Loneliness – the last taboo?

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture

4.1 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 10 February 2020

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Everyone will know someone who has been lonely. The vast majority of us will feel this way at some point in our lives. More and more of us are happy to speak out about depression but why is there still such stigma associated to talking about loneliness? Does it make us too vulnerable? We often hear about the old being lonely – but what about the young and middle aged? It isn’t considered a mental health condition but should it be? What impact does it actually have on our wellbeing? And what can we, as individuals, civil society and government actually do to tackle it? Jane speaks to Baroness Diana Barran, Minister for Loneliness, Professor Pamela Qualter, Prof of psychology for education, Uni of Manchester, Bethan Harris, Creator of Loneliness Lab & Director of Collectively and Kim Leadbetter, ambassador for the Jo Cox Foundation and Jo Cox’s sister.

Presenter: Jane Garvey Producer: Dianne Mcgregor and Kirsty Starkey

Interviewed Guest: Baroness Diana Barran Interviewed Guest: Professor Pamela Qualter Interviewed Guest: Kim Leadbeater Interviewed Guest: Bethan Harris

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 Podcasts 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	BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts.
0:41.0	This is the Woman's Our Podcast.
0:43.0	Hello, good morning and today we're talking about loneliness which a lot of people still regard as something of a taboo.
0:49.0	Is there honestly a stigma surrounding talking about loneliness owning it in effect and
0:55.8	acknowledging that not that you were lonely back in the day but before certain
1:00.1	things happened to you before your life became complete. But lonely right now in your
1:06.0	current life. It isn't easy to admit to that and I use the word admit advisedly I suppose.
1:12.3	So we'll have a conversation around that subject this
1:14.2	morning and we really do want your involvement you can contact the program on
1:17.6	social media at BBC womensar on Twitter and Instagram or email us through the website BBC.
1:24.0	K.
1:24.8	K. forward slash Womons hour.
1:26.6	Baroness, Diana Baron is England's Minister for Loneliness.
1:30.4	Diana, welcome to you.
1:32.0	Beth and Harris is here, co-founder of Loneliness Lab.
	...

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