Featured interviews

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.

In this new interview from the Social Observatory Café, economist Antón Costas reflects on how to renew our social contract.

Francisco Villar is the coordinator of the suicidal behaviour care programme for minors at Hospital Sant Joan de Déu in Barcelona. We spoke to him about the reasons that can lead a teenager to start out on the path towards suicide and about what we can do to prevent these situations.

Ester Lázaro, a researcher at the Centre for Astrobiology and an expert on viruses, speaks about the parallels between biology and sociology on a topic that touches us all: going viral.