Politics on the Couch

Rafael Behr talks to the Rt Hon. Liam Byrne, Labour MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill & Solihull North, Chair of the Commons Business & Trade Committee, former minister under Blair & Brown, and author of Why Populists Are Winning and How to Beat Them . They cover: The "three chords" of populism — national renewal, nostalgia, and crisis. Liam breaks down the deep emotional structure behind e...

Rafael Behr talks to behavioural scientist Dr Michael Hallsworth about his new book, “The Hypocrisy Trap: How Changing What We Criticise Can Improve Our Lives.” They discuss: How the concept of hypocrisy first emerged as part of an evolutionary status game;  How calling others out can be more powerful than proclaiming our own virtue;  Why we might tolerate some ‘polite’ hypocrisy at home...

Politics feels angrier, harsher and more tribal than it used to - but how much of the blame can be laid at the door of social media? Rafael Behr talks to NYU Psychologist Professor Jay Van Bavel, about how our ancient group instincts collide with 'god-like' digital technology to distort what we see, reward outrage, and erode trust in democratic institutions.  Drawing on datasets of millions o...

Rafael Behr talks to Dr. Tessa Buchanan, a former civil servant and now an academic at Cambridge’s Political Psychology Lab, about the psychology behind changing how some voters think about outsiders or immigrants, revealing why she believes attitudes aren’t always as fixed or hostile as they may seem. From the media’s obsession with “small boats” to conflicting anxieties about national identity,...

Rafael Behr talks to Demos ' CEO Polly Curtis about the urgent case for upgrading our democracy and repairing the broken relationship between citizen and state. The conversation is loosely based around this new Demos paper released today (2 July) that sets out the challenges of the global democratic emergency, how this is threatening the political landscape in Britain and what we can do about it....

Host Rafael Behr is joined by political scientist Prof. Michael Bang Petersen, whose research challenges the common belief that those who share misinformation are simply uninformed or gullible. Instead, Petersen suggest that many of these individuals are politically savvy and highly motivated, not by truth, but by the usefulness of information in advancing their political goals. The conversation a...

A conversation between Rafael Behr and writer and broadcaster David Aaronovitch, about ripples from the pandemic that still shape politics, with a digression on the ways that Britain is not America and whether that makes 'Maga-populism' less contagious. Links David Aaronovitch's substack - https://davidaaronovitch.substack.com BBC's Briefing Room presented by David Aaronovitch - https://www.bbc.co...

An anniversary episode in which host Rafael Behr and producer Philip Berman look back over a tumultuous time and ponder what they have learned from putting politics on the couch. Links to Politics on the Couch episodes discussed in this podcast Anti-vaxxers – fear, anxiety and the psychology of misinformation The authoritarian personality - why some voters feel drawn to populism and how to lure th...

To coincide with the launch of her new book ( The Ideological Brain - A Radical Science of Susceptible Minds ) Rafael Behr talks to Dr Leor Zmigrod , a political psychologist and neuroscientist, about the ingredients of dogmatic thinking, why some of us are more prone than others, and how we can protect ourselves. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rafael Behr talks to Paula Surridge Professor of Political Sociology about the fragmentation of support for the two big parties since Brexit, what's causing it and what it means for parties trying to maintain their voter coalitions. Questions also covered: What drives support for Reform UK, and how vulnerable is their voter base? Are the Liberal Democrats benefiting from tactical voting, and can t...

Host Rafael Behr talks to author, policy expert and podcaster Sam Freedman about his new book Failed State: Why Nothing Works and How We Fix It Sam Freedman is a senior fellow at the Institute for Government and an Ark Schools adviser. He writes about policy and politics for numerous outlets, including the  Financial Times ,  Sunday Times ,  Guardian  and  New Statesm...

In a week of protests, counter-protests and riots in the UK, 5000 miles away in Bangladesh student-led uprising led to 300 people being killed, the toppling of a corrupt PM and violent regime, and a Nobel Peace Prize winner being installed as head a new interim government.  In this edition, we're talking about the violent and momentous events in Bangladesh with award-winning British-born inve...

In this summer bonus episode, Raf and (producer) Phil discuss the changing mood around British politics since Labour's election victory, the restoration of seriousness after years of triviality, why some people can't adapt, why others want to believe that Keir Starmer can deliver the change he has promised and whether they are right. Links to stuff mentioned in the podcast More in Common...

In this edition host Rafael Behr talks to Nichola Raihani , Professor of Evolution and Behaviour in the School of Psychology at the University of Auckland. She's also the author of, ' The Social Instinct: How Cooperation Shaped the World ' Professor Raihani has unique insight into a problem that has appeared in various forms on this podcast over the years. It's a question of collective action, sol...

In the wake of October 7th and Trump's bid to become US President again, Rafael Behr sits down with fellow Guardian columnist and friend - Jonathan Freedland - to discuss the current state of geopolitics, liberal politics, Israel and Jewish identity. Events featuring Rafael Behr Shoreham, West Sussex, Wed 24 April An evening with Guardian columnist Rafael Behr and television produce...

Rafael Behr talks to Tom Gray from Gomez about his bid to become a Brighton MP. Tom's had a hugely successful career in music with Gomez rocketing to fame in 1998, beating Pulp and Massive Attack, among others, to the Mercury Prize . More recently he launched the Broken Record campaign , calling for a fairer deal for musicians from streaming services, among other industry reforms. And now, having...

In a departure from our normal format Rafael Behr (host) and Philip Berman (the show's producer) agreed to press record when they met yesterday (Thursday 28 September) to discuss a new series idea for Politics on the Couch. And this podcast is the end result, instead of a meta-cast talking about what we could talk about this Autumn, it's more of a casual ramble around Phil's break from Twitter, hi...

Raf Behr talks to journalist, author and broadcaster David Aaronovitch about his recent visit to the National Conservatives conference, and what it taught him about state of the Tory party. They discuss: Was there really a re-alignment in British politics post-Brexit? What do the Nat Cons have to offer us Brits apart from hardline anti-immigration vibes? Why do some parts of the commentariat spend...

Rafael Behr talks to Rob Hutton, parliamentary sketch writer at the Critic, about the uneasy relationship between Westminster lobby journalists and MPs. Often political journalists cultivate close relationships with politicians to find out what's really happening in the corridors of power. But does a journalist's 'insider status' cloud their judgement when working out how to write about political...

On this edition Rafael Behr talks to Professor Ben Ansell about his new book Why Politics Fails: The Five Traps of the Modern World & How to Escape Them Ben Ansell is Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at Nuffield College, University of Oxford. He was made Fellow of the British Academy in 2018, among the youngest fellows at that time. His work has been widely covered in the...

Host Rafael Behr talks to Claudia Hammond about political empathy, its power and its limits. Claudia is probably best known as the presenter of BBC Radio 4's long-running show, 'All in the Mind' which covers psychology, neuroscience & mental health. She is also the Visiting Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Sussex. Her latest book, 'The Keys to Kindness,'...

In this wide-ranging and informal conversation*, Rafael Behr chats to former colleague Helen Lewis about whether Whatsapp has changed the way politics is conducted, her favourite Tik Tok channel, the incestous nature of Scottish politics, what's really behind the UK government's immigration policy, what we can learn from Florida culture wars, why the middle ground is so hard to occupy, what we hav...

Rafael Behr talks to Meg Russell, Director of the Constitution Unit and co-author, along with Research Fellow Lisa James, of a new book called: The Parliamentary Battle over Brexit, a detailed account of the extraordinary way the Brexit process played out in parliament. Since the 2016 referendum, the hotly contested issue of Brexit has raised fundamental questions about the workings of British dem...

Host Rafael Behr talks to Prof. Tim Bale about why people join political parties and how the members impact democracy. Topics covered inlcude: what people get from joining a political party; what parties get from their members; why membership of parties has declined; in particular why so many Conservative women joined, and then left in their droves; how membership differs between the two major par...

Ahead of the first bilateral summit between the two countries' leaders for five years, Rafael Behr talks to Georgina Wright, from the Institut Montaigne in Paris, about what the French really think about us Brits, and what we often get wrong about French discourse, customs and political culture. Quite a lot, as it happens. Georgina Wright is Senior Fellow and Director of Institut Montaigne’s Europ...