In this episode, host Chris Coates looks at air pollution and in particular how common is it for immigrant populations to live in more polluted areas. His guests are Tobias Rüttenauer, Assistant Professor in Quantitative Social Sciences UCL and L’myah Sherae, Director of Enact Equality, a non-profit organisation which campaigns for racial justice and equality in the UK.

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In this first episode of our new season, host Chris Coates looks at the link between pets and life satisfaction, and how it’s possible to put a monetary value on the benefit of having a cat or dog. His guests are Adelina Gschwandtner, a senior lecturer in Economics at the University of Kent, and Ashleigh Brown, Scientific and Policy Manager at RSPCA.

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In this episode we’re looking at the some of the people who use the data we gather. Chris talks to Cara Booker, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Social and Economic Research where Understanding Society is based, about studying for a PhD and what to do with the doctorate once you’ve got it.

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In this episode, we discuss how families are affected by benefit cuts and fluctuating incomes, with Gabriele Mari, assistant professor in the School of Social and Behavioural Sciences at Erasmus University Rotterdam, and Sara Ogilvie, Director of Policy, Rights and Advocacy at the Child Poverty Action Group. 

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The housing crisis – a simple question of too much demand and not enough supply, or is there more to it? With Rory Coulter, Associate Professor in Human Geography at University College London, and Kevin Garvey, Head of Member Relations at the National Housing Federation.

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What is the relationship between the arts and our mental health? Are they good for our mental health, or are happier people more likely to engage in the arts? The guests for this episode are Hei Wan (Karen) Mak, a senior research fellow in epidemiology and statistics at UCL and Nicky Goulder, CEO of Create, which puts on creative workshops in schools, day centres, prisons, and hospitals.

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Do education levels affect gender roles in UK households? Do men with degrees do more childcare and housework? With guests: Barbara Okun, Professor of Demography in the Sociology Department and Demography Division at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Dr Sara Reis, Deputy Director and Head of Research and Policy at feminist economics think tank the Women’s Budget Group.

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In our first episode of 2025, we look at the future care needs of an aging population in the UK, with Taha Bokhari and Abby Jitendra from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, who have written a report about what our ageing population means for care, work, our benefits system and our communities.

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In this episode, we discuss the effects of parenthood on job mobility and what this means for the gender pay gap with Dr. Silvia Avram, a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex, and Alesha De Freitas, Head of Policy, Research and Advocacy (at time of recording) at the Fawcett Society.

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In this episode, one of our participants, Neil, talks about what it’s been like to be part of Understanding Society right from the beginning. What does it mean for him, and what changes has he seen in life and society since joining our predecessor, the British Household Panel Survey, in 1991?

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In the first episode of a new series of Insights, Chris Coates discusses changes in the mental health of Muslims in the UK during the pandemic with Miqdad Asaria, Assistant Professor of Health Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, who has researched this, and Maaria Mahmood, Director of the Muslim Youth Helpline.

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In this episode, we’re looking at methodology. Pablo Cabrera Alvarez, a Senior Research Officer at the Institute for Social and Economic Research, talks about survey response rates and what happened to Understanding Society during the Covid pandemic, when interviewers couldn’t get to see participants face to face.

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In a new episode of our quick-listen one-to-one podcasts, Dr Amy Clair from the Australian Centre for Housing Research talks to Chris Coates from Understanding Society about research which suggests that private renting can age you faster than being unemployed or smoking.

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In a new episode of our one-to-one podcasts, Edith Aguirre, a senior research officer at the Institute for Social and Economic Research, talks to host Chris Coates about Understanding Society’s ‘PEACH’ file. This brings our data on children under 10 together with data on pregnancy and child development, to help researchers study family dynamics.

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Emily Murray, Director of the new Centre for Coastal Communities at the University of Essex, joins host Chris Coates to talk about the work of the new centre, and her research into the challenges and opportunities of living by the sea

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Emily Grundy, a Professor in the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex, and Toby Murray, from the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, discuss the trend of ‘boomerang’ movers – adult children who move back in with their parents, and what it means for wellbeing

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What can data tell us about loneliness and its links with poorer mental health? And what, if anything, can we do about it? Discussing this with host Chris Coates are Ann-Marie Creaven from the University of Limerick, and Isabel Taylor from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

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Ozan Aksoy, Associate Professor in social science at the Social Research Institute at University College London, and Malcolm Brown, Director of Faith and Public Life at the Church of England, discuss research which shows that attending religious services more frequently was associated with higher wellbeing.

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Ting Liu, a social statistics PhD student at the University of Manchester, who is investigating attitudes toward climate change risk and carbon emissions, and Helena Bennett, Head of Climate Policy at the Green Alliance think tank, discuss what data can tell us about how we think about climate change, and what’s next for government policy?

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Rory Coulter from University College London and David Sturrock from the Institute for Fiscal Studies join Catherne to talk about housing, wealth and inheritance – what does research tell us, and what does it mean for government policy?

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