In today's episode, Prof Anna Cox talks to Dave Cook, a digital anthropologist researching the practices of digital nomads. These are people who've taken remote working to the extreme by choosing to live in a different country from where they work. We talk about how he started out as a designer in the early days of the internet, set up one of the first gay online services, and went on to run the nascent BBC Online, at a time when media producers thought the internet was a flash in the pan.  We discover what the fallout from the dotcom boom and bust taught him about the importance of focusing on user experience, how he discovered his true calling as a research geek, and his love of ethnographic approaches. He describes how he has applied those in his study of digital nomads, and the insights he has gained into the paradoxical experience of these extreme remote workers, who are discovering that the work-related disciplines they initially wanted to escape, are actually the ones that help them to create work life boundaries, and avoid burnout.  We also explore how these practices might benefit us too, as many of us continue to work from home. 

Dave Cook is a PhD candidate at UCL. His work explores the lives of self-described ‘digital nomads’ who work out of co-working spaces in Southeast Asia. The research focuses on the work practices and routines that are required to sustain working on the road. 

Find out more about eWorkLife, including tips for managing your own wellbeing and work-life balance, on our website https://www.eworklife.co.uk/  

Episode transcript and show-notes: https://www.eworklife.co.uk/podcast/  

Follow us on twitter @_e_worklife and @annacox_  

In this episode, Prof Anna Cox is talking to Dr Kathy Stawarz, a lecturer in the School of Computer Science and informatics at Cardiff University. She has a keen interest in technology for health, wellbeing and safety. We talk about the role of random events in directing the course of her career; her knack for spotting new opportunities, including her role in a start-up to create a sensor to stop fire-fighters over-heating. We also find out how a fun project to develop a wearable device to help martial arts students perfect their punches, led to another to help stroke patients re-learn upper limb movements. She also reveals the best app to help you change your habits, and what you really need to do if you want to change them for good. 

Dr Kathy Stawarz’s research focuses on the use of ubiquitous technologies to support health and well being with a particular interest in how mobile devices, distributed systems, and smart materials can be used to support healthy habits, by leveraging people's environment and routines.  

Find out more about eWorkLife, including tips for managing your own wellbeing and work-life balance, on our website https://www.eworklife.co.uk/  

Episode transcript and show-notes: https://www.eworklife.co.uk/podcast/  

Follow us on twitter @_e_worklife and @annacox_  

Prof Anna Cox talks to Dr David Ellis, a psychologist with a keen interest in technology and the data it produces. We talk about how he owes his career to his mum who first suggested that he study psychology at university, how a curiosity to play around with technology lies behind much of his research and the methods that he uses, and the competing demands of academic life. We also touch on his frustration with the reluctance of some psychologists to embrace technology to help answer important questions about the impact of smartphones on our health and wellbeing, and explore the importance of thinking carefully about what data we collect as scientists: the challenge of giving participants control over what they contribute is not straightforward when seemingly innocuous data can hold some surprisingly personal and unforeseen insights about what people are really up to. 

Dr David Ellis is an Associate Professor in Information Systems at the University of Bath. His work considers the data that digital technologies collect and how the resulting information can provide insights about individuals and their behaviour, and the impact this technology has on people and society more broadly.   

Find out more about eWorkLife, including tips for managing your own wellbeing and work-life balance, on our website https://www.eworklife.co.uk/  

Episode transcript and show-notes: https://www.eworklife.co.uk/podcast/  

Follow us on twitter @_e_worklife and @annacox_ 

Music credit: ScottHolmesMusic.com 

Producer: Clare Casson 

Anna Cox talks to Professor Ann Blandford, who is an expert in digital health technologies. We talk about the importance of progressive teachers who could see where technology was heading and how they helped shape her early choices, how her rebellious streak led her to study maths at Cambridge before embarking on a career in computer science, and the challenges she faced as a woman managing a career and a young family – which meant that at one point her baby was sleeping under her desk in the office while she worked. We also discuss her research – from designing computer simulations so that nuclear engineers could try out their ideas safely, to developing safety-critical systems, to her current research in digital health that's empowering people with long COVID to try out what works for them when managing their health.  

Ann Blandford is Professor of Human Computer Interaction in the Department of Computer Science at UCL and a member of UCLIC,  the UCL Interaction Centre. She served as director of UCLIC,  director of the UCL Institute of Digital Health and Deputy Director of the Institute of Healthcare Engineering. She was a Suffrage Science Award holder, a winner of the prestigious IFUPTC Thirteen Pioneer in Human Computer Interaction awards, and has been elected to the SIG CHI Academy.  

Find out more about eWorkLife, including tips for managing your own wellbeing and work-life balance, on our website https://www.eworklife.co.uk/  

Episode transcript and show-notes: https://www.eworklife.co.uk/podcast/  

Follow us on twitter @_e_worklife and @annacox_ 

Music credit: ScottHolmesMusic.com 

Producer: Clare Casson 

Prof Anna Cox talks to Dr Conor Linehan, an expert in the design and evaluation of technology to support education and health behaviours. We cover his journey from being a psychologist to a leading HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) specialist, working on the application of behavioural psychology principles to technology design. Conor has a particular interest in gaming and gamification, and reveals how we already know which games are best at encouraging people to exercise over the longer term, so physical activity researchers are on a bit of a wild goose chase trying to improve on those. We also get the low-down on a ground-breaking, multi-disciplinary, behavioural intervention he’s been involved with to reduce harms from recreational drug-taking, that has been years in the making. Conor also lets us in on the secret of his own personal motivation for keeping fit and strong.

Dr Conor Linehan is a senior lecturer in Applied Psychology at University College Cork, Ireland, and an expert in the design and evaluation of technology to support education and health behaviours. He has a strong interest in how games and gamification can be useful in these contexts. He's worked on a wide range of research projects, investigating the design of educational games, vision therapy interventions, dietary interventions, wearable sleep monitors, and online mental health interventions.

Find out more about eWorkLife, including tips for managing your own wellbeing and work-life balance, on our website www.eworklife.co.uk/
Episode transcript and show-notes: www.eworklife.co.uk/podcast/

Follow us on twitter @_e_worklife and @annacox_

Music credit: ScottHolmesMusic.com

Producer: Clare Casson

Professor Anna Cox talks to Dr Joe Newbold, an expert in Sonic Interaction Design, about how he's managed to combine his passion for music with his curiosity about how we interact with technology. We talk about how we can use our expectations of how music unfolds to help us really focus on our work, or to be more active - in a way that's much more subtle and sophisticated than just paying high-energy, go-faster music in a gym. We also talk about how we can use the way music moves us to encourage people to take activity breaks when working and how we can use changes in rhythm to not so much interrupt work, but give people a better sense of time passing - so we don't just get lost in work and end up sitting for hours on end.

Dr. Joe Newbold is a lecturer at Northumbria University and an expert in Sonic Interaction Design. His research explores how we can use audio interaction to encourage physical activity and wellbeing. He's published on how we can use musically informed sonification for facilitating progress in chronic pain rehabilitation and is currently researching whether a music app can help people to both concentrate on their work and take regular breaks.

Find out more about eWorkLife, including tips for managing your own wellbeing and work-life balance, on our website https://www.eworklife.co.uk/ Episode transcript and show-notes: https://www.eworklife.co.uk/podcast/

Follow us on twitter @_e_worklife and @annacox_

Music credit: ScottHolmesMusic.com

Producer: Clare Casson

Prof Anna Cox talks to Dr Paulina Bondaronek, an expert in behaviour change technology about her journey to studying psychology at university, how her father's disabilities sparked her interest in health psychology, and how she dealt with her own mental health struggles during her PhD. They also discuss her research on behaviour change technology which has shed light on how apps that are supposed to help us stay physically active, often fail. It’s a good question: when there are over 300,000 health apps available, why aren’t we all much fitter?

Dr Paulina Bondaronek is an expert in behaviour change technology, and is currently a behavioural insights advisor at Public Health England. Her PhD was on the public health potential of mobile health applications to increase activity, and she's published on the relationship between popularity, and the likely efficacy of physical activity apps.

Find out more about eWorkLife, including tips for managing your own wellbeing and work-life balance, on our website www.eworklife.co.uk/ Episode transcript and show-notes: www.eworklife.co.uk/podcast/

Follow us on twitter @_e_worklife and @annacox_

Music credit: ScottHolmesMusic.com

Producer: Clare Casson

UCL

eWorkLife

health apps

fitness

technology

physically active

Welcome to the eWorkLife podcast. Your host Prof Anna Cox  (Professor & Vice Dean (Equality, Diversity & Inclusion) UCL Faculty of Brain Sciences) reveals what she has in store for you in her brand new podcast about work, life and wellbeing. She’ll be talking to researchers in the field about productivity, wellbeing and work-life balance, and how we can make the most of our technology to get our work done, keep connected to others, and support our health and wellbeing.

Find out more about eWorkLife, including tips for managing your own wellbeing and work-life balance, on our website www.eworklife.co.uk/ Episode transcripts and show-notes: www.eworklife.co.uk/podcast/