Thinking Allowed

The agony of love is a classic trope of romantic literature and popular journalism. The suffering caused by failures in our personal lives seems timeless. But the sociologist, Eva Illouz, argues that ...

16 Maj 201228min

Hebden Bridge was once a working class textile town shaped by a culture of chapel and self help. But a new book finds its character transformed by a wave of incomers - from hippies to home workers. Th...

9 Maj 201228min

What drives people to make the often difficult choices to change their bodies and change their gender? How is the everyday affection for one's country changing in English life? Laurie Taylor discusses...

2 Maj 201227min

The sad story of the hunt for the lone gunman Raoul Moat had many of the ingredients of classic crime fiction: a countryside location; an outsider against the law and an extraordinary set of tragic ci...

25 Apr 201228min

What is the reality of life for a crack cocaine user in South London? Daniel Briggs new ethnography is a day to day observation of the people who use the drug, and their struggles to get the drug and ...

18 Apr 201227min

We pay others to take away our household refuse from the front of our house whilst hoarding other junk in the attic. And while most of us wouldn't mind buying other people's discarded clothes in a cha...

11 Apr 201228min

When the factories close, what happens to the communities they leave behind? In this week's programme, Laurie investigates the effects of industrial decline in Wales, examining in-depth sociological s...

4 Apr 201228min

Britain congratulates itself on the success of its restaurants and its stable of 21 multiple Michelin-starred eateries, but how many people know that Germany has nearly double that figure? What are th...

28 Mars 201228min