Crossing Channels

In this episode of Crossing Channels, Richard Westcott talks to Sander van der Linden from the University of Cambridge and Marion Hoffman from the Toulouse School of Economics about how social connections shape our lives. 
They explore how relationships form, why having many connections does not necessarily protect people from loneliness, and how online and face-to-face interactions influence wellbeing, trust and access to information. 
The conversation examines how algorithms, likes and echo chambers shape what people see and believe, why some social groups mix while others remain separate, who is most vulnerable to online manipulation, and what schools, policymakers and technology companies can do to create safer and more inclusive spaces for connection.
Season 5 Episode 9 transcript
Listen to this episode on your preferred podcast platform
For more information about the Crossing Channels podcast series and the work of the Bennett School of Public Policy and IAST visit our websites at https://www.bennettschool.cam.ac.uk/ and https://www.iast.fr/
Follow us on Linkedin, Bluesky and X. 
With thanks to:
Audio production by Alice Whaley
Associate production by Burcu Sevde Selvi
Visuals by Tiffany Naylor and Pauline Alves
More information about our host and guests:
Richard Westcott is an award-winning journalist who spent 27 years at the BBC as a correspondent/producer/presenter covering global stories for the flagship Six and Ten o’clock TV news as well as the Today programme. Last year, Richard left the corporation and he is now the communications director for Cambridge University Health Partners and the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, both organisations that are working to support life sciences and healthcare across the city.
Marion Hoffman is an Assistant Professor at the Toulouse School of Economics. Her research aims at furthering statistical methods for the analysis of social networks and social groups. Her work has particularly focused on the development of relational event models and exponential family models tailored for social group data. She has also worked on empirical studies devoted to understanding the role of depressive symptoms and socioeconomic attributes in the emergence of social interactions. She received a PhD from ETH Zürich in Switzerland before joining the IAST and TSE.
Sander van der Linden is Professor of Social Psychology in Society and Director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge. He is ranked among the top 1% of highly cited social scientists worldwide and has published over 200 research papers. He is the author of Foolproof: Why We Fall for Misinformation and How to Build Immunity (2023). He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2025 and received the BPS President’s Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychological Knowledge.

In this episode of Crossing Channels, Richard Westcott (host) talks to Davide Luca from the University of Cambridge and Laurenz Guenther from the Toulouse School of Economics about what lies behind the rise of populism. 
They explore why populism is not only about elections or political leaders, but also about how people experience representation, inequality, place and trust in democracy. 
The conversation examines how spatial inequality, economic anxiety, cultural attitudes and social media shape political behaviour, why some voters feel unheard by mainstream parties, and what democratic systems can do to rebuild stronger connections with citizens.
Listen to this episode on your preferred podcast platform 
Season 5 Episode 8 transcript: MS Word / PDF
For more information about the Crossing Channels podcast series and the work of the Bennett School of Public Policy and IAST visit our websites at https://www.bennettschool.cam.ac.uk/ and https://www.iast.fr/.
Follow us on Linkedin and Bluesky. 
With thanks to:
Audio production by Alice Whaley
Associate production by Burcu Sevde Selvi
Visuals by Tiffany Naylor and Pauline Alves
More information about our host and guests:
Laurenz Guenther is a Research Fellow at the Toulouse School of Economics (IAST) and a Fellow at Bocconi University's Institute for European Policymaking; from August 2026 he will also be a Visiting Scholar at Nuffield College, Oxford. His research combines political and experimental economics to study populism, immigration and political representation — including how gaps between citizens' preferences and those of their elected representatives shape support for populist parties. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Bonn (2023). He has been named one of the "40 under 40" by the German business magazine Capital.
Dr Davide Luca is an Assistant Professor in Regional Economics at the Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge, and Fitzwilliam College’s DoS for his department. His research is interdisciplinary, and focuses on the interactions between territorial inequality, socioeconomic outcomes, and public policy delivery. Before joining Cambridge University, Dr Davide Luca was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and worked for the European Commission. He holds a PhD in Economic Geography from the London School of Economics and Political Science. More information about him can be found on his website: https://davideluca.com/
Richard Westcott (host) is an award-winning journalist who spent 27 years at the BBC as a correspondent/producer/presenter covering global stories for the flagship Six and Ten o’clock TV news as well as the Today programme. Last year, Richard left the corporation and is now the communications director for Cambridge University Health Partners and the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, both organisations that are working to support life sciences and healthcare across the city.

In this episode of Crossing Channels, Richard Westcott (host) talks to Rachel Adams (University of Cambridge) and Tiziana Assenza (Toulouse School of Economics)  about who we can trust online, and how misinformation, platforms and AI are reshaping the information environment. 
They explore why misinformation is not only about false content, but also about the systems that decide what people see, when they see it, and at what scale. 
The conversation examines how people often overestimate their own ability to spot misinformation, why emotional and identity-based reactions make false information spread, and how AI can deepen inequalities between countries with very different levels of regulation, digital literacy and platform accountability. 
They also discuss the risks for democracy, children and public debate, the economic consequences of technology-related misinformation, and what governments, platforms, schools and independent institutions can do to build a healthier and more trustworthy online information environment.
Listen to this episode on your preferred podcast platform
Season 5 Episode 7 transcript
For more information about the Crossing Channels podcast series and the work of the Bennett School of Public Policy and IAST visit our websites at https://www.bennettschool.cam.ac.uk/ and https://www.iast.fr/.
Follow us on Linkedin and Bluesky

With thanks to:
Audio production by Alice Whaley
Associate production by Burcu Sevde Selvi
Visuals by Tiffany Naylor and Pauline Alves

More information about our host and guests:
Rachel Adams, Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI), University of Cambridge.
Dr Rachel Adams is the Founder and CEO of the Global Centre on AI Governance, a global hub for research and evidence-led action on inclusive and equitable approaches to the use and governance of Al technologies. She has wide expertise in leading global research grants and building international, multi-stakeholder programmes that connect rigorous scholarship with real-world policy impact. She’s been involved with CFI for a number of years, including as an Assistant Research Professor with the Centre. In her new role Dr Adams will provide leadership for the Centre, with the aim of advancing, supporting and maintaining the University of Cambridge’s national and international reputation for excellence in research and teaching in the ethics and impact of AI.
Tiziana Assenza, Toulouse School of Economics
Tiziana is an Associate Professor of Economics at Toulouse School of Economics. Her research examines economic behavior using experimental and computational methods, with a particular focus on expectations formation in macroeconomics. She studies how individuals form and update economic expectations, how central bank communication influences these expectations, and how dis(mis)information shapes decision-making, business cycles, and the effectiveness of economic policy.
Richard Westcott (Host), Cambridge University Health Partners and the Cambridge Biomedical Campus
Richard Westcott is an award-winning journalist who spent 27 years at the BBC as a correspondent/producer/presenter covering global stories for the flagship Six and Ten o’clock TV news as well as the Today programme. Last year, Richard left the corporation and he is now the communications director for Cambridge University Health Partners and the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, both organisations that are working to support life sciences and healthcare across the city.

In this episode of Crossing Channels, Richard Westcott talks to Sumedha Deshmukh and Bruno Biais about whether the future of money can be truly inclusive. 
They explore the promise and limits of cryptocurrency, asking whether it offers a genuine alternative to existing financial systems or risks reproducing the same forms of exclusion, volatility and mistrust. The conversation examines why crypto may be useful in places where monetary and banking institutions are weak, but also why it can expose less informed users to new risks. They also discuss stablecoins, digital public infrastructure, regulation, trust and governance, and what policymakers need to consider if digital finance is to serve people’s real needs rather than simply benefiting those who are already better connected and better informed.

Season 5 Episode 6 transcript
Listen to this episode on your preferred podcast platform

For more information about the Crossing Channels podcast series and the work of the Bennett School of Public Policy and IAST visit our websites at https://www.bennettschool.cam.ac.uk/ and https://www.iast.fr/.
Follow us on Linkedin, Bluesky and X. 

With thanks to:
Audio production by Alice Whaley
Associate production by Burcu Sevde Selvi
Visuals by Tiffany Naylor and Pauline Alves

More information about our host and guests:
Podcast host
Richard Westcott is an award-winning journalist who spent 27 years at the BBC as a correspondent/producer/presenter covering global stories for the flagship Six and Ten o’clock TV news as well as the Today programme. Last year, Richard left the corporation and he is now the communications director for Cambridge University Health Partners and the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, both organisations that are working to support life sciences and healthcare across the city.
Podcast guests
Bruno Biais, a professor at HEC Paris, and associate researcher at TSE, holds a PhD in finance from HEC. He is a fellow of the Econometric Society and the Finance Theory group and has been scientific adviser to the NYSE, Euronext, European Central Bank and Bank of England. His current research project, titled "Welfare, Incentives, and Dynamic Equilibrium" benefits from the support of the European Research Council (ERC Advanced Grant).

Sumedha Deshmukh, formerly of the Bennett School of Public Policy, is currently a Research Fellow at University College London and the Ada Lovelace Institute. Her research focuses on the economic and societal impacts of digital technologies, with a particular interest in technology governance and public policy. Previously, she led multi-stakeholder technology governance initiatives at the World Economic Forum. She holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, as well as a Master of Public Policy and BA in Economics from the University of Virginia.

In this episode of Crossing Channels, Anna Alexandrova and Léo Fitouchi talk to Richard Westcott about the limits of markets and what happens when economic reasoning meets moral values. 
They explore why some things – such as dignity, fairness and trust – sit uneasily with prices, and how attempts to measure wellbeing can reshape what societies consider valuable. 
The conversation also examines how monetary incentives sometimes crowd out moral motivations, why people react strongly to the idea that certain goods should be for sale, and what this means for policymakers trying to design fair and legitimate institutions in a world where not everything that matters can be priced.
Listen on your preferred podcast platform
Season 5 Episode 5 transcript: Word / PDF
For more information about the Crossing Channels podcast series and the work of the Bennett School of Public Policy and IAST visit our websites at https://www.bennettschool.cam.ac.uk/ and https://www.iast.fr/.
With thanks to:
Audio production by Alice Whaley
Associate production by Burcu Sevde Selvi
Visuals by Tiffany Naylor and Pauline Alves
More information about our host and guests:
Guest speakers
Anna Alexandrova is a Professor in Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of King’s College Cambridge. She researches how formal tools such as models and indicators enable scientists to navigate complex phenomena tinged with ethical and political dimensions. Her book A Philosophy for the Science of Wellbeing came out with Oxford University Press in 2017 and won the 2022 Gittler Book Prize of the American Philosophical Association. 
Léo Fitouchi is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST) and Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences of the Toulouse School of Economics (TSE). His research investigates the evolved mechanisms of moral cognition and how they shape the cultural evolution of moral norms, religious traditions, and punitive institutions across human societies. He tackles those questions by integrating insights from the social, cognitive, and evolutionary sciences, and testing predictions of the accounts he proposes by means of psychological experiments and cross-cultural databases. He received a Ph.D. in Cognitive Science from the École Normale Supérieure in Paris before joining the IAST.
Podcast host
Richard Westcott is an award-winning journalist who spent 27 years at the BBC as a correspondent/producer/presenter covering global stories for the flagship Six and Ten o’clock TV news as well as the Today programme. Last year, Richard left the corporation and he is now the communications director for Cambridge University Health Partners and the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, both organisations that are working to support life sciences and healthcare across the city.