In episode 253 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with Dr Ashley Frawley.
Ashley is currently Visiting Researcher in the Centre for Parenting Culture Studies at the University of Kent, as well as Visiting Research Fellow at the MCC Brussels in Belgium.
She was also previously Associate Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at Swansea University until 2023.
She is the author of ‘Semiotics of Happiness: rhetorical beginnings of a public problem’ published by Bloomsbury in 2015 and the newly released ‘Significant Emotions’, published in January 2024.
She is also the host of her own podcast, ‘Based AF’, a columnist for Compact Magazine and COO of Sublation Media.
In this episode we discuss: her route into academia and how a chance email sent to her idol Frank Furedi ended up in working with the man himself and to the she holds at the University of Kent today, her critiques of ‘therapy culture’ in the mainstream mental health conversation and her view that there is NOT an epidemic of mental illness in the world right now.
We also discuss an article she wrote for Compact Magazine on the overreach of discourse around ‘neurodiversity’ and where she sits on the debate currently being had on the impact of smartphones and social media on young people’s mental health.
For Ashley’s mental health, we discuss an eating disorder she lived with from the age of 14-21 years old, how viewing it as a health issue was not helping her tackle it initially and how a change in her outlook on the condition, allowed her to get a handle on it and eventually overcome it.
As always, #itsokaytovent
You can follow Ashley on social media below:
You can subscribe to her Patreon and listen to her podcast here.
You can read Ashley’s article on neurodiversity we discussed in full here.
Support Us:
- Patreon
- GoFundMe
- Merchandise
- Music: Patawawa – Strange
