Analysis BBC Radio 4

Our brain is a wonderful machine, but it can also short-circuit. What happens to us when emotions and politics intersect, when the democratic, listening brain is cut off, or when we succumb to ‘hate speech’? Research using the latest brain scanners shows that the older part of the brain called the amygdala is ‘triggered’ by emotional responses out of proportion to the impacting stimulus. So, perhaps are we after wolves in human clothing? Not necessarily; we have also developed the frontal cortex which the scans show is stimulated by rational argument. What can scanning the brain reveal about our political affiliations? Can the field of neuro-politics improve political discourse or leave us open to manipulation?

Presenter: Matt Qvortrup
Producer: Bob Howard
Editor: Clare Fordham

Contributors:
Barbara Sahakian, Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology at the University of Cambridge
Dr Darren Schreiber, Senior Lecturer at Exeter University
Skyler Cranmer, Associate Professor at Ohio State University
Dahlia Scheindlin, political consultant and public opinion researcher
Dr Liya Yu, Columbia University

Amid mounting claims for reparations for slavery and colonialism, historian Zoe Strimpel asks how far reparative justice should go.

Should we limit reparations to the living survivors of state atrocities, such as the Holocaust, or should we re-write the rulebook to include the ancestors of victims who suffered historical injustices centuries ago?

Alongside testimony from a Holocaust survivor and interviews with lawyers, historians and reparations advocates, Zoe hears about the long shadow cast by slavery - lumbering Caribbean states and societies with a legacy that they are still struggling with today.

Are demands for slavery reparations just another front in the culture war designed to leverage white guilt? Will they inevitably validate countless other claims to rectify historical grievances? Or are they a necessary step for diverse societies to draw in the extremes of a polarised debate so we can write a common history that we can all live with?

Presenter: Zoe Strimpel
Producer: David Reid
Editor: Clare Fordham

Contributors
Mala Tribich, Holocaust survivor.
Michael Newman, Chief Executive, Association of Jewish Refugees.
Albrecht Ritschtl, Professor of Economic History, London School of Economics
Dr. Opal Palmer Adisa, former director, University of West Indies.
Kenneth Feinberg, Master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.
Tomiwa Owolade, journalist and author of "This is not America".
Alex Renton, journalist, author and co-founder of Heirs of Slavery.
Dr Hardeep Dhillon, historian, University of Pennsylvania.
James Koranyi, Associate Professor of modern European History at the University of Durham.

People have always fought back against “The elite”, and until recently they were easily recognisable: rich, privileged and often born into money. Old Etonians, billionaires, oil barons, media tycoons ruled the roost, but there are claims things are changing, and the rise of a new elite is challenging the status quo.
Author Matthew Goodwin calls them a group of “radical woke middle-class liberals completely out of step with the public”. University graduates working in creative industries, media and universities, who have an heavy influence over the national conversation about things like immigration, trans rights and sex education, but critics say they don’t represent “ordinary folk”, and as a result communities are feeling unrepresented and left behind.
So who is in charge, or is there an unlikely, and unknowing, coalition between the two – the new elite dominating social discourse and cultural discussion, whilst the traditional elite pull the strings of politics and economics?
This is the next chapter of the culture wars – but while the pair of them battle it out for supremacy, much of the country struggles on day-to-day watching from the side lines.

Presenter: Neil Maggs
Producer: Jonathan IAnson
Editor: Clare Fordham

Contributors
Matt Goodwin, Professor of Politics, University of Kent and author "Values, Voice and Virtue".
George Monbiot, Author, journalist and environmental campaigner
Dr Lisa McKenzie, research fellow, University of Durham, writer and anarchist
Bob & Lee, builders
Dr Rakib Ehsan, Social policy analyst and author "Beyond Grievance"
Baroness Tina Stowell of Beeston
Paul Embery, Firefighter, trade unionist and writer
Tom, boxing club owner
Aaron Bastani, Broadcaster and founder of Novara Media

Will 2023 be known as the summer of discontent? This year, nearly every corner of the country has been affected by some kind of industrial action, and more is coming. Teachers, doctors, nurses, railway workers, airport security, civil servants are among the many professions which have called strikes to protest against, amongst other things, future pay packets during a cost of living crisis. But do labour union tactics really deliver for their members, or does the strong bargaining position of the government come out on top in the end?

In this edition of Analysis, Faisal Islam hears from three top union leaders, along with industrial relations experts, about the challenges of calling and maintaining strike actions and the tolls it can take on members and the public. Where lies the balance of power between a workforce banding together to demand a better deal and the public which has to work around disappearing services?

You can learn more about this topic by watching the BBC 2 documentary Strike: Inside the Unions available on BBC iPlayer.

Contributors:
Sharon Graham - General Secretary: Unite Union
Mick Lynch - General Secretary: Rail, Maritime and Transport Union
Pat Cullen - General Secretary: Royal College of Nursing
Jerry Cope - Former Pay Review Body Chair
Mark Stuart - Montague Burton Professor of Employment Relations, University of Leeds
Lord Richard Balfe - Member, House of Lords

Presenter: Faisal Islam
Producer: Sandra Kanthal
Editor: Clare Fordham
Programme Coordinator: Maria Ogundele

How can employers in all sectors of the UK economy get the best out of their workers, retain experienced staff, improve productivity and increase profits at the same time?

The principles of "Job Design" seem to promise all of these benefits. It's a process of work innovation which focuses on people, their skills, their knowledge and how they interact with each other and technology, in every workplace, in every sector of the economy.

Proponents claim it gives workers a voice in their workplace, allows them to balance their work and home lives, stops burnout and could get more of the economically inactive back in employment. But what evidence is there that it works - and how difficult would it be to implement changes in the workplace?

Presenter: Pauline Mason
Producer: Ravi Naik
Editor: Clare Fordham

Contributors:
Patricia Findlay, Professor of Work and Employment Relations, University of Strathclyde and Director of the Scottish Centre for Employment Research.
Kate Bennett, Labour ward coordinator at Liverpool Women's Hospital.
Damian Grimshaw, Professor of Employment Studies, King's College London, and former head of research at the International Labour Organisation.
Dame Diane Coyle, Bennett Professor, University of Cambridge and a director of the Productivity Institute.
Rachel London, Deputy Chief People Officer at Liverpool Women's Hospital.
Jenna Brimble. Midwife in the continuity of care team at Liverpool Women's Hospital.
Heejung Chung, Professor of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Kent.
Emma Stewart, Flexible working consultant and co-founder, Timewise.
Dr Charlotte Gascoine independent researcher and consultant on flexible and part-time working
Paul Dennett, Mayor of the City of Salford
Jim Liptrot, Managing director, Howorth Air Tech.
Stacey Bridge, Financial accounting assistant, Howorth Air Tech.

Single people make up a large proportion of the population in Britain. People are marrying later and less, getting divorced more often, and living longer. Although not all people who live alone are single, the growth of one-person households now outstrips the rise in the UK population - and is projected to continue.

And yet life in Britain often seems ill-suited to their needs. Being single is expensive and modern dating can be brutal. The idea that being in a couple provides greater happiness and fulfillment still has a tight grip on our collective psyche. So is it right to say that singles get discriminated against? And are there ways we might re-imagine life in Britain so that singles get a fairer deal?

Producer: Ant Adeane
Editor: Clare Fordham
Sound Engineer: Kelly Young
Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele and Sabine Schereck

Contributors:
Amy Key - Poet and Author of Arrangements in Blue: Notes of Love and Making a Life
Sarah Harper - Professor of Gerontology at the University of Oxford
Emma John - Journalist and Author of Self Contained: Scenes from a Single Life
Ben Arogundade - Author of My Terrifying, Shocking, Humiliating, Amazing Adventure in Online Dating
Elyakim Kislev - Professor of Public Policy and Government at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and author of numerous books about single life
Sasha Roseneil - Sociologist and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sussex