Summary
Michael Blastland asks if it's desk-bound work, rather than over-eating, which is making more and more of us obese. He hears about remarkable research which, despite received wisdom, suggests that people in the UK have reduced their calorie intake. However, they are expending far less physical energy, particularly because of new patterns of work which now require little if any bodily exertion. Michael examines projects to change individual behaviour such as corporate wellness programmes and altering office layouts - but finds it's going to be a tough sell.
Interviewees: Dr Melanie Lührmann, Senior Lecturer, Royal Holloway Professor Alexi Marmot, architect, UCL Professor Andre Spicer, Cass Business School Professor Mike Kelly, School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge University
Producers: Estelle Doyle, Phoebe Keane and Smita Patel.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.6 | My name's Linda Davies and I commission podcast for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.4 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable |
| 0:14.3 | experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC |
| 0:20.4 | makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | This is the BBC. |
| 0:40.0 | Thanks for downloading analysis, the programme about the ideas behind the news. |
| 0:44.1 | Here's Michael Blasland with a provocative question. |
| 0:47.6 | Is work too easy? Once upon a time my grandad was a fisherman. They all were then in those parts. |
| 1:06.0 | He worked the North Sea, sometimes over to Iceland. |
| 1:11.0 | Long trips, sometimes atrocious conditions. |
| 1:15.0 | Friends, lost at sea. Hard work, a hard life. |
| 1:20.0 | Cut to 2017 and I sit in a bubble in front of a laptop. I stand up now and then for a cup of tea. |
| 1:30.0 | This is my job. Work today for ever more of us physically is a doddle comparatively. |
| 1:37.0 | In the sweat of thy face shall thou eat bread, says the Bible. |
| 1:44.0 | For some, yes, but in the developed world plenty eat well enough, |
| 1:48.0 | toil, hardly at all. |
| 1:50.0 | Work doesn't mean what it used to. |
| 1:54.0 | And thank goodness, you might say, the old jobs could be killers. |
| 1:58.0 | Which makes our question in analysis this week sounds strange. |
... |
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