LSE IQ podcast

Contributor(s): Dr John Collins, Dr Michael Shiner, Danny Kushlick | Welcome to LSE IQ, a new monthly podcast from the London School of Economics and Political Science. This is the podcast where we ask some of the leading social scientists - and other experts - to answer intelligent questions about economics, politics or society. For nearly 50 years, governments around the world, led by the US, have been fighting a war on drugs. The aim? To reduce the production, supply and use of certain drugs and ultimately create a 'drug-free society'. But, having cost the US more than $1trillion to date and taken hundreds of thousands of lives, it’s a war with high collateral damage. In this episode Jess Winterstein asks why, after nearly half a century of global cooperation, haven’t we won the war on drugs? To find out what the problems with the policy are, and why the belief that prohibition is still the best way to manage drugs, still persists, she speaks to: John Collins, Executive Director of the LSE IDEAS International Drug Policy Project and coordinator of the Expert Group on the Economics of Drug Policy; Michael Shiner, Associate Professor in the Department of Social Policy and head of teaching at the International Drug Policy Project at LSE; and Danny Kushlick, founder and head of external affairs of the Transform Drug Policy Foundation. For further information about the podcast visit lse.ac.uk/iq and please tell us what you think using the hashtag #LSEIQ.

Contributor(s): Dr Owen Griffiths, Dr Bryan Roberts, Dr Bart Cammaerts, Professor Martin Bauer, Dr Alexandru Marcoci | Welcome to LSE IQ, an award-winning monthly podcast from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where we ask leading social scientists – and other experts – to answer an intelligent question about economics, politics or society. LSE IQ is one year old - and to mark its anniversary we’re looking at the theme of arguments – how to make them, evaluate them and win them. It’s a feature that’s underscored our previous episodes, from people arguing that democracy is declining and to why we shouldn’t wage a war on drugs. So, what makes a good argument and, more importantly, what’s the best way to argue effectively? In this episode, producers James Rattee, Nathalie Abbott and Sue Windebank consider how to debate with conspiracy theorists, see how US intelligence agencies are building tools to formulate better arguments, and ask whether certain people – and points of view – are too dangerous to confront. This episode features the following LSE academics: Dr Owen Griffiths, LSE Department of Philosophy, Dr Bryan Roberts, LSE Department of Philosophy, Dr Bart Cammaerts, LSE Department of Media and Communications, Professor Martin Bauer, LSE Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science and Dr Alexandru Marcoci, LSE Department of Government. For further information about the podcast and all the related links visit http://lse.ac.uk/iq and please tell us what you think using the hashtag #LSEIQ. We are delighted to announce that the LSE IQ podcast, produced by a small team in LSE Communications Division, has won a 2018 Guardian University Award. It won the award in the category of ‘best marketing and comms campaign’ for ‘an imaginative university marketing or press campaign that imparts a clear message to engage its target audience and raise the profile of the university, or show it in a new light.’ To read more about the award please visit http://bit.ly/lseiqaward.

Contributor(s): Heather Kappes, David McDaid, Molly Taylor | According to the Office for National Statistics, 7.1 per cent of adults in Great Britain - nearly 4 million people - say they 'often or always' feel lonely. Look around you when you’re in a crowded place – a supermarket or an office - 1 in 14 of the people you’re looking at are likely to be lonely, not just sometimes but most of the time. And that’s half a million more people saying that they feel chronically lonely in 2023 than there were in 2020 – suggesting that the pandemic has had some enduring impacts in this respect. Sue Windebank talks to a young person who responded to her own deep feelings of loneliness by campaigning to help others. She hears how people can be influenced to feel more or less lonely – at least for a short time. And she got a surprising insight into which group of people are the loneliest. Sue talks to: Heather Kappes, Associate Professor of Management at LSE; David McDaid Associate Professorial Research Fellow in the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre at LSE; and Molly Taylor, Loneliness Activist, Founder of #AloneNoMore.

Contributor(s): Professor Paul Dolan, Professor Lord Richard Layard, Liz Zeidler | This month we have raided the LSE IQ archives for an episode from 2017 when we ask, ‘What’s the secret to happiness?’ Western societies have been getting steadily richer for several decades, but social scientists have shown that we are no happier for it. In fact we now have more depression, more alcoholism and more crime. Why does happiness elude so many of us and what can we do about it? Joanna Bale talks to LSE’s Paul Dolan and Richard Layard, and Liz Zeidler of the Happy City Initiative

Contributor(s): Simon Hix, Marta Lorimer, Matthew Feldman, Sara Khan | Welcome to LSE's award-winning podcast, LSE IQ, where we ask leading social scientists - and other experts - to answer an intelligent question about economics, politics or society. In this episode, Joanna Bale asks 'Should we fear the rise of the far right?' She talks to LSE's Simon Hix and Marta Lorimer, as well as Matthew Feldman of the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right and Sara Khan, Britain’s first counter-extremism commissioner. For further information about the podcast visit lse.ac.uk/iq and please tell us what you think using the hashtag #LSEIQ.