"For the listeners out there, this is a call to action.
If you are going to a university and there are things that you see around you that are not happening in the way that you think they should be happening, ask those questions.
Ask those questions. Because if we don't ask those questions, the status quo will remain, and that's for sure."
The murder of George Floyd on May 25th 2020 prompted a global reckoning as individuals and organisations looked inwards and outwards to understand their impact in sustaining racism in their societies. The Oxford PPE Society has a role to play in exposing racism in all its forms, to all it can reach.
We are proud to be working alongside Onyx Magazine, a creative publication that features poetry, short stories, artwork, and fresh think pieces. Kaeshelle Rianne, History and Politics Editor at Onyx, is our guest host, and she is in discussion with Dr Nicola Rollock, an academic, consultant, and public speaker who specialises in racial justice in education and the workplace. In the episode, we begin by discussing the impact of racism in higher education, and go on to discuss how she is boosting the representation of black women in the sector and how accessible it is to them. We also discuss the summer's outpouring of support for the Black Lives Matter movement, and its impact on society more broadly, as well as the black people who are inside the issue themselves.
Dr Rollock is Specialist Adviser to the Home Affairs Select Committee's 'Macpherson 21 Years On' inquiry is the lead author of 'The Colour of Class: the educational strategies of the Black middle classes', which won second prize in the 2016 Society for Educational Studies’ Annual Book Awards. Her first sole authored book The Racial Code will be published by Allen Lane in 2021. In 2019, Dr Rollock was selected by Times Higher Education journalists as one of 11 scholars globally to have influenced the debate in higher education.
She is currently curator of 'Phenomenal Women: portraits of UK Black female professors' which will go on show on the Southbank Centre's Queen's Walk from October 10th.
"In my 50 years observing leaders, he is the best communicator. He has the messaging power of a tabloid editor, he is so good at this.
I force myself to watch his rallies: he's riveting — unfortunately! Because behind it, is a sociopath; he's the accidental president."
Diane Francis is a journalist, political commentator, and Editor-at-Large at The National Post, one of Canada's largest broadsheet newspapers. She writes about technology, finance, and current affairs, and in the podcast we discuss whether print media can survive, how digital journalism can thrive, journalism in politics and tackling fake news, plus her take on dealing with coronavirus.
Diane writes for periodicals around the world and speaks at conferences about business, tech, geopolitics, and white collar crime. Her column at The National Post appears twice a week, and Diane is also a regular contributor at the Huffington Post. In 1991, she became Editor of Canada’s Financial Post, the first female editor of a national daily newspaper in Canada, a position she held until the paper was sold in 1998. She is the author of ten books, including 'Merger of the Century: Why Canada and America Should Become One Country' and 'Immigration: The Economic Case'.
Diane is a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC, a Distinguished Professor at Ryerson University, and also sits on the boards of the Hudson Institute's Kleptocracy Initiative and the Canada-US Law Institute. She was also previously a Visiting Professor at Harvard University's Shorenstein Center.
This episode will be guest hosted by The Oxford Blue, Oxford's first new newspaper for 30 years. Established earlier this year, The Blue has made the UK national papers on a number of occasions, and won 'Best Newcomer' at the Student Press Awards for 2020.
Lois Heslop currently writes at The Spectator: https://www.spectator.co.uk/writer/lois-heslop.
"The Labour Party could have gone to town and given me legal costs which would bankrupt me, so I accepted being thrown out the party."
Frank Field served as the Labour MP for Birkenhead for 40 years, first entering Parliament when Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister in 1979, and leaving it in 2019 following his resignation of the party whip a year earlier.
In this short 23-minute episode we discuss some of the challenges facing Britain in 2020. In particular, we discuss the coronavirus pandemic and Black Lives Matter. Recorded in-between the removal of statues commemorating slave traders, we also touch on how we should discuss this crucial, delicate issue. Further, Frank opens the lid on his experiences in the Labour Party, including the circumstances in which he left, as well as how Keir Starmer can change its fortunes.
Frank spent much of his time in Parliament working on welfare. He served for only a year under Tony Blair as the Minister of Welfare Reform, from 1997-98. Blair had said Frank's mission was to "think the unthinkable", and later wrote that "the problem was not so much that his thoughts were unthinkable as unfathomable." Frank went on to be one of the Labour Government's most vocal critics.
In August 2018, he resigned the Labour whip, citing anti-semitism in the party, and a "culture of intolerance, nastiness and intimidation". Frank lost a confidence vote in his constituency party a month before his resignation, after siding with the government in Brexit votes.
Pat is one of the founders of neurophilosophy, which examines the relationship between neuroscience and philosophy. According to her, "to understand the mind, we must understand the brain," and she applies findings from neuroscience to common philosophical questions about knowledge, free will, consciousness, and ethics. This video discusses the origins of our moral intuition and how the moral teachings of evolution can be justified. We also discuss implications for wider topics including free will. It is an intriguing and entertaining that raises questions as it answers others. Take part in the comments section by telling us what you think.
Pat's website, possibly the best of any professional philosopher, contains all her articles and books. Have a look if you are interested in reading more: https://patriciachurchland.com/publications.
Alex O'Connor's YouTube channel can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7kIy8fZavEni8Gzl8NLjOQ.
"If you've learnt your economics from Hayek, and you're let loose in 10 Downing Street, you can do a hell of a lot of harm very fast indeed. It's generally true that economists could do with acquainting themselves with more features of the world."
This week we are joined by the immensely quotable Professor John Dunn, who has written prolifically on political theory and practice for over 50 years. He is currently an emeritus professor at King's College, Cambridge, and he sat down with our guest host from the Oxford Political Review to talk democracy, realistic alternatives, and how different political systems respond variably to crises. In this 33-minute episode, we also find time to discuss what is really important for a democracy to thrive, and how Britain has lost those crucial ingredients in recent decades.
"As the Prime Minister has said to a lot of the people working with him, what can I do for the people who voted for me. So what has happened is massively unhelpful."
Bronwen Maddox is the Director of the Institute for Government and we were delighted to sit down with her for the fifth episode of our podcast series.
The fate of Brexit, the integrity of our democracy, and the rise of nationalism are three key developments in Britain today. In this 31 minute episode, we explore the causes of nationalism across the United Kingdom, the significance of the new Labour opposition and reforms to our democracy like virtual Parliaments, what coronavirus means for Brexit, and much more.
Bronwen has had a glittering career in the media, and now at the Institute, which works to promote better government by focusing on how it is led and how it makes decisions. Previously, she was the editor and chief executive of Prospect, the leading current affairs magazine, and also worked as an editor at The Times. As a result, she is well placed to offer a unique insight into how Britain is governed.
"Islamist politics has been tried and failed. To be honest, I think Erdoğan's era is over."
In this week's podcast we are joined by Hannah Lucinda Smith, the author of 'Erdoğan Rising: The Battle for the Soul of Turkey'. Hannah is also The Times' political correspondent in Turkey, where she is also responsible for their coverage of the Balkans and the Middle East.
This episode is full of intriguing anecdotes from Hannah's experiences of almost a decade in the region. One cannot help but feel the tension of the attempted coup of 2016, hearing about how commandos stormed his hotel room, with orders to capture him dead or alive, just 30 minutes after he had fled.
In this episode we dive into the religious, political, and cultural traditions of Turkey's political culture and explore how Erdoğan's political coalition has evolved, and narrowed, over time. We also discuss Erdoğan's precarious and crumbling popularity, the political maneuvres he regularly uses to manufacture a bump in the polls, and what the future holds for Turkey, after Erdoğan has left the scene.
"Labour also has to be very careful about two things with the electorate: are my taxes gonna go sky high and whether it's going to be strong enough on national security.
To be absolutely blunt, Jeremy Corbyn didn't pass that test."
Our latest episode with Lord Andrew Adonis is out now! In this 40-minute podcast, Andrew expressed his regrets over Brexit and university tuition fees and reiterated his case for HS2 and expanding Heathrow. We also discussed what Keir Starmer needs to do to become Prime Minster, and touched on the current state of government at Westminster, as well as the one man Andrew believes should be in Number 10 instead.
"If you have managed to reduce risk, then uncertainty is something you can welcome."
Our first podcast is now live! We were delighted to host Professor John Kay for this 34 minute episode. Touching on a universal basic income, Groundhog Day, and green-washing, it is certainly a broad and entertaining discussion.
In the episode, we discuss John's most recent books: Other People's Money and Radical Uncertainty. Other People’s Money plots the route to financial reform and argues why we should take it. It is a fascinating topic which has far reaching implications, which we explore later on. Radical Uncertainty was published in March 2020. Co-authored with former governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King, they explain how contemporary economists have got it wrong on risk and uncertainty. These words are distinct, and 'optimal' models to make decisions are not in fact optimal at all.
Despite his embrace of radical financial reform and of uncertainty, John is not in favour of the radical fiscal idea gripping many political and economic thinkers: universal basic income. Instead, John considers its necessary limits, concluding that the end result looks similar to the welfare system we have already, and for good reason.
Tune in to the Oxford PPE Society's very first podcast: no risk to fear, plenty of uncertainty to enjoy.