Comedian and activist Mark Thomas has moved back in with his mum for the duration of the pandemic. He’s 57 and she’s 85. He says she’s curmudgeonly; she says he’s the most aggravating person on the planet. In this six-part podcast, he reflects on their lockdown life together while investigating the wider impact of COVID-19. Every night, Mark calls health and care workers across the country for a chat. Humbling and often heartbreaking, these conversations reveal what life is like on the coronavirus front line.

Mark Thomas’s lockdown check-up

Packed Lunch is a series of lunchtime talks at Wellcome Collection. You can feed your curiosity by dropping in to eat your lunch and hear local scientists in conversation about their latest experiments, life in the lab and why science matters to everyone. It all happens in the space of a lunch hour.

Packed Lunch Talk Series

‘Hello Happiness’ is the first series of ‘The Wellcome Collection Podcast’. In this episode, Bidisha asks: What are our emotions and how are they made? She then attempts to pin down the purpose and uses of hope.

Listen to historian Tiffany Watt Smith explain how our understanding of emotion has been shaped throughout time, from the ancient Greeks to our present-day obsession with wellbeing and productivity.  
Neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett speaks with anthropologist Kit Davies about how emotions are made by our brains and society. 

Black Lives Matter activist Dee Ndlovu and climate change activist Daze Aghaji discuss how they hold on to hope for a future that is far more brilliant than our present-day reality.  

Artist and performer Selina Thompson reads a specially commissioned text where she explores hope, interdependence, trust and time travel.  

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

Hello Happiness: Episode 1, Hope

Bidisha chats to her guests about their personal experiences of resolve, and considers its complicated relationship to happiness.

Psychotherapist Susie Orbach and broadcaster Jeff Brazier discuss the power and limitations of resolve in managing grief and mental health. 

Hear about the hurdles faced by champion athlete Yasmin Miller and how she works with coach Leah Dunthorne to overcome them. 

Artist and writer Scottee reads his specially commissioned text asking whether resolve is all it’s cut out to be. 

Storytellers and activists Elif Shafak and Hassan Akkad talk about individual and collective responsibility in a world of conflict and injustice. Hassan recounts his journey from Syria to a Covid ward in a London hospital, while Elif reflects on the power of stories and the positives of pessimism. 

This episode contains references to torture, sexual assault and suicidal thoughts. 

Presented by Bidisha
Produced by Debbie Kilbride
Sound design by Micky Curling
Music by Sola
Researched by Priya Jay
Executive producer Natalie Coe

Hello Happiness: Episode 2, Resolve

Moya Lothian-McLean visits St Bartholomew’s Hospital to experience the installation ‘Regarding Forests’ by Chrystel Lebas. Hear tips from staff and visitors as they share how they find a moment of peace in the middle of a bustling hospital. 

Moya speaks with three young people from RawMinds, Fawaz Sajid, Malika Sandover and Tahmina Sayfi and they talk about whether phones can ever help us to find calm in our busy, modern lives. 

Brain-injury survivor and gardener Keith Emmanuel and environmental psychologist Dr Eleanor Ratcliffe talk with Moya about the importance of being in nature for our health and wellbeing. They meet in the garden at Homerton Hospital Mothers and Babies Ward, where Keith volunteers. 

Even if you can’t escape to a green oasis, you have the right to rest wherever you are. Artist Rhiannon Armstrong has created a meditation to help you do just that. The meditation is part of a larger work called Public Selfcare System, shaped by Rhiannon’s lived experience as a disabled artist with chronic debilitating conditions, which means she has become an expert at resting in public. 

Presented by Moya Lothian-McLean 
Produced by Debbie Kilbride 
Sound design by Micky Curling 
Music by Sola 
Meditation by Rhiannon Armstrong 
Executive producer Emily Wiles

Hello Happiness: Episode 3, Tranquillity

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

Gardens are very personal, an extension of how we see ourselves in the world. They can also be a strong reminder of what is excluded as much as what is included. In our first episode presenter JC Niala asks, what does the garden reveal about the way we relate to the natural world and to each other? She explores ideas of belonging and colonial legacies, guerrilla gardening in response to a tragic event, and the link between an urban nature reserve and a GP’s surgery.

The Root of the Matter, Episode 1: The Garden

Understanding the social, behavioural and clinical issues surrounding HIV is central to its treatment. 

Join Fiona Burns to hear more about her extensive research experience of sexual health, HIV and migrant communities within the UK. Fiona is particularly interested in healthcare access, social inequalities and the relationship between migration, ethnicity and sexual health.

Speaker: Fiona Burns, clinical senior lecturer at the Centre for Sexual Health & HIV Research, University College London, and honorary consultant, Royal Free Hospital

This talk was facilitated by Holly Story, Assistant Media Officer, Wellcome Collection.

This packed lunch event was recorded live on Wednesday 17 June 2015 at Wellcome Collection.

Packed Lunch: 17 June 2015 - HIV

Lena Ciric manages a research group which uses environmental health engineering to tackle current and future urban health challenges. 

In her own work, molecular biology techniques allow Lena to explore how infectious diseases spread and to study antibiotic resistance. Join us to find out how this vital research can contribute to a healthier world.

Speaker: Lena Ciric, Lecturer in Environmental Engineering, University College London.

This talk was facilitated by Clare Curtis, Visitor Experience Assistant, Wellcome Collection.

This packed lunch event was recorded live on Tuesday 14 April 2015 at Wellcome Collection.

Packed Lunch: 14 April 2015 - Germs in the city

Through his study of pancreatic cancer, Chris Tape has discovered ‘reciprocal cell communication’ between mutations in cancer cells and healthy cells.

Learning more about how cells communicate is important for thinking about future approaches to treatment, for pancreatic cancer and beyond. Come and hear more about Chris’s findings.

Speaker: Dr Chris Tape, cellular biochemist and Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute of Cancer Research and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

This talk was facilitated by Tom Anthony, National Programmes Adviser, Wellcome Trust.

This packed lunch event was recorded live on Wednesday 4 February 2015 at Wellcome Collection.

Packed Lunch: 4 February 2015 - Cell Communication

To shed a little light on our diverse community’s desires, DIVA magazine invited experts for an arousing debate to discuss lesbian and bi-sexual sex, feminism and desire.

Panellists 
Jane Czyzselska (Chair): Editor, DIVA magazine.

Campbell X: Filmmaker whose work documents black LGBT culture, wrote and directed the award-winning feature film Stud Life.

Dr. Rachel Morris: Psycotherapist and counsellor, author of The Single Parent's Handbook, sex psychotherapist for Cosmopolitan magazine.

Kathy McQuirk: GP Surgery Practice Manager, Lesbian and Gay Foundation

Sarah Graham: Counsellor, intersex activist and a member of the UK Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.

This Sexology Season event was recorded on 6 February 2015 at Contact in Manchester as part of Queer Contact.

Podcast produced by Naked Productions

Let’s talk About Sex Baby - the DIVA Debate

This Sexology Season event was recorded on 26 July 2015 in the Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall Southbank Centre, London and was part of their Poetry International Festival.

The event was curated and produced by People Brands Events. 

Podcast produced by Meera Senthilingham.


Sex in the Afternoon at the Southbank

Brian Dillon, writer, critic and editor. He is UK editor of
Cabinet magazine, and teaches critical writing at the Royal College of Art.

Opening Comments - Brian Dillon

Are you confident about vaccines? Pauline Paterson is co-lead of the Vaccine Confidence Project, which monitors public perception of vaccines around the world, from flu vaccines in England to the HPV vaccine in India and Japan. She will be joining us to discuss what the concerns are, why these persist and how they keep track of levels of confidence.

Speaker: Pauline Paterson, research fellow, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

This talk was facilitated by Clare Curtis, Visitor Experience Duty Manager, Wellcome Collection.

This packed lunch event was recorded live on Wednesday 21 October 2015 at Wellcome Collection.

Packed Lunch: 21 October 2015 - Vaccine Confidence

Hear from Alejandro Chaoul, PhD and Tibetan Yoga teacher, about his unique experiences of bringing Tibetan Yogas into biomedical settings.

Dr. Chaoul is Assistant Professor and Director of Education for Integrative Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre. He both teaches and researches Tibetan meditation with cancer patients and their families using body-mind yogic practices. 

Find out more about Dr. Chaoul’s perspective on the relationship between Tibetan meditation and chronic stress, anxiety and sleep disorders.

Meditation as Medicine? | Alejandro Chaoul | 16 Jan 2016

The current beard trend shows few signs of abating. It seems that, for the first time in the last few decades, the beard may become more than a passing fad of fashion.

Far from a mundane topic, the beard can take us to the heart of debates about masculine appearance and ideals of the male face. In this conversation, historian Alun Whithey looks to the 18th century, when the beard fell out of favour and the clean-shaven look became popular.

Speaker: 
Dr Alun Withey, Wellcome Research Fellow, University of Exeter

Packed Lunch: 15 Oct 2015 - Beards

What exactly is a habit? What part do habits play in the way we act towards each other and towards our own health?

Social psychologist Benjamin Gardner, whose research has reshaped our definition and understanding of habits, explores habits as mental constructs and how they can override conscious intentions. In this talk, he discusses how habit formation can be used as a technique to change behaviour, the distinction between breaking a habit and removing cues to stop behaviour, and how much of an impact our habits have on the choices we make, with examples from his research in public health settings.

Speaker: Benjamin Gardner, senior lecturer, King’s College London

This packed lunch event was recorded live on Wednesday 7 September 2016 at Wellcome Collection.

Packed Lunch: 7 September 2016 - Habits

Everywhere on TV and film these days, cameras rove down corridors of schools, asylums, prisons, hospitals and offices, drifting through this confined space with emotions that range from low-level anxiety to overwhelming dread. Yet the corridor, an architectural invention of the eighteenth century, was meant to be a model of Enlightenment, of rational order and the logical distribution of space.

Roger Luckhurst traces how these institutional spaces curdled in our fantasy life to become the locus of unease and horror, taking in evidence ranging from eighteenth century philosophers, via asylum and hospital design in the Victorian era, to present day horror films such as The Shining and It Follows.

Corridor Dread: A History of Institutional Fear

Hear from Clare Lloyd about her research into what causes asthma, particularly in very young children. She’ll talk about why pollen and dust trigger reactions in some people but not others, and how can we prevent and treat asthma.

Packed Lunch: 19 September 2018 - Lungs

Cognitive scientist Anna Remington researches into the positives of autism and neurodiversity. She is currently investigating the skills and abilities that autistic people have and how our concept of productivity relates to neurodiversity and disability. Come and hear more about her current Heart n Soul project and ask your questions.

Speaker:
Anna Remington is a cognitive scientist and the Director of the UCL Centre for Research in Autism and Education. Anna is also a core member of the Heart n Soul team.

Packed Lunch: 20 March 2019 - Neurodiversity and Productivity

Spending lockdown in a small flat with his elderly mum has pushed comedian Mark Thomas to reflect on their sometimes stormy relationship. It’s also made him want to find out more about COVID-19. In the first of six podcasts, Mark calls frontline health workers to chat about coronavirus, end-of-life care and the importance of touch.

Mark Thomas’s lockdown check-up - episode 1 - The gloves are off

COVID-19 has left us all feeling exposed, Mark Thomas and his mum Margaret included. In the second episode of his coronavirus podcast, Mark calls frontline health and care workers to chat about PPE, vulnerability and the urge to protect. His mum, meanwhile, shares a novel use for gin.

Mark Thomas’s lockdown check-up - episode 2 - The masking tapes

COVID-19 has made conversation complicated. It also means there are lots of difficult things that need to be said. In the third episode of his lockdown podcast, Mark Thomas talks to health workers about communication. Mark’s mum, meanwhile, cheerfully contemplates her own demise.

Mark Thomas’s lockdown check-up - episode 3 - It’s good to talk

Isolation has helped slow the spread of COVID-19, but it’s left many of us aching for company. In the fourth episode of his podcast, health workers open up to Mark Thomas about the loneliness of lockdown. Mark, meanwhile, reveals he has ballet danced through his darkest days, much to his mum’s dismay.

Mark Thomas’s lockdown check-up - episode 4 - Splendid isolation

The last few months have been an emotional rollercoaster for us all, Mark Thomas and his mum included. But things have been especially hard for health workers. The pressure of the pandemic has left many feeling angry, exhausted and afraid. In the fifth episode of his lockdown podcast, Mark considers coping and resilience, talking to health workers about how they’re weathering a storm like coronavirus.

Mark Thomas’s lockdown check-up - episode 5 - Stress tests

The free museum and library that aims to challenge how we all think and feel about health by connecting science, medicine, life and art.

Wellcome Collection

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