The Realist Lens - For Researchers Who Keep It Real

Alejandro Arguelles Bullon
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The Realist Lens is a podcast that makes realist evaluation and synthesis accessible and easy to follow. Through relaxed conversations with expert guests, students, and practitioners, we explore key realist concepts like mechanisms, context, and outcomes. Whether you're new to realist approaches or more experienced, this podcast offers practical insights, real-world examples, and thoughtful reflections to support your learning and curiosity—one conversation at a time.

  1. 2D AGO

    Episode 21 — Keeping It Real Part-Time with Michele Wood

    In this episode of The Realist Lens, Alejandro is joined by Michele Wood, art psychotherapist in palliative care and part-time PhD researcher at Lancaster University, to explore what it really means to undertake a realist PhD alongside work, life, and personal commitments. Michele shares her journey into doctoral research after more than 30 years in clinical practice, where her interest in the role of technology in palliative care, particularly following the rapid changes during COVID-19, led her to investigate how and why new practices are adopted (or resisted) in complex healthcare settings. The conversation focuses on the realities of doing realist research part-time, including managing competing demands, navigating the iterative nature of realist thinking, and sustaining momentum over what Michele describes as a marathon rather than a sprint. She reflects candidly on the personal and professional contexts that shaped her journey, and how realist philosophy helped her make sense of complexity across different levels of experience. Michele also shares practical strategies that have supported her along the way, including reflective journaling, memoing, “deep work” practices, and what she calls leaving “pebbles through the forest” to stay connected to evolving ideas. This is an episode for anyone considering or undertaking a part-time PhD, working with realist approaches in practice-based settings, or trying to balance rigorous research with the realities of everyday life.

    27 min

  2. FEB 2

    Episode 20 —Realist Thematic Analysis with Gareth Wiltshire

    In this episode of The Realist Lens, Alejandro is joined by Dr Gareth Wiltshire, sociologist and critical realist scholar at Loughborough University, to unpack realist thematic analysis, a method designed to move qualitative analysis beyondsurface-level patterns and into causal explanation. Gareth shares his intellectual journey into critical realism and explains how realist thematic analysis emerged as a response to longstanding binaries in qualitative research, between positivist and interpretivist approaches, and between descriptive coding and explanatory theory-building. The conversation explores how experiential, inferential, and dispositional themes work together to support generative causal explanation, helping researchers move from what participants say, to what can be inferred, and ultimately to what must exist for those experiences to occur. Drawing on examples from sport, volunteering, and qualitative interviewing, Gareth explains how realist thematic analysis supports methodological coherence, interpretive rigour, and transparency while remaining flexible and usable for applied researchers. This episode is essential listening for anyone grappling with qualitative analysis in realist, critical realist, or complexity informed research particularly PhD students and early career researchers navigating how to analyse data without losing ontological depth.

    51 min

  3. JAN 19

    Episode 19 - A Unicorn or an Oxymoron? The Realist Trial with Sebastian Lemire

    In this episode of The Realist Lens, Alejandro is joined by Sebastian Lemire, evaluator and methodological pluralist, to explore one of the most contested questions in contemporary realist inquiry: Is the realist trial a methodological impossibility, or a rare but viable unicorn? Drawing on his extensive experience in theory-based evaluation and a review of published realist trials, Sebastian shares his pragmatic view on the long-standing debate between realist evaluation and randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Rather than taking sides in ontological disputes, Sebastian invites listeners to focus on what different forms of evidence can do and how they can be meaningfully integrated. The conversation traces Sebastian’s journey from theory driven evaluation into realist-informed work and unpacks how the debate around realist trials reflects deeper divides about causation, evidence, and credibility in evaluation. Together, Alejandro and Sebastian examine why the topic remains so divisive, what distinguishes the rare “unicorn” realist trials, and how integration can occur at the level of evidence and analysis rather than philosophical purity. This episode does not seek to close the debate. Instead, it keeps the conversation open, offering a thoughtful, empirically grounded perspective on how evaluators might navigate complexity, pragmatism, and explanation without becoming trapped by methodological dogma.

    23 min

  4. JAN 6

    Episode 18 — Across Cultures and Contexts: Kerryn O’Rourke on Realist Interviewing, Equity & Methodological Coherence

    In this episode of The Realist Lens, Alejandro is joined by Dr Kerryn O’Rourke, public health researcher, realist evaluator, and Co-Lead of the Realist Research, Evaluation and Learning Initiative at Charles Darwin University, to explore what it really means to do realist work across cultures ethically, methodologically, and epistemologically. Kerryn shares her journey from nursing and frontline public health practice into realist research, shaped by a long-standing commitment to health equity and social justice. Drawing on her PhD and subsequent evaluation work, she reflects on how realist methodology offered a way to make sense of complex social programmes, particularly those involving vulnerability, power, language, and cultural difference. The conversation centres on cross-cultural realist interviewing: what happens when theory-testing conversations move across languages, worldviews, and livedrealities. Kerryn unpacks how bicultural collaboration became central to her work, not as a technical add-on, but as a core part of realist inquiry and knowledge co-creation. Kerryn also shares practical lessons from evaluating maternity and social support programmes with culturally diverse communities, as well as her current work with First Nations communities in Australia. This is an episode for anyone conducting realist evaluation or research in diverse, multilingual, or inequitable contexts, and for those grappling with how to remain philosophically coherent while working ethically across difference.

    33 min

  5. 12/23/2025

    Episode 17 — From Clinic to Complexity: Pragati Hebbar on Realist Thinking, Policy & Practice

    In this episode, Alejandro is joined by Dr Pragati Hebbar, dentist, public health researcher, realist evaluator, and Assistant Director at the Institute of Public Health, Bangalore to explore what it looks like to transition from clinical practice into policy, embrace complexity, and use realist approaches to make sense of real-world implementation. Pragati walks us through the journey that led her from treating precancer cases in dentistry to questioning the systemic forces shaping tobacco use in India — andeventually into realist research. She shares how realist evaluation helped her unpack why one national tobacco control programme produces vastly different outcomes across states, and how she combined quantitative proxies, qualitative interviews, and field observations to build and refine programme theories. We talk openly about unlearning linear clinical thinking, navigating contextual variation, realist interviewing, and the challenges of matching policymaker expectations with the nuanced findings that realism often provides. Pragati also highlights the importance of accessible training, communities of practice, and the growing momentum for realist work across India and the Global South.

    31 min

  6. 12/08/2025

    Episode 16 — The Realist PhD Journey with Sara Dada

    In this episode, Alejandro is joined by Dr. Sara Dada, global health researcher, newly appointed Ad Astra Fellow at University College Dublin, and the mind behind a truly ambitious realist PhD. Sara walks us through what it means to build an entire doctoral thesis around realist principles: from developing initial programme theories, to conducting a realist review and realist evaluation in Zambia, to zooming out and constructing middle-range theories that speak to global health more broadly.  She reflects candidly on the challenges and breakthroughs of realist work — including the messy, iterative nature of theory-building, the complexity of real-world contexts, and the importance of embracing imperfection as part of the learning journey.

    45 min

  7. 11/24/2025

    Episode 15 — The RAMESES standards with Joanne Greenhalgh

    In this episode, Alejandro sits down with Professor Joanne Greenhalgh, one of the core members behind the RAMESES standards — the evolving benchmarks that have shapedrealist evaluation and realist synthesis across the world. Joanne shares the story of how the standards came to life, their role in guiding quality and reporting in realist work, and why they were designed to evolve rather than prescribe. From anecdotes about working with Ray Pawson to reflections on teaching, mentoring, and community-building, Joanne offers candid insights on what makes realistresearch rigorous yet flexible. Whether you’re just starting your realist journey or refining your craft, this episode is packed with practical wisdom on doing realist work well.

    38 min

  8. 11/10/2025

    Episode 14 – Which Configuration Should I Use? Insights with Esther de Weger & Natascha van Vooren

    Alejandro sits down with Dr Esther de Weger and Dr Natascha van Vooren to unpack the evolving world of realist configurations, from the classic CMO (Context–Mechanism–Outcome) to newer variations like SCMO, ICMO, and beyond. Following on from last week's episode on CMOs, in this lively, reflective conversation, Esther and Natascha draw on their PhD experiences and current research to explore how small shifts in configuration can transform the way we understand causality in realist studies. They discuss how to choose the right configuration for your question, what happens when you “add a letter,” and why thinking with configurations means embracing flexibility, reflexivity, and transparency. With practical insights for students, supervisors, and evaluators alike, this episode offers clarity on how to stay grounded in realist thinking while adapting tools for complex, real-world contexts.

    34 min
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About

The Realist Lens is a podcast that makes realist evaluation and synthesis accessible and easy to follow. Through relaxed conversations with expert guests, students, and practitioners, we explore key realist concepts like mechanisms, context, and outcomes. Whether you're new to realist approaches or more experienced, this podcast offers practical insights, real-world examples, and thoughtful reflections to support your learning and curiosity—one conversation at a time.

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