BetterPod

If you’ve been listening to BetterPod over the last few months, it won’t come as a surprise that we think future people matter. So we were very excited when we heard that one of the most important philosophers working today had written a book arguing for longtermism – effectively, why we should and how we can act today for a better tomorrow.William MacAskill’s What We Owe the Future is only just out but it’s already shaping ethical debates around the world. Stephen Fry called it “a book of great daring, clarity, insight and imagination”, while Joseph Gordon-Levitt said he was moved to tears by its optimism.William MacAskill wants to change how you think about tomorrow – and how you act today… on this episode of BetterPod he tells us why.BetterPod is brought to you by The Big Issue’s Future Generations team. Through the Future Generations team, we offer a platform for exciting young journalists from underrepresented backgrounds to address the biggest issues facing us today.

We’re in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. It is serious, and real, and frightening. As we cover every week in The Big Issue magazine and every day on bigissue.com, increasing numbers of people cannot cope. And rising numbers of people have had enough.Hollywood celebrity – and star of the superb Midsommar and The Revenant – Will Poulter is among the latter. Ahead of taking his place in the Marvel universe, as Adam Warlock in Guardians of the Galaxy 3, he’s decided to use his influence to take a stand against rampant unfairness by supporting charity Turn2us.Turn2us helps people in financial hardship to gain access to welfare benefits, charitable grants and support services. They’ve seen demand for their services rocket in recent years. In the last year, they awarded £3.6 million in grants. They help more than 2 million people a year find out what benefits they’re eligible for.Through his involvement with Turn2us, Will has made friends with Aneita Lewis. Aneita is a 49-year-old single mother from London, and has experienced financial hardship herself. Her story – which she shares with us on BetterPod – shows just how easily someone can find themselves in that situation, even when working a full time job. She found help from Turn2us and now advises the charity from her own lived experience.BetterPod is brought to you by The Big Issue’s Future Generations team. Through the Future Generations team, we offer a platform for exciting young journalists from underrepresented backgrounds to address the biggest issues facing us today.If you are worried about your financial situation, you can find out more about Turn2us at turn2us.org.uk

Sophia Smith Galer wants us to talk about sex. A multi-award-winning reporter, author and TikTok creator based in London, she’s investigated the misinformation we’re all exposed to about our sexuality.Her book Losing It: Sex Education for the 21st Century is a mythbusting call-to-arms that champions inclusive and equitable sex. On BetterPod, she tells Laura Kelly and Sophie Dimitrijevic that better sex is not only about pleasure – it’s also an opportunity to be smarter and kinder.BetterPod is brought to you by The Big Issue’s Future Generations team. Through the Future Generations team, we offer a platform for exciting young journalists from underrepresented backgrounds to address the biggest issues facing us today.

What does Silicon Valley get wrong about the future of transportation? Tech giants like Uber and Tesla promise they will fix the problems currently associated with getting from A to B, whether that’s the contribution to climate change, deaths on our roads or the frustration of being stuck in traffic.But do their solutions live up to the hype?In this week’s BetterPod, Laura Kelly and Sophie Dimitrijevic are joined by Paris Marx - host of the Tech Won't Save Us podcast. His new book Road To Nowhere exposes the problems with tech's vision of the future. He tells us about the steps we can take to reclaim the future of transport so it serves the many, not just the few.BetterPod is brought to you by The Big Issue’s Future Generations team. Through the Future Generations team, we offer a platform for exciting young journalists from underrepresented backgrounds to address the biggest issues facing us today.

Between the anti-vaxxers, QAnon believers, and Donald Trump, we do seem to be living through a conspiracy theory peak. Jonn Elledge joins Laura Kelly and Katerina Sivitanides on BetterPod to unpick why people fall for seemingly ridiculous ideas – and how you can avoid being one of them.Jonn Elledge is a journalist – and a Big Issue contributor – and along with his fellow author Tom Phillips, he has written Conspiracy: A History of Boll*cks Theories, and How Not to Fall for Them. It’s a funny and useful guide that uncovers the real life damage these ideas can do.BetterPod is brought to you by The Big Issue’s Future Generations team. Through the Future Generations team, we offer a platform for exciting young journalists from underrepresented backgrounds to address the biggest issues facing us today.

Our rights have never been handed to us by kings and queens, they’ve been fought for and won through protest. In their new book Charged: How the Police Try to Suppress Protest, criminal defence lawyer Matt Foot and documentary filmmaker and investigative journalist Morag Livingstone uncover the lengths to which the police in the UK have gone to suppress those protests.Through eye-witness account and previously unseen documents, they reveal organised police violence against miners at Orgreave, print workers at Warrington, anti–poll tax campaigners, student protesters, and Black Lives Matter activists.But, they tell Laura Kelly and Sophie Dimitrijevic on this week's BetterPod, protestors will not be silenced. They have useful advice for activists on how to continue making their voices heard, in the face of new restrictions brought in by the 2022 Policing Act.BetterPod is brought to you by The Big Issue’s Future Generations team. Through the Future Generations team, we offer a platform for exciting young journalists from underrepresented backgrounds to address the biggest issues facing us today.