Difficult Conversations: a new podcast about research culture
Recording has started on Difficult Conversations, a new podcast about the parts of research culture that people experience but rarely discuss openly.
The series is made for I-REACCH, the University of Leicester’s Wellcome funded project to build a more inclusive research environment. It is hosted by Dr Kike Ladipo and Dr Gez Williams, with Dr Emma Angell co-hosting on selected episodes, and produced by Chaos Created.
Why this series
Policy documents describe what an institution intends. Conversations describe what people encounter. The barriers to progression and belonging in research careers are widely felt and seldom named out loud, so this series sets out to record them properly.
Each episode takes a single subject the sector finds uncomfortable and works through it with a guest whose research or professional experience speaks directly to it. Conversations are recorded in full and edited lightly. The intention is not to arrive at tidy conclusions, but to give difficult subjects the time and candour they are usually denied.
What is in the first series
- Tackling harassment in research
- Rebuilding research cultures
- Positionality and research across different cultural contexts
- Publish or perish, and the pressures of academic publishing
- Equity, diversity and inclusion in practice
- Allyship, and what it asks of colleagues
- The CIRCLE toolkit
- Sustaining change, from an institutional leadership perspective
Guests are drawn from across the University, and each episode is built around their own research and working experience. Names and episode details will follow here as recordings are completed.
When you can listen
A trailer lands first, followed by the full series from 1st October 2026. Episodes will be available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and here on this site, published fortnightly. Transcripts accompany every episode.
The series is grounded in the University of Leicester’s experience, but the challenges are common across the sector, so it is offered as a resource for colleagues at other institutions.
