Politics on the Couch

In a departure from our normal format Rafael Behr (host) and Philip Berman (the show's producer) agreed to press record when they met yesterday (Thursday 28 September) to discuss a new series idea for Politics on the Couch.

And this podcast is the end result, instead of a meta-cast talking about what we could talk about this Autumn, it's more of a casual ramble around Phil's break from Twitter, his despair about the state of political discourse and Raf's one-stop solution for all.

Topics covered (in no order of importance):

Twitter

Laurence Fox

GB News

Sunak's postion on net zero

The mood in Westminster

State capture

Democratic back-sliding

The preface to the paperback version of Rafael's new book.

https://rafaelbehr.com

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Host Rafael Behr talks to Claudia Hammond about political empathy, its power and its limits.

Claudia is probably best known as the presenter of BBC Radio 4's long-running show, 'All in the Mind' which covers psychology, neuroscience & mental health.

She is also the Visiting Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Sussex.

Her latest book, 'The Keys to Kindness,' looks at what constitutes kindness, effective strategies to build more of it into our lives and the benefits of being kind.

She draws on the latest research from psychology and neuroscience, and her work in collaboration with the University of Sussex and the BBC, including the largest global survey ever undertaken into attitudes to kindness.

Links

https://claudiahammond.com/the-keys-to-kindness

https://claudiahammond.com/the-kindness-test

https://www.sussex.ac.uk/research/centres/kindness/index

https://www.sussex.ac.uk/schools/psychology

Rafael Behr's first book is released today - Thursday 4 May, 2023

'Politics, A Survivor’s Guide,' is all about the infuriating toxicity of politics, how it got that way and how to resist the slide into cynicism and pessimism that are so corrosive of democracy. It’s about the challenge of staying engaged without getting enraged; the need to empathise with people whose views we cannot share and how that is different to appeasement of politics we believe to be dangerous.

The themes include migration, nationalism, family, identity, culture wars, technology, ideology, Europe, Brexit and a little bit of cardiology.

Available from Waterstones:

https://www.waterstones.com/book/politics-a-survivors-guide/rafael-behr/9781838955045

Or, for those who are interested in signed copies, from City Books in Hove:

https://www.city-books.co.uk

Raf will be speaking at literary festivals, theatres, pubs all around the UK. Often he will be in conversation with fellow journalists and authors, hopefully also in conversation with you in the audience. Below is a list of places and times. Click on date for tickets. There may be more to come...

10 May Brighton Festival

17 May Bath Festival

21 May Aye Write, Glasgow Book Festival

23 May 1000 Trades, Birmingham

25 May Hay Festival

7 June The Elephant and Castle Pub, Lewes (no link yet)

12 June Guardian Live, Kings Cross, London

Politics on the Couch has been chosen by Feedspot as both one of the Top 25 UK Psychology, and Political Science podcasts.

https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_psychology_podcasts

https://blog.feedspot.com/political_science_podcasts

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Rafael Behr talks to Meg Russell, Director of the Constitution Unit and co-author, along with Research Fellow Lisa James, of a new book called: The Parliamentary Battle over Brexit, a detailed account of the extraordinary way the Brexit process played out in parliament.

Since the 2016 referendum, the hotly contested issue of Brexit has raised fundamental questions about the workings of British democracy. Nowhere was this more true than regarding the role of parliament. This book addresses important questions about parliament's role in the UK constitution, and the impact on this of the Brexit process. While initially intended to re-establish 'parliamentary sovereignty', Brexit wrought significant damage on the reputation of parliament, and the wider culture of UK democracy.

This book is published as part of the ‘Brexit, Parliament and the Constitution’ project, funded through Constitution Unit Director Meg Russell's Senior Fellowship with the ESRC-funded UK in a Changing Europe (UKICE) programme.

For more about the book (and a 30% discount code) see this link:

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit/parliamentary-battle-over-brexit

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Ahead of the first bilateral summit between the two countries' leaders for five years, Rafael Behr talks to Georgina Wright, from the Institut Montaigne in Paris, about what the French really think about us Brits, and what we often get wrong about French discourse, customs and political culture. Quite a lot, as it happens.

Georgina Wright is Senior Fellow and Director of Institut Montaigne’s Europe Program. She is also a Visiting Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, associate of the Institute for Government in London and Senior Fellow at the Centre for Britain and Europe at the University of Surrey.

Before joining Institut Montaigne, she was senior researcher at the Institute for Government (2019-2020) and research associate at Chatham House (2014-2018). She has also worked for the European Commission and NATO in Brussels.

Georgina regularly represents Institut Montaigne on national and international news media, and has written widely for foreign policy outlets. She studied at the University of Edinburgh and the College of Europe (Bruges).

https://www.institutmontaigne.org/en/experts/georgina-wright

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

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Rafael Behr talks to Tom Gray from Gomez about his bid to become a Brighton MP.

Tom's had a hugely successful career in music with Gomez rocketing to fame in 1998, beating Pulp and Massive Attack, among others, to the Mercury Prize.

More recently he launched the Broken Record campaign, calling for a fairer deal for musicians from streaming services, among other industry reforms.

And now, having banged on the doors to demand political change from the outside, Tom wants to get on the inside.

He's on the shortlist to be selected as Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate for the Brighton Pavilion constituency

That's the only seat in the country with a green MP right now, Caroline Lucas, although she's standing down at the next election.

Raf asks Tom what makes someone want to swap what looks like the perfect job, recording and performing music for eager fans, for the grim, and potentially thankless life of a politician where I think it's safe to say the audiences are less than adoring.

https://twitter.com/MrTomGray

https://twitter.com/TG4Pavilion

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