Emma Griffin ~ Media Work

Emma has written and presented several historical documentaries for Radio 4 – including, The Motherhood Myth (2019); Mind the Gender Pay Gap (2018); Clocking On (2017) and Voices from our Industrial Past, a two part series for Radio 4 looking at the lives of working men and women in nineteenth-century Britain. In 2014, she co-presented 'The Real Mill' with Tony Robinson on Channel 4, a documentary to accompany the successful Channel 4 drama, The Mill.

In 2012, Emma was selected as one of BBC Radio 3's New Generation Thinkers. She is frequently called upon as an expert contributor on radio and television, and is a regular discussant on Radio 3’s Free Thinking. She writes and reviews for scholarly journals and the popular press, and speaks at festivals, seminars and conferences.

  • Booth’s Life and Labour Survey

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Charles Booth's survey, The Life and Labour of the People in London, published in 17 volumes from 1889 to 1903.

    Radio 4, 10th June 2021
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  • Women, families and money in Victorian Britain

    The Victorian period is feted as a unique – if short-lived – moment of British greatness, which enjoyed sustained rises in GDP, real wages, and all other measurable elements of economic growth. But what implications did this have for both gender inequality and for women’s living standards? In this in-conversation with Farhhana Haider, Emma Griffin discusses the issues.

    British Academy, 19th March 2021
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  • Rethink: Rethinking Work

    Professor Griffin highlights the unpaid and emotional work that often goes unrecognised.

    Radio 3, 1st July 2021
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  • An Alternative History of Mothering

    On this Mother’s Day, historian Emma Griffin turns to history to debunk what she calls the Motherhood Myth - the idea that maternal love is as natural as sunshine.

    Radio 4, 31 March 2019
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  • The Poor Laws

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 19th century legislation intended to discourage poor people from seeking relief instead of work, with handouts replaced by the workhouse.

    Radio 4, 20 December 2018
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  • Mind The Gender Pay Gap

    Emma Griffin takes a historical look at the gender pay gap, from the 15th century up to the present day, to understand why it is still an issue today.

    Radio 4, 12 March 2018
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  • Clocking On

    Professor Emma Griffin looks back at the Industrial Revolution to discover how British workers became tied to the clock.

    Radio 4, 2 August 2018
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  • A Reflection on Worrying: Parental Worries

    Historian Professor Emma Griffin explores how parental worries have changed throughout the centuries and asks whether worry has always been a part of raising children.

    Radio 3, 22 June 2016
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  • Voices from our Industrial Past: Women

    Professor Emma Griffin examines the lives of working women during the industrial revolution, through a rich body of neglected sources - working-class autobiography.

    Radio 5, 16 March 2015
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  • The Lancashire Cotton Famine

    Melvin Bragg and guests discuss the cotton famine during the American Civil War.

    Radio 4, 14 May 2015
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  • The Real Mill with Tony Robinson

    Tony and social historian Emma Griffin uncover the personalities behind some of the workers who gave their lives to the progression of the mill - including a host of orphaned children who were legally bound to offer their services.

    Channel 4, August 2014
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  • Voices from our Industrial Past

    The industrial revolution was possibly the single most significant event in world history - the moment when one small nation left behind its agrarian past and entered decisively on the pathway to modernity. But what did it all mean for the ordinary people, who with their strong backs and nimble fingers did the most to power it? Historian Emma Griffin discusses.

    Radio 4, April 2014
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  • The Good Mother

    Historian Emma Griffin of the University of East Anglia turns to the poor of Victorian Britain to ask what made a good mother in families struggling to keep body and soul together. She finds that our own values and ideas about motherhood may not be as instinctive as we like to believe.

    Night Waves, Radio 3, 4 November 2012
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  • Outfoxed

    It is seven years since the fox hunting ban, yet the sport is still flourishing. Social Historian Emma Griffin visits three very different hunts to find out why. Along the way, she tells the story of how hunting has evolved over time and changed from being a pursuit mainly for the privileged and wealthy into something more universal, just when the hunting debate was becoming 'class' focused

    Outfoxed, Radio 4, May 2012
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  • Malthusianism

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Malthusianism.

    In our Time, Radio 4, 23 June 2011
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  • The Consequences of the Industrial Revolution

    The industrial revolution changed Britain forever. Lifestyles changed as workers moved from agricultural settlements to factory towns: health, housing, labour relations, and even ideas were all affected. Melvin Bragg and his guests consider.

    In Our Time, Radio 4, 1 January 2011
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