LSE Podcasts
86 episodes listed below
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LSE IQ is a monthly podcast from the London School of Economics and Political Science. This is the podcast where we ask some of the leading social scientists - and other experts - to answer intelligent questions about economics, politics or society. LSE iQ a university podcast by LSE. To subscribe on Apple Podcasts please visit - https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/lse-iq-podcast/id1223817465 Or search for 'LSE IQ' in your favourite podcast app or add our RSS feed -http://www.lse.ac.uk/assets/richmedia/webFeeds/lseiqpodcast_iTunesStore.xml For further information about the podcast visit http://lse...
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
LSE IQ makes public-policy questions legible by connecting research and institutional detail with the experiences of people living through their consequences.
LSE IQ begins with a large public question, then narrows it until policy abstractions have people, institutions and consequences attached. Joanna Bale and other members of the IQ team move between academics and those living with the issue, giving the show a reported, explanatory…
A swimmer spots sewage; you end up asking who regulates the water company.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clear account of digital deception, from romance fraud to AI-powered impersonation.
The episode treats online fraud as most dangerous when it looks routine. It follows Nicky McLeod's account of a romance that began in a chat room, ran for months with oil rig worker Alan Morgan, and ended in a loss of about 20,000.
A careful look at power, decline, and the choices behind both.
The episode starts with a blunt question about American power and keeps pressing on it. It turns from politics to history, then into trade, outsourcing, and Chinese manufacturing, with Elizabeth Ingleson tying U.S.
A grounded look at why fewer children are reshaping family life and policy.
Outside a locked primary school in South London, the episode starts with a small scene that opens onto a much larger question: why are people having fewer children, and what does that mean globally?
A careful look at why the gender pay gap persists.
Jane Garvey's account gives the episode its shape. It starts with her recognising the BBC pay gap and then widens into the longer story of how women's work is still priced too low.
Debt is framed as a social and policy burden, not just a private mistake.
This episode treats debt as a social and policy problem, not just a private misstep. It stays with the shame and sense of finality that can come with bankruptcy, while also showing the harder tradeoffs people make when they skip meals or let their health slip just to keep up…
A measured look at AI's environmental cost, from water use to data-centre politics.
AI's environmental cost sits at the center here, and the episode keeps returning to water, electricity, and rare metals. The opening estimate about water use lands quickly, and it gives the episode real weight before the discussion widens to data-centre demand and the pressure…
A clear look at how monopoly incentives helped turn sewage into a national scandal.
The episode traces a sewage scandal with immediate human costs: polluted rivers and seas, swimmers falling ill, and water quality that can itself make people sick.
A grounded look at how ordinary spaces help hold communities together.
The episode asks what happens to community when everyday life gets harder to share: food insecurity, strained leisure centres, unsafe routes after dark, and the loss of free public space.
Campus radio from the wrong side of reality.
Campus decisions, Northeast news, and Northeast priorities.
How research culture changes in practice.
Conversations from inside the IT channel.
LSE IQ asks whether AI is destroying the planet.
LSE IQ asks whether debts always need to be paid.
LSE iQ asks whether America’s greatness is under threat, but the episode does not stay at the level of slogans.
LSE IQ asks whether jobs are getting better by putting Raj Chaudhry, Fabien Courtemier, and Kirsten Seinbruch in the same conversation.
LSE IQ investigates why England's rivers and seas are polluted by sewage, tracing the crisis from Thatcher's 1989 water privatisation through the financialisation of water companies by global private equity.
This episode explores whether the next world war will be a cyber war, featuring insights from experts including a former MI6 director.
LSE IQ explores whether new weight loss drugs like Ozempic represent a genuine revolution in treating obesity.
LSE's IQ podcast tackles the question of who owns outer space, featuring Helen Sharman (first British astronaut) alongside space policy experts.
The episode opens on Nicky McLeod's account of a romance scam.
LSE IQ’s 2023 episode asks whether people always need to pay their debts, with Jess Winterstein speaking to LSE Law School associate professor Dr Joseph Spooner and Debt Camel founder Sarah Williams.
LSEIQ opens with Steve Bray outside Parliament and uses him as a starting point for a wider question: where does change actually happen?
LSE IQ’s “What’s it like to be an animal?” links James’s cat Otis, Jonathan Birch’s sentience research, and a 2022 UK law that extended welfare protections to octopuses, lobsters, and crabs.
LSE IQ explores what it's like to win a Nobel Prize in Economics through intimate interviews with laureates Christopher Pissarides (2010) and Esther Duflo (2019), plus the daughter of Sir Arthur Lewis (1979), the first and only black economics Nobel winner.
LSE IQ’s episode on loneliness starts with Emery Bergman, a Cornell first-year whose 2018 video about not finding friends went viral with more than half a million views.
Anna Bevan frames the episode around a stubborn question: how the gender pay gap can actually be solved.
LSE IQ’s “Will AI free us from work?” centers on Sophie Mallett’s conversation with Judy Wiseman, LSE’s Emeritus Professor of Sociology and a long-time researcher on technology and work.
This LSEIQ podcast episode examines the UK's refugee and asylum seeker policies through academic analysis and personal testimony.
This episode explores the concept of civilizational states, focusing on China and Russia as countries that reject Western liberal values.
LSE IQ podcast examining far-right political movements and how they're shaping society.
LSE IQ opens outside Charlotte Sharman Primary School in Elephant and Castle, where the gates are locked and the playground is empty because the school closed in August after falling pupil numbers.
LSE IQ asks whether people really need to drive.
LSE IQ asks whether communities are fraying under pressure.
LSE IQ explores how to build resilience through social science research, featuring Anthony Scaramucci's story of bouncing back from being fired.
A sociologist discusses why many middle-class Britons mistakenly identify as working class, exploring family history and subjective identity.
This episode examines the societal effects of Pokémon Go, questioning whether its addictive, location-based gameplay poses risks or offers benefits.
This episode explores how social class is expressed through accents and the costs of social mobility, using My Fair Lady as a starting point.
An LSE podcast episode exploring how social science research can help humanity survive the current mass extinction event.
This episode explores the future of capitalism through interviews with academics and experts, challenging the current economic system.
This episode examines what Brexit reveals about the white working class, using case studies of Barking and Dagenham and Youngstown, Ohio.
This episode examines whether social media is good for society, focusing on online bullying and its tragic consequences.
An LSE podcast episode exploring the impact of automation on jobs, featuring expert interviews on the future of work.
This episode investigates why CEO pay has skyrocketed and whether executives are worth their multimillion-dollar compensation packages.