AntiSocial

BBC Radio 4
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May 2, 2025 • 54min

Gentle Parenting

A campaign to get verbal abuse on the agenda has sparked debate with headlines that say shouting at children is as bad as physical abuse.What does the evidence actually say about the words we use when speaking to children? Where did the phenomenon of gentle parenting come from, and how do you do it? And who decides how we treat our kids?Presenter: Adam Fleming Producers: Lucy Proctor, Josephine Casserly, Bethan Ashmead Latham, Tom Gillet Production coordinator: Janet Staples Editor: Penny Murphy
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Apr 29, 2025 • 7min

The law on single sex spaces

What does the Supreme Court ruling mean for trans people and single sex services? Michael Foran, lecturer in public law at the University of Glasgow, explains.
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Apr 25, 2025 • 54min

Sex, gender and the NHS

What does the Supreme Court ruling on biological sex mean for the health service?The UK’s top court says that under equality law a woman is a biological woman and a man is a biological man. It’s sparked discussion about how the NHS accommodates trans people when it comes to single sex spaces, like women-only wards. What do the judgment and equality legislation say about providing services to only one sex? What does NHS policy say and how might it change? And why has the language used by health services become so controversial when it comes to women’s health?Presenter: Adam Fleming Producers: Simon Maybin, Josephine Casserly, Bethan Ashmead Latham, Tom Gillett Production coordinator: Janet Staples Editor: Penny Murphy
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Apr 22, 2025 • 5min

How jail-time is decided

How much leeway do judges have when sentencing? Professor Julian Roberts of the Sentencing Academy explains what guidelines judges use and how public perceptions sometimes differ from what's actually happening in the courts.
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Apr 18, 2025 • 54min

Two-tier justice

Lucy Connolly is a 42 year old woman from Northampton who is currently serving a custodial sentence for stirring up racial hatred after she posted on X on the day of the Southport attacks last year, calling for "mass deportations now" and referring to setting fire to asylum hotels. Her case has caused controversy online, with some describing her as a "political prisoner" and claiming that the justice system is treating some people more harshly than others. But to others, Lucy Connolly is being appropriately punished for an incendiary post at a time of high tensions. Are heftier sentences meted out to some people more than others? Are some groups treated differently in the courts because of their ethnicity or political views? Presenter: Adam Fleming Producers: Josephine Casserly, Simon Maybin and Beth Ashmead-Latham Studio manager: Andy Mills Production coordinator: Janet Staples Editor: Bridget Harney
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Feb 24, 2025 • 7min

A potted history of the nudist movement

This month Bianca Censori, rapper Kanye West’s wife, broke the internet after appearing on a red carpet in a transparent dress. Meanwhile, artists were upset about their life drawing class being moved in North London. This prompted a conversation about public nudity and by extension, nudism. Professor Annebella Pollen is from the University of Brighton and author of Nudism in a Cold Climate, she explains the history and significance of the nudism movement in the UK.
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Feb 21, 2025 • 53min

Nudity - the great cover up?

How comfortable are we with nudity and why does the naked body still have the power to shock?This month we’ve seen Bianca Censori break the internet after her red carpet appearance in a transparent dress and artists in north London upset about their life drawing class being moved. What actually happened and why were people so censorious about Bianca? Also, what is the history of nudism in the UK? To discuss the power of the naked body Adam is joined by Dr Victoria Bateman – an economist and author of Naked Feminism: Breaking the cult of female modesty and Stephanie Murray , a freelance journalist and contributing writer for The Atlantic.Presented by Adam Fleming Produced by Emma Close, Beth Ashmead and Clare Williamson Studio manager: Annie Gardiner Production coordinator: Janet Staples Editor: Penny Murphy
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Feb 18, 2025 • 7min

Signs in other languages

How many people living in the UK do not speak English? This week a Member of Parliament for Reform UK posts a picture of Whitechapel train station in East London. On the entrance of the station, it has the name in English and then also Bengali. Rupert Lowe MP said: “The station name should be in English and English only” Dr Ben Brindle is a researcher at the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford. He's been studying the data on foreign-born residents from the 2021 census. He explains how many people we're talking about when it comes to those who may not speak English well, or at all.
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Feb 14, 2025 • 53min

Should signs be in English only?

This week a Member of Parliament for Reform UK posted a picture of Whitechapel train station in East London. At the entrance of the station, it has the name in English and then also in Bengali. Rupert Lowe MP said: 'The station name should be in English and English only.'We'll find out how the station got its bilingual sign and examine the data on immigrants' language skills. How are non-English speakers accommodated in other walks of life? Presenter: Adam Fleming Producers: Charlotte McDonald, Arlene Gregorius and Beth Ashmead Studio manager: Hal Haines. Production coordinator: Janet Staples Editor: Richard Vadon.
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Feb 11, 2025 • 5min

Surrogacy: the law in the UK

When Lily Collins - the star of the American TV show Emily in Paris - announced she’d had a baby by surrogacy, a debate played out in her comments about the pros and cons of starting a family this way. Some of the criticism alleged that surrogacy is the preserve of the rich. In many countries commercial surrogacy – where the intended parents have a contract and pay a fee to the surrogate – is legal, including the US, Mexico and Colombia. In the UK, however, only altruistic surrogacy is legal. Katarina Trimmings from the University of Aberdeen explains what this means and how the UK law on surrogacy works.

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