This week's episode is all about ACCENTS, accent bias and discrimination.

'Cos we all have an accent (even if you claim otherwise) and it is affecting you - AND your future - in some way.

Britain is super diverse when it comes to accents, with up to 60 different accent variations. Yet, we still know relatively little about the history of the accent hierarchy in Britain.

Why was Received Pronunciation adopted as the standard broadcasting standard in 1922 when only 2% of the British population speak it? Why do we associate certain accents with intelligence and others with criminality? Where do these groundless, inaccurate accent stereotypes come from?

Accent based prejudice (AKA accentism) is a form of social prejudice, and with nearly than 80% employers admitting to discriminating on applicants' accents, this is something we need to talk about more... especially when this type of prejudice is so intricately tied up with race and class.

So join me as I chat to Dr Dominic Watt and Dr Christian Ilbury, investigators and researchers of the Accent Bias Britain project, as well as UK university students with standard, non-standard and non-native English accents.

What do you think? Is accentism one of the more socially 'acceptable' forms of discrimination? Share your thoughts at:

https://www.instagram.com/catchyerselfonpodcast/

Find out more about Dominic and Christian's research, as well as the fantastic accent bias resources and tools available here:

https://accentbiasbritain.org

Thank you to the talented James Mitchell and Joe Wardhaugh for composing the music to the podcast:

https://www.instagram.com/joe.wardhaugh/