Summary
SUGAR: Laurie Taylor explores the ways in which the sweet stuff has transformed our politics, health, history and even family relationships. He’s joined by Ulbe Bosma, Professor of International Comparative Social History at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, and author of a tour de force global history of sugar and its human costs, from its little-known origins as a luxury good in Asia to transatlantic slavery and the obesity pandemic.
Also, Imogen Bevan, Research Fellow in Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh, considers the bittersweet nature of sugar consumption and kinship in Scotland. During extensive fieldwork in primary schools, homes and community groups, she traced the values and meanings attributed to sugar – its role in cementing social bonding, marking out special occasions and offering rewards to children, in particular. Far from being a simple and pleasurable choice, she found it often had a fraught, morally ambivalent presence in family life.
Producer: Jayne Egerton
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of |
| 0:07.0 | Happiness Podcast. |
| 0:08.0 | For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want |
| 0:14.4 | to share that science with you. |
| 0:16.1 | And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley. |
| 0:19.4 | I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that |
| 0:25.4 | calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:30.3 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:36.7 | This is a Thinking Loud Podcasts from the BBC and for more details and much, much more about thinking aloud go to our website at BBC.co. UK. |
| 0:47.6 | Hello after last week's program I rather felt we'd well somewhat overdosed on the subject of Woke. |
| 0:54.5 | But two emails from listeners made me think again. |
| 0:58.0 | Jan Chamier sent me this headline from the 26th September edition of the Sun, |
| 1:02.8 | Ritchie Sunak must bite the bullet |
| 1:05.8 | and derail Woke HS2. |
| 1:09.2 | Well, what better illustration could there be of our contention that the word had now become in some hands |
| 1:15.3 | nothing more than a meaningless term of abuse. And then came the email from Ashrampur which |
| 1:21.6 | movingly captured the manner in which a person who's the subject of |
| 1:25.4 | woke might actually welcome the type of solicitous attention its critics derided. |
| 1:31.3 | Laurie, while I'm certainly not woke, I feel more seen now for my racial and cultural background, |
| 1:39.4 | for the story of my family and more aware of my own blind spots in terms of gender and class than I ever was as a young man. |
| 1:48.0 | For me, the woke movement has improved my life more often than it has been an irritation. |
| 1:55.0 | Now a couple of words in that touching email increasingly seemed relevant to me |
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