Class and social mobility
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 4 February 2021
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How easy is it to climb out of the working class in Britain? Have attitudes to social mobility changed at all? Matthew Sweet talks to Professor Selina Todd about her latest book, Snakes and Ladders, which explores the myths and realities of the past century. They're joined by an accents specialist, a policy thinker and journalist, and a data analyst.
Professor Selina Todd is author of Snakes and Ladders: The Great British Social Mobility Myth; The People: The Rise and Fall of the Working Class 1910-2010; Tastes of Honey The Making of Shelagh Delaney and a Cultural Revolution
David Goodhart is the author of Head, Hand, Heart: The Struggle for Dignity and Status in the 21st Century (2020). He is Head of Policy Exchange's Demography, Immigration, and Integration Unit; and, he is also one of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) board commissioners.
Timandra Harkness is the author of Big Data: Does Size Matter and presents Radio 4 series including Divided Nation and Future Proofing
Dr Sadie Ryan is part of the Manchester Voices project https://www.manchestervoices.org/project-team/ and presents a podcast https://www.accentricity-podcast.com/ You can hear more about the Manchester project in this episode of New Thinking https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07h30hm
You might also be interested in Free Thinking programmes exploring The council estate in culture with artists George Shaw and Kader Attia , drama specialist Katie Beswick and writer Dreda Say Mitchell https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0003596 City Life, estate living and lockdown with poet Caleb Femi, Katie Beswick, and urban researchers Julia King and Irit Katz https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000nvk2 Class in Britain - a review of Shelagh Delaney's play; Lindsay Johns, Douglas Murray and the former headmaster of Eton Tony Little https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02twczj Philip Dodd with Douglas Murray, author of The Madness of Crowds, the commentator David Goodhart, the writer and campaigner Beatrix Campbell, and the academic Maya Goodfellow, author of Hostile Environment - How Immigrants Became Scapegoats, reflect on the role of culture and identity in politics in Europe and post election Britain https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000cb2f
Producer: Ruth Watts
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps |
| 0:21.2 | it. It's a long time ago, right? It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream |
| 0:26.1 | van plays music when it's out of ice cream. Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds. Are you or have you |
| 0:33.2 | ever been socially mobile? It's not a euphemism, I promise, just a term for getting on, climbing the ladder, |
| 0:40.2 | achieving success that was denied your parents and grandparents. Well, this edition of the Arts |
| 0:45.4 | and Ideas podcast won't tell you how to do that. In fact, it may leave you feeling that the idea |
| 0:50.6 | is a con. So join me, Matthew Sweet, and guests after these messages. |
| 0:56.8 | With the BBC Sounds app, you can find some of your favourite shows with ease. For example, |
| 1:02.9 | you can tap the search button at the bottom right and type in Classical Fix. This will take you |
| 1:08.1 | straight to the podcast where we aim to open up the incredible world of classical music to everyone. |
| 1:14.2 | Featuring some famous faces, including the comedian James Acaster. |
| 1:18.0 | Listening to it feels like all the grimes coming off you. |
| 1:21.2 | The musician, Nadine Shah. |
| 1:22.8 | Right now I'm on some adventure. |
| 1:25.1 | And many more. |
| 1:26.6 | Download the BBC Sounds app to start listening to Classical Fix and many other podcasts. |
| 1:33.4 | The Loch Ness Monster, fairies, telepathy. |
| 1:37.2 | Many people claim that they've seen or experienced these phenomena, |
| 1:40.9 | but most of us, I suspect, would say that they weren't real, |
| 1:43.8 | that they were dreams |
| 1:44.8 | or fantasies or myths. What about social mobility? The idea that we can, through hard work or |
| 1:51.3 | talent, improve our economic, educational and personal status? The question might seem perverse |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.