This Thinking Life

How Digital Technology is Shaping Lives: What our Research on Period Tracking Apps Tells Us, with Professor Sarah Riley

What can period-tracking apps tell us about digital life? In this seventh talk, Professor Sarah Riley draws on research into period tracking to show how everyday technologies shape identity, health, privacy, and power. A practical, research-informed guide to noticing what apps ask of us, and what they quietly normalise.

Emotion in/as Popular Culture, with Dr Pansy Duncan

How do emotions circulate through popular culture? In this sixth talk, Dr Pansy Duncan explores feeling as both content and technique: how films, TV, music and online culture shape what we feel, and how those feelings shape us in return. A lively, research-informed guide to reading emotion in media.

The Power of Feeling: How Emotions Shape Our Minds, with Dr Kealagh Robinson

Why do emotions shape how we think, decide and relate? In this final talk, Dr Kealagh Robinson explores the power of feeling: how emotions work in the mind, how they influence judgement and behaviour, and why understanding them matters. A clear, research-informed guide to making sense of what we feel.

‘Race’: How a Discredited Science Still Shapes Our Daily Lives, with Professor Richard Shaw

‘Race’ has been discredited as science, yet it still shapes everyday life. In this fifth talk, Professor Richard Shaw explores how racial ideas persist through institutions, media and habits of thought, influencing identity, power and belonging. A clear, research-informed invitation to recognise these legacies and think differently.

How Does Media Influence Work? With Dr Kevin Veale

How do the media actually influence what we think, feel, and do? In this fourth talk, Dr Kevin Veale unpacks how media impact functions: how it shapes attention, values and belief, and how meaning is built through platforms, stories, and images. A clear, research-informed guide to becoming a more critical, confident media user.

Karl Marx, Ideology and Media Cultures: How Has Capitalism Shaped Our World? With Dr Yuan Gong

How has capitalism shaped what we think is ‘normal’? In this third talk, Dr Yuan Gong draws on Karl Marx and media studies to examine how ideology is embedded in popular culture, shaping beliefs, desires, and everyday common sense. A sharp, accessible guide to reading media critically and recognising capitalism’s invisible reach.

Practising Hope in Uncertain Times, with Dr Alice Beban

Hope isn’t passive optimism: it can be actively practised. In this second talk, Dr Alice Beban explores how hope can be cultivated collectively in uncertain times, and how it helps us face uncertainty, imagine alternatives, and act. A clear, research-informed invitation to rethink what hope does, and how we can sustain it together.

The Future Self: Exploring Identity and Transition Points, with Dr Raewyn Laurenson Elder

Learn how our responses to life’s turning points shape who we become. Dr Raewyn Laurenson Elder explores identity through transition points and how we grow through change. An accessible, research-informed conversation about becoming, adaptation, and the ‘future self’, with ideas for navigating change with insight and intention.