Our final episode of 2025 is a bit of fun as Hannah and Ruth reveal their words of the year. Let us know your words of the year in the comments.

Thanks for listening to our little podcast. May 2026 care for you all.

Words of Affirmation is a podcast from Care Full, hosted by Hannah Webster & Ruth Hannan.

You can support the podcast to continue by signing up to our Patreon.

You can find out more about hosts Care Full on our website

This week we’re joined by Joe Durbidge to talk about the concept and meaning of “the gig economy”. We discuss how it’s a lot less fun than it sounds and how understanding workers rights for some shines a light on systemic patterns affecting the rights of us all.

Words of Affirmation is a podcast from Care Full, hosted by Hannah Webster & Ruth Hannan. Our guest Joe Durbidge is a campaign-led researcher at IWGB and was previously a courier full time.

You can support the podcast to continue by signing up to our Patreon.

You can find out more about hosts Care Full on our website.

You can find out more about the IWGB on their website

Our positive affirmations this week spanned the work of the IWGB, Ireland’s basic income for the arts and Care Full’s recent work on care solidarity.Our music for the episode is Bobby Bertoli’s Rebirth (thanks Bob x).

This week we take on the language of ‘vulnerable people’ and explore what it means for how we live, work and care for each other. We’re joined by Bryony Shannon, author of the Rewriting Social Care blog and the book - ‘Rewriting Social Care: Challenging and Changing Language and Practice for a Better, Brighter Future’. She has almost 20 years’ experience in adult social care information, communications, and practice development in local councils, and is now working with several organisations who want to challenge and change their own language and practice.

Words of Affirmation is a podcast from Care Full, hosted by Hannah Webster & Ruth Hannan.

You can support the podcast to continue by signing up to our Patreon.

You can find out more about our guest Bryony Shannon on her website.

And, you can find out more about hosts Care Full on our website.

Our music for the episode is Bobby Bertoli’s Rebirth (thanks Bob x).

This week we’re talking about the ‘housing ladder’. We explore how the idea of a ladder keeps our attention on home ownership over other tenures, and whether the metaphor stands up in the midst of today’s housing market.

Words of Affirmation is a podcast from Care Full, hosted by Hannah Webster & Ruth Hannan.

You can support the podcast to continue by signing up to our Patreon.

You can find out more about hosts Care Full on our website.

This week we talked about:

• Keir Starmer’s vision for housing op ed for Inside Housing

• Steve Hilditch’s essay More Snakes than Ladders for Red Brick

• The UK’s Renters Reform Bill

• The IFS report Help onto the Housing Ladder

• TSB research on the experiences of first time buyers

• Nick Bano in the Guardian on the simple solution to the housing crisis

• Housing co-ops

• Tenants unions like London Renters Union, Acorn and Greater Manchester Tenants Union

• Deutsche Wohnen & Co enteignen campaign and referendum for public ownership of housing in Berlin

Our music for the episode is Bobby Bertoli’s Rebirth (thanks Bob x).

This week we’re talking about ‘taxpayers money’ and exploring how such a commonplace phrase leans us towards less public spending and creates a dividing line between who public services are and aren’t for.

Words of Affirmation is a podcast from Care Full, hosted by Hannah Webster & Ruth Hannan.

You can support the podcast to continue by signing up to our Patreon.

You can find out more about hosts Care Full on our website.

This week we talked about:

• This Mother Jones article on the history of tax and biases of ‘taxpayers’

• Tax Payers Alliance’s BBC guide

• Critiques on the language of taxpayers from Richard Murphy

• Research from Carnegie UK on public perceptions of the tax system

• Patriotic Millionaires

• The British Social Attitudes Survey findings on tax

• Margate residents turning out in opposition to UKIP this month

Our music for the episode is Bobby Bertoli’s Rebirth (thanks Bob x).

This week we talk about the language of crisis and ask whether it enables or prevents us from moving towards a fairer economy.

Words of Affirmation is a podcast from Care Full, hosted by Hannah Webster & Ruth Hannan.

You can support the podcast to continue by signing up to our Patreon.

You can find out more about hosts Care Full on our website.

This week we talked about:

• Adam Tooze on the polycrisis for the Financial Times here

• The use of metaphors when talking about economic crisis here

• An exploration of crisis, value and hope here

• Social Care Futures work on how to build support to transform social care and the language of crisis here

• Rethinking Economics

• Zohran Mamdani and his treasure hunt

Our music for the episode is Bobby Bertoli’s Rebirth (thanks Bob x). And thank you to Robyn Moffat for supporting the podcast with a professional studio and our best sounding episode yet!

This week we’re joined by Jason Bunting to talk about fairness in the economy and explore what it means for how we live, work and care for each other.

*We had a few issues with Ruth’s sound so apologies for some crackling sounds whilst she’s talking. It’s all good stuff she’s saying so we’ve kept it in!*

Words of Affirmation is a podcast from Care Full, hosted by Hannah Webster & Ruth Hannan.

You can support the podcast to continue by signing up to our Patreon.

You can find out more about hosts Care Full on our website.

And about Jason’s work at fairnessfoundation.com.

This week we talked about:

• The Fairness Foundation’s Fair Necessities

• And their wider research

• The discourse of fairness around the Welfare Reform Bill

• Kemi Badenoch talking about fairness

• The car finance scandal

• Brute luck

• Issues of tax justice

• Solidarity Economics including this report from the Good Ancestor Movement and Decolonising Economics

Our music for the episode is Bobby Bertoli’s Rebirth (thanks Bob x).

This week we deep dive into the 'benefits system’ and ask what using this language means for our shared understanding of what benefits are and why they exist.

Words of Affirmation is a podcast from Care Full, hosted by Hannah Webster & Ruth Hannan.

You can support the podcast to continue by signing up to our Patreon.

And, you can find out more about hosts Care Full on our website.

This week we talked about:

• The Beveridge Report

• Darren McGarvey on the toxic trope of benefit scroungers

• This Yougov poll on how Britons feel about benefit and welfare recipients

• This article on the language of welfare from Liam Stanley

• JRF’s data on poverty in the UK

• OECD data on social security spend internationally

• This UBI trial in Wales

Our music for the episode is Bobby Bertoli’s Rebirth (thanks Bob x).