitalisation on economic growth and its implications for policy. Leading economists discuss the productivity puzzle, why regulating Big Tech is so difficult, the threats of mass surveillance, and what policymakers can do to address these challenges. This episode is hosted by Rory Cellan-Jones (former technology correspondent for the BBC), and features guest experts Professor Diane Coyle (Bennett Institute for Public Policy), Professor Jacques Crémer (Toulouse School of Economics) and Professor Jean Tirole (Toulouse School of Economics – International Advanced Study in Toulouse). Listen to this episode on your preferred podcast platform: https://pod.fo/e/14406bSeason 2 Episode 1 transcript: https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/CC-S2-EP1-transcript.pdf For more information about the podcast and the work of the institutes, visit our websites at https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/ and https://www.iast.fr/.Tweet us with your thoughts at @BennettInst and @IASToulouseWith thanks to:Audio production by Steve Hankey.Podcast editing by Stella Erker. More information about our guests:Professor Diane Coyle is the Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge. She co-directs the Bennett Institute where she heads the themes of progress and productivity, and researches the digital economy and economic measurement. Diane is also a Director of the Productivity Institute, and a Fellow of the Office for National Statistics. Professor Jacques Crémer received his undergraduate degree from the Ecole Polytechnique in 1971, a SM in Management and a PhD in economics, both from MIT, in 1973 and 1977. He has held appointments at the University of Pennsylvania and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. His current research interests are the economics of organization, the economics of the Internet and of the software industries, as well as contract theory.Professor Jean Tirole is honorary chairman of the Foundation JJ Laffont-Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), and scientific director of TSE-Partnership. He is also affiliated with MIT, where he holds a visiting position, and the Institut de France. Professor Tirole’s research covers industrial organization, regulation, finance, macroeconomics and banking, and psychology-based economics. Rory Cellan-Jones is a former technology correspondent for the BBC. His 40 years in journalism saw him take a particular interest in the impact of the internet and digital technology on society and business. He has written multiple books, including his latest “Always On” which was published in 2021.

In this episode, Rory Cellan-Jones talks to expert guests Lucy Delap (University of Cambridge) and Victor Gay (IAST) about how lessons from history can inform policymaking today.They discuss what the recession in the 1970s  can tell us about government response to the current cost-of-living crisis, and what the 1918 Spanish Flu can tell us about dealing with a pandemic. The guests explore what history adds to policy debates but is currently left out, and why explaining what happened in the past isn’t as straightforward as it might seem. Episode 10 transcriptListen to this podcast on your favourite platform.For more information about the podcast and the work of the Institutes, visit our websites:  www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk and www.iast.fr/Tweet us with your thoughts at @BennettInst and @IASToulouseAudio production by Steve Hankey.Podcast editing by Annabel Manley.About our guests and host:Lucy Delap is a Professor in Modern British and Gender History at the University of Cambridge. Her research interests include the history of feminisms in Britain, the US, and the British Empire, and in labour history with a focus on the intersections of gender, class, and disability in the workplace. She is the author of three books, most recently  'Feminisms: a global history' in 2020. She was also the winner of the Royal Historical Society Public History Prize for public debate and policy in 2018.Victor Gay is an Assistant Professor at the Toulouse School of Economics and a Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse. His research interests include labour economics and the economics of culture, focussing on the economic history of France.  As part of his work on developing data infrastructures based on novel archival material, he is also the Scientific Advisor of the University Data Platform of Toulouse of the PROGEDO data infrastructure.Rory Cellan-Jones is a former technology correspondent for the BBC. His 40 years in journalism have seen him take a particular interest in the impact of the internet and digital technology on society and business. He has also written multiple books, including his latest “Always On” which was published in 2021. 

This podcast looks at the psychological quirks of humankind, what effects our bad decisions have on the society we live in, and how policy might best steer us towards better outcomes.Rory Cellan-Jones talks to Dr Bence Bago - Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, and Professor Dame Theresa Marteau – the Director of the Behaviour and Health Research Unit at the University of Cambridge and co-chair of The Lancet Chatham House Commission on improving health post Covid-19.They draw on their research to explore what defines a ‘bad decision’, what causes us to make them, the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on governments’ and citizens’ decision-making, the role of social media in misinformation processing, what we can do to prevent ourselves from making bad decisions, and what governments can do to improve matters.Listen to this episode on your preferred podcast platform.Episode 9 transcript For more information about the podcast and the work of the institutes, visit our websites at www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk and www.iast.fr . Tweet us with your thoughts at @BennettInst and @IASToulouse.  Audio production by Steve Hankey Podcast editing by Annabel ManleyMore about our guestsProfessor Dame Theresa Marteau is Director of the Behaviour and Health Research Unit at the University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on the development and evaluation of interventions to change behaviour (principally food, tobacco and alcohol consumption) to improve population and planetary health and reduce health inequalities, with a particular focus on targeting non-conscious processes. She co-chairs the Lancet-Chatham House Commission on improving population health post-COVID-19, and participated in the UK government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), responding to Covid-19. She is also one of the members of the management board of the Bennett Institute for Public Policy.Dr Bence Bago is a research fellow at the IAST, with an academic background in cognitive psychology. His research interests in the interplay between intuitive and analytical processes in human decision-making, including applications in truth discernment when exposed to misinformation.Rory Cellan-Jones was a technology correspondent for the BBC. His 40 years in journalism have seen him take a particular interest in the impact of the internet and digital technology on society and business. He has also written multiple books, including his latest “Always On” which was published in 2021. 

This episode looks at what we expect from our leaders, how that's changed over time, and whether democratic leaders are particularly prone to disappointing us. This episode is hosted by Rory Cellan-Jones, and features experts Dr Roberto Foa, Assistant Professor in Politics and Public Policy at the University of Cambridge, and Dr Zachary Garfield, Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse.Listen to this episode on your preferred podcast platform.Episode 8 transcriptFor more information about the podcast and the work of the institutes, visit our websites at www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk and www.iast.fr .Tweet us with your thoughts at @BennettInst and @IASToulouse.Audio production by Steve Hankey.Podcast editing by Annabel ManleyMore about our guestsDr Roberto FoaRoberto Stefan Foa is Assistant Professor in Politics and Public Policy at the University of Cambridge, Co-Director of the Cambridge Centre for the Future of Democracy, and Director of the YouGov-Cambridge Centre for Public Opinion Research. His research examines the quality of government, regimes, and comparative social indicators, and is frequently cited in academic and media debates.Dr Zachery GarfieldZachary Garfield is a Research Fellow at the IAST. He studied as an evolutionary anthropologist with research interests in the evolution of human leadership and the nature of social and political hierarchies across human societies.  He is also the co-director of the Omo Valley Research Project which is working to create a large scale dataset from the various ethnolinguistic groups within the Omo Valley region of Ethiopia.

This podcast looks at why some people think we need policies for happiness and what those might mean. Leading experts discuss how to define and measure happiness, the drivers of happiness in different countries and societies, and what we know about what works and what doesn’t in terms of policy solutions and interventions.This episode is hosted by Rory Cellan-Jones, and features experts Anna Alexandrova, Professor in Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of King’s College Cambridge, and Dr Jonathan Stieglitz, Associate Professor of Anthropology at IAST and the University of Toulouse 1 Capitole.Listen to this episode on your preferred podcast platform.Episode 7 transcriptFor more information about the podcast and the work of the institutes, visit our websites at www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk and www.iast.fr/.Tweet us with your thoughts at @BennettInst and @IASToulouse.Audio production by Steve Hankey.Podcast editing by Annabel ManleyMore information about our guests:Professor Anna AlexandrovaAnna Alexandrova is a Professor in Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of King’s College Cambridge. She researches how formal tools such as models and indicators enable scientists to navigate complex phenomena tinged with ethical and political dimensions. Her book A Philosophy for the Science of Wellbeing came out with Oxford University Press in 2017 and won the 2022 Gittler Book Prize of the American Philosophical Association. She previously taught at the University of Missouri St Louis and completed her PhD at the University of California San Diego. She was born and brought up in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar.Dr Jonathan StieglitzDr Jonathan Stieglitz is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at IAST and the University of Toulouse 1 Capitole. His main research interest is studying the health and well-being of individuals in small-scale subsistence societies, in part to gain broader insights into how humans may have lived in the past. He is Co-Director of the Tsimane Health and Life History Project, a longitudinal study of the evolution of the human life course; the project began in 2002 and currently focuses on better understanding the development of certain non-communicable diseases among two native South American populations - the Tsimane and Moseten of Bolivia. 

This special edition of Crossing Channels was organised in response to the invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022. It covers how the Ukrainian people, policymakers, and government have responded during the first ten days of the war, its geopolitical context and implications, and the scale of the information war taking place, within both Ukraine and Russia. This episode is hosted by Rory Cellan-Jones, and features expert guests Nataliia Shapoval from the Kyiv School of Economics, Horacio Larreguy from the IAST, and Ayse Zarakol from the University of Cambridge. Listen to this episode on your preferred podcast platform.Episode 6 transcriptFor more information about the conflict, the BBC is running a live webpage with up-to-date coverage of the war here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60532634The Kyiv School of Economics has on its website a summary of ways you can support it and Ukraine during the crisis: https://kse.ua/. This includes their lecture marathon to enhance Ukrainian intellectual sovereignty, along with ways to donate and apply political pressure. For more information about the podcast and the work of the institutes, visit our websites at www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk and www.iast.fr/. Tweet us with your thoughts at @BennettInst and @IASToulouse.Audio production by Steve Hankey.Podcast editing by Annabel ManleyMore information about our guests:Nataliia Shapoval is the Vice President for Policy Research and Director of the Center of Excellence in Procurement at the Kyiv School of Economics in Ukraine. She worked on policy research projects on public health’s cost and resource allocation, and on youth unemployment in Ukraine and Europe. She is also a member of the Editorial Board of Vox Ukraine, and a contributor to the Ukraine reform monitoring project of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.Ayse Zarakol is a Professor of International Relations at the University of Cambridge. Her research interests are at the intersection of historical sociology and international relations, focussing on East-West relations. She is the author of two books, her first being After Defeat: How the East Learned to Live with the West (2011) which covers the integration of defeated non-Western powers into the international system. Her second, Before the West: The Rise and Fall of Eastern World Orders, which looks at an alternative global history for international relations focussed on (Eur)asia, was released in March 2022. This book is available for purchase here: https://tinyurl.com/2p9xddxp Horacio Larreguy is an Associate Professor of Economics and Political Science at the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM), and is currently a visiting researcher at the Toulouse School of Economics and IAST. His research interests are in political accountability and voting behaviour, including the importance of information for political accountability. More recently, he has worked on projects on misinformation and the Covid-19 infodemic.