Beckett Talks

Ken Scott, Senior Lecturer in the Leeds School of Arts, has worked with some of the biggest names in music royalty, The Beatles and David Bowie to name a few… Listen as he shares what he has learned from a lifetime in the music industry. He also explains why in the era of endless possibilities, no-one makes decisions anymore and why modern producers should be embracing a bolder, more intuitive approach.

The discourse implies that the sporting world is at war with the deadly foe of doping, but how effective is this warfare mentality at actually tackling the problem? Professor Susan Backhouse of the Carnegie School of Sport explains how a different approach that moves beyond individual blame to address the systemic pressures faced by athletes is necessary to prevent doping in sport.

By 2025, it is estimated that over 1 million people in the UK will have dementia. With any potential cure a long way off, Professor Claire Surr tells us how her research is already helping to improve quality of life for people living with dementia and their family members and why we should be investing more in care practice.

Have we completely lost trust in what our leaders tell us? For the heroes of ancient Rome, if you could speak well it was seen as impossible that you could be lying. Fast-forward 2,000 years and Dr Oliver Bray, Director of Arts at the Leeds School of Arts illuminates how oratory has been devalued by slick, media-trained politicians in a post-truth world. He also explains how he uses sound poetry to reveal where the meaning really lies in modern speechmaking.

In this podcast by Professor Ben Jones, he shares the research being undertaken with professional sports and athletes within the Carnegie Applied Rugby Research (CARR) centre, within the Carnegie School of Sport.

Academic journals are essential for anyone studying at university. But how do they get made? From the Leeds School of Social Sciences, researchers and journal editors, Dr Chris Byrne and Dr Chris Till go behind the scenes and explain how articles are selected, reviewed and published.

Jill Gibbon from the Leeds School of Arts talks about her research drawing undercover in arms fairs to reveal the secretive world of the international arms trade.

Is it possible to recreate life inside a computer? Dr John George from the School of Health shares how mapping cell behaviour 'in silico' is improving our understanding of how life develops and providing potential breakthroughs against anti-microbial resistance.

Poetry is as much an excuse to be a creative reader as it is to be a creative writer. Conceptual writer Dr Nasser Hussain from the School of Cultural Studies and Humanities explains how playing with the raw material of language can expand our ideas of what writing and poetry is.

Public health nutritionist Dr Maria Maynard from the School of Health shares how she works across disciplines to remove the systematic barriers that make it harder for people to improve their health outcomes.