The Politics of Wellbeing

This podcast features an interview with Lord Richard Layard, LSE economist, 'happiness tsar' and a driving force in the politics of wellbeing over the last decade; and with William Davies, senior lecturer at Goldsmith's, and author of The Happiness Industry. We discuss how academics can influence public policy, how governments, universities and companies can improve wellbeing, and whether there are aspects of the 'wellbeing movement' that are illiberal, reductive or creepy. For good background to this discussion, check out Oliver Burkeman's long-read article on the 'therapy wars' between Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and psychoanalysis:https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jan/07/therapy-wars-revenge-of-freud-cognitive-behavioural-therapy Acronyms used in the discussion: IAPT: Improving Access for Psychological Therapies, an NHS talking therapy service which Layard helped introduce Will's book The Happiness Industry available here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00WFYBGY8/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 Richard's book Thrive (co-authored with David Clark) available here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thrive-Power-Evidence-Based-Psychological-Therapies-ebook/dp/B00JX5RCWW CBT: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, a short-term therapy for emotional disorders now freely available in the NHS NICE: National Institute for Care and Health Excellence For more from the Centre, check out our blog: https://emotionsblog.history.qmul.ac.uk/