Doctors' Notes: Resolutions
What's Up Docs?
BBC
4.4 • 659 Ratings
🗓️ 6 January 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
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Summary
In this new year episode, Chris and Xand continue their conversation with behaviour change expert Alasdair Cant, taking a closer look at the psychology behind our attempts to start afresh. They explore how Alasdair got into the field of behaviour change and the patterns that distinguish people who succeed with long-term change from those who struggle.
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Presenters: Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken Guest: Alasdair Cant Producer: Maia Miller-Lewis Executive Producer: Rami Tzabar Editor: Jo Rowntree Researcher: Grace Revill Tech Lead: Reuben Huxtable Social Media: Leon Gower Digital Lead: Richard Berry Composer: Phoebe McFarlane Sound Design: Ruth Rainey
At the BBC: Assistant Commissioner: Greg Smith Commissioning Editor: Rhian Roberts
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:05.7 | Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast, The Traitors Uncloaked. |
| 0:12.7 | But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's Saturday bonus episodes, |
| 0:18.2 | The Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Rylan, and comedy specials |
| 0:22.2 | from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffel and Rommashranganathan. |
| 0:25.9 | However, and maybe I'm biased, it's really all about the traitors uncoaked. |
| 0:30.3 | So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops and podcasts, listen only on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.5 | Welcome to Doctor's Notes. I'm Dr. Chris Van Teleken, as ever I'm here with my identical twin brother. Welcome to Doctor's Notes. |
| 0:37.9 | I'm Dr Chris Van Telegan. |
| 0:38.9 | As ever, I'm here with my identical twin brother. |
| 0:41.0 | That's me, Doctor's Aunt. |
| 0:42.3 | We've just finished recording our interview with behaviour change expert, Alistair Kant. |
| 0:46.8 | We've been talking about turning over a new leaf. |
| 0:49.1 | Why do we feel the need to set resolutions? |
| 0:51.4 | Why do old habits die hard? |
| 0:53.8 | How can we decide if we need to change and then |
| 0:57.0 | how can we change? But for lots of us, there's a huge amount of unhappiness in sort of imagining |
| 1:01.9 | the person we ought to be, we should be, we maybe could be in figuring out why we haven't been |
| 1:07.1 | able to get there. And the pressure we put on ourselves to do this. And I think New Year is a time |
| 1:13.7 | when, yes, there's a lot of optimism around resolutions, but there's also a fear of failure and often |
| 1:20.3 | an actual failure. So it was really fascinating to engage with that with Alistair, who is such a |
| 1:25.7 | thoughtful and effective person thinking about change. Alistair, who is such a thoughtful and effective person thinking about |
... |
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