Why does the world need a sociological podcast? Why now? And what does podcasting offer for a public and engaged sociology?
These questions and more were explored in Podcasting the Sociological, the launch event for Uncommon Sense, the new podcast from The Sociological Review. The event, held on 10 May 2022, allowed viewers to find out more about the impetus behind the podcast, the journey so far, and what its creators have learned along the way, as well as some tips for anyone thinking about developing their own podcast. The event featured the podcast team – executive producer Alice Bloch, hosts Rosie Hancock and Alexis Hieu Truong, project officer George Kalivis, and project lead Michaela Benson.
Uncommon Sense sees our world afresh, through the eyes of sociologists. Hosted by Rosie Hancock in Sydney and Alexis Hieu Truong in Ottawa, each episode is a lively space for questioning taken-for-granted ideas about society and imagining better ways of living together. Brought to you monthly by The Sociological Review – the home for critical sociological thinking in the UK and worldwide – Uncommon Sense insists that sociology is a public good that should be available to us all, and that you definitely don’t have to be a sociologist to think like one!
Panelists
- Alice Bloch is a writer and audio producer specialising in the social sciences and humanities, and is the Executive Producer of Uncommon Sense. She worked for many years at BBC Radio 4’s flagship sociology programme Thinking Allowed, and also produced the The Forum for the BBC World Service. In addition to working more broadly across BBC Radio, she has also worked for Monocle 24 and Penguin Press, and writes criticism for The Times Literary Supplement. She tweets @alice_bloch
- Rosie Hancock is Lecturer and Co-convener of the Religion and Global Ethics programme in the Institute for Ethics & Society at the University of Notre Dame Australia and Co-Host of Uncommon Sense. She is a sociologist of religion who researches the engagement of religious actors in grassroots politics, with a strong expertise in environmental politics. She tweets @rosiejhancock
- Alexis Hieu Truong is Assistant Professor in the Criminology Department of the University of Ottawa and Co-Host of Uncommon Sense. His research focuses on themes of mental health, violence towards women, transitions into adulthood and popular culture in Canada and Japan – and also specialises in research methods, both qualitative and quantitative.
- Michaela Benson is Professor of Public Sociology at Lancaster University, Chief Executive of the Sociological Review Foundation and Project Lead of Uncommon Sense. She is a sociologist with expertise in migration, citizenship and identity, and is particularly known for her research on lifestyle migration, the middle classes, and Britain's relationship to its emigrants and overseas citizens at moments of major political transformation including Brexit and decolonisation. She tweets @michaelacbenson
- George Kalivis is a doctoral candidate in visual sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London, with a background in gender studies and architecture, and Project Officer of Uncommon Sense. His current research aims at the inventive queering of traditional figures as alternative homemaking pedagogy paradigms in the Greek LGBTQ+ diaspora, through a practice-based ethnographic exploration of manuals as a concept and method. He posts on Instagram @geo_kalivis
The Sociological Review is the home for critical sociological thinking and research in the UK and internationally. We offer a space to question taken for granted understandings of the social world, and we provide a platform for thinking about alternative possibilities for what it might be. Our publishing platform and resource network is a place for creating, curating, disseminating and translating knowledge in a range of formats and media, and a source of inspiration for academics, students, policy-makers and the general public. Our journal, The Sociological Review, is a highly respected, internationally focused peer-reviewed academic journal. It publishes theoretically advanced and methodologically rigorous studies that look at issues of the social world through the lens of sociological imagination. Founded in 1908, The Sociological Review is the UK’s oldest sociology journal. The overarching structure for our work is the Sociological Review Foundation, a registered charity whose purpose is to advance public understanding of the subject of sociology.
