Seasoning the reasoning

Hári Sewell talks with Rob Berkeley on masculinity and queer identity. Award-winning busybody, and recovering academic, Rob Berkeley is founding editor of BLKOUT_UK.com, the asset-based community development agency, and collaborative leadership network for and by Black queer men. He was Director of the UK’s leading racial justice think-tank, Runnymede Trust (2009-14). A writer on education, social justice and community organizing, a 2019 Simon Industrial Fellow at the University of Manchester, he has presented and co-produced short form documentaries, and lectured across the UK and beyond (even when lecturers left their sofas to do so!) Rob is a trustee of three charities delivering change through arts, film and philanthropy. Dr Berkeley was awarded an MBE in 2015 for services to equality. Typically biting the hand that feeds, he is working with other honorees to change the order’s name to better reflect Britain’s multicultural future over its imperial past.

Hári Sewell in conversation with long term colleague Marcel Vige about the persistence of racial inequalities in mental health and possible ways forwards. Marcel Vige is the Head of Equity at Mind, leading Mind’s Equity Innovation Unit. This involves supporting the development and Mind's strategic ambition to become an antiracist organisation, also addressing the link between poverty, social exclusion and mental health. Mind’s Equity Innovation Unit partners with teams across Mind to ensure prioritisation of the needs of marginalised groups, also delivering flagship programmes focussing on specific groups. For nearly 20 years Marcel has been a tireless campaigner for equity in mental health, having impacts on local services and nationally on legislation, policy and organisational culture. Marcel has been the interim CEO of the Afiya Trust. In 2016 Marcel was shortlisted for the Excellence in Diversity Awards. Marcel also lectures in Psychology, Social Science and Criminology at the Open University.  ** Social Media** www.hsconsultancy.org.uk http://www.hsconsultancy.org.uk/  Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/h%C3%A1ri-sewell-93427610/  Twitter https://twitter.com/Consultancy_HS  Instagram https://instagram.com/hari_sewell_consultancy?igshid=490ywzpcyim  Facebook https://www.facebook.com/HS-Consultancy-58052794137

Smita Tharoor is a motivational keynote speaker and thought leader on the Unconscious Bias and how it influences all of us. Smita has spoken at conferences all over the world from Philadelphia to Penang with Berlin and Bangalore in the middle. She talks about emotional resilience, change management, leading in times of uncertainty and other similar topics all embedded by our unconscious bias. She is the founder of Tharoor Associates a Training, Coaching and Organisational development company and co-founder of Culturelytics a company that uses artificial intelligence to understand culture in an organisation. She is a TEDx speaker, Broadcaster, Trainer, Coach, Mentor, Mindfulness Practitioner and Associate Lecturer. In her podcast, Stories of Unconscious Bias she has interviewed people around the world to share their stories and life lessons on how they manage their unconscious biases. The stories include a transgender man in New Zealand, someone with 4thstage cancer in Delhi, a black man who is mistaken for white over the phone in London, a practising Iranian Muslim sharing stories of Islam and Jihad, our unconscious biases about the Kama Sutra, a gay dad in California, someone who lost 3 limbs in a landmine in Afghanistan and more. It currently has the global ranking of being in the top 5% of podcasts listened out of 1.8 million podcasts. Smita is an associate lecturer at the University of Arts, London and at Jindal University, India. She is the recipient of the “Global Diversity Leadership” Award at the 2017 World HRD Congress. She is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development, an NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) Practitioner, Coach, Mentor and Mindfulness Practitioner. Growing up in pluralistic India taught her the value of tolerance and the appreciation of accepting differences. She is passionate about the unconscious bias and how it impacts on all aspects of leadership development. Her experience working in the UK, India, Europe, Asia and the USA gives her a unique advantage in understanding the expectations and needs of different cultures.

Sami and Hári are good friends who in conversation explore a range of subjects with warmth and appreciation of each other.  Sami Switch is a half Tunisian, half Irish singer, songwriter, rapper and poet from Reading. He is signed to BMG publishing and has current writing credits on various chart songs, including an official chart number 3 with "Wes Nelson- See Nobody". After releasing 3 bodies of work (Carpe Diem, Momento Mori, Solace) we can see he’s got an incredible understanding of the way words work, and how to play with them. His lyrically layered experiments need to be peeled like an onion. His viral poem "Ocean of Pain' deciphering and exploring his mental health opened up work with mental health charities and blogs and is a big part of his work. Sami has also worked with young refugees and a charity "Phosphoros Theatre" to build confidence in storytelling, poetry and rapping. This led to Phosphorus Theatre touring their show all around the UK and winning awards at Edinburgh Fringe Festival. His feet are firmly planted on the ground, but that doesn’t stop him from taking any track sky-high with his vigor and his penchant for verbal assault. He is currently working on releasing his fourth project expected for summer 2021.

Dr Smith is a Consultant Psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, Kings College London.  She graduated in Medicine from Guy’s Hospital Medical School, London, winning prizes in Psychological Medicine. Having trained in general psychiatry, she is now a forensic psychiatrist. She is Clinical Director of the Forensic Services at SLaM. She is also the Clinical Director of the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, providing medical leadership for the team developing mental health guidelines. Dr Smith was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in June 2019 for services to Forensic Intensive Psychiatric care. In November 2019 she was awarded Psychiatrist of the Year by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and recently featured in HSJ’s list of 100 influential BAME leaders.

Penny Rabiger was a teacher for over a decade and later became one of the founder members of the team that set up The Key, the leading information and guidance service for school leaders and school governors, where she was Director of Business Development. She has worked with a number of social enterprises in the education sector, including as Head of Membership at Challenge Partners, an education charity which facilitates peer review between schools, and the Finnish immersive storytelling organisation, Lyfta. Penny is a long-serving school governor and a MAT Trustee. She is passionate about issues around education and equity and is one of the co-founders of the grassroots anti-racist charity The BAMEed Network. Penny blogs at tenpencemore.wordpress.com.

In this episode we discuss how social inequality show up on those who have contact with mental health services in disproportionately higher numbers. Craig Morgan is Professor of Social Epidemiology, Head of the Health Service and Population Research Department at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, and Co-Director of the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health. He has previously held a MRC Special Training Fellowship in Health Services Research, and completed his PhD in Social Psychiatry, at the Institute of Psychiatry. His research is focused on social and cultural influences on the onset, course and outcome of mental disorders, particularly during adolescence, and he has led multi-country programmes on these topics, funded by, among others, the MRC, Wellcome Trust, European Union, and ESRC. He has published over 200 academic papers on these topics, and edited two books, Society and Psychosis, published by Cambridge University Press, and Principles of Social Psychiatry, published by Wiley-Blackwell. He is editor-in-chief of the journal Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. Visit ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health https://www.kcl.ac.uk/csmh 

Suman Fernando is a retired consultant psychiatrist and is an academic.  He is widely published and is one of the leading voices in the English speaking world on race and mental health.  In this podcast Fernando locates the racism in psychiatry not purely as a critique of the practice of individual professionals but the way in which psychiatry was developed and how it continues to evolve as a discipline, i.e. the underpinning assumptions and approaches.  Hári Sewell and Suman Fernando have worked together for years and have developed a strong connection and appreciation of each other.

Mary O'Hara speaks about poverty, austerity and how the elite in society shape policies that universally disadvantage those who do not benefit from privilege.  

Wasps and England rugby star Kearnan Myall talks with Hári Sewell about masculinity and mental health and how help seeking is mitigated by dominant models of masculinity.