The recent years have brought extraordinary and ongoing challenges to societies and cultures, as well as bringing long-standing crises and predicaments to the foreground in new ways.

Each episode of this series of curated conversations brings together University of Leeds researchers from different backgrounds, disciplines and career stages to stimulate conversation about how research communities might respond to these challenges – and about the futures we want to imagine and realise.

This episode features A discussion between Beth Johnson (School of Media and Communications) and Cristina Leston-Bandeira (School of Politics).

Beth and Cristina’s conversation covers the UK public’s relationship and engagement with government, lasting inequalities within the UK film and television industry, diversity in the screen industries and the UK government and the power of storytelling in bringing about change.

This is the third of four conversations in our second series. These are released over April and May 2022 and are available via major podcast platforms as well as in an abridged video form on the LAHRI Website. If you’d like to comment on any of the issues raised on social media, use the hashtag #ArtsAndHumanitiesFutures and follow us on Twitter @LeedsAHRI. Visit our website for more information on the Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute.