Podcast Episodes

Taking on a Corporate Giant: David v Goliath Legal Cases

Many people are inspired by stories of individual litigants, often with few financial resources and little assistance, taking on large corporations i…

4 years ago

Villains in the Novel: from Dickens, Hardy and Wilkie Collins to Hilary Mantel

Are villains cardboard characters? If so, why do we enjoy them so much? 

Drawing examples from film and TV drama, as well as from popular fiction, thi…

4 years ago

Is Dementia Inevitable?

What is dementia? Is it inevitable as we live longer that more of us will suffer dementia, or could we live longer lives without getting it? 

There ar…

4 years ago

Planetary Universe

How can new worlds be discovered, and how many exo-planets might be out there? What does today’s technology in astronomical observatories now enable,…

4 years ago

Going Viral: An Environmental Activist's Story

Dr Nathan Robinson’s video of him removing a plastic drinking straw from a sea turtle’s nose went viral in 2015. He has since been developing new way…

4 years, 1 month ago

Aliens in Science Fiction

Science fiction’s most frequent alternative to human is 'alien', another rich imaginative resource with which to think about what makes us …

4 years, 1 month ago

Segregation and the Rule of Law

The law has been used to entrench and uphold racial prejudice, most infamously in South Africa during the apartheid years, but also in the United Sta…

4 years, 1 month ago

Monogamy

Monogamy is a hotly contested practice. In many cis-gender marriages, engaging in sexual intercourse with a non-spouse is regarded as a serious betra…

4 years, 1 month ago

Infections That Use Touch to Transmit

Some diseases are spread almost exclusively by touch or through the skin or mucus membranes. These include Ebola, several parasitic diseases such as …

4 years, 1 month ago

The Neuroscience of Sleep and its Disorders

A good night's sleep is anything but quiet: a myriad of processes occupy our brains, crucial for every aspect of our waking lives. Our increased…

4 years, 1 month ago