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:

Cold by yoitrax | @yoitrax

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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:

Cold by yoitrax | @yoitrax

Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.