Thinking Allowed

Laurie explores the origins and meaning of boxing styles in the US and UK with Kasia Boddy; and discusses why some nations achieve prosperity but others fail with James Robinson and Paul Collier.

How did social workers view the poor between the wars? Laurie hears from Mark Peel, the author of a new study of social work and poverty in the United States, Australia and Britain and historian Selina Todd. Laurie also discusses how evangelical Christians are putting the Bible in the background of life with Matthew Engelke.

There are currently some two and a quarter million students studying in 130 universities across Britain. Laurie discusses what universities are for with intellectual historian Stefan Collini. Martin Parker talks about his work on outlaws crime and culture with Laurie and criminologist Dick Hobbs.

Citizens without frontiers, Laurie talks to Engin Isin about the ways in which people embrace acts and causes which transcend national boundaries; He also discusses with Eric Anderson and Lynn Jamieson new research on male students' attitudes to sexual monogamy and explores why men cheat on their partners.

We inhabit a precarious world of crisis and calamity which mocks the post war promise of upward mobility, social equality and job security. Cultural theorist Lauren Berlant calls it the 'cruel optimism' of contemporary life; she discusses her contention with Laurie and sociologist, Professor Bev Skeggs. Also, Karen Throsby talks of her ethnographic study of an obesity clinic and the hidden moral element to every aspect of the procedure.

Has modern capitalism made us all obsessively competitive? Laurie is joined by Professor Richard Sennett and Philosopher John Gray to discuss how we can learn to cooperate for the benefit of all; James Nicholls talks about the British and booze.

Do you doubt they put a man on the moon? Laurie explores conspiracy theories with David Aaronovitch and Jovan Byford. Kate Nash discusses her forthcoming paper on what makes us care for the suffering of strangers.

Once a stag night was more than enough, now young men are taking 'stag tours'. Laurie explores new research on the old male ritual with Thomas Thurnell-Read and Owen Jones; and also how men experience the process of childbirth with Alan Dolan.

Cosmetic surgery tourism Ruth Holliday and Jacqueline Sanchez-Taylor tell Laurie why more people are combining a holiday with a nip and tuck. Debt is even older than money, David Graeber tells Laurie about his anthropological study of 5,000 years of Debt.

What happens when one uniform is imposed on a hospital? Stephen Timmons tells Laurie. Also, the increasingly military methods of urban policing: Stephen Graham and Melissa Butcher discuss.

More people are sharing households than ever before. Laurie continues his exploration of private life as he and two sociologist Esther Dermott and Josh Richards visit the home of 6 young adults who live together.

The Anti Psychiatry movement of the 1960s, pioneered by R.D. Laing, asserted that societal ills were at the root of mental illness. Insanity was therefore a sane response to a repressive and unjust world. Michael Staub, Professor of English and author of 'Madness is Civilisation', talks to Laurie Taylor about the once popular, now discredited, theories of anti psychiatry. Also, new research uncovers the hidden history of psychoanalysis. Professor of Jung History, Sonu Shamdasani, suggests that psychoanalysis achieved its cultural power only by re-scripting history in its own image. He's joined by Stephen Frosh, Professor of Psychology.

Laurie Taylor explores the idea of the Tipping Point with Tim Clark and Pat Waugh from Durham University and Alex Bentley from Bristol University who are all involved in major Tipping Points project at Durham; they are joined by Dr Shahidha Bari from Queen Mary, London.

Laurie Taylor examines research into the advice offered to parents with Judith Suissa and Frank Furedi, and looks at comparative research in America and Holland into teenage sex in the parental home with sociologist Amy Schalet from the University of Massachusetts.

Laurie Taylor is joined by Dr Adam Swift to discuss new research about the popularly held notion that grammar schools aid social mobility. Laurie also explores opera fanatics at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires and compares them to fans in Cardiff, with Claudio Benzecry and Paul Atkinson.