Thinking Allowed Folgen

In the Indian call centre or 'outsourcing' industry, workers are trained to emulate the American or British workers which they have replaced. They change their names, take on western accents and develop lifestyles organised around a foreign culture in a distant time zone. Laurie Taylor is joined by Henrietta Moore to talk to Shehzad Nadeem about his new study into the hybrid culture these Asian employees have created. Also on the programme the writer Marek Kohn joins Laurie to discuss the Thinking Allowed audience's spirited response to Pascal Bruckner's indictment of the culture of happiness. Producer: Charlie Taylor.

The British government is seeking to develop a way to accurately measure the happiness of the population. In France such a gauge already exists, but is happiness really the proper goal of life? The French philosopher Pascal Bruckner tells Laurie Taylor that happiness has become a burdensome duty, and that the wave of enthusiasm for pursuing the nebulous quality has the opposite effect of actually promoting unhappiness amongst those who seek it. Much better, says he, to accept that happiness as an unbidden and fragile gift, arrives only by grace and luck. Also on the programme, Patricia Drentea talks about her new study 'Ethical Capital: What's a Poor Man Got to Leave?'. It looks at the hoped for legacy of people who have no financial assets to leave their families. Producer: Charlie Taylor.

Every country in the Western world has abandoned the use of capital punishment in the name of civilisation and humanity. Yet in the USA, dozens of states and the Federal Government itself continue to execute criminals for certain crimes. Laurie Taylor talks to David Garland about his investigation into the US death penalty and how America has become a peculiar exception in a world which is moving towards abolition. They are joined by former Director of Public Prosecutions, Ken (Lord) MacDonald. Also on the programme David Whyte presents new research gathered from interviewing undocumented workers in Britain. Seven years on from the tragedy on Morecombe sands, what is the experience of illegal workers in the UK? Producer: Charlie Taylor.