Featured interviews

What is madness and what is sanity? There has been growing concern about the general public's mental health over the last decades, and it has come to the forefront as a matter of social urgency, especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Words like 'anxiety', 'depression' or 'hyperactivity' have found their way into common parlance. In this Social Observatory Café, writer Rosa Montero reflects on the socio-economic roots of numerous psychological disorders and encourages us to think about the collective narratives that we use to explain away our discomforts.

Fear is one of the basic emotions that are essential for our survival. It has also always acted as one of the most effective mechanisms for controlling individuals and societies. In this Observatory Café, Bernat Castany Prado, a professor at the University of Barcelona who researches this complex human emotion, discusses how fear operates in our lives and how—through joy and action at the individual and social level—we can put up barriers to fence off its emergence.

In this interview, we discussed society and care with Carmen Sarabia, a nurse and lecturer at the University of Cantabria. What does care mean? Who provides the care? Who should and must provide care? What role do individuals play compared to society? Will robots be caring for us in the near future? From the enlightened perspective of a healthcare professional, we shed some light on matters that affect us as a society right now and in the future.

In this Observatory Café, we speak to social entrepreneur Pol Villaverde, who tells us all about young people and their involvement in political life. We also reflect on democracy in the digital age and how the world is shifting around lost privilege. Why do young people need to get involved in politics? How can they do it? Who wins when citizens shut themselves off in echo chambers? Villaverde's fresh and honest opinion guides us through this debate.

In this Café with journalist and writer Marta Peirano, we discuss what it means to live in a society where an increasing number of tasks are being done by opaque algorithms as we relinquish more and more of our private data to a very small group of tech firms. Can we still talk of free will in a digitally subjugated society? Do we know what we are up against as citizens and as a society?

In a world that extols autonomy and narcissism, compassion is seen as a weakness. Professor, philosopher and essayist Rafael Argullol champions compassion as an act of resistance and freedom, the last bulwark against growing dehumanistion.

Raquel Lanseros, poet and professor of Language and Literature Education, explains why reading and writing have been and still are so important in human configuration. Despite the dizzying changes we are going through, we are still beings that tell stories to each other and themselves.

In this Social Observatory Cafe, we sat down with Sara Marsillas, PhD in Psychology, expert in solitude and researcher in Matia Instituto, to tackle one of the most concerning topics for the general public right now: the subjective feeling of loneliness. Why do we seem to feel lonelier in a world where we are increasingly connected?

Culture is a collection of knowledge that allows us to survive and connects us to our roots and values. However, it is also the driving force behind our critical thinking and bolsters our ability to decide.

We are living increasingly longer. Promoting healthy and inclusive lifestyles works to the benefit of society as a whole.