Does Marriage Need Modernising? (Your Radical Questions with Ed Davies)
Radical with Amol Rajan
BBC
4.5 • 919 Ratings
🗓️ 9 March 2026
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ed Davies, research director at the right-leaning anti-poverty think tank Centre for Social Justice, answers your questions about modern family life and relationships.
He also discusses why young men are falling behind in work and education, how economic pressures are reshaping marriage rates, and why he argues that we need to re-prioritise social connection and community.
GET IN TOUCH * WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480 * Email: radical@bbc.co.uk Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and you can also watch them on BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m002f1d0/radical-with-amol-rajan Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The Independent.
Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Tom Smithard, Anna Budd and Lewis Vickers. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Dafydd Evans. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.8 | Hello, it's a mole here. |
| 0:07.1 | Now, just before we get into this week's radical questions and answers, and by the way, |
| 0:11.2 | thank you so much to all of you, large numbers who are sending in these questions. |
| 0:14.4 | They're terrific. |
| 0:15.5 | And as you can tell, and you're about to tell even further, we're really trying to pursue |
| 0:18.9 | answers on your behalf. |
| 0:20.2 | But just |
| 0:20.8 | before you hear this week's episode of your radical questions, I wanted to offer a little nudge to |
| 0:25.7 | get your questions for a future episode, because we have got coming on the podcast, the main podcast, |
| 0:31.8 | someone who thinks that electoral politics is broken, but democracy isn't. Electoral politics is broken, but democracy isn't. |
| 0:39.6 | If that sounds complicated, she's going to make it very, very simple, because someone called |
| 0:43.2 | Helene Landermore has a radical roadmap for what to do to restore politics to the people. |
| 0:49.8 | She's a political theorist at Yale, and she says the answer to our problems is to do politics without |
| 0:56.0 | the politicians. We're going to explore what that might look like, how it's been done in various |
| 1:00.5 | ways already in democracies around the world. And if you're someone who is, and I know many of you |
| 1:05.1 | are because I get this feedback through our wonderful social channels and indeed our inbox, if you're |
| 1:09.6 | someone who really believes in politics but thinks maybe it's kind of going |
| 1:12.9 | wrong and if you're someone who thinks maybe the problem is the politicians that we get, |
| 1:16.8 | this episode is for you. |
| 1:19.1 | If you've got a question for Helene Landemore about politics without politicians, |
| 1:24.1 | please do send it in. |
... |
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