Ben Yeoh Chats

Jason Mitchell is Co-Head of Responsible Investment at Man Group. He was a hedge fund manager and he is a poet. He’s a deep thinker on all things sustainable and finance. He hosts a brilliant podcast on sustainability, A Sustainable Future. We chat on his poetry and how he witnessed refugees in the Mediterranean sea.And what poetry has taught him. “rescued by our boat one morning, the man asked me, is it true what they tell us, the traffickers, about these waters, that the sea has no bottom? I told him no, there is indeed a floor, half a mile or more below us. And Europe is a much farther, more difficult journey than the traffickers promised you”. Whether fund managers on average know enough outside finance and his journey into sustainability. Jason discusses the Jevons paradox. How we use something more the more efficient it becomes. Jason gives views in overrated/underrated on: -Carbon Tax -Divestment as a social political tool -Shareholder activism as a theory of change -Carbon offsets (and shorting as a tool) -sustainable finance regulation -Stakeholder capitalism We end with Jason’s favourite podcasts that he has hosted, what people misunderstand and his advice for others. “no doesn't mean never” Transcript and video is available here. Follow Ben on Twitter.

Dan Goodley is a professor of disability studies and education at the School of Education, University of Sheffield. Dan co-directs iHuman, which sits at the intersections of Critical Disability Studies and Science and Technology Studies. iHuman is addressing  ome significant questions of contemporary society including: what does it mean to be human? Dan has written the thought provoking book: Disability and Other Human Questions. We chat about who and how do we decide who gets to be human? I pose what thinking about the rights (or lack of) that Britney Spears has is relevant to disability rights thinking. Dan wide ranging thoughts on what disability and other intersectional studies have suggested to him. These include: Thinking about “ability” and what the social model of disability suggests. What a critique of idealising able bodies and able minds might mean. What medicalisation means and how it is different to medicine. How humans are interdependent and what that suggests about our relationships. How technology is impacting Dis/abled humanness. What being a Nottingham Forest Football fan has taught Dan. And Dan’s life advice: Move from the object to embrace the subject.  Transcript and video are here.  Dan's book here: Disability and Other Human Questions Ben's Twitter is @benyeohben and Dan is @DanGoodley

Bec Hill is an actor, comedian and writer famous for flip charts with misheard music lyrics. She has a wide array of talents including as a writer, a recent children’s book series: Horror Heights, The Slime and hosting make-away takeaway for children's ITV. She has her own podcast A Problem Squared which she co-hosts with Matt Parker. We speak about the use of arts and craft in comedy and thinking about children’s comedy. How she found acting as a “straight actor” in David Finnigan’s Kill Climate Deniers. How she met her partner and how he has helped direct and collaborate on her shows. How faith helps guide her life. How her ADHD diagnosis has helped her understanding. That all things can be funny, but do you want to make a joke out of all things? We discuss the right to offend, but think about whether we should make jokes about everything. The best uses for PVA glue, duct and glitter and her practical advice for aspiring stand-up comics (it’s to do with the microphone). Transcipt and Video available here.  Book Link: Horror Heights, The Slime

Meaghan Kall is an epidemiologist at what used to be known as Public Health England but is now the UK Health Security Agency. She and her colleagues have been working flat out for two years producing some of the world's best COVID data.  We speak about annoying and funny COVID myths. She gives her view on COVID vaccine waning, Long COVID and risk in children; and how we are going to come to terms with COVID as an endemic disease (think about managing flu, although with different outcomes). We dive into what it means to be an epidemiologist and think about the social determinants of health.  With the lens of looking at HIV epidemiology, we discuss how certain populations are more adversely impacted. We discuss what caring for disabled children as meant for us and how that insight is another facet of what it means to be human. We think about what “expected value” means and how science can not answer matters of policy which have to be decided also by thinking of our values and other trade-offs. Meaghan gives the advice she is currently giving family and friends and ends with some thinking on life career advice. Transcript and video available here. Ben's Twitter @benyeohben and Meaghan's Twitter @kallmemeg

Clare Montagu was the Chief Operating Officer of one of London’s largest hospice groups, Trinity Hospice. Before that, she was a UK government minister special advisor. We talk about the challenges and joys of running a hospice. Much of great hospice care is looking after people in their own homes and in the community. Hospice care goes beyond the medical. For instance, letting a patient die in the garden under a tree because that’s their wish. This is care a hospital can not give. The hospice is staffed 24/7, pets can come, family can stay. The hospice is part of the community. We chat about the importance of death admin. You don’t want to have your stash found by your parents or the state to take your inheritance estate. We speak on why Clare uses straight forward language about death and why we don’t talk about death enough. Clare reflect on the challenges of COVID and gives her insights into how difficult running the hospice during the pandemic. She gives a sense of what being on the frontlines meant. How to find protective supplies, mortuary bags and and the lack of plans from the state. We discuss the economics of a hospice. UK hospices are not state funded but mostly funded by charity. Clare had a GBP15m operating budget or closer to GBP10m for healthcare operations (excluding the costs of running charity shops etc) this looked after 2,500 - 3,000 people in a typical year. (In a year, in the UK about 9,000 people die for every 1 million of population; London has c. 9 million population and so 80,000 Londoners die very year). We debate the difficulty of what funding a minimum service hospice would be like. We discuss the challenges of state capacity decisions in the light of swine flu and why governments will always tends to spend on a problem now rather than have insurance in stock piles. Clare gives insights into the life of a special adviser, some of the highs and lows and the comedy moments, and some of the policy she is proud of (helping Children in care). Clare suggests that while governments often get things very wrong, they are also have to deal with particularly conflicted issues and trade-offs such as security versus liberty. Clare has volunteered at a charity doing a manual warehouse job recently and she offers insights into that type of job and we discuss jobs that can have “purpose” and jobs where it is difficult to think you are on a “mission” Finally, Clare reflects on how to have a good death and her life advice. “show up and do something about the stuff that you care about”. Transcript and Video Available here. You can follow Ben on Twitter, @benyeohben and keep in touch on his newsletter.

Jonathan Wolff is the Alfred Landecker Professor of Values and Public Policy. Before he was Professor of Philosophy and Dean of Arts and Humanities at UCL. He is currently developing a new research programme on revitalising democracy and civil society. His other current work concerns equality, disadvantage, social justice and poverty, as well as applied topics such as public safety, disability, gambling, and the regulation of recreational drugs. He has had a long-standing interest in health and health promotion, including questions of justice in health care resource allocation, the social determinants of health, and incentives and health behaviour. He writes a regular column on higher education for The Guardian. We discuss how to value life and the relevance to public policy for healthcare,  and Jo’s initial interest stemming from work on railway safety. Jo gives insights in how disability studies informed his philosophy and how behind the curve political philosophy was last century and apologises on behalf of political philosophy. Jo is concerned over vaccine equity and we discuss what role and duty biopharmaceutical companies have and who should pay for vaccines. Jo outlines his aspiration and idea of a society of equals, Jo rates multiculturalism, direct democracy, Adam Smith, the future of the city, cryptocurrencies and pronouns. We chat about the philosophy of musical performance seen through the lens of music therapy. We end talking about what a productive day looks like and his advice for young people. This sums up to: Be Kind, Think in other people’s shoes, Think of where your power and privilege comes from, and, Study subjects that interest you Transcript and video are available here. 

Economist Diane Coyle is the Bennett Professor of Public Policy,  Cambridge University. She co-directs the Bennett Institute, where she heads research under the themes of progress and productivity. Her work has touched innovation, technology and intangibles; sustainability, inequality and measuring beyond GDP.   We discuss the challenges of the current narrowness in economics both in terms of the diversity of  people it attracts and the paucity of wider ranging interdisciplinary thinking. Diane’s 1997 book (The Weightless World) was prescient over many technology, innovation and intangibles trends but sustainability was a missing hole. We discuss sustainability and what she felt she missed and what she had right. Diane critiques degrowth ideas while noting the challenges which catalyse that type of thinking. We chat about measurement challenges in an intangible world and how while GDP might have measured more usefully in the past but that in the present it misses many areas of value. In passing, Diane critiques happiness indices and elements of the human development index. We address the UK’s productivity challenges (but don’t expect we have solved it?!) and conclude it is not only a measurement challenge. We discuss inequality and “superstar earners” across all sectors and possible solutions. Diane over-rates / under-rates: Universal Basic Income, a Job guarantee policy, Industrial Policy, Arrow’s impossibility theorem, running the economy hot; and the New Zealand Prime Minister. We discuss minimum wage and tax policy. Win-win investment ideas and end with what a productive day looks like and advice for would-be economists. Transcript and Video available here.

Mark Ravenhill is one of our greatest living theatre makers. I claim this in part because of the length of his writing career, 25 years+ and still going strong, and in part because of the variety of form and type of work. His work has extended into directing and performing Mark  will be co-artistic director (with Hannah Price) of the Kings Head theatre where he is outlining plans to portray stories that would fly under the rainbow flag (an allusion to multitude types of queer stories out there).    Podcast notes: Mark articulates why representation now for all kinds of stories that would fly under the rainbow flag is important and sketches out his vision as co-artistic director. We discuss the differences between German and British theatre cultures. The surprising lack of influence from visual art on British theatre (compared to eg German theatre or many other kinds of theatre).   The satisfaction of bringing a popular story, like David Walliams Boy in the Dress to a wider (out of London) audience. We chat about how representative (or not) theatre is touching on working class and outside of London audiences,  if right wing playwrights are missing considering the British people keep returning right leaning governments; and how, of course, the landscape of public views and opinion is much more complicated than that.    The importance of listening in a world where many people are defending their right to speak (and many of those defenders having never been without that right to speak) - making space to listen to other voices.   Mark’s curiosity and love of life-long learning and what ballet has taught him. The differences and similarities in how he approached his recent biographical work about his mother, father and himself.   We play over-rated/under-rated and Mark rates:   -Automatic writing  -Speaking in verse all day   -Dressing up or outside in techniques   -Chekhov and non-English theatre  -Theatre Games   (Only one of these is overrated). We discuss the importance of Keith Johnston’s book Improv (note my podcast with Lee Simpson also discuss Keith’s work) and how Mark has used the exercises in the book.   I ask Mark, what question theatre should be asking today.   Mark finishes with advice to creatives on not being swayed too much by others (well-intentioned or not) advice. Transcript and video available here. Follow Mark on Twitter @markravenhill2 Follow Ben on Twitter @benyeohben

Sally Phillips is well known for her award winning acting, writing and comedy. She had roles in 'I'm Alan Partridge', 'Smack the Pony', 'Green Wing', and 'Miranda'; and in the US, Veep.  In 2016 she fronted the documentary 'A World Without Down's Syndrome?' (BBC2). I think she should also be better known for her disability rights advocacy. We talk about types of clowning and why the clown always says ‘yes’; the challenges of older women roles in the entertainment industry and discuss the differences between US comedy and British comedy. We chat about the importance of faith to Sally and what the aphorism:  there being two routes to God (love and suffering) means. We talk about embracing uncertainty, being curious and open minded and the practice of prayer. The disability community is important to us. We both have children with disabilities. We talk in detail about how that impacts us, how the mainstream world interacts with the disabled and despite the challenges how to have fulfilled lives. Sally ends with advice for fledgling creatives and expectant mothers. Ollie makes a guest star experience telling us the best thing about having Down’s. Transcript and video available here.   Sally's Twitter: @sallyephillips, IG: sallysmack Ben's Twitter:  @benyeohben

How does individual shareholder activism work? How does personal agency and systems change work together in a theory of change? How do we become change makers? What did Catherine's mother teach me? Catherine is Chief Executive of ShareAction. She coordinates civil society activism to promote responsible investment Catherine was recognised by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader in 2014. ShareAction campaigns have significantly altered corporate strategy and government policy. For instance, on HSBC establishing environmental targets and Tesco making healthy food commitments. We chat about Catherine’s journey into activism and the theories of change that have influenced her. We discuss how poetry, Ursula Le Guin and feminism have impacted us. How to convince open minded skeptics to your cause. Transcript and video available here.  Topics covered: -Catherine’s  activism journey  -Catherine on community and theory of change -ShareAction theory of change -Healthy eating campaign, ideas on fiduciary duty -How to decide on campaign topics -Converting skeptics  -What poetry taught me dividual agency at National Express  What poetry taught me  -Questions on individual pension investors vote  -Maximising the well being of people  -Responsible Investment Bill idea, maximising welfare  -Better growth not degrowth  -Problems of vaccine nationalism  -Underrated/overrated: art, cycling, carbon tax, voting, remote work, having children  -Catherines advice to young people