Amol Rajan

speaker

3,997 appearances 23 recordings 6 series first heard Feb 2026 last heard 16 Jul

Amol Rajan’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 23 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 12.

Appearances

newest first · ▶ plays the moment

Radical · What Is The Secret To Happiness? (Your Radical Questions with Lord Richard Layard) · 6 Jul 2026 podcast

You're the main reason that we've got talking therapies on the NHS, which has now helped 8 million people. matched

And you're the reason that David Cameron instituted the measuring of well-being, which still goes on today. matched

Others were involved in all of that. matched

I'm married to an academic, so I know all about sharing credit. matched

We've had lots of questions for you, Richard, from people who are very interested in your work. matched

Our first question is from Fatma. matched

Fatma, thank you very much indeed for your question. matched

Fatma says, Richard, I'm about to start medical school as a graduate. matched

Acutely aware that much of what I'll treat loneliness, poverty, lack of purpose is rooted in unhappiness rather than disease. matched

Should medical training prioritize well-being literacy or is that asking medicine to solve a political failure? matched

And she goes on in a similar vein. matched

the NHS is chronically underfunded despite being, at its core, a wellbeing institution, which makes me wonder whether the economic case for happiness still isn't compelling enough to win budget battles. matched

Overall, are you concerned, Richard, that institutionalising wellbeing carries its own risk that measuring and professionalising happiness might quietly undermine? matched

the very thing that produces it? matched

Right, Fatima, that's a lot of questions. matched

Let's take them in order. matched

First of all, Richard, should medical training prioritize well-being literacy, or is that asking medicine to solve a political failure? matched

It's very interesting you say that. matched

I'll come back to Fatma's other questions in just a minute, but it's worth saying... matched

Yeah, we have a Labour government, we have a Labour Health Secretary, and he's talked about the big, big idea that you basically need to make public sector interventions to make people healthier in their lives so that they don't impact the NHS, so they don't have to go to hospital or be treated for disease in the first place. matched

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