Critical Edge

Best mates Ollie and Lukas sit down with Catherine Carr, an award-winning broadcaster, host of the sibling podcsat Relatively and author of Who's the Favourite? In this episode, we talk all about (our) siblings. We explore how sibling relationships shape identity, behaviour and our understanding of ourselves. Who's ever heard of Freud talking about his siblings? While people regularly exam...

Best mates Ollie and Lukas sit down Ambassador John Bolton, formerly US National Security Advisor as well as US Ambassador to the UN. We sink our teeth into everything from the philosophy behind US Foreign Policy (interventionism vs isolationism), Donald Trump’s domestic policy and political philosophy, and the evolution of international institutions like the ICC, NATO, and the UN. Critical Edge i...

Best mates Ollie and Lukas sit down with LGBT+ and Human Rights campaigner Peter Tatchell. We cover everything from queer politics to social media to pornography, sex education and changing sexual behaviour. Critical Edge is a multi-media community started by two friends seeking to learn how to think, not what to think. Subscribe or check out our other platforms to join the team :)

Best mates Ollie and Lukas sit down with Jonathan Anomaly, an advocate for genetic modification of embryos to make the human race smarter, taller, stronger, healthier, better-looking even. Lukas and Ollie get into the nitty-gritty of this bio-ethical question with him, arguing that it can lead to some big political and ethical problems down the line, that it might even look something like eugenics...

Best mates Ollie and Lukas sit down with renowned Uzbek novelist, poet and journalist Hamid Ismailov to explore language, censorship, exile and the future of literature. From BookTok to Beckett, political propaganda to AI-generated fiction, we ask how stories shape our thinking—and what happens when writers break the rules. Hamid shares why he was forced to leave Uzbekistan, how literature challen...

In this episode, best mates Ollie and Lukas sit down to discuss all things Carl Jung and psychoanalysis. We begin by talking about the Jungian shadow, the repository of our subconscious where we dump all those things we don’t like about ourselves, or don’t identify with: our anger, our shame, whatever it might be. The shadow is hard to recognise, precisely because we repress it into our subconscio...

Best mates Ollie and Lukas sit down with renowned Israeli Historian of the 'New School', Ilan Pappé. In this episode, we pull out the nuances in discussions about the two-state solution, the use of language, the genocide, colonisation, and the future. We begin with an in-depth discussion about how discourse shapes the way we view an issue: should the situation be described as a conflict, a...

Ollie and Lukas sit down with social care worker Catherine. They discuss the importance of childcare, how the NHS and national systems are failing children, and where parents go wrong. Catherine shares her personal story of IVF and finding her way to social care. This episode is the first in our new series, In Plain Sight. In this series, Ollie and Lukas get the perspectives of people who do reall...

Ollie and Lukas sat down again with Cenk Uygur to discuss being banned from the UK for anti-semitism, Israel’s influence in the UK, and Palestine. Critical Edge is a multi-media community started by two friends seeking to learn how to think, not what to think. Subscribe or check out our other platforms to join the team :)

Critical Edge hosts and best mates Ollie and Lukas sit down with Philip Pullman, renowned author of His Dark Materials. We drew on everything from Milton's Paradise Lost to Superman to William Blake. This episode was about the power of literature to change the way we see ourselves and the way we live our lives, as well as the way storytelling can light up our imaginations. Lukas told Philip ab...

Critical Edge hosts and best mates Ollie and Lukas sit down with rockstar panpyschist Philip Goff. Ollie, Lukas and Philip talked about it all. We started with a discussion about the fundamental nature of consciousness, and why it can't be understood using the language of science: David Chalmer's 'hard problem of consciousness'. This led us to panpsychism and its connection to myst...

Critical Edge hosts and best mates Ollie and Lukas sit down with veteran of the philosophy game Jeff McMahan, an ethicist who lives and breathes his work. We really got into it this episode. We discussed whether war can ever be justified, the ethics of autonomous weapons, and the difficult questions concerning Gaza and Iran. Jeff isn’t one to weasel his words: you’ll want to hear what he has to sa...

Critical Edge hosts and best mates sit down with Robin Carhart-Harris, leading psychedelic researcher and all round good bloke. We discussed the ethical and philosophical questions attached to psychedelics: such as how a drug can change how we see ourselves and the people around us, or what psychedelics might reveal about consciousness and the universe. Robin takes a pragmatic approach, and advoca...

Critical Edge hosts and best mates Ollie and Lukas sit down with rockstar philosopher Nigel Warburton, co-host of Philosophy Bites. Ollie, Lukas and Nigel had a great chat about whether art is subjective, how cultural beauty standards shape us, Nigel's favourite books and paintings, and what it is about art that is so essentially human. Critical Edge is a multi-media community started by two f...

Critical Edge hosts and best mates Ollie and Lukas sit down with Canadian-American astronomer Wendy Freedman, one of Times 2025 Top 100 most influential people in the world. Hardly experts on the topic, Ollie and Lukas had an open discussion with Wendy about the universe and its expansion, whether it really began with the big bang, and if we can ever know anything about dark matter. Lukas and Olli...

Critical Edge hosts Ollie and Lukas sit down with philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah to explore what classic thought experiments reveal about identity, morality, power, and the future of human connection. Across these puzzles—and the real-world examples they illuminate, from political power to dating apps and artificial intimacy—the conversation asks what truly anchors a good life: honor, authentici...

Critical Edge hosts Ollie and Lukas sit down with philosopher David Edmonds to explore how discrimination, identity, and group psychology shape the way we see ourselves - and each other. Hosted by two passionate Oxford graduates, Critical Edge brings rigorous, accessible conversations with influential thinkers on the ideas shaping our world. Subscribe for

Critical Edge hosts Ollie and Lukas sit down with Professor John Curtice, the UK's leading authority on public opinion and electoral behaviour, to examine how Britain's political landscape has been transformed over the past decade. We explore how class has evolved as a marker of political identity, why age and education now structure voting behaviour more than any other factors, and how th...

Critical Edge hosts Ollie and Lukas sit down with Professor Mark Blyth, an expert in political economy, to unpack how economic ideas shape the world we live in. We explore why being wrong is essential to learning, drawing on Nassim Taleb’s ideas of uncertainty, fragility, and “skin in the game.” From there, the conversation ranges across bubbles (AI, housing, finance), the commodification of time...

Critical Edge hosts Ollie and Lukas sit down with Frank Turek, an American Christian apologist. We had some interesting and nuanced discussion about the interrelation of faith and doubt, the problem of evil, and the reliability of scripture. We got into some more tough territory when discussing contradictions in scripture, the New and Old Testament, and homosexuality. There's a lot to stick your t...

Ollie and Lukas sit down with Anthony Scaramucci for a fast, candid conversation about power, populism, and political renewal. Anthony is former White House Communications Director, and co-host of The Rest Is Politics US. Today, he discusses why he has changed his mind on Bitcoin, what finally pushed him to break with Trump, why MAGA is beginning to fracture, and how the Epstein files are reshapin...

Ollie and Lukas sit down with historian, author, and co-host of The Rest is History, Dominic Sandbrook — one of Britain’s most influential public historians. Can pride in one’s country ever be “healthy"? How should we teach the British Empire in schools? Listen in.

Critical Edge hosts Ollie and Lukas sit down with the youngest ever country council leader, George Finch. 19 year old George, from Warwickshire, defect from the Tories to Reform UK last year. George and our hosts found some things to agree on: the need for educational reform, the importance of tolerance, and the ever more threatening cost of living crisis. However, they fiercely debated about "Bri...

In this episode, we sat down with economist Julian Jessop to discuss the future of taxation, free markets, and the role of the state. From whether VAT should be extended to food and children’s clothing, to how corporate taxes impact real people, Jessop makes the case for a simpler, more neutral tax system. Additionally, we explore his continued support for Brexit despite short-term costs, his beli...

Oxford academic Danny Dorling discusses the state of inequality in the UK - from the rise of right-wing populism and the hollowing out of the middle class to the state of race relations across the island. How large are the barriers to equality of opportunity in the UK?