Living With Feeling

Hear historian of emotions Thomas Dixon describe and define joy, before listening to comedian Daliso Chaponda and developmental psychologist Caspar Addyman talk with Bidisha. They remind us to let our inner jester and inner laughing baby come out and play. 

Musician Sola shares her track ‘All Mine’ and talks about the pleasures of making music. Whilst enjoying ice cream, performance artist Travis Alabanza speaks with Bidisha about identity and defiance and the sheer delight they experience when they can be themselves on and off stage.  

How can joy be a collective experience? Bidisha finds out through speaking with Kemi Akinola, the founder of Be Enriched, a community kitchen in South London bringing people together over food and creating a place of comfort and joy for 4000 diners a year.

Presented by Bidisha
Produced by Debbie Kilbride
Sound design by Micky Curling
Music by Sola
Executive producer Emily Wiles

Hello Happiness: Episode 4, Joy

In this first episode of "Living With Feeling" - our new series about emotions in the 21st century - priest and writer Giles Fraser and psychotherapist Philippa Perry join Thomas Dixon for a lively conversation, tackling some big questions about the place of emotions in modern culture.

Philippa, Giles, and Thomas discuss whether people are too ready to interpret painful or difficult emotions as signs of mental illness, and whether it is always true that "Your emotions are valid".

Giles confesses to an emotional outburst in the middle of the night, and suggests we should all try to be a bit more like the Queen, while Philippa explains how important it is to be able to live with and contain our own feelings, and those of our children, without necessarily always expressing them.

Thomas asks what Christianity and psychotherapy have to say about the idea that we are all emotionally broken or disordered in some way, and asks Giles and Philippa for their views about smartphones and emotions, and whether they would like to be cared for by a robot nurse, and if not why not.

"Living With Feeling" is produced by Natalie Steed for Rhubarb Rhubarb, and supported by the Wellcome Trust.

To find out more about the work of the Queen Mary Centre for the History of the Emotions, please visit The Emotions Lab website at emotionslab.org

Rethinking Emotions

Unexpected item in bagging area! Machines can provoke many emotions, including rage and anxiety. But can they also care?

In Episode 2 of "Living With Feeling", historian of nursing Sarah Chaney meets some care robots and discusses with experts what these machines are for, and what they can offer. Sarah probes the potential and the limitations of care robots - and looks at historical ideas from earlier eras about emotional qualities, including fortitude and compassion, which would be shown by the ideal human nurse. Sarah and her interviewees also discuss the idea of "emotional labour" and also the racial and gendered stereotypes associated with nursing that are embodied in the way robot nurses are designed. 

Dr Sarah Chaney is a historian of nursing and emotions. Her most recent book is Am I Normal? The 200-Year Search for Normal People (and Why They Don’t Exist). She is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Queen Mary Centre for the History of the Emotions. @KentishScribble

Robots in this episode came from the Can Robots Care exhibition at the Thackray Museum of Medicine (Paro and Miro)

Dr Amelia de Falco, is Associate Professor Of Medical Humanities at the University Of Leeds @AmeliaDefalco

Prof. Rena Papadopoulos is Professor of Transcultural Health & Nursing at Middlesex University, London @irena_pap

Prof. Anna Romina Guevarra is Associate Professor and Founding Director of the Global Asian Studies Program at the University of Illinois Chicago @AnnaRGuevarra 

Amanda Gwinnup is a PhD candidate at the University of Huddersfield researching the post-war experiences of disabled WWI nurses @WW1NurseHist

Professor Pam Smith is Professorial Fellow and former Head of Nursing Studies in the School of Health in Social Science Edinburgh University.


"Living With Feeling" is produced by Natalie Steed, and supported by the Wellcome Trust, for the Queen Mary Centre for the History of the Emotions. Find out more about our work at The Emotions Lab website.

Robot Nurses

Should mindfulness and happiness take their place on the school curriculum alongside maths and literacy?

Thomas Dixon asks whether 200-year-old ideas about love, emotions, and primary education are still relevant today. He visits three schools with different approaches to emotions, and meets experts on mental health and wellbeing - asking whether there is a crisis in young people's mental health today, whether schools should be part of the solution, and if so what that solution might look like. Katharine Birbalsingh talks to Thomas about the "tough love" approach at Michaela Community School, and discusses whether it is harsh, or loving, to try to instil an ethos of Stoicism and individual resilience: "You say it's mean, I say it's love."

Adrian Bethune is a primary school teacher, the author of "Wellbeing in the Primary Classroom" and founder of “Teachappy”, an organisation committed to putting wellbeing and happiness at the heart of education. @AdrianBethune

Dr Lucy Foulkes is a Senior Research Fellow at the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families and an honorary lecturer in psychology at UCL. She is the author of "What Mental Illness Really Is… (and what it isn’t)". @lfoulkesy

Dr Alex Turner is Applied Research Lead at The Children's Society @DrAlexLTurner

Louis Weinstock is a psychotherapist and the author of "How the World is Making Our Children Mad and What to Do About It"

Michael Eggleton is Headteacher of the Charles Dickens Primary School and Nursery, a research school in Southwark, where he leads their wellbeing curriculum @Michael_cdps

Katharine Birbalsingh is Headmistress of Michaela Community School, Wembley, and Chair of the government's Social Mobility Commisssion. @Miss_Snuffy

"Living With Feeling" is produced by Natalie Steed for Rhubarb Rhubarb, and supported by the Wellcome Trust. It is brought to you by the Queen Mary Centre for the History of the Emotions. Find out more about our work at The Emotions Lab website.

Happiness Lessons

When it comes to childhood trauma, do our bodies keep the score, and with what emotional impacts?

Historian of child psychology Emma Sutton finds out about the recent explosion of interest in "trauma-informed" approaches and their impact on family relationships. She tries out some trauma-informed therapy herself, and discusses with therapists and experts what this approach can mean for dealing with the aftermath of adverse childhood experiences - including the additional harm done to families when someone decides to "go no contact" with a parent.

Emma discusses with Reverend Giles Fraser the dangers of overly medicalising painful experiences - and Giles speaks about his own experience of being beaten frequently when at school. The episode ends with a visit to the Kazzum Arts project and its director Alex Evans - who speaks about the powerful influence that adults can have in protecting children from the worst effects of trauma, by being playful, curious, accepting and empathetic in their interactions with them. 

Steve Haines is a bodyworker and author who is deeply interested in pain, trauma and anxiety.   @stevehaines66

Dr Charley Baker is an associate professor of Mental Health at the University of Nottingham. @CharleyBaker1

Dr Angela Davis is a historian of motherhood and parenting in twentieth-century Britain. She is the author of Modern Motherhood: Women and Family in England, 1945–2000.

Dr Joshua Coleman is psychologist in private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area and a Senior Fellow with the Council on Contemporary Families, a non-partisan organization of leading sociologists, historians, psychologists and demographers dedicated to providing the press and public with the latest research and best practice findings about American families. @drjcoleman

Reverend Giles Fraser is the Vicar of St Anne’s in Kew, as well as being a journalist and author. His most recent book is Chosen: Lost and Found Between Christianity and Judaism, and in 2017 he made a series for Radio 4 - “This Old Heart of Mine” - about the experience of surviving a heart attack and bypass surgery. It gave him the chance to reflect on matters of the heart - physical, emotional, and spiritual. @giles_fraser

Alex Evans is a visual artist, director and creative facilitator living and working in London. He is proud to be the Artistic Director of Kazzum Arts, after taking on the role in June 2017. @KazzumArts

"Living With Feeling" is produced by Natalie Steed for Rhubarb Rhubarb, and supported by the Wellcome Trust. It is brought to you by the Queen Mary Centre for the History of the Emotions. Find out more about our work at The Emotions Lab website.

Childhood Trauma

Do wellbeing apps and emotional mood trackers make you feel nervous, furious, or happy?

In this episode, historian of emotions and author Richard Firth-Godbehere goes in search of the science, technology, ethics, and feelings behind emotional AI.

Fellow historian Thomas Dixon acts a guinea pig for Richard, trying out some emotion-tracking apps. with emotionally mixed results, while Richard speaks to historians, ethicists, and others about the theory of “basic emotions” that hampers a lot of emotional AI, and also the ethical dilemmas posed by the ability of big tech companies to harvest and store increasingly intimate information about our feelings and our bodies.

Along the way, Richard reflects on the long history of emotional objects - and how bits of technology, old and new, can conjure up strong feelings, as well as encountering a award-winning app designed for children who have lost a loved one, and thinking about how he might have responded to it when he lost his own father.

Dr Charley Baker is an associate professor of Mental Health at the University of Nottingham. @CharleyBaker1

Professor Thomas Dixon is Director of the Queen Mary Centre for the History of the Emotions, the author of Weeping Britannia: Portrait of a Nation in Tears (2015), and previously presented "The Sound of Anger" podcast series. @ProfThomasDixon

Louis Weinstock is a psychotherapist and the author of How the World is Making Our Children Mad and What to Do About It

Dr Sally Holloway is Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow in History & History of Art, School of History, Philosophy and Culture, Oxford Brookes University where she researches the histories of emotional culture, love, and heartbreak. @sally_holloway

Chloe Duckworth is Co-founder & CEO of Valence Vibrations

Professor Andrew McStay is Professor of Digital Life at Bangor University, and the author of Emotional AI: The Rise of Empathic Media. @digi_ad

"Living With Feeling" is produced by Natalie Steed for Rhubarb Rhubarb, and supported by the Wellcome Trust. It is brought to you by the Queen Mary Centre for the History of the Emotions. Find out more about our work at The Emotions Lab website.

Emotional AI

It's the final episode of the series, but what have we learned about emotions past, present, and future? Thomas Dixon, Sarah Chaney and Richard Firth-Godbehere reflect back on what they have learned from the series, discuss what emotions might look like in the future, whether we should stop telling people “Your emotions are valid”, and what historians of emotion looking back on our era might think in a few hundred years’ time. 

What will future people think about the roles of - for instance - psychiatry and social media - in shaping the ways we interpret and express our feelings in the 21st century?

Is there any reason to think that things will be any less emotional in the future, or that machines and AI will fundamentally change the way human beings feel?

Join Thomas, Sarah, and Richard to find out.

Thomas Dixon is Director of the Queen Mary Centre for the History of the Emotions, the author of Weeping Britannia: Portrait of a Nation in Tears (2015), and previously presented "The Sound of Anger" podcast series. @ProfThomasDixon

Sarah Chaney is a historian of nursing and emotions. Her most recent book is called Am I Normal? The 200-Year Search for Normal People (and Why They Don’t Exist)  @KentishScribble

Richard Firth Godbehere is a historian of disgust - among many other emotions - and the author of a sweeping and scintillating book entitled  A Human History of Emotion: How the Way We Feel Built the World We Know. @DrRichFG

"Living With Feeling" is produced by Natalie Steed for Rhubarb Rhubarb, and supported by the Wellcome Trust. It is brought to you by the Queen Mary Centre for the History of the Emotions. Find out more about our work at The Emotions Lab website.

Future Feelings

PSYCHIC DRIVING
TEST #1
MUSEUM OF THE NORMAL
BART'S PATHOLOGY MUSEUM, LONDON
24.11.16

*Contains some strong language*

TAPE #1

Sarah Chaney talks about the history of assumptions made about nursing, gender, and the emotions of care.

This is one of a series of short podcasts exploring what we do at the Queen Mary Centre for the History of the Emotions.

Compassion

Do we live in an age of rage? And if so, what can we learn about our furious feelings, and how to control them, from the experiences and ideas of great thinkers in the past?  Those are the questions explored in a pair of thought-provoking and darkly funny new audio dramas by playwright Craig Baxter, commissioned by the Living With Feeling project at Queen Mary University of London’s Centre for the History of the Emotions, and directed and produced by Natalie Steed.  

SENECA ANNOYED is a philosophical tragicomedy about emotions and ideas set in ancient Rome. When the order comes to him from Emperor Nero that he kill himself, the Stoic philosopher Seneca determines to dispatch himself in a calm and dignified manner. He hasn’t counted, though, on the frailty of his own body, the incompetence of his friends, or the blind fury of his wife, Paulina.

CAST: Seneca is played by Adam Kotz, Paulina by Jasmine Hyde, and Fabius by Geoffrey Streatfeild. The centurion is Michael Bertenshaw.

Produced and directed by Natalie Steed.
Recorded by David Chilton and Lucinda Mason Brown.

The Sound of Anger. DRAMA. Seneca Annoyed

An autobiographical essay on solitude, walking, the natural world, and emotions by the novelist and nature writer Melissa Harrison.

Melissa reflects on what solitude has meant to her - and to others - from her childhood and early adult years to the recent period of lockdown in the summer of 2020. Recorded outside in the Suffolk countryside, this essay explores Melissa's feelings about living on her own and how she finds her most honest self through solitude in nature. She also reflects on what is has meant for women to be on their own in the past and the present. 

This essay was originally written in connection with the BBC Radio 4 series, 'A Short History of Solitude': https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000m57m 

Find Melissa's podcast 'The Stubborn Light of Things' here: https://melissaharrison.co.uk/podcast/

This episode is presented by Thomas Dixon and produced by Natalie Steed, as part of the 'Living With Feeling' project at Queen Mary University of London, supported by the Wellcome Trust: https://projects.history.qmul.ac.uk/livingwithfeeling/

Melissa Harrison on Solitude

Uplifting interview with Bethany about how singing saved her life. “What was once just a band aid, I just need to get better so I can sing, kinda thing, actually has been an underlying sustaining force the whole time.”
Bethany moved to London from the US almost 4 years ago and has loved building community here through singing. Currently, she teaches a community singing group for seniors at Coin Street Community Builders as well as a group at Mind in the City, Hackney and Waltham Forest for people building resilience and overcoming mental health problems. Bethany knows first-hand the healing power of singing and loves being able to share that power with others. When she is not teaching, she enjoys going for long walks around the city and hanging out with her rescue cat Arwen.

Singing Saved My Life: Bethany

This is a podcast from the Centre for the History of Emotions at Queen Mary, University of London. 'The Sound of Anger' won two gold British Podcast Awards in 2020.  Subscribe on Apple Podcasts via iTunes here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/living-with-feeling/id1186251350?mt=2

Future Feelings

Centre for the History of the Emotions

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