Podcasts about Roger Wilkins

Elizabeth Wilkins, president and CEO of the Roosevelt Institute (and daughter of the legendary Roger Wilkins), reveals how a possible recession will impact Black America and shares how the progressive legacy of FDR and Eleanor can help shape the Democratic Party in the future.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.

Looking back at Season 9 and Forward with Roger Wilkins In this season ending episode we visit Roger Wilkins at his Lands End Farm. Cider King – Roger Wilkins Roger Wilkins, is known globally as the “Cider King,” and is a legendary figure in Somerset cider-making. He has been running Wilkins' Cider Farm in Mudgley since taking over from his grandfather in 1969. Renowned for his traditional methods, Roger ferments locally grown bittersweet apples in oak barrels, producing unfiltered, unsweetened farmhouse cider. His no-nonsense style and commitment to authenticity have made Wilkins' Cider Farm a pilgrimage site for cider enthusiasts world wide. Though he has mentioned plans to scale down production, Roger was carrying buckets of apples into the cidery when Ria visited him in October of 2024. This episode features Roger discussing the difficulty for farmers and working with what he calls “Pen Floaters”. Season 9 Recap Throughout this episode you will hear guest from Season 9, which started with Episode #401. From Chile, the UK, France and Eastern Europe and throughout the U.S.A., Cider Chat has featured guests who both make cider, promote cider, provide leadership for cider and enjoy cider. With this episode 450 of Cider Chat we are showcasing the oral history of cider in 2025. So grab a glass and Join the Chat, as we ring out one season and prepare for the next! Mentioned in this Cider Chat Totally Cider Tours Cider Chat Podcast Archives – Find over 450 episodes. Use the search bar for up top and plug in a work or name to find an episode on that topic! 438: The Secret Sauce to Cider's Growth is #xpromotecider

The new HILDA survey shows people are more stressed out and households need two incomes to survive, professor Roger Wilkins goes through the data. Plus, AustralianSuper's Shawn Blackmore weighs in on the government's superannuation review.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the latest Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia poll, 33.1% of Melburnians said they feel "much worse off" after the pandemic. But Deputy Director of the Melbourne Institute and of the HILDA Survey program, Roger Wilkins, says there was an unexpected benefit to come from the pandemic.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the 30 years since Life Matters got its start, much has changed for Australian households. With ABC broadcaster Geraldine Doogue and economist Roger Wilkins, we delve into the social policies and societal trends that have shaped the lives of ordinary families since 1992.

Join hosts Gabe Cook, Grant Hutchison and Martyn Goodwin-Sharman as they ponder the fate of the Neutral Cider Hotel!Up first, with the recent announcement of season one coming to an end and the uncertainty of what's next, the guys get to work on the live show to make sure it's literally the best show anyone has seen in 2021. The Neutral Cider Hotel LIVE show is happening this year at the Bristol Cider Salon on Thursday, the 12th of August, so please plan to join guys for a live recording of the show.  For more details and to purchase tickets, go to our Eventbrite page.In this week's show, the guys are putting the world to rights. Pulling back the curtain on what it takes to run a hotel, the guys drink the wares of guests that weren't and ciders that were had but no one heard they were had.We finally taste Sandford Orchards Vintage Series, with a dial-up delay and the wonderful Kentish Pip, featuring the movers and shakers Discovery, and the ever easy Skylark. We also note some cider makers we didn't have on the show, but had hoped to and want you to check them out. Those include Angry Orchard,  The Son of The Smiths Cider in Japan, some traditionalist ciders from the likes of Julian Temperley or Roger Wilkins,  Raging Cider & Mead in San Diego and Tanuki Cider. And, for the record, this is not Kingsbury Episcopi!Then, for our feature this week, we opened up the Patreon vault again and found you another great, but never aired feature called “Scotta Get Through This.” Grant challenges the boys on their knowledge of Scottish slang and, let's just say someone needs to shoogle some sense into them. This is a mini-episode, shorter than usual, but no less fabulous. And, don't be afraid to leave us a message about the podcast, the live show, any of Gabe's books, auto repair questions or anything else at our Speakpipe! We'd love to hear from you.The Team:Gabe is a cider expert: The CiderologistGrant has two cider businesses: Re:Stalk and Aeble Cider ShopMartyn loves to write about cider: CiderShitThe Rest of The Team:Executive Producer/Editor: Scott RiggsMusic: Billy KennedyConnect:Instagram: NeutralCiderHotelFacebook: NeutralCiderHotelTwitter: NeutralCiderPodListen and share episodes on our website: https://www.neutralciderhotel.com/ Leave us a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/neutralciderhotel 

Well known Somerset cider-maker Roger Wilkins talks to Martin Hesp about Banksy the artist and the great many other celebrities who've been to his old cider-house at Land's End Farm, Mudgeley, overlooking the Somerset Levels 

Join Countryfile host Gabe Cook, and regular hosts Grant Hutchison and Martyn Goodwin-Sharman as they finish the egg hunt at the Neutral Cider Hotel!First, Gabe makes promises that the other guys can’t keep and gets topless in Dymock, Grant explains recognised meteorological terms in Scotland, and Martyn gets ready for The Good Measure’s summer ahead! Grant plants ahead for his future, with an eye on a sneaky scrumper from a certain factory, and our San Diego superstar producer Scott lands a lucky glass of Roger Wilkins’ cider, before Dr. Gabe marks his words once again in the Hotel.In the news this week, the guys have a very brief chat about Craftcon 2021, featuring show favourites Ross on Wye and Cider Women to name but a few. If you’re in the cider trade, it’s definitely one to check out. Our guest this week is Soham Bhatt, the co-founder of one of the best Cideries in the USA. Established in 2014 as a passion project between 2 friends, Artifact Cider Project is now a by-word for excellence in contemporary cider making. The guys chat everything in modern cider, from the springing of spring, to branding in cider, the commercial and the art form, fruit ciders and a sucker punch of criticism for Chris Martin! It’s a full chat that the guys loved, and the appearance of American Trains sparked a lot of joy to the English!The listener questions come by way of Germany and the United States, featuring a slick limerick and canned wordplay! Thank you for tuning in and checking out the Neutral Cider Hotel podcast!The Team:Gabe is a cider expert: The CiderologistGrant has two cider businesses: Re:Stalk and Aeble Cider ShopMartyn loves to write about cider: CiderShitThe Rest of The Team:Executive Producer/Editor: Scott RiggsMusic: Billy KennedyConnect:Instagram: NeutralCiderHotelFacebook: NeutralCiderHotelTwitter: NeutralCiderPodListen and share episodes on our website: https://www.neutralciderhotel.com/ Leave us a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/neutralciderhotel 

Join hosts Gabe Cook, Grant Hutchison and Martyn Goodwin-Sharman as they salute their American Overlords in the Neutral Cider Hotel!But first, Gabe brings Cidercon to the fore as the guys discuss the 7th most popular drink in the States, and Keifer Sutherland’s impact on the convention. Gabe shares the love with Cheers and Chat, and the possibility of having a room set up at the hotel in the future. Martyn then lives out a nightmare from the night before, nothing to do with cider. And finally, Grant explains why his body hurts, with Joe Wick’s Seven Days of Sweat. There’s no way of putting the smell in the show notes however, sorry guys!In this week’s news Martyn announces his tasting; The Cider Box X Cidershit, which you can sync and drink with! Grant brings up the naughty doctor himself; Roger Wilkins and his illegal activities. The man who has the vaccine, breaking the lockdown rules, the guys are torn over how to feel about it all. If you’re in the States, watch the body cam footage and let us know how it compares to your police force. Then the motorcade pulls up to the hotel, with Madame President herself; Eleanor Léger of Eden Ciders! Helming one of the most significant Cideries operating today, Eden Ciders are makers that the guys have loved from afar. Based 8 miles from the Canadian border in the State of Vermont, Eleanor and her team source, and grow, apples produced using biodynamic principles to create a range of ciders, specialising in minimum intervention styles such as ice cider and methode traditionelle. Talking everything, from terroir and Vermont, a very niche, weird thing called Ice Cider, blending cider, cider ice cream and fancy dress! This week’s tasting is Eden’s Extra Sec, a drink at the end of the line apparently. A champagne style cider with ice cider used for a light dose of sugar in the bottle. This week in Listener Questions, it's a subtweet response to previous guest Dick Withecombe, who asks about chip shop dinner ciders. Featuring badminton nets, Nempnett Thrubwell, In Touch, Wildling, and pretty much every reference the guys have made making an appearance once again! And finally, a shout out to Perry’s Cider, and an invitation to the show!The Team:Gabe is a cider expert: The CiderologistGrant has two cider businesses: Re:Stalk and Aeble Cider ShopMartyn loves to write about cider: CiderShitThe Rest of The Team:Executive Producer/Editor: Scott RiggsMusic: Billy KennedyConnect:Instagram: NeutralCiderHotelFacebook: NeutralCiderHotelTwitter: NeutralCiderPodWebsite: https://www.neutralciderhotel.com/

Interview: Pete BrownCider Review: Ross on Wye’s Thorn PerryJoin hosts Gabe Cook, Grant Hutchison and Martyn Goodwin-Sharman on their tropical island of all things cider!The guys discuss Frightened Rabbit as an answer on a game show, TV appearances and unflattering celebrity comparisons (It's Ed Sheeran!) before delving into the news.Grant kicks off things with a return of Roger Wilkins, who has found the cure to covid! After the guys restored his honour in a previous episode, the now scientist has proclaimed his vitamin-heavy drink is the answer to the world’s problems. Gabe then takes the guys through the upcoming Cidercon, the world’s biggest cider gathering, which is now open for registration. This week’s interview is with a man who’s not just in the know with cider, he’s actually written the book on it. We’re happy to welcome three time Beer Writer of the Year winner, Pete Brown! Highly acclaimed beer and cider writer, Pete’s got a huge library of stories and an equal breadth of published books to match. From Craft: An Argument to The Apple Orchard, Pete takes the guys through the cider regions who think they invented it, cider top trumps with Tom Oliver, the problem with ‘craft’ in cider and wanky writing. We cannot confirm or deny if he had a masturbate after the recording! The featured cider this week is Ross on Wye’s Thorn Perry. Gabe’s favourite variety of pear, it’s a big, bold and bright perry with some very intense character. The Horse of Knowledge makes a return to discuss the Pet Nat process as the guys take their time with the drink. Finally, they go through the listener’s questions, featuring Burum Collective’s Helen asking about education in cider, before Grant reads out the listener’s weirdest places to drink cider in the weirdest Grant voice you’ll ever hear. Other Links:Gabe wrote a book: CiderologyGrant has a cider business: Re:StalkMartyn loves to talk about cider: CiderShitThe Rest of The Team:Executive Producer: Scott RiggsEditor: Scott RiggsMusic: Billy KennedyConnect: Instagram: NeutralCiderHotelTwitter: NeutralCiderPodWebsite: http://www.neutralciderhotel.com

Today we are joined by Roger Wilkins, an American now living in Adelaide. Jason and Roger chat trying to make sense of the differences and similarities between Australian and Americans.Roger is a strategic communications advisor and republican political advisor. A strategic thinker and man with an eclectic background from selling solar power to veteran affairs, and has worked in communications and strategic roles in New York and New Hampshire, and shares a fascinating take on what makes the United States of America tick. It’s politics, people and history, and we discuss how this compares with life in Australia.Real People is a podcast hosted by Jason Dunstone, the founder and managing director of Square Holes. Subscribe to Real People on your favourite podcast player.Jason builds on his 25 years of conducting human-centred research, interviewing average and not so average people (rich, poor, old, young, content and vulnerable) to understand what they believe and how they behave.Check out the Real People website - http://squareholes.com/realpeopleConnect with Jason Dunstone on Twitter @jasondunstone - https://twitter.com/jasondunstone?lang=enSend Jason an email - jason@squareholes.com Read more blogs from Jason Dunstone - https://squareholes.com/blog/author/jason/Find out more about Square Holes - http://www.squareholes.com/Produced with Apiro Media - https://www.apiropodcasts.com/

In 2002, the late civil rights champion Roger Wilkins gave one of the most memorable talks ever given at the Writers’ Conference. Roger’s great grandfather was a slave. Two generations later, Roger’s uncle, Roy Wilkins, became the legendary leader of the NAACP for over two decades. Three generations removed from the Mississippi slave fields, Roger Wilkins played pivotal roles in the civil rights advancements of both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and later, as author, columnist, and professor, became a powerful voice of advocacy and hope for Black people in America. In the wake of the police killing of George Floyd and other black Americans, and in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement, the words of Roger Wilkins, who died in 2017 at the age of 85, have never sounded more relevant, or vital, to the conversation about what kind of great nation America was meant to be, and must still become.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You know you're not supposed to do this -- but you do. ShutterstockHow did you sleep last night? If you had anything other than eight interrupted hours of peaceful, restful sleep then guess what? It’s not that bad – it’s actually pretty normal. We recently asked five sleep researchers if everyone needs eight hours of sleep a night and they all said no, you don’t. Read more: Does everyone need eight hours of sleep? We asked five experts In fact, only about one quarter of us report getting eight or more hours of sleep. That’s according to the huge annual Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey which now tracks more than 17,500 people in 9500 households. We’ll hear today from Roger Wilkins, who runs the HILDA survey at University of Melbourne, on what exactly the survey found about how much and how well Australians sleep. But first, you’ll hear from sleep expert Melinda Jackson, Senior Research Fellow in the School of Health and Biomedical Sciences, RMIT University, about what the evidence shows about how we used to sleep in pre-industrial times, and what promising research is on the horizon. Here’s a taste: Listen. Trust Me, I’m An Expert is a podcast where we ask academics to surprise, delight and inform us with their research. You can download previous episodes here. And please, do check out other podcasts from The Conversation – including The Conversation US’ Heat and Light, about 1968 in the US, and The Anthill from The Conversation UK, as well as Media Files, a podcast all about the media. You can find all our podcasts over here. The two segments in today’s podcast were recorded and edited by Dilpreet Kaur Taggar. Additional editing by Sunanda Creagh. Read more: I can't sleep. What drugs can I (safely) take? Additional audio and credits Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks Morning Two by David Szesztay, Free Music Archive.

You may have heard something recently about HILDA - the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey. You can see the most recent results on our Unimelb news site, Pursuit. But how exactly does HILDA work? And what are the implications of such a report? Silvi Vann-Wall chats with Professor Roger Wilkins, the Melbourne Institute Deputy Director and co-report author, who gets philosophical about HILDA. This episode was recorded on 26 July 2018. Production by Silvi Vann-Wall. Editing by Silvi Vann-Wall & Audio Engineering by Chris Hatzis. Five Things About is a training podcast created by Dr Andi Horvath at the University of Melbourne.

You may have heard something recently about HILDA - the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey. You can see the most recent results on our Unimelb news site, Pursuit. But how exactly does HILDA work? And what are the implications of such a report? Silvi Vann-Wall chats with Professor Roger Wilkins, the Melbourne Institute Deputy Director and co-report author, who gets philosophical about HILDA.This episode was recorded on 26 July 2018. Production by Silvi Vann-Wall.Editing by Silvi Vann-Wall & Audio Engineering by Chris Hatzis.Five Things About is a training podcast created by Dr Andi Horvath at the University of Melbourne.

The enormous Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey tells the stories of the same group of Australians over the course of their lives. Mavis Wong/The Conversation NY-BD-CC, CC BY-SAOn today’s episode of the podcast, we’re talking about what one of Australia’s biggest longitudinal surveys and richest data sets, released today, says about how the nation is changing. And some of the trends may surprise you. The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey tells the stories of the same group of Australians over the course of their lives. Starting in 2001, the survey now tracks more than 17,500 people in 9,500 households, asking about their economic well-being, health and family life. So what does this year’s report tell us about the country Australia has become? Here to break it all down for us today is Roger Wilkins from the University of Melbourne, lead author of the report. Read more: HILDA Survey reveals striking gender and age divide in financial literacy. Test yourself with this quiz Wilkins said he was surprised by what this huge survey showed about Australians’ financial literacy, our energy use, how many of us are putting off getting a driver’s licence, how our economy is changing, and how our attitudes toward marriage and family life are shifting. The report reveals some insights into where we perhaps need to concentrate our public policy efforts to boost Australia’s economic well-being. What does it all mean for you and me? Listening to Roger Wilkins explain it all may just inspire you to rethink your own financial future. Roger Wilkins spoke to The Conversation’s deputy politics and society editor Justin Bergman. We’ve included an edited transcript below. What is HILDA and why does it matter? Justin Bergman: Roger, in a nutshell I’d love to start out by just hearing what the HILDA survey is and why this matters to people. Roger Wilkins: The HILDA survey is Australia’s nationally representative longitudinal study of Australians. It started in 2001 and it’s a bit like the ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) cross-sectional surveys we’re familiar with, where we get information on people’s employment, their family life, their incomes, their health and well-being. But what distinguishes HILDA is that we’re following the same people year in, year out. So we are getting a moving picture of people’s lives rather than the cross-sectional snapshot or photograph that the ABS surveys give us. So that’s really what’s unique about HILDA. We’re now entering our 18th year. So we’re getting a really rich picture of how people’s lives evolve over time, and it allows us to answer all sorts of questions that we couldn’t do with cross-sectional data. Things like: if someone is poor in one year, how likely are they to be poor the next year? You can’t answer that with cross-sectional data but with our data you can see how long, whether it’s the same people who are poor year in, year out, or whether it tends to be a temporary affair. And moreover, you can look at: well, who are the people who managed to get themselves out of poverty? And who are the people who don’t? This gives us incredibly useful information for policymakers about who are the people who are persistently struggling, for example, and therefore we should be thinking more about from a policy perspective. And that’s just one example of many in terms of the value of the HILDA Survey. Some of the findings in this year’s HILDA report. Energy spending is falling Justin Bergman: I realise it’s probably a great deal of data to pore through and lots of interesting findings we’re going to get into in this podcast. Were there any that you found particularly surprising or interesting, just off the top? Roger Wilkins: Well, we have been tracking people’s household expenditure since 2005 and that includes their expenditure on home energy. Things like electricity and gas. So, we thought, well, there’s been a lot of attention recently to rising prices for electricity and gas. So we thought, well let’s have a look at what’s been happening to household expenditure. That’s different to the price because your expenditure depends on not only the price but how much of the energy you use. And one thing that surprised me was that the HILDA data is showing that people’s expenditure actually peaked in around 2014. So since then people have actually been decreasing their expenditure, in real terms at least, adjusting for inflation. So that was something that I wasn’t expecting because there’s been a lot of recent media about prices continuing to rise since 2014 and yet expenditure hasn’t been rising since 2014. What it seems is that people are have been adapting to these higher prices and doing things like buying energy-efficient appliances, insulating their homes, installing solar panels, perhaps heating fewer rooms in the house in winter. That sort of thing seems to have been going on. So, as I said, the total expenditure on home energy has actually declined slightly since 2014. Cognitive ability and decline Justin Bergman: Great. And one of the interesting chapters that we thought was quite surprising was the one about measuring cognitive ability. And I wanted to ask you, starting off, what are the factors that you looked at in this chapter, when it comes to what contributes to cognitive decline? Roger Wilkins: Yes, so we have now in two years - in 2012 and 2016 - administered these tests which are called “cognitive ability tasks”. They ask the respondents to perform various activities which allow us to produce measures of their cognitive functioning or their cognitive ability. And because we have, as I said before, we’re following the same people year in, year out, we can actually look at how these measures of cognitive ability changed between 2012 and 2016. And we do indeed find that, particularly at the older end of the age spectrum, that there is considerable cognitive decline; that people’s performance on these tests does decline, particularly once you sort of get over the age of 70 - 75. That’s when we really start to see that decline becoming quite sizeable. So one of the things that we did in this year’s report is looked at whether there were things other than age that were predictive of cognitive decline. And we were particularly interested in whether there were various cognitive activities or other activities that you might engage in that could protect against cognitive decline. So we looked at things like how often you do puzzles, things like crosswords, how often you read, how often you write, whether you use a computer regularly, whether you do any volunteering, whether you are actually doing any paid employment, how often you look after grandchildren. These sorts of activities, the basis that perhaps the more stimulated you are cognitively, the less decline you’d experience. And the overriding result we found is that very little seems to protect against cognitive decline. We find some evidence in favour of doing puzzles regularly, things like crosswords, where on one of the measures of cognitive ability it did seem to reduce the extent of decline. But broadly speaking, most of these cognitive activities didn’t seem to impact on the extent of decline. Justin Bergman: But doing puzzles was one that you saw that did have an impact. Any idea why that might have been? Roger Wilkins: Well, I mean, the logic is that it’s sort of the “use it or lose it” argument; that if you’re using your brain, in the same way as if you were exercising a muscle, it keeps it in better condition. That’s sort of the logic. But for some reason we don’t, for example, find that with writing regularly. That probably is suggestive that doing your crosswords or Sudoku or the like is perhaps not a bad idea, particularly if you enjoy doing them, because it might be having this beneficial side effect. We also looked at perhaps what you think of as behaviours that might be adverse to cognitive functioning. So, in particular, things like smoking and drinking. And there is some evidence that heavy consumption of alcohol does accelerate cognitive decline but we don’t find any effects of smoking. Justin Bergman: Very interesting. So do your puzzles and try to avoid alcohol as much as possible. Roger Wilkins: Sounds like common sense, doesn’t it? More young people are delaying getting a driver’s license Justin Bergman: So, going to the chapter about people driving in Australia, what did you notice about the data on driver’s licences? Roger Wilkins: Yes, well, I mean, people would not be surprised to learn that most people do have a driver’s licence. Although a surprising - well, for me, at least - quite a surprisingly high proportion of young people in the 18-24 range don’t have a driver’s licence. So while most people — over 90% — eventually get their licence, for many of them it’s not until their late 20s or even their 30s when they do get their licence. So, for example, in the 18-19 range, over a third of people in that age range don’t have a driver’s licence. And something that we see in just the four-year period between 2012 and 2016: when we asked people whether they have a driver’s licence, even over that short period, we have seen a decline in the proportion of people who have a driver’s licence in that age range. So whether that’s because the requirements in order to pass the test have been tending to ramp up in most states, I’m not sure. Certainly, there obviously have always been significant costs for obtaining a licence which might be a barrier for young people but I’m not sure that, you know, the extent to which those costs have increased. For example, requiring logbooks with a certain number of hours of driving, I’m not sure exactly the timing of when those increases in requirements have occurred. But certainly this data is showing an increasing proportion of young people without a licence. Many men hang on to their driver’s licence until later in life Justin Bergman: Right, and on the opposite end of the spectrum, we also noticed that a large number of people in the older generations have driver’s licences. But specifically, you found 74.6% of men born in the 1920s still held a licence in 2016. So what does the data tell us about older people with driving? Roger Wilkins: I think certainly we see that loss of licence - whether it’s relinquished or having it cancelled - is very much concentrated amongst older people. Although surprisingly, for me at least, a surprisingly high proportion of young people do seem to lose their licence over a four-year period. So, you know, at least sort of 2-3% of people in their 20s and 30s reported that they had a licence in 2012 and they didn’t in 2016. The extent to which that is because they had traffic violations that resulted in suspension or cancellation, I’m not sure. We didn’t ask why they didn’t have a licence but that did surprise me. Certainly, the rates of loss of licence are much higher amongst the older age groups. But, as you said, nearly three-quarters of men born in the 1920s - so they’re all, I guess, at least 86 years old in 2016 - so at least three-quarters or nearly three-quarters of men aged 86 and over still held a driver’s licence. And that does certainly seem quite high and it’s certainly a lot higher than amongst women. So it does seem that men hang on to their licences a lot longer. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re driving. You can have a licence without driving but it’s probably strongly correlated with driving. So it does suggest that, you know, particularly men are able to hang on to their licence longer than or are willing to hold on to them longer than women. The share of workers who describe themselves as ‘self-employed’ is falling Justin Bergman: Moving on, can you tell us a little bit about what the data showed us about self-employed workers that you found interesting or surprising in the survey? Roger Wilkins: Yes, certainly what is interesting is that self-employment has been declining this century. So at least the proportion of people in the labour market who describe themselves as self-employed has been declining for the last 16 plus years. And that’s especially concentrated on people who employ others, so we’re really talking here about a decline in small business. And this is, I guess, rather at odds with a lot of the rhetoric we see amongst politicians about how small business is the engine of the economy and where growth in jobs comes from. And the evidence is quite to the contrary: that in fact our employment growth has really not come from small business or from self-employment. It’s really been coming from larger employers, be they medium or large businesses. And I think given what we’re observing in the trends, I think that’s something that over coming years will continue. That it is probably, to my view, a bit wrong-headed to think that that stimulating employment in small business is the way to generate jobs in the community more broadly. I think the changing structure of the economy is actually moving us further away from that than towards it. And in that context it’s also interesting that for all the talk about the rise of the gig economy, these are these jobs that are I guess facilitated by apps on phones and things like Uber and Deliveroo and things like that. We don’t see evidence in the data of much growth in employment of this kind. So as I said, self-employment has actually been declining. You might think well, maybe many of these gig-type jobs are secondary jobs. So that while people in their main job are employed, perhaps in a second job they’re a gig worker doing some Uber driving on the side. But we haven’t seen a growth in multiple job-holding either. So it seems so far that most of these gig jobs have really been about transforming jobs that already existed, so taxi drivers have always tended to be self-employed. Uber drivers are self-employed. We’ve got sort of a compositional change, a bit of a shift away from traditional taxis towards these Uber drivers. It’s the same with, I guess, food delivery. Casual observation would suggest that there has been a rise in these gig-type jobs but I think it’s easy for us to overestimate how significant a phenomenon this is. On marriage and housework, our attitudes are changing faster than our behaviour Justin Bergman: It is really interesting, actually. We were also quite surprised by some of the things you see in the attitudes towards marriage and family changing. And I was curious what you’re seeing in terms of attitudes in Australian society becoming more progressive on this front. Roger Wilkins: Well, you’ve essentially summed up what we find. For a long time now, we’ve been tracking people’s attitudes to marriage and family and to parenting and paid work. This allows us to produce measures of the extent to which people have what we might call “progressive views”, which, in very loose terms, is the extent to which people are in favour of men taking a more active role in raising children and women taking a greater role in bringing in the household income, so being more engaged in the labour market. There are other dimensions to these measures of traditional views versus progressive views. But that’s probably the most important dimension and we’re certainly seeing that views are becoming considerably more progressive. There’s been quite substantial change over the course of this century. What, to me, was interesting is that when you actually look then at how behaviour is changing then it seems that these changes in attitudes aren’t really translating so far into much change in how people behave. This is very much connected to the arrival of children. So before children arrive, men and women have quite similar-looking division of their labour – the amount of time they spend in employment, the amount of time they spend on housework and so forth is quite similar. But once the first child arrives, and this is probably not news to anyone who has had kids out there, but there’s a sharp divide that opens up between men and women. Women withdraw, to a large extent, from the labour market and men, to a large extent, withdraw from the home production - if you like, from the housework and the care. And what’s really interesting is how this persists. So even once the children age and move through school and even beyond, we still see this division persisting. So the arrival of the child precipitates a change, so even when the care requirements of the children diminish and so forth, we still see this divide between men and women persist. So, I think there are good economic explanations for this but I also think that there are reasons, from a public policy point of view, for us to be concerned about this. And really, it relates to the fact that we know probably around one in three marriages will end in divorce - maybe more, maybe a bit less going forward. That, therefore, means that women are much more vulnerable in that post-divorce world than men because they’ve put their careers on hold, their income-earning potential is considerably lower than men’s. And so therefore their economic well-being is likely to be lower than men’s post-divorce. And then that has flow on effects into their retirement living standard because their superannuation contributions will be lower. So I think while it might make economic sense for men and women to specialise in this way, it is having this undesirable longer-term consequence for women’s well-being and that’s why we do see higher rates of poverty amongst single women, particularly single parent women and elderly single women, than we see for men. Justin Bergman: Interesting. I don’t know if you’ve tracked these data for same-sex couples as well. Have you noticed any divisions in terms of attitudes toward housework and the divide in other types of marriages? Roger Wilkins: No, so we haven’t looked at that this year. One of the problems in doing so is that the HILDA survey is a sample survey, so while we have 17,500 people from right across Australia, which gives us a lot of potential to produce reliable estimates on what is happening in the community, when you look at particular demographic subgroups it becomes more difficult to make reliable statements about overall trends. So while same-sex couples are a significant minority in the community, they are still quite a small part of the HILDA survey sample. So it becomes a bit more difficult to be confident in estimates based on small demographic groups. Australia has its problems, but society still functions well for most Justin Bergman: Just wrapping up, looking at the data as a whole, I’m curious what story you think it’s telling about how Australia’s going, how it’s changing, where it’s going at the moment? Roger Wilkins: Well, I mean for all its problems - and there are, of course, many - the clear picture from HILDA Survey that Australia is a well-functioning society in which most people feel able to pursue fulfilling lives, pursue their aspirations and live the life, or a form of the life, that they aspire to. So while, of course, there is much to do to make our society work better, I think we risk making some big mistakes, moving forward, if we aren’t cognisant of how much is already working quite well. I think that’s something that probably gets lost a bit in a lot of public discussion and media. We tend to focus on the negative and that creates, I think, an impression of much greater dysfunction in our society than is actually the case. Now, you have always got to very quickly follow up such a statement with the caveat that of course there are problems and HILDA certainly identifies many of these problems and concerns that we should be addressing. But I guess there’s always the risk of of overreacting and therefore damaging things that are good about our community in seeking to solve some other problems. So, that said, what sort of trends come out of the data that would be of concern? I think decline in home ownership is a very big concern that has a very strong link to growing evidence of intergenerational inequality, so particularly younger people in the age range up to around 40, compared with older people, the baby boomer generation. There’s been a growth in inequality across the generations and it’s very much tied to home ownership. We also we have this persistent disadvantage among many single parents and I think that’s a continuing priority for policy, in my view. And the other persistent trend that remains a concern is that household incomes are quite stagnant and that’s very much related to the stagnation in wages. It’s one thing to be concerned about it but it’s less obvious what you do to address it. Justin Bergman: Roger, thank you so much, very illuminating. We really appreciate you breaking it down for us and taking the time to be with us. Thank you. Roger Wilkins: Thank you. Additional audio Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks The Anthill podcast, episode 27: Confidence, from The Conversation UK.

Inequality from Turnbull, Shorten, Prof Roger Wilkins & Van Badham.This is the Week that Was - Kevin picks up the theme of Shorten's inequality speech.Sue Cramer on Constructivism & Aust Art @ Heide - in an exhibition the honours the influence of the art movement that was born out of the Russian Revolution and worked to remake the world where art was no longer an elite sport.Justice for Elijah Rally in Melbourne called by Warriors of the Resistance filled the top of Bourke St and stopped traffic at Flinders St Station. A powerful speech by Shreena Clanton calling for an appeal against the three jail sentence for the death of young Aboriginal boy Elijah in Kalgoolie saying the light sentence gives a license to kill.

The countryside around Wells, England, is great for growing apples and you can visit farms that brew the authentic hard cider — known around here as "scrumpy." And at Land's End Cider Farm, Roger Wilkins is as old-school as it comes. At http://www.ricksteves.com, you'll find money-saving travel tips, small-group tours, guidebooks, TV shows, radio programs, podcasts, and more on this destination.

The countryside around Wells, England, is great for growing apples and you can visit farms that brew the authentic hard cider — known around here as "scrumpy." And at Land's End Cider Farm, Roger Wilkins is as old-school as it comes. At http://www.ricksteves.com, you'll find money-saving travel tips, small-group tours, guidebooks, TV shows, radio programs, podcasts, and more on this destination.

Unemployment figures don't always tell the full story when it comes to the state of jobs in Australia. Joel Carrett/AAPBoth the government and opposition are campaigning hard on their abilities as economic managers and jobs and growth have been the Coalition’s election cry. But is creating jobs really all that simple and what kind are needed in the Australian economy? Principal Research Fellow and Deputy Director at the Melbourne Institute, Roger Wilkins explains what a healthy level of unemployment is in our economy. He also has some bad news for all those depending on election cash splashes to create jobs.

Roger Wilkins-- noted civil rights activist, lawyer, professor, and journalist-- discusses the legacy of the civil rights movement, the challenges facing African Americans in post-segregation America, and the lack of white leadership advocating for racial equality. (CUNY Graduate Center, November 13, 1993)Roger Wilkins began his career working for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. He later worked as a lawyer in Ohio. At age 33, he was appointed assistant attorney general during the Lyndon Johnson Administration. He left government in 1969 and joined the editorial page staff of the Washington Post. He won a Pulitzer Prize, along with Carl Bernstein, Herbert Block, and Bob Woodward for their work exposing the Watergate burglary. He left the Washington Post in 1974 but continued his journalisitic career working for several major news outlets around the country. He was also a Clarence J. Robinson Professor of History and American Culture at George Mason University until his retirement in 2007.

Roger Wilkins, Associate Professor at the Melbourne Institute speaks about the research on Australia's disability payment scheme that is contained in the September edition of the Australian Economic Review

Associate Professor Roger Wilkins on the release of the HILDA report . Log onto the Melbourne Instiute to download the report

Journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Roger Wilkins and Harris Wofford, who worked with and for Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, discussed the struggle for civil rights in the early 1960's with Harvard historian Kenneth Mack.

Ray Suarez, Allida Black, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, and Roger Wilkins discuss how the lessons learned from the civil rights movement 50 years ago inform the struggle for equal rights today.

California Lawyer Magazine’s editor Martin Lasden welcomes Roger Wilkins, the highest-ranking African American in President Lyndon Johnson's Justice Department. Wilkins went on to serve on the editorial boards of the Washington Post, where he won a Pulitzer Prize, and the New York Times and taught history at George Mason University for over twenty years. Series: "Legally Speaking" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 21097]

California Lawyer Magazine’s editor Martin Lasden welcomes Roger Wilkins, the highest-ranking African American in President Lyndon Johnson's Justice Department. Wilkins went on to serve on the editorial boards of the Washington Post, where he won a Pulitzer Prize, and the New York Times and taught history at George Mason University for over twenty years. Series: "Legally Speaking" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 21097]