What do you know about knife crime? It’s something that happens in gangs and on the streets. It’s something you’ve never had to worry about. Right?   Gary Younge is an author, broadcaster and a professor of sociology at the university of Manchester. Formerly an editor at large of the guardian newspaper, he has written 5 books including Another Day In The Death of America, which chronicled the lives of ten children and adolescents who were shot dead on one day in November 2013.   I’ve wanted to talk to Gary since his award winning investigation for the Guardian in 2018, Beyond The Blade, where he took a similar approach to another day in the death of america: except he took a year, not a day, and he told the stories of the 39 children and adolescents who had been stabbed to death, in 2017. Gary has lived in both America - where he wrote extensively about gun culture - and now, back in the UK, where he has written extensively about knife crime, and I don’t think there’s anyone who descontructs the myths around social violence, like Gary.   We discuss why knife crime is a public health issue, why the term ‘knife crime’ itself is a social construct lacking in context, the ramifications of shutting down shared, free spaces for adolescents and how we won’t ever get on top of it until we understand that knife crime is about poverty, not race.   Follow @garyyounge on Twitter Read Beyond The Blade Buy Another Day In The Death of America   Hosted & Exec Produced by Pandora Sykes Production by Joel Grove Get 20% off OTO sleep drops with the code pandora20 

Professor Pragya Agarwal is a data and behavioural scientist, a visiting professor of social inequities and injustice at Loughborough University and the founder of a research think tank, The 50% Project. She is also the author of five books, most recently Hysterical: Exploding The Myth of Gendered Emotions.    In this episode, we talk about whether women really do cry more; the myth of the hysterical woman; how emotional expression varies over cultures and societies; and why we need to talk more about the biases in science.   Buy Hysterical: Exploding The Myth of Gendered Emotions Follow Pragya on Twitter @DrPragyaAgarwal   Hosted & Exec Produced by Pandora Sykes Production by Joel Grove

There are 50million people living with dementia worldwide. By 2050, it’s likely to rise to 152 million. But how much do you know about dementia? When it’s a disease so rapidly on the rise, why aren’t we talking more about it?   Wendy Mitchell is a former NHS worker who was diagnosed with young-onset dementia at the age of 58. She’s written two books: Somebody I Used To Know and What I Wish People Knew About Dementia   We talk about why dementia is so much more than memory loss; how the arts often falls back on stereotypes when featuring characters with dementia; and how Wendy thinks a diagnosis of dementia could be better broken by doctors - it’s not the end of life, she says, it’s the beginning of a different one.   Buy What I Wish People Knew About Dementia, by Wendy Mitchell Follow Wendy on Twitter @WendyPMitchell    Hosted & Exec Produced by Pandora Sykes Production by Joel Grove  

Beauty journalist Jessica DeFino discusses the myth of good skin, the evolution of tans, celebrity makeup and skincare lines, and the tipping point in the beauty industry.

I'm so pleased to bring you this s2 bonus episode sponsored by Sage Appliances, with Cariad Lloyd, which we recorded in front of a live audience a month ago. Cariad is a comedian and writer and the creator of the cult podcast, Griefcast, where she interviews famous people (usually comedians) like Robert Webb, David Baddiel and Sara Pascoe about the human experience of death and grief, and which has won multiple British Podcast Awards.    I'm really interested in grief: why we fear it (especially other people's), why we expect grief to look a certain way, the lack of nuance in our understanding of grief. What I love about Griefcast is the way it democratises grief: there is no one way to grieve. Grief, as Cariad digs into, is not just very sad, it is funny, absurd, weird and life-expanding.   You can listen to a new series of Griefcast now, on all good pod platforms and find Griefcast on Twitter @thegriefcast. Here are some helpful resources from Cariad: The Grief Network Let's Talk About Loss charity Dead Parent Club podcast The New Normal charity Bereavement Room podcast   And some books I recommend: Grief Works by Julia Samuel, Once More We Saw Stars by Jayson Greene, It's Your Loss by Robyn Donaldson and Emma Hopkinson, Languages of Loss by Sasha Bates, Sunset by Jessie Cave and The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.

Helen Russell is a journalist, podcaster and author of How To Be Sad, a part memoir/ manifesto which argues that we can’t talk about happiness, without making space for sadness. But why are we so scared of being sad? We discuss ‘warm glow giving’, what we can learn about sadness from the Russians and why "money can't buy you happiness" isn't quite right. Buy How To Be Sad, here: https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Helen-Russell/How-to-be-Sad--Everything-IVe-Learned-About-Getting-Happi/24958621

Pooja Lakshmin, psychiatrist specializing in women's mental health, discusses the flaws of the wellness industry and the true meaning of self-care. They explore the difference between burnout and despair, critique the concept of burnout and its impact on marginalized groups, and examine the lack of systemic fixes in the media world. The challenges of practicing self-care, the dangers of misinformation in the wellness industry, and the importance of seeking professional treatment are also discussed.

Economist and thought leader Noreena Hertz discusses the correlation between fast-paced city living and loneliness. They explore paying for companionship and the rise of the loneliness economy, as well as the negative effects of social media on loneliness. The lack of regulation and accountability in social media companies is also discussed. Overall, they emphasize the importance of connection and caring for others in combatting loneliness.

Arthur Brooks is a social scientist, Harvard professor and author of multiple books, who writes a column for The Atlantic about happiness. After his column on introverts and extroverts caught my attention (I am fascinated in personality theories), I rung him up to discuss why introverts fared better during the pandemic and what extroverts and introverts can learn from one another. Plus, we take a little detour into why 'more' isn't always better. You can read that column here: https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/05/introverts-extroverts-happiness-gap-pandemic/618925/ Tickets for Pandora Sykes in conversation with Candice Brathwaite are available here: fane.co.uk/pandora

Alexandra Wilson is a criminal and family law barrister, the founder of Black Women In Law and the author of Black & White: a young barrister’s story of race and class in a broken justice system. We discuss the bar’s diversity and access problem, Stop & Search, the over-representation of black people in prisons and what we get wrong when we talk about knife crime. Plus, she drops some deliciously archaic nuggets about the process of becoming a barrister. Buy In Black and White https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Alexandra-Wilson/In-Black-and-White--A-Young-Barristers-Story-of-Race-and-/25680126   Tickets for Pandora Sykes in conversation with Candice Brathwaite are available here: fane.co.uk/pandora