The Social Review

Jasper chats to Labour activists Miriam, Sean, Michael and Dominique to learn about the art of canvassing and door-knocking, why and how political parties do it, and their funniest stories from life on the doorstep. Plus, William joins for Optimism of the Will - a new segment on what there is to be optimistic about in this week of the 2019 General Election Campaign.

Jasper chats to Labour activists Miriam, Sean, Michael and Dominique to learn about the art of canvassing and door-knocking, why and how political parties do it, and their funniest stories from life on the doorstep. Plus, William joins for Optimism of the Will - a new segment on what there is to be optimistic about in this week of the 2019 General Election Campaign.

This week, Jasper, Morgan and Lines sit down with Chris Terry (formerly Electoral Reform Society, now a PhD student at University of Manchester) to discuss his work on election polling, marginal seats, changing the electoral system and the possible outcomes from the current 2019 general election polls.

Have you ever thought that superheroes are a bit capitalist? That the movies you go and see have all these weird political undertones? This week, Jasper sits down with Dr Dan Hassler-Forest, an academic whose work focuses on the overlap between politics and pop culture to talk Disney, balancing being a fan with being a critic and the uneven ideologies of Batman movies.

Happy Halloween! The ghouls and ghosts of The Social Review have crawled out from our dark pits to the podcasting microphones to talk all things horror. Jasper the Friendly Ghost sits down with Darryl Jones, Professor of English at Trinity College Dublin, to discuss the history of the horror genre and why we're so drawn to it, then joins Eugenie and Henry to answer some spooky questions on political monsters and the forthcoming general election. Plus, Joe and Peter analyse the spooky implications of Mark Fisher's work, covering hauntology and the inherent creepiness of capitalism.

Jasper sits down with Dr Sam Friedman, Associate Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Commissioner of the government’s Social Mobility Commission to talk about his book, The Class Ceiling: Why it Pays to be Privileged. Sam highlights the extent to which class barriers and advantages still permeates British society, why meritocracy is a myth and why private schools should be abolished, putting his case for what should be done to education afterwards.

This week, Eugenie and Henry don their historian caps and chat all things history: whether we can learn anything from it, how to improve its teaching in schools and their top history book recommendations.

Julia and Ciaran sit down with Jasper to explain the ongoing reselection battles in Labour and why they haven't led to the mass deselection of Corbynsceptic MPs. Plus, Jasper is joined by TSR writer/editor Morgan to discuss why we should all be writing diaries.

In the second of our two-part tech special, we tackle when to log off: whether it's mental health or unplugging from the 24-hour news cycle, sometimes we need to detach from the internet. Joe, Julia and Beth discuss how social media has impacted their respective mental health (TW: anxiety/suicide), while Jasper, Lines and Henry debate whether we should be less in the loop when it comes to rolling news.

In the first of our two-part tech special, Jasper, Lines and Peter discuss how the internet has influenced the ideological thinking of one another and broader political movements. Plus, Joe, Julia and Beth talk about the democratising power of social media and the internet as a form of direct democracy.