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.
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 Open University. We will be discussing Suzanne’s research, particularly focusing on her book ‘Yoga in Britain: Stretching Spirituality and Educating Yogis’.
You can find out more about Suzanne’s research here (https://profiles.open.ac.uk/suzanne-newcombe) and Robert’s here (https://history.web.ox.ac.uk/people/robert-taylor).
Host: Robert Taylor
Editor: Robert Taylor
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, and to facilitate university access and outreach for students aspiring to Oxford or Cambridge.
To learn more about OxPods, visit our website www.oxpods.co.uk, or follow us on socials @ox.pods. If you would like an audio transcription of this episode, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
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.
OxPods © 2023 by OxPods is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
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 Bowden
Editor: Charlie Bowden
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, and to facilitate university access and outreach for students aspiring to Oxford or Cambridge.
To learn more about OxPods, visit our website www.oxpods.co.uk, or follow us on socials @ox.pods. If you would like an audio transcription of this episode, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
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.
OxPods © 2023 by OxPods is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
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 candidate at New College, about his doctoral research on cultural Indophilia and its relation to hippiedom.
Host: Charlie Bowden
Editor: Charlie Bowden
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, and to facilitate university access and outreach for students aspiring to Oxford or Cambridge.
To learn more about OxPods, visit our website www.oxpods.co.uk, or follow us on socials @ox.pods. If you would like an audio transcription of this episode, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
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.
OxPods © 2023 by OxPods is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
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 University of Edinburgh. We will be discussing Chris’ excellent recent book The Light of Asia: A History of Western Fascination with the East. You can follow his substack here (https://www.historywithchrisharding.com/), and find out more about Robert's research as it progresses here (https://history.web.ox.ac.uk/people/robert-taylor).
Host: Robert Taylor
Producer: Florence Allen
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, and to facilitate university access and outreach for students aspiring to Oxford or Cambridge.
To learn more about OxPods, visit our website www.oxpods.co.uk, or follow us on socials @ox.pods. If you would like an audio transcription of this episode, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
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.
OxPods © 2023 by OxPods is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
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 Jones
Editor: Emily Jones
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, and to facilitate university access and outreach for students aspiring to Oxford or Cambridge.
To learn more about OxPods, visit our website www.oxpods.co.uk, or follow us on socials @ox.pods. If you would like an audio transcription of this episode, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
OxPods is made possible through the support of our generous benefactors. Special thanks to: Brasenose College JCR for supporting us in 2025.
OxPods © 2023 by OxPods is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
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 Bowden
Producer: Florence Allen
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, and to facilitate university access and outreach for students aspiring to Oxford or Cambridge.
To learn more about OxPods, visit our website www.oxpods.co.uk, or follow us on socials @ox.pods. If you would like an audio transcription of this episode, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
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.
OxPods © 2023 by OxPods is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
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 Appafram
Producer: Florence Allen
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, and to facilitate university access and outreach for students aspiring to Oxford or Cambridge.
To learn more about OxPods, visit our website www.oxpods.co.uk, or follow us on socials @ox.pods. If you would like an audio transcription of this episode, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
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.
OxPods © 2023 by OxPods is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
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 popular field.
Host: Charlie Bowden
Editor: Charlie Bowden
Producer: Florence Allen
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, and to facilitate university access and outreach for students aspiring to Oxford or Cambridge.
To learn more about OxPods, visit our website www.oxpods.co.uk, or follow us on socials @ox.pods. If you would like an audio transcription of this episode, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
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.
OxPods © 2023 by OxPods is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
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 Bowden
Editor: Charlie Bowden
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, and to facilitate university access and outreach for students aspiring to Oxford or Cambridge.
To learn more about OxPods, visit our website www.oxpods.co.uk, or follow us on socials@ox.pods. If you would like an audio transcription of this episode, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
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.
OxPods © 2023 by OxPods is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
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 Soanes, Emily Jones
Editor: Charlie Soanes
Interviewees: Charlotte Wargniez, Maisy Bentley, Ushika Kidd
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, and to facilitate university access and outreach for students aspiring to Oxford or Cambridge.
To learn more about OxPods, visit our website www.oxpods.co.uk, or follow us on socials @ox.pods. If you would like an audio transcription of this episode, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
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.
OxPods © 2023 by OxPods is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Host: Charlie Bowden
Editor: 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 in the future.
About OxPods:
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, and to facilitate university access and outreach for students aspiring to Oxford or Cambridge.
To learn more about OxPods, visit our website www.oxpods.co.uk, or follow us on socials @ox.pods. If you would like an audio transcription of this episode, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
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.
OxPods © 2023 by OxPods is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
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 Jesus College, interviews Dr Bernard Gowers, Deputy Director of the Conference of Colleges Secretariat and Research Associate in History at Keble College.
Host: Charlie Bowden
Editor: Charlie Bowden
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, and to facilitate university access and outreach for students aspiring to Oxford or Cambridge.
To learn more about OxPods, visit our website www.oxpods.co.uk, or follow us on socials @ox.pods. If you would like an audio transcription of this episode, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
OxPods is made possible through the support of our generous benefactors. Special thanks to: Brasenose College, St Peter's College JCR, Jesus College JCR & Lady Margaret Hall JCR for supporting us in 2024.
OxPods © 2023 by OxPods is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
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 of the radical right to changes in social norms- with those who have previously hidden their far right beliefs realising there is space for them in politics, voicing those views and voting for parties/politicians who do the same.
Host & Editor: Seraphina Evans
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, and to facilitate university access and outreach for students aspiring to Oxford or Cambridge.
To learn more about OxPods, visit our website www.oxpods.co.uk, or follow us on socials @ox.pods. If you would like an audio transcription of this episode, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
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.
OxPods © 2023 by OxPods is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
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 change that affected the everyday lives of British youth after 1945.
Host: Charlie Bowden
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, and to facilitate university access and outreach for students aspiring to Oxford or Cambridge.
To learn more about OxPods, visit our website www.oxpods.co.uk, or follow us on socials @ox.pods. If you would like an audio transcription of this episode, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
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.
OxPods © 2023 by OxPods is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
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 aftermath of COVID-19, specifically what we learnt and how we can better tackle the ever-present challenge of infectious diseases in the future.
Host: Rithika Ravishankar
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, and to facilitate university access and outreach for students aspiring to Oxford or Cambridge.
To learn more about OxPods, visit our website www.oxpods.co.uk, or follow us on socials @ox.pods. If you would like an audio transcription of this episode, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
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.
OxPods © 2023 by OxPods is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
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 Gurleyen
Editor: Taylor Bi
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, and to facilitate university access and outreach for students aspiring to Oxford or Cambridge.
To learn more about OxPods, visit our website www.oxpods.co.uk, or follow us on socials @ox.pods. If you would like an audio transcription of this episode, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
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.
OxPods © 2023 by OxPods is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
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 Indigenous communities, and how we can approach the challenge of decolonising climate change knowledge.
Host: Ushika Kidd
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, and to facilitate university access and outreach for students aspiring to Oxford or Cambridge.
To learn more about OxPods, visit our website www.oxpods.co.uk, or follow us on socials @ox.pods. If you would like an audio transcription of this episode, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
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.
OxPods © 2023 by OxPods is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Starting in comic books and more recently appearing in movies and television shows, characters like Captain America and Superman have become household names. But where did these superheroes come from? And what do they reveal about our modern era? Examining the evolution of the superhero from its roots in ancient societies to today, join us as we explore this mythic figure throughout Western culture. In this episode, Jillian Proshan interviews Professor Diane Purkiss, as they uncover the true meaning behind the superhero.
Host: Jillian Proshan
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, and to facilitate university access and outreach for students aspiring to Oxford or Cambridge.
To learn more about OxPods, visit our website www.oxpods.co.uk, or follow us on socials @ox.pods. If you would like an audio transcription of this episode, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
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.
OxPods © 2023 by OxPods is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
