Have you ever been part of an HR investigation? Whether you were the subject, the investigator or simply an outside observer, there is growing evidence of the significant harm they can cause.

In this episode of our Transforming Business podcast series with Martin Parker, Andrew Cooper and Adrian Neal, editors of ‘Under Investigation: Transforming Disciplinary Practice in the Workplace’, discuss the issues with these processes.

They explore the impact employee investigations can have on organisational culture and show that prioritising employee wellbeing, alongside the application of these processes, is not only possible but essential.

Andrew Cooper is the Head of Programmes for Employee Wellbeing in Aneurin Bevan University Health Board in NHS Wales. Adrian Neal is the Head of Employee Wellbeing in Aneurin Bevan University Health Board in NHS Wales and a Consultant Psychologist.

Find out more about the book at: https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/professional-business/under-investigation

The transcript is available here: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2025/11/11/podcast-when-hr-hurts-why-workplace-discipline-needs-a-rethink/

Timestamps:

1:23 - What is your book doing?

2:30 - What potential harms are there, outside of the person going through the process?

6:19 - What angles are you both approaching this issue from?

8:17 - What stories stand out to you?

13:19 - What should we be doing instead?

17:12 - How does giving voice open these processes for investigation?

24:59 - How does scale affect the application of these processes?

31:21 - How do these findings apply on a broader scale?

35:04 - Who would you like to read this book?

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When you think of people in debt, what do you imagine? Irresponsible people who leave telephones ringing and hide from debt collectors, or people faced with an impossible situation?

In this episode, Richard Kemp speaks with Ryan Davey, author of ‘The Personal Life of Debt’, about the true, everyday lives of indebted people.

They discuss the people Ryan met during his fieldwork on a southern English housing estate, the reality of living on the ‘never-never’, and what changes, to debt itself and society as a whole, are needed to break this vicious cycle.

Find out more about the book at: https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-personal-life-of-debt

The transcript is available here: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2025/10/24/podcast-are-people-really-to-blame-for-their-debt/

Timestamps:

1:55 – What was your experience of Woldham during your research?

7:52 – Did you experience any class tension?

10:07 – How can debt be worse now than during the 2008 financial crash?

17:08 – What is ‘living on the never-never’ and what does it mean to different people?

25:46 – Are these communities perfect prey for credit?

32:19 – How does the rescue mindset of child protection manifest in a place like Woldham?

38:35 – What affect did right to buy, and other similar policies, have on working class communities?

44:34 – Why would debt advisors have negative views of debtors?

51:03 – What changes are needed to break this unending cycle of debt?

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We often hear that working-class boys in education are misogynistic, aggressive and unwilling to learn. But how true is this? 

In this episode, Richard Kemp speaks with Alex Blower, author of ‘Lost Boys: How Education is Failing Young Working-Class Men’, about how the education system often fails these boys. 

They discuss the role of masculinity in the lives of working-class boys and men, Alex’s personal experiences with being working-class and a young carer, and why we need to stop focusing on perceived individual failures and instead turn our attention to the troubled relationship between these boys and the systems in which they reside.

Listen to the episode to get 50% off the paperback and eBook until 20 October 2025.

Alex Blower is Research Fellow at Arts University Bournemouth. 

Find out more about the book at: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/lost-boys

The transcript is available here: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2025/10/03/podcast-how-education-is-failing-young-working-class-men/

Timestamps:

01:32 - Can you tell us about your upbringing and experiences of education?

08:08 - What consequences have occurred from political leaders pointing to working-class boys themselves as the problem?

11:43 - Does this have an effect on the recent polarisation and marches?

14:02 - Did your feelings of aspiration change when you changed schools?

17:22 - Should schools be providing more diverse avenues for future progression?

20:42 - What is the working-class identity now?

24:51 - What inequalities are there and how are they perpetuated even by people with first-hand experience?

29:17 - Can you explain the caring roles that young working-class people have to take on, and how the education system is letting them down?

35:56 - What did you learn from the Being a Boy project?

39:11 - What is Boys’ Impact? And what changes do you hope to achieve from this work?

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The goal of drug policy is clear, according to the United Nations, whose convention on narcotic drugs largely sets the framework for what individual states do. The aim, the UN says, is to end the ‘serious evil’ of addiction. This, it adds, is to be achieved by preventing public access to dangerous substances, while at the same time ensuring adequate provision of narcotics to meet medical and scientific need.  

The challenge of these twin purposes – ensuring availability for medical use, preventing availability for recreational use –encapsulates the ‘dual use dilemma’ that has confronted drug policymakers for the past 150 years, as Julia Buxton, Professor of Justice at Liverpool John Moores University, explains in this episode of the podcast.  

Julia reflects on how personal experience drew her into the field, why US power has played such a disproportionate role and what happens when countries attempt reform. The conversation explores not only the human costs of criminalisation, but also why it has proved so hard to shift drug policy towards a different, health-led future.

Julia Buxton is Professor of Justice at John Moores University in Liverpool and British Academy Global Professor. 

Find out more about the book at: https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/trade/what-is-drug-policy-for

The transcript is available here: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2025/09/17/podcast-drugs-the-path-that-led-to-prohibition/

Timestamps:

2:19 - Tell me about the challenge of talking about drug policy to such different audiences

5:26 - Can you tell us about the story of how you came to study drug policy?

8:30 - Has the medicinal use of drugs improved in the past 25 years?

12:36 - When do you think it's useful to start looking in the historical record for the first signs of what would become our current global policy towards restricting access to certain drugs?

19:28 - What is path dependency in the context of evolving drug policy?

22:05 - How influential is the US in this context?

30:55 - Can you tell us about efforts to decriminalise some drugs in some countries?

41:50 - Are there things that give you a little bit of hope for a better future?

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In many ways neoliberalism is an extreme ideology, much like fascism and communism, but we very rarely recognise it as such. It hides behind the free-market, deregulation and privatisation, but in reality it’s quietly increasing isolation, inequality, poverty, disease and environmental threat.

In this episode, Richard Kemp speaks with Peter Beresford, author of ‘The Antidote: How People-Powered Movements Can Renew Politics, Policy and Practice’, about the problem neoliberalism poses, both in politics and in our everyday lives.

They discuss how neoliberalism has undermined democracy, the power of new social movements, and what can be done to create a better society for everyone.

Peter Beresford OBE is Visiting Professor at the University of East Anglia and Co-Chair of Shaping Our Lives, the national disabled people’s organisation.

Find out more about the book at: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-antidote

The transcript is available here: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2025/09/01/podcast-from-faultlines-to-frontlines-neoliberalism-vs-people-powered-movements/

Timestamps:

2:03 - What is neoliberalism, what make it extreme and how has it clung on for so long?

5:06 - How was neoliberalism first sold to us?

8:13 - How does neoliberalism affect our day-to-day lives?

9:15 - How is the murder of Sarah Everard connected to neoliberalism?

18:50 - How did neoliberalism affect COVID-19 responses, and what policies went unscrutinised during the pandemic?

24:26 - What are new social movements and what are they doing differently?

34:46 - How has neoliberalism shaped digital space, particularly social media?

41:14 - How is neoliberalism related to slavery and white privilege?

43:53 - Is left-wing populism a danger?

47:16 - Why do we need radical changes, and what should these changes be?

53:35 - What actions can we, individually, take to move away from neoliberalism?

Intro music:

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Despite claims that we now live in a post-racial society, race continues to disadvantage those from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds.

In this episode, Richard Kemp speaks with Kalwant Bhopal, author of the second edition of ‘White Privilege: The myth of a post-racial society’, about why those from black and minority ethnic communities continue to be marginalised.

They discuss the backlash against the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the way conversations about race always get sidelined for other elements of the EDI umbrella, and why we must continue to have hope.

Kalwant Bhopal is Professor of Education and Social Justice and Director of the Centre for Research on Race and Education at the University of Birmingham.

Find out more about the book at: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/trade/white-privilege-1

The transcript is available here: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2025/07/22/podcast-has-racism-really-changed-from-black-lives-matter-to-edi-backlash-and-beyond/

Timestamps:

01:31 - Could you explain the hope that was sparked in 2020 and how it was lost?

08:13 - Is this diluting of the narrative conscious?

13:59 - What are the unearned assets that white privilege provides?

18:25 - What is the relationship between Prevent and racism in schools?

21:34 - Has EDI become a hollow buzzword, and how does it perpetuate white privilege?

26:31 - How did Donald Trump use his whiteness to achieve re-election?

31:59 - Why was the experience of COVID-19 so different for black and minority ethnic groups?

38:56 - What can we do to work towards genuine, positive change?

Intro music:

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The welfare state is often talked about as a universal safety net, a system designed to catch anyone who falls. But does that image really capture how different countries understand and organise welfare around the world?

In this episode, George Miller talks to Professor Paul Spicker, author of What Is the Welfare State For?, about some of the historical roots, moral foundations, and practical workings of different welfare systems. Drawing on examples ranging from 16th-century Flanders to modern-day India, Paul explores the tension between ideal models and on-the-ground realities – and explains why the British case is far from typical.

The conversation touches on cash assistance, healthcare, solidarity, new technology and the role of the private sector – offering insight into what the welfare state is, what it does, and who it’s really for.

Paul Spicker is Emeritus Professor of Public Policy in Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen and a writer and commentator on social policy.

Find out more about the book at: https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/trade/what-is-the-welfare-state-for

The transcript is available here: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2025/07/01/podcast-safety-net-or-patchwork-quilt-getting-to-grips-with-the-welfare-state/

Timestamps:

00:56 - Can you take us back to the mid-70s and introduce us to who you were then?

06:48 - What is the problem with the 'ideal' welfare state?

08:17 - How do you define something as nebulous as the welfare state?

13:31 - Can you tell us about Ypres in Belgium in the 1530s?

24:14 - Why is the welfare state always couched in moral terms?

26:40 - To what extent are those debates healthy and inevitable? 

33:30 - Are worries about welfare cuts misplaced?

40:39 - Is the private sector part of the solution or is it actually part of the problem?

43:34 - Is there anything that you've fundamentally changed your mind on since the mid-70s? 

Intro music:

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As basic income trials take place around the world, the idea can no longer be dismissed as purely utopian. But can it truly reshape economies and societies?

In this episode, Richard Kemp talks with Howard Reed and Elliott Johnson, two of the co-authors of Basic Income: The Policy That Changes Everything, about the reality of basic income. 

They explore various models of implementation, how such a system could be funded, how it differs from the current welfare framework, and the potential for basic income to create transformative change across society.

Howard Reed is Senior Research Fellow in Public Policy at Northumbria University and Director of Landman Economics. Elliott Johnson is Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow in Public Policy at Northumbria University.

Find out more about the book at: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/trade/basic-income

The transcript is available here: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2025/06/10/podcast-is-basic-income-the-answer-to-our-age-of-crisis/

Timestamps:

01:34 - What is basic income and how is it different from our current welfare offer?

04:19 - Can you talk more about the conditionality of our current welfare and the behaviour it causes?

05:55 - Has the welfare situation always been this bad?

08:05 - What are the three schemes for basic income?

12:26 - Can you explain why people from wealthy families can afford to fail?

14:54 - How fiscally different would basic income be for people on the ground?

16:53 - What are the wider societal benefits of basic income?

22:27 - Why do you call it basic income instead of universal basic income?

24:39 - Wouldn't prices just go up if everyone had this extra money?

30:26 - How would basic income do better to help child poverty than child benefit?

35:26 - What do we need to do, and what's already being done, to help basic income become a reality?

Intro music:

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What does a humanist feel when they gaze up at the stars? In this episode, George Miller speaks to philosopher Richard Norman, author of What Is Humanism For?, about wonder, meaning and morality in a world without God.

Their conversation traces Norman’s intellectual journey, from religious upbringing to secular commitment, and explores how humanism answers some of life’s deepest questions — not through divine revelation, but through shared human experience.

Along the way, they consider humanist funerals, climate change, artificial intelligence and how a humanist might still feel awe in a godless universe:

‘The awe comes from our sense of both our insignificance when confronted with the vastness of the universe — and our connection with it. A sense that we are part of this magnificent universe.’ 

Richard Norman, BA (Cantab), PhD (London), is a British academic, philosopher and humanist. He is Emeritus Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Kent, where he spent most of his career, and a patron of Humanists UK.

Find out more about the book at: https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/trade/what-is-humanism-for

The transcript is available here: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2025/05/30/podcast-a-humanist-looks-at-the-night-sky/

Timestamps:

00:58 - What feelings and thoughts does it provoke in a humanist when they look up on a starry night?

08:22 - Did you have a religious upbringing?

17:13 - When does it become possible to begin to put forward ideas which seriously question Christianity?

22:55 - What provides the ethical foundations for humanism? 

26:48 - How does that basic foundation then begin to help us with the purpose?

32:15 - How does a humanist funeral work?

34:59 - Does putting the human at the centre lead to things like climate change?

41:05 - What do humanists think about this possible brave new world where we're no longer the most rational creature on the planet?

44:14 - What should you do next if you're still curious?

Intro music:

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Within the next 30 years the European workforce will be down by a quarter, upsetting the systems we have had in place for decades. 

In this episode, Richard Kemp speaks with Giles Merritt, author of 'Timebomb: When Ageing Explodes', about this impending ageing crisis. 

They discuss the multiple factors that have led us here, as well as what needs to be done to defuse this bomb before it goes off and explodes the European economy.

Since his 1978 arrival in the 'Capital of Europe' as a correspondent of the Financial Times, Giles Merritt has specialised in Europe's policy challenges as a journalist and think-tanker. He's often hailed as a 'Brussels institution' by readers of his incisive and often critical commentaries on European politics and economics.

Find out more about the book at: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/trade/timebomb

The transcript is available here: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2025/05/19/podcast-the-ageing-crisis-that-no-ones-talking-about/

Timestamps:

1:20 - What is the timebomb and when is it going to go off?

6:27 - What happened to our growth and should we be concerned?

12:31 - Shouldn't Brexiters be celebrating the lower number of migrants?

25:15 - What happened to create this chasm between just two generations?

35:31 - What is the truth behind the workforce crisis?

42:11 - Has there been any change to fix the upcoming pension crisis?

46:40 - Why do billionaires get away with profit diversion? Why can't we tax them properly?

52:49 - Do parties like Trump, AFD and Reform actually intend to fix the problem?

54:01 - Where should we start to take action against this timebomb?

Intro music:

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