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PODCAST

OxPods

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

education courses

All Episodes

00:48:00

Soviet Hippiedom

OxPods ·

2025/11/06

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

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00:38:24

Gulag Fiction: Narratives of Soviet Imprisonment

OxPods ·

2025/10/23

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

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00:22:38

The Evolution of Autosexual Behaviour

OxPods ·

2025/10/20

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.

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00:37:13

The History of Yoga

OxPods ·

2025/08/23

What is the history of Yoga? And how can something apparently Indian have become such an everyday activity for people across the world? 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 Dr Suzanne Newcombe, who was an undergraduate at Amherst College, before completing her MSc at the London School of Economics and PhD in History at Cambridge. Suzanne is now a Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at The

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00:25:02

Witchcraft in the English Imagination

OxPods ·

2025/08/16

The witch craze that gripped early modern Europe has been the subject of many studies. What can we learn about English society in this period through the lens of belief in and persecution of witches? To begin to answer these questions, Charlie Bowden, a History student at Jesus College, speaks to Dr George Southcombe, Fellow by Special Election in History at Wadham College and author of a forthcoming book-length study of witchcraft in early modern England.Host: Charlie BowdenEditor: Charlie

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00:47:57

British 'Hippiedom' and the Idea of India

OxPods ·

2025/08/02

The British hippie movement of the 1960s left an indelible mark on popular culture and woven into this counterculture was a fascination with Indian spiritual practices. When the Beatles went to India, for instance, what did they hope to find and to what extent were their hopes wrapped up in colonial thinking about Britain's former imperial territory? To explore this understudied element of the movement, Charlie Bowden, a History student at Jesus College, speaks to Robert James Taylor, a DPhil

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00:57:31

A History of Western Fascination with the East

OxPods ·

2025/06/22

The ‘East’ has held a special place in the British cultural imagination. But how can we chart this historically? And how useful are frameworks of ‘East’ and ‘West’ within a modern world connected by technology? I’m Robert Taylor, a first-year History DPhil student at New College, researching the post-1945 British counterculture’s interest in India. Today I’m joined by Dr Christopher Harding, who completed his BA, MSt and DPhil at Oxford, and is now a Senior Lecturer in Asian History at the

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00:21:43

Giant Otters

OxPods ·

2025/06/15

To most, otters are those small fluffy creatures that lie back, hold hands and drift off into the sunset. In this episode, PhD student Claire Marr shakes up that expectation in conversation with 4th-year Biology student, Emily Jones, and introduces us to the giant otter: the 2-metre-long Amazonian relative of the otters we already know and love. How different are these giant otters to their smaller relatives and what is so special about their social behaviour? Host: Emily JonesEditor: Emily

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00:38:29

The Five Senses in Medieval Thought

OxPods ·

2025/06/07

Understanding the five senses is a foundational element of modern education, but how long has this been the case throughout history? Where did the idea originate and how did it survive when so many other conceptions of human biology from the past have been disproven? To find out more about this topic, Charlie Bowden, a History student at Jesus College, speaks to Dr John Merrington, Examination Fellow in History at All Souls College.Host: Charlie BowdenProducer: Florence AllenLooking to make the most

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00:29:16

Decolonisation in Lusophone Africa

OxPods ·

2025/06/06

This episode explores the diplomatic strategies of Lusophone African liberation movements at the United Nations. We speak with Maria de Costa to discuss how movements in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau built international alliances and shaped their political identities to push for independence.Host: Kwame AppaframProducer: Florence AllenLooking 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

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00:27:44

Writing Queer History

OxPods ·

2025/05/10

Queer history is a relatively new addition to the lexicon of historical analysis, and questions remain about how best to approach the study of queerness in the past. To what extent can we 'find' queer identity in the past? In this episode, Charlie Bowden, a History student at Jesus College, speaks to Professor Matt Cook, the Jonathan Cooper Professor of the History of Sexuality at Mansfield College, about his forthcoming book Writing Queer History and what it says about developments in this

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00:29:46

The First Thousand Years of Christianity

OxPods ·

2025/02/19

The development of Christianity in the centuries following the death of Jesus was far from plain sailing. Which ideas and authors played the most significant roles in the shape of the religion as it entered the second millennium? To query this, Charlie Bowden, a History student at Jesus College, speaks to Dr Conrad Leyser, Associate Professor of Medieval History at Worcester College about the first thousand years of Christian history.Host: Charlie BowdenEditor: Charlie BowdenLooking to make the most

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00:53:59

Decoding Climate Misinformation: Strategies for...

OxPods ·

2025/02/04

Climate change is understandably a current hot topic (no pun intended) that many of us care a lot about. But how good is our climate literacy, really? Three wonderful panellists from Oxford take on this topic, bringing in their expertise - from law to sustainable development. This is the perfect episode for listeners wanting to bolster their knowledge of climate change, especially in the face of seemingly rising climate change scepticism. This recording was taken in November 2024.Hosts: Charlie

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00:10:31

What is History Now?

OxPods ·

2024/11/17

Host: Charlie BowdenEditor: Charlie Bowden In celebration of the 300th anniversary of the establishment of the Regius Professorship of History at Oxford, the History Faculty organised a research event entitled ‘What is History now?’ at Trinity College. Charlie Bowden, a History student at Jesus College, speaks to a variety of attendees, from visiting professors to PhD students to employees in the heritage sector, to find out about where the discipline finds itself at present and where it should go

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00:30:27

Creolization in Medieval Latin Europe

OxPods ·

2024/11/03

Description: The process of creolization, in which various languages and cultures mix into diverse new forms, has been an underutilised tool in historical analysis for some time. In the context of medieval Latin Europe and the development of myriad successor states after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, creolization can demonstrate some significant cultural shifts that warrant academic attention. To learn more about this topic and its potential uses, Charlie Bowden, a History student at

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00:30:08

The Normalization of the Radical Right

OxPods ·

2024/06/12

Our final episode of the academic year! An interview with Nuffield College postdoctoral prize research fellow Vicente Valentim on the theory put forward in his upcoming book “The Normalization of the Radical Right: A Norms Theory of Political Supply and Demand.” Dr Valentim discusses how far right ideologies grow and parties with these views gain power, often at shocking speed. Valentim pushes back against the overfocus on intrinsic motivation in previous literature. He instead attributes the growth

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00:42:28

Post-War Education and Youth Politics

OxPods ·

2024/05/29

British society was fundamentally shifted by the Second World War, and among the many transformations that took place in the post-war years, those experienced by young people in respect to their education and political engagement were among the most significant. To explore this topic further, in this episode Charlie Bowden, a History student at Jesus College, speaks to Dr Helen Sunderland, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow and Junior Research Fellow in History at Jesus College, about the paradigms of

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00:29:10

OxSci x OxPods: Post-COVID-19 Era

OxPods ·

2024/05/23

Pandemics of the past highlight the persistent threat of disease throughout human history. It might seem that our repeated encounters with infectious diseases should have better prepared us for such cases. Yet, the COVID-19 pandemic was not without its own challenges. In this episode of Oxpods, Rithika Ravishankar, a third-year Biology undergraduate at Hertford College speaks with Dr. Sunetra Gupta, Professor of Theoretical Epidemiology at Oxford University to discuss pandemic preparedness in the

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00:22:32

Week 5 Blues? Depression, Depressive Symtoms, and...

OxPods ·

2024/05/22

Depression has developed from a taboo topic to one that is widely spoken about and investigated in recent years. There are several debates surrounding its heritability, symptoms whether diagnosis can have a positive or negative impact on an individual. In this episode, Aylin Gurleyen, a 2nd-year Psychologist at Brasenose, speaks to Prof. Lucy Bowes, professor of developmental psychopathology at Magdalen College to discuss depression, depressive symptoms, and resilience. Host: Aylin

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00:29:21

OxSci x OxPods: Re-imagining Justice for Humans and...

OxPods ·

2024/05/16

When we read anthropological accounts, it is easy to overlook the extensive fieldwork and lived experiences that inform them. How can anthropologists interrogate the ethics of their discipline, and fundamentally, what does anthropology offer? In this episode of Oxpods, Ushika Kidd, a second-year Human Sciences student at Keble, speaks with Dr. Sophie Chao, anthropologist and academic at the University of Sydney, to discuss the ethics and practical aspects of multispecies research and research with

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83 results

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