Insights – the Understanding Society podcast

In the first of our new season of podcasts, we’re looking at research using Understanding Society’s biological data which examined how some genes work differently in different people. Our guests are Leo Schalkwyk, an emeritus professor in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Essex, and Radu Zabet, a Reader in AI and Cancer Epigenetics at Queen Mary University of London. They’re discussing a paper they wrote with Olivia Grant and Meena Kumari: Systematic investigation of interindividual variation of DNA methylation in human whole blood.

In our last episode before the summer break, we’re looking at the effect food banks have on the mental health of the people who use them. Our guests are Muhammad Waqas, an Assistant Professor in Economics at the University of Bradford, and Helen Barnard, Director of Policy, Research and Impact at Trussell.

In this episode, we’re looking at how we change our lifestyles – or not – when we face a health issue such as diabetes or a heart problem. Our guests are Zoey Verdun, a researcher at Imperial College London, and Claire Levy from the Diabetes Research and Wellness Foundation.

This episode looks at our increasingly digital lives and how they affect our wellbeing. Our guests this time are Dr. Daniel Wheatley, Reader in the Department of Management at the University of Birmingham, and Abigail Coxon, principal Economist at the Youth Futures Foundation.

In this episode, host Chris Coates looks at air pollution and in particular how common is it for immigrant populations to live in more polluted areas. His guests are Tobias Rüttenauer, Assistant Professor in Quantitative Social Sciences UCL and L’myah Sherae, Director of Enact Equality, a non-profit organisation which campaigns for racial justice and equality in the UK.

In this first episode of our new season, host Chris Coates looks at the link between pets and life satisfaction, and how it’s possible to put a monetary value on the benefit of having a cat or dog. His guests are Adelina Gschwandtner, a senior lecturer in Economics at the University of Kent, and Ashleigh Brown, Scientific and Policy Manager at RSPCA.

In this episode we’re looking at the some of the people who use the data we gather. Chris talks to Cara Booker, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Social and Economic Research where Understanding Society is based, about studying for a PhD and what to do with the doctorate once you’ve got it.

In this episode, we discuss how families are affected by benefit cuts and fluctuating incomes, with Gabriele Mari, assistant professor in the School of Social and Behavioural Sciences at Erasmus University Rotterdam, and Sara Ogilvie, Director of Policy, Rights and Advocacy at the Child Poverty Action Group. 

The housing crisis – a simple question of too much demand and not enough supply, or is there more to it? With Rory Coulter, Associate Professor in Human Geography at University College London, and Kevin Garvey, Head of Member Relations at the National Housing Federation.