Latest thinking

Health as a Social Movement - but what does that mean?

Blog

26 Jul 2016

Nathalie Spencer

How can we create a social movement in health? In this 5 minute video, the RSA asked health and community leaders to help explain.

Let’s Talk About Death

Video

23 Jun 2014

With Will Self, Joanna Cook and Stephen Cave

Daniel Kahneman on religion, wellbeing, and thinking fast and slow

Blog

21 Mar 2014

Nathalie Spencer

What a treat to see Daniel Kahneman here in London on Tuesday night at the beautiful Methodist Central Hall, just next door to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben.

The only 'normal' people are the ones you don't know very well

Blog

06 Mar 2014

Jonathan Rowson

I haven't taken many sick days in my working life, but whenever I have I return to my desk to find a 'sickness absence form' asking for some basic administrative information including the line:

Can you have too much creativity?

Blog

09 Jan 2014

Jonathan Rowson

Adam Lent's rallying cry for creativity met with strong tacit approval from the echo-chamber, and rightly so. What's not to like? Creativity is a feel-good concept, tapping into to the value of human freedom, with pleasant undertones of productivity, individuality, and style.

On Being Touched and Moved

Video

26 Nov 2013

Guy Claxton is Co-Director of the Centre for Real-World Learning, and Professor of the Learning Sciences, University of Winchester.

Smartphones make us dumb

Blog

26 Sep 2013

Jonathan Schifferes

Did you see the one about Apple Maps mistakenly directing people to drive across the runway at an Alaskan Airport? The coverage provides an indication of how much we’ve outsourced our intelligence to our smartphones, and how we are likely to erode our own intelligence as a result.

Searching for a way out of hell: mental complexity, wellbeing, and Bob’s Big Idea

Blog

30 May 2013

Nathalie Spencer

Looking around at the environmental degradation, financial turmoil, and increased social inequality around us, perhaps you’ve had the sinking feeling that we are creating our own demise.  Presumably you are hoping there is a way that we can work ourselves out of this mess.  You wouldn’t be alone.

Disabled? Say hello to hard times

Blog

08 Apr 2013

Today marks the beginning of the end of Disability Living Allowance. As of now, new applicants in the North East and North West will be assessed for the coalition government's replacement for the non-means tested benefit, the Personal Independence Payment (PIP). Anyone whose award is up for review will go through the PIP assessment process, and the plan is that by 2018, more than 400,000 people who currently get DLA will not get PIP. This means that around 20% of people who currently receive DLA will lose the benefit all together.