OxPods

The microbiome refers to the community of microorganisms living inside a host. But why are they there? What benefits can these microbes provide to their hosts? And could they enable their hosts to colonise new niches? Alex Rodway, biology master’s student at Jesus College, will be discussing these questions with Dr Sarah Knowles, Associate Professor of Ecosystem Biology and Tutorial Fellow of Kebl...

Have you ever heard the term ‘women’s writing’ and wondered what it actually means - writing by women, writing for women, writing about women? While this term is increasingly prevalent in both popular culture and literary studies, it is difficult to define and has sparked much critical debate in recent years.  Flora Symington, English student at Somerville College, discusses this with Lorna H...

Industrialisation in the 19th century prompted a ‘chromo revolution’, as the development of new artificially-produced paints provided new ways to experience and depict colour. Paul Gauguin used this colour development in new ways to visualise (and stereotype) the French colonial landscape. Born in 1848, Gauguin has been the subject of public interest and controversy since the late 20th century, as...

As result of global Covid lockdowns and satisfying videos on TikTok, pottery has experienced a new revival. With thousands of years of history behind the practice, what benefits might it have in store? And why might it just be the hobby of the future? In this episode, Alice Hazell, Classical Archaeology and Ancient History (CAAH) student at Lady Margaret Hall, will be interviewing Cathy O'Brien, a...

Common to Christianity, Judaism and Islam is the concept of an all-powerful, all-knowing, and benevolent God. Surely, then, this God knows everything you have done and everything you will do in your life. This raises a profound philosophical problem: is there free will within an Abrahamic context if God knows our future? Why doesn’t God intervene if He knows one will never find religion? Join Kati...

Across the globe, biologists have set up a series of long-term study populations, where all individuals within an animal population are monitored both across their own lifespan and also over many generations. But what's the point of this, and what questions can be answered using long-term studies that can’t be addressed through alternative experiments?  In this episode of OxPods, biology PhD...

According to recent polls, the most well-known Shakespeare plays are Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Macbeth, all of which are tragedies. Although Shakespeare wrote just as many comedies as he did tragedies, they simply are not as popular or widely read, and this trend applies to other playwrights of Shakespeare’s time as well.  Flora Symington, English Literature student, asks world-renown dra...

Over the past few decades, US politics has become increasingly polarised, resulting in the emergence of a highly fractured political landscape, exemplified by the storming of the Capitol in January 2021. How did American politics become so polarised? What are the origins of these divisions? And how do we define what it means to be an American today?  To find out, in this episode of OxPods, Ka...

When the world was brought to a halt by the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals all over the world stepped up to the job of saving lives and ‘bringing normal back again’. In Oxford, Dr Adam Ritchie was one of them.  In this episode of OxPods, Miya McFarlane, Human Sciences undergraduate at Regents Park College, interviews Dr Ritchie, a senior programme manager of the Oxford-AstraZeneca mass vaccin...

Last summer, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, reigniting a fifty-year abortion debate once thought settled in the Western world. Though disguised by coverage of judges and commentators alike, the crux of the debate remains deeply philosophical: what is the moral value of a foetus? Is it a human being? Is it a person?  To answer these questions, Todd Horton, law graduate from Trini...

Many social animals live in groups that appear to be relatively unaffected by disease. But just how is this possible? And what could we, humans, learn from the way that animals deal with disease? To find out, in this episode of OxPods, Alex Rodway, biology master’s student at Jesus College, will be interviewing Dr Chris Pull, whose research looks at the ways in which animal collectives have evolve...