Tech platforms have changed our lives, in many ways for the better. Email and digital platforms have revolutionised business, as social media and dating apps have transformed our personal lives. While tech solutions have promised to make our lives easier, they have also affected wider society - and not always positively.

That’s what I want to discuss with today’s guest, Russ Shaw CBE. Russ had a high-profile career in telecoms, before founding Tech London Advocates in 2013 to promote and support startups and scale-ups and be an independent, grassroots voice for the community. This went global in 2015 with Global Tech Advocates (GTA), which is now present in over 40 hubs around the globe, with over 40,000 members. In 2019, Russ launched the inaugural GTA Festival, taking place in China and bringing the international network together for the first time. The second edition of the Festival was held in India in 2022.

Russ has been championing London and the UK as a global tech hub and campaigning to address some of the biggest challenges and opportunities facing tech companies in the UK. Russ will be speaking and hosting events at the upcoming SXSW London and London Tech Week conferences, so look out for him there.

Produced by the Bloomsbury Institute London.

Hope and excitement are powerful human emotions. We all hope for a better tomorrow, whether in our personal or professional lives. Dating apps and social media play into our optimism by showing us aspirational lifestyles, complete with the people that we might want to live them with. But sometimes this promise can turn disappointing, and even dark.

That’s what I want to discuss with today’s guest, Jemma Forte (Instagram, X). Jemma is an author, broadcast journalist, presenter, and public speaking coach. She writes about romance and relationships, having published five books: Be Careful What You Swipe For (2020), Me and Miss M (2020), Mad Wife Crisis (2020), When I Met You (2015), and From London With Love (2011).

Jemma also works as a broadcaster and a fellow podcaster (satirical current affairs and social media show: The Trawl), appearing regularly on TV politics and current affairs shows Jeremy Vine, Sky News, LBC, BBC Papers, Talk TV and Good Morning Britain. She started her presenting career at Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel, where she was an anchor for five years and interviewed everyone from Britney Spears to David Beckham.

Produced by the Bloomsbury Institute London.

Are our cities and their nightlife changing for the worse, or just evolving to meet modern tastes? When they were first launched, dating apps were originally intended to augment and supplement the existing ways that we might meet someone. One of the challenges of this is that some of the places that would traditionally be fruitful hunting grounds in the West for looking for a date - bars, pubs and nightclubs - have seemingly been in decline.

I’m expecting a forthright debate with today’s guest, Julieta Cuneo. Julieta is a public policy expert, specialising in cities and the night-time economy. She has worked as a journalist and in several think tanks researching and developing urban policy. She has also worked in Parliament and currently works for the Mayor of London on night-time policy and strategy. I want to ask her about how much government should intervene in sculpting the spaces that are often the backdrop to city life and love.

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Introspection and self-reflection may have become modern-day virtues, but at times we will require an independent, impartial sounding board to truly understand how our past affects our current feelings and behaviour. This is the role of the therapist.

We have all experienced painful memories that have harmed our relationships. So, how can we come to terms with trauma and move forward positively? This is what we will be exploring with our guest, Sue Cowan-Jenssen. Sue is an integrative psychotherapist and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitation and Reprocessing) consultant with over twenty years of experience working with adults.

Sue has worked at the Trauma Unit of Watford General Hospital, specialising in trauma and bereavement. She is a member of the Relational School and the London Psychotherapy and Trauma Centre. Sue has also written about a wide range of issues from how psychotherapy works, to understanding the impact of our competitive culture on our sense of self.

Produced by the Bloomsbury Institute London.

In our modern society, we have unparalleled access to other like-minded people and limitless potential for social connection through technological platforms. Yet there is widespread concern that our society is becoming more fragmented and lonely, with time spent on social media making us feel depressed. Dating apps now play a huge role in looking for love, but are they hampering the making of genuine connections?

To discuss this, my guest for this episode is Dr Carolina Bandinelli. Carolina is an Associate Professor in Media and Creative Industries at the Centre for Cultural and Media Policy Studies at the University of Warwick. Her research has focused on the analysis of discourses and the digital culture of love, investigating digital technologies of love and the ways in which these shape emerging cultural tropes in the dimensions of romance, sexuality and intimacy. In 2021, she curated the series of events entitled ‘Summer of Love: dialogues on digital romance', hosted by Warwick's Centre for Digital Inquiry.

Some of her papers include: ‘Romantic opportunism: Doing the work of structures in post-feminist creative industries (2024)’, ‘Bye bye romance, welcome reputation: An analysis of the digital enclosure of dating’ (2023), and ‘Dating apps: towards post-romantic love in digital societies’ (2022).

Dr Bandinelli has also published on the organisation and significance of work in the creative industries: self-branding, coworking and collaborative economies. Some pieces include: ‘Social Entrepreneurship and Neoliberalism: Making Money While Doing Good’ and ‘The Production of Subjectivities in Neoliberal Culture Industries: The Case of Coworking Spaces’. She also published a book last year: ‘The post-romantics: on new ways of loving’, where Dr Bandinelli makes the case that, ‘The new ideal is that of a love that does not hurt. But how can we love without ever suffering?’

Produced by the Bloomsbury Institute London.

When we are looking for a date, people often say how important it is that they can make you laugh. This is especially true when looking for a long-term relationship - you want to be with someone who is funny if you are in for the long haul! But wit is often difficult (and sometimes dangerous) to get across online, where tone, timing and accentuation are lost. How can humour win you love, and can you 'laugh someone into bed'?

These are among the serious and silly questions that I will address with our guests, Jonny Ford and Jared Fryer. They are professional writers and comedians who formed their business by providing comedy writing workshops to copywriters and creatives in the advertising sector: Just Ad Comedy. Who doesn't enjoy a funny ad?

For this episode, I also wanted to focus on the lack of honesty often displayed by users on dating apps. Jonny and Jared believe that they have found the solution to this, with their dating app 'Worst'.

Produced by the Bloomsbury Institute London.

It is sometimes said that we now live in the 'attention' economy, where the real product being sold by free or freemium services is us: what we are looking at, watching and engaging with. We call it paying attention as we are giving something of ourselves to our subject. Contrary to popular belief, we are not good multi-taskers, so our attention is necessarily a limited resource. I wanted to look at what our seemingly increasing addiction to screens and online platforms has done to us when engaging in personal relationships.

To help us explore this, I spoke to Dr Martin Graff from the University of South Wales about his work in social psychology, the psychology of relationships, and online interaction.

Dr Graff’s research interests are in online relationships and interactions. Some of his publications include: ‘Effects of internet addiction scores on informational search by undergraduate students’ (2023), 'How can you persuade me online? The impact of goal-driven motivations on attention to online information' (2020) and 'Can time spent on Social Media Affect Thin-Ideal Internalisation, Objectified Body Consciousness and Exercise Motivation in Women? (2019), and ‘Tinder and location based dating’ (2017). He teaches a course at the university on ‘Virtual and parasocial relationships’.

Produced by the Bloomsbury Institute in London.

Has the constant diet of schmatlz and heart-warming fairytales piped in from LA affected our romantic culture in the UK, and if so - is that a problem?

I speak to film and TV screenwriter Emily Carlton about how the depiction of love and romance has changed on the silver screen and what effect this is having on relationships in the real world.

We discuss how women and relationships on film have changed over the past 30 years: from the classic rom-coms of the 1990s, to the modern representations of 'Anora', 'Challengers' and 'Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy'. Emily references Nina Menkes's documentary 'Brainwashed', which explores the sexual politics of cinematic shot design and how male and female actors are treated differently by the camera.

Emily mentions her work with 'Breaking Through The Lens', a non-profit initiative that advocates for gender equality in film by providing vital support at the financing stage. Their program is open to women and gender-expansive filmmakers, offering action grants, fiscal sponsorship, curated meetings and industry mentorship. They are taking applications, so do check in on their current projects in film.

Produced by the Bloomsbury Institute in London.