This week we’re joined by Jason Bunting to talk about fairness in the economy and explore what it means for how we live, work and care for each other.

*We had a few issues with Ruth’s sound so apologies for some crackling sounds whilst she’s talking. It’s all good stuff she’s saying so we’ve kept it in!*

Words of Affirmation is a podcast from Care Full, hosted by Hannah Webster & Ruth Hannan.

You can support the podcast to continue by signing up to our Patreon.

You can find out more about hosts Care Full on our website.

And about Jason’s work at fairnessfoundation.com.

This week we talked about:

• The Fairness Foundation’s Fair Necessities

• And their wider research

• The discourse of fairness around the Welfare Reform Bill

• Kemi Badenoch talking about fairness

• The car finance scandal

• Brute luck

• Issues of tax justice

• Solidarity Economics including this report from the Good Ancestor Movement and Decolonising Economics

Our music for the episode is Bobby Bertoli’s Rebirth (thanks Bob x).

This week we deep dive into the 'benefits system’ and ask what using this language means for our shared understanding of what benefits are and why they exist.

Words of Affirmation is a podcast from Care Full, hosted by Hannah Webster & Ruth Hannan.

You can support the podcast to continue by signing up to our Patreon.

And, you can find out more about hosts Care Full on our website.

This week we talked about:

• The Beveridge Report

• Darren McGarvey on the toxic trope of benefit scroungers

• This Yougov poll on how Britons feel about benefit and welfare recipients

• This article on the language of welfare from Liam Stanley

• JRF’s data on poverty in the UK

• OECD data on social security spend internationally

• This UBI trial in Wales

Our music for the episode is Bobby Bertoli’s Rebirth (thanks Bob x).

This week we take on ‘social mobility’ and explore what it means for how we live, work and care for each other. Does a focus on individual mobility obscure structural inequalities? And what would a more collective guide for our economy look like?

Words of Affirmation is a podcast from Care Full, hosted by Hannah Webster & Ruth Hannan.

You can support the podcast to continue by signing up to our ⁠Patreon⁠.

And, you can find out more about hosts Care Full on ⁠our website⁠.

This week we talked about:

• Rebecca Solnit’s ⁠essay on centrism as bias⁠

• Sutton Trust’s ⁠overview of social mobility’s past, present and future⁠

• ⁠Jeremy Corbyn’s move from social mobility to social justice⁠

• ⁠Social Mobility Day⁠

• ⁠This article⁠ on the loss of entry level jobs and the role of ChatGPT

• ⁠Ezra Collective at Glastonbury⁠

• ⁠This article⁠ on the closure of the Abrdn Financial Fairness Trust

• ⁠Community Wealth Building in Preston⁠ (“the Preston model”)

• ⁠CLES’s ⁠work on Community Wealth Building

• Citizen Network’s ⁠Neighbourhoods of Care⁠

Our music for the episode is ⁠Bobby Bertoli’s Rebirth⁠ (thanks Bob x).

This is a preview from our Patreon bonus episode! To listen to the full episode sign up to be a supporter of Words of Affirmation: https://www.patreon.com/collection/1523755

After the vote on the Welfare Reform Bill we take a look at the language shaping the terms of the debate. From supporting the most vulnerable to moralising work, what can we learn about the future of our social security system and our economy more widely.

Our next full episode will be out next week!

This week we explore our collective obsession with GDP and ask whether we need an alternative or to move away from simplistic stats altogether.

Words of Affirmation is a podcast from Care Full, hosted by Hannah Webster & Ruth Hannan.

You can support the podcast to continue by signing up to our ⁠Patreon⁠.

And, you can find out more about hosts Care Full on ⁠our website⁠.

This week we talked about:

• Emma Holten’s book ⁠Deficit: How Feminist Economics Can Save Our World⁠

• Adrienne Buller’s book ⁠Value of a Whale⁠

• Creativity in capitalism inspired by a ⁠Margate Sounds⁠ event

• This documentary ⁠Can Degrowth Save the World ⁠on the BBC

• ⁠Wellbeing indicators from the ONS⁠

• ⁠Dark Matter Lab’s Cornerstone Indicators⁠

• Oxfam, JRF and the UN on a world beyond GDP (⁠here⁠, ⁠here⁠ and ⁠here⁠ respectively)

Our music for the episode is ⁠Bobby Bertoli’s Rebirth⁠ (thanks Bob x).

This week we take on ‘hard-working families’ and explore what it means for how we live, work and care for each other.

Words of Affirmation is a podcast from Care Full, hosted by Hannah Webster & Ruth Hannan.

You can support the podcast to continue by signing up to our Patreon.

And, you can find out more about hosts Care Full on our website.

This week we talked about:

• This 2005 Guardian article on ‘hardworking families’

• This Oscar Reyes article on ‘hardworking families’

• Keir Starmer’s essay ‘The Road Ahead’ featuring 10 principles and the commitment to “always put hard-working families and their priorities first”

• Rutger Bregman’s book Humankind and in conversation on the Guardian’s Today in Focus

• David Graeber’s book Bullshit Jobs

• Sophie Lewis’s book Abolish the Family

• Notes from Below’s Workers Inquiry (including the ‘Under London’ episode)

• Reading on the Rochdale Pioneers

• Emily Kenway’s work on the Commons of Care

Our music for the episode is Bobby Bertoli’s Rebirth (thanks Bob x).

This week we take on ‘economic inactivity’ and explore what it means for how we live, work and care for each other.

Words of Affirmation is a podcast from Care Full, hosted by Hannah Webster & Ruth Hannan.

You can support the podcast to continue by signing up to our Patreon.

And, you can find out more about hosts Care Full on our website.

This week we talked about:

• Emma Holten’s book Deficit: How Feminist Economics Can Save Our World

• Helen Hester and Will Stronge’’s book Post-work

• UBI research Levelling the Mental Health Gradient Amongst Young People led by Northumbria University (co-authored by Hannah)

• Moya Lothian-McLean and Ash Sarkar discussing feminism on Novara Media’s If I Speak

• The We Are The Economy campaign

• Patsy Palmer’s Instagram

• Bridget Christie’s comedy series The Change

Our music for the episode is Bobby Bertoli’s Rebirth (thanks Bob x).

Welcome to Words of Affirmation, the new podcast from Care Full, where we demystify and dismantle the words and phrases propping up our economy. Each week we’ll take on some of the language swirling around the political and economic discourse; exploring where it comes from, what it means and how it’s holding us back from a fairer economy for all of us. From hard working families to economic activity, skilled labour to the benefits system, we’re coming for you!

Our first episode lands in May - so subscribe now to be the first to hear it!