The podcast by Oxford students and their professors.
OxPods aims to create thought-provoking and easily digestible podcast episodes, made for anyone with an interest in the world around them. Each episode entails an Oxford student interviewing one of their world-leading professors on the niche, weird, and wonderful of their subjects. With episodes exploring the nooks and crannies of the Natural Sciences, English, History, Human Sciences, and PPE, OxPods has something for everyone.
If you would like the transcript of an episode, please get in touch with us via email - contact@oxpods.co.uk
How do religious communities engage with questions of empire, power, peace, and political action? And what can these debates tell us about global histories of non-violence? I’m Robert Taylor, a History DPhil student at New College, researching the post-1945 British counterculture’s interest in India. Today I’m joined by Floris de Ruiter, a PhD candidate at the Institute for History, University of Leiden, whose research examines intellectual debates around violence and non-violence within ashram communities. In this episode, we’re exploring ashrams and the history of ideas about violence and non-violence in 20th-century South Asia.
What is Sufism? How do we investigate its global history? And through what processes did it come to influence those in the West? I’m Robert Taylor, a History DPhil student at New College, researching the post-1945 British counterculture’s interest in India. Today I’m joined by Nile Green, a Professor at UCLA. Nile is a historian of South Asia with a diverse range of publications spanning global, social, religious, cultural, and literary history. He studied in Britain and taught at Oxford, before moving to the United States.
What is Hinduism? Where does it come from? How do we look at it comparatively? And which ideas have made it so influential outside of South Asia? I’m Robert Taylor, a History DPhil student at New College, researching the post-1945 British counterculture’s interest in India. Today I’m joined by Professor Gavin Flood at Campion Hall. Gavin is Professor Emeritus of Hindu Studies and Comparative Religion at Oxford.
How do religious communities engage with questions of empire, power, peace, and political action? And what can these debates tell us about global histories of non-violence? I’m Robert Taylor, a History DPhil student at New College, researching the post-1945 British counterculture’s interest in India. Today I’m joined by Floris de Ruiter, a PhD candidate at the Institute for History, University of Leiden, whose research examines intellectual debates around violence and non-violence within ashram communities. In this episode, we’re exploring ashrams and the history of ideas about violence and non-violence in 20th-century South Asia.
What is Sufism? How do we investigate its global history? And through what processes did it come to influence those in the West? I’m Robert Taylor, a History DPhil student at New College, researching the post-1945 British counterculture’s interest in India. Today I’m joined by Nile Green, a Professor at UCLA. Nile is a historian of South Asia with a diverse range of publications spanning global, social, religious, cultural, and literary history. He studied in Britain and taught at Oxford, before moving to the United States.
What is Hinduism? Where does it come from? How do we look at it comparatively? And which ideas have made it so influential outside of South Asia? I’m Robert Taylor, a History DPhil student at New College, researching the post-1945 British counterculture’s interest in India. Today I’m joined by Professor Gavin Flood at Campion Hall. Gavin is Professor Emeritus of Hindu Studies and Comparative Religion at Oxford.
How did hippiedom manifest in the Soviet Union? What were the differences between Western and Russian hippies? What are the problems and possibilities of using oral history to tell these sometimes-controversial stories? And how did the political views of some hippies change after the 60s and 70s? I’m Robert Taylor, a History DPhil student at New College, researching the post-1945 British counterculture’s interest in India. Today I’m joined by Professor Juliane Fuerst to discuss her 2021 book, Flowers through Concrete: Explorations in Soviet Hippieland.
Formally emerging in 1929, the Gulag was a vast system of incarceration that came to reach every corner of the USSR. At its peak, in the early 1950s, 2.5 million citizens were interned in its camps and settlements; over its lifetime, an estimated 20 million people were forcibly imprisoned. In this episode, Professor Polly Jones discusses her new book, Gulag Fiction, which considers the literary output of this expansive carceral archipelago. How did writers seek to relate the trauma they experienced while imprisoned in the Gulag? And how is that trauma fictionalised today?
Across the animal kingdom sexual behaviours have evolved which increase the chances of individuals finding a mate and successfully reproducing. However, some are more of a challenge to explain than others. Masturbation has historically been considered a behaviour which hasn’t evolved to directly improve reproductive success, but recent research has shown that its important in optimising sperm quality, and even allowing females to choose which males fertilise them.
The works of William Shakespeare are synonymous with English identity, but why is this? Why is a 16th-century playwright still considered relevant today? And why are some of our favourite rom-coms based on his plays?
In this episode of OxPods, English Language and Literature undergraduate Freya Radford interviews Dr Carla Suthren, a Lecturer in English at St Catherine’s College Oxford, whose research focuses on Renaissance literature and the interchange of different literature between eras, in particular the classical influence. They discuss how Shakespeare still influences English study and modern culture today, considering just why we are still so obsessed with the Bard.
To learn more about OxPods, visit our website www.oxpods.co.uk, or follow us on socials @ox.pods.
OxPods is made possible through the support of our generous benefactors. Special thanks to: St Peter's College JCR, Jesus College JCR & Lady Margaret Hall JCR for supporting us in 2024.
Intelligent life on our planet arrived relatively late on a geological timescale, but why did life take so long to evolve and how have major catastrophic events, such as meteorite impacts, shaped the evolution of complex life?
In this episode, Elyse Airey, a biology undergraduate at Queen's College, speaks to Mike Bonsall, Professor of Mathematical Biology and Fellow at St. Peter's College, to learn more about the emergence of complex life on Earth and why life appears to be so rare in the observable universe.
To learn more about OxPods, visit our website www.oxpods.co.uk, or follow us on socials @ox.pods.
OxPods is made possible through the support of our generous benefactors. Special thanks to: St Peter's College JCR, Jesus College JCR & Lady Margaret Hall JCR for supporting us in 2024.
England was mired in the political and theological pressures of the Reformation under the Tudor dynasty, but popular perception of its monarchy and people have often obscured the true nature of religious change in the sixteenth century. In this episode, Charlie Bowden, a History student at Jesus College, speaks to Dr Lucy Wooding, Langford Fellow and Tutor in History at Lincoln College, about the twists and turns of the direction of the Tudor church.
To learn more about OxPods, visit our website www.oxpods.co.uk, or follow us on socials @ox.pods.
OxPods is made possible through the support of our generous benefactors. Special thanks to: St Peter's College JCR, Jesus College JCR & Lady Margaret Hall JCR for supporting us in 2024.
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, medical experts ranging from statisticians and demographers to virologists and consultants were depended upon by politicians. Their advice had serious implications for the country: but what is and ought to be the role of experts in governance, national and international?
Sophia Herbert, a Third-Year PPE student at New College interviews Dr Jan Eijking to uncover what exactly we mean by expertise, and how the way politicians translate and communicate expert advice can have huge implications for policymaking and day-to-day life. Dr Eijking is the William Golding Junior Research Fellow at Brasenose College, as well as a postdoctoral Research Associate at the DPIR and Oxford Martin Fellow, whose research has focused on how international organisations have adapted to crises.
Looking to make the most of Oxford’s world-leading professors, we decided to set up a platform to interview these academics on the niche, weird, and wonderful from their subjects. We aim to create thought-provoking and easily digestible podcast episodes, made for anyone with an interest in the world around them.
OxPods aims to facilitate university access and outreach for students aspiring to Oxford or Cambridge. Providing valuable topic insights, interview preparation, and tutorial guidance, OxPods supports applicants in navigating the complexities of the Oxbridge application process.
To learn more about OxPods, visit our website www.oxpods.co.uk, or follow us on socials @ox.pods. An audio transcript for this episode is available on our website.
OxPods is made possible through the support of our generous benefactors. Special thanks to: St Peter's College JCR, Jesus College JCR & Lady Margaret Hall JCR for supporting us in 2024.
Sex is so widespread that you could assume it’s essential for life as we know it, playing a central role in the evolution and development of animal and human societies. However, it’s not the only way of producing offspring, and compared to asexual reproduction, sex actually entails a number of costs. Because of this, ‘Why sex?’ is one of the most fundamental questions in biology that has puzzled scientists for many years.
In this episode of OxPods, biology PhD student Joe Woodman will be interviewing Dr Chris Wilson, an evolutionary biologist whose research aims to uncover why sex exists.
To learn more about OxPods, visit our website www.oxpods.co.uk, or follow us on socials @ox.pods.
OxPods is made possible through the support of our generous benefactors. Special thanks to: St Peter's College JCR, Jesus College JCR & Lady Margaret Hall JCR for supporting us in 2024.
The 2023 Barbie movie was a massive box office hit, with an incredible construction of 'Barbie World'. The soundtrack played a huge role in this world-building, with its heavy use of synthesised instruments and hyperpop creating what can only be described as a sense of 'plasticity'.
In this episode, undergraduate Music student Florence Allen is joined by Dr. Adam Harper, a music critic and lecturer whose specialisms include electronic and pop music, to discuss how the soundtrack of the Barbie movie is a key element in the film's storytelling, whilst tapping into the latest trends in internet and pop culture.
Niccolò Machiavelli was one of the foremost political theorists of the Renaissance. His treatise ‘The Prince’ has enjoyed immense notoriety as an instruction manual for good leadership of a state, even being required reading for civil servants when Alastair Campbell oversaw Downing Street communications. But when we speak of Machiavellian politicians in the modern day, are we actually discussing the concepts Machiavelli wrote and thought about 500 years ago?
In this episode, Charlie Bowden, a second-year History student at Jesus College, interviews Dr Alexandra Gajda, John Walsh Fellow in History at Jesus College, about the political legacy of Machiavelli and whether his ideas for sixteenth-century statecraft can be translated to the modern world of presidents and prime ministers.
Literature is full of talking animals, from modern works like Paddington to Middle English works like The Owl and The Nightingale. But why do writers create non-speaking animals that speak? And why employ animals in literature at all?
In this episode of OxPods, English Language and Literature undergraduate Chloe Smith interviews Dr Eleanor Parker, a Lecturer in Medieval English Literature at Brasenose College, Oxford, whose research focuses on literature in England in the centuries before and after the Norman Conquest. They discuss how Mediaeval poets wrote about animals and how understanding human-animal dynamics can influence how we treat our planet in the present.
The common people have had representation in English political life since the establishment of Parliament, but it wasn’t until the sixteenth century that a ‘public sphere’ truly emerged outside of the halls of Westminster. The rise of the mercantile classes, particularly in London, gave the people a voice that governmental elites could no longer ignore. How did this system of accountability come into existence, though?
In this week’s episode, Charlie Bowden, a second-year History student at Jesus College, interviews Dr Ellen Paterson, formerly Stipendiary Lecturer in History at Mansfield and Oriel Colleges and currently CMRS Career Development Fellow in Early Modern History at Keble College, about the advent of popular politics in early modern England.
In life and in death, our bodies have stories to tell. Isabelle Rycroft, third-year Human Scientist at St Hugh's College, is joined by Professor Sue Black to discuss the ever-advancing field of Forensic Anthropology.
Sue Black is one of the world-leading forensic anthropologists and anatomists. Professor Black is the 65th President of the Royal Anthropological Institute and the Life-Time Professor of Anatomy for the Royal Scottish Academy.
Forty years ago, the large blue butterfly was extinct in Britain. The intensification of farming has pushed half of the butterfly species in the UK to the brink of extinction. However, at Daneway Banks Nature Reserve in Gloucestershire, the large blue butterfly has made a comeback.
In this episode, Biology masters student Tosca Hulett discusses the extinction an re-establishment of the large blue butterfly with Professor Jeremy Thomas, one of Europe's most accomplished butterfly experts.
While now a favourite Halloween costume, being a witch in the early modern period was a serious matter. Between the years 1400 and 1782, around 40,000-60,000 people, primarily women, were executed in Europe for being "witches." Who were these witches and why were they so feared?In this episode, Minh Nguyen, a 2nd-year history undergraduate at New College, speaks to Dr. Leif Dixon, lecturer in early modern history at Regent’s Park College to explore the social, religious, and political context behind witch-hunting, and discover what ‘witchcraft’ really was.
