In this episode, Matthew talks to Professor Lee Elliot Major OBE, Lee is the country’s first Professor of Social Mobility. Appointed by the University of Exeter to be a global leader in the field, his work is dedicated to improving the prospects of disadvantaged young people. Lee discusses his book Equity in education: Levelling the playing field of learning as well as outlining other famous sociological studies and how they relate to his findings. You can view Lee's TED talk here - • How can we level the playing field of... Contact details - https://education.exeter.ac.uk/staff ..read more

In this episode, Matthew talks to Professor Les Back and Dr Isaac Hoff about the rise of hooliganism and anti social behaviour at football grounds post covid. Ideas around drug use, masculinity, cultural resistance, subcultures and moral panics are all discussed. Is the problem really as bad as the media make out it is ..read more

In this episode, three students takeover the pod to discuss the issue of sexism and misogyny in the gaming world. Harper Winslet, Jessica Thornton and Leila Miller-Jones from BHASVIC college in Brighton and Hove were inspired by the research of Anita Sarkeesian and wanted to see if their own primary research gained similar results. The research considers early games when objectification was first noticable up to more comptemporary issues such as whether the rise of Andrew Tate has had a signigicant impact on the gaming world ..read more

In this episode, Matthew talks to Professor Frank Furedi. Frank is a Hungarian-Canadian academic and professor of sociology at the University of Kent and here he talks about his ideas on parents, childhood and fear. Frank discusses ideas from his book 'Paranoid parenting' about how childhood have become over protected from the late 70s onwards. The discussion also considers how children are being impacted by over catiousness and how parenting has continued to be impacted by fear. Frank also explain his ideas on the adultification of children and the infantilisation of adults. You can find out ..read more

In this episode, Matthew talks to Kate Flatley about Paper 2 for the AQA A-level Sociology exam. Kate is a lead/senior examiner and here she explains some top tips in terms of what the examiners are looking for and how to structure questions ..read more

In this episode, Matthew talks to Circe Newbold about Paper 1 for the AQA A-level Sociology exam. Circe Newbold is a lead examiner for Paper 1, here she explains some top tips in terms of what the examiners are looking for and how to structure questions ..read more

In this episode, Matthew talks to writer and Darwinian scholar, Paula Wright. Through her MSc in Psychology, Culture and Evolution (Evolutionary Psychology) at Brunel London, Paula has questionned Feminism for igonoring biology and that some forms of Feminism actually restrict female choice. The discussion considers whether Sociology as a discipline is too quick to make the assumption that all behaviour is socially constructed by ignoring biological differences. As Paula notes on her website - 'History has demonstrated many times, that whenever our species attempts to take control of biology a ..read more

In this student takeover episode, AImee Elsworth from Blackfen 6th form discusses the issue of Anti-semitism in education. Aimee quite rightly highlights that this is an issue very much under represented and discussed in the topic of education. If you would like to do a student takeover episode then simply send an MP3 file to thesociologyshowpodcast@gmail.com Also, be sure to subscribe to the Youtube channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoLM2ukn7h2ElMbTnIrSSIg You can dontate to the gofund me here - https://gofund.me/a8763da6 ..read more

In this episode, Matthew talks to Sociology teacher and examiner Katie Tyler about how to approach questions on Social class and education. Katie explains some classic sociologists, contemporary studies and synoptic studies that can be applied. The discussion also considers some of the dos and don'ts of tackling such a question ..read more

In this episode, Matthew talks to Professor Catherine Lee MBE about section 28 which was in place in the UK between 1988 and 2003. Catherine discusses her book - Pretended: Schools and Section 28: Historical, Cultural and Personal Perspectives as well as her involvement in the recent film, Blue Jean (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8649344/) You can follow Catherine on twitter - @DrCatherineLee ..read more