Podcasts
A selection of podcasts featuring members of the Department.
Anna Alexandrova, ‘What Can’t Money Buy?’, Crossing Channels
9 March 2026
Anna Alexandrova is a guest on the Bennett School of Public Policy's podcast to discuss the limits of markets and why not everything of value can be priced.
Simon Schaffer, ‘The History of Revolutionary Ideas: The Scientific Revolution’, Past Present Future
9 February 2025
Simon Schaffer discusses the concept of 'The Scientific Revolution'. He examines whether the concept of a single scientific revolution is accurate, the key inventions and figures in Western scientific progress, and its effect on Western theology and politics.
Marta Halina, ‘Could ChatGPT Be Conscious?’, OpenAI Changes Everything
6 August 2024
Marta Halina takes part in an episode that challenges our understanding of the mind and the potential of AI, and looks into the mysteries of consciousness. What sets humans, animals and artificial intelligence apart? Could ChatGPT exhibit human-like thinking, creativity and consciousness?
Eric Winsberg, ‘Covid Models: What Can Philosophy Teach Us?’, Collateral Global
1 August 2024
Eric Winsberg discusses his recent book Models in Science and Decision-Making (co-written with Stephanie Harvard). He considers how philosophy can help us better understand how models are constructed under conditions of uncertainty, their role in guiding public policy, and how they are influenced by contested value judgements. He also reflects on some of the critical lessons from the Covid years for the future of infectious disease modelling and the governance of science.
Anna Alexandrova, ‘Philosophy of Well-Being Science’, The HPS Podcast
20 March 2024
Anna Alexandrova discusses a field she has pioneered: the philosophy of well-being science. Well-being and happiness are now established phenomena for scientific research, but does current scientific research produce knowledge that is properly about well-being? What kind of well-being? Should the goal be a single concept and single theory of well-being? Or should researchers tailor the concept of well-being for specific people in specific contexts?
Simon Schaffer, ‘Artificial Intelligence: Lessons from History’, Science Without Tears
31 January 2024
Simon Schaffer appears on this YouTube series with documentary filmmaker Paul Sen, to discuss the increasing prevalence of artificial intelligence. He explores previous breakthroughs in information technology, and how pioneers such as Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace and Alan Turing viewed them. He also discusses the public reaction to these innovations. From this historical analysis, he suggests how we might approach artificial intelligence going forward.
Nick Hopwood, ‘History is Always Happening Now’, Made the Same Way
17 February 2023
Nick Hopwood appears on a podcast with trip-hop poet Princess Ari. He discusses his speciality in the medical history, and how our understanding of history changes as much as our understanding of science. Hopwood and Princess Ari use this to explore how medical history relates to colonialism, the patriarchy, and modern mental health issues.
Nick Hopwood, ‘100 Years of “Daedalus” – The Birth of Assisted Reproductive Technology’, PET Podcast
1 February 2023
Nick Hopwood appears on a panel for the Progress Educational Trust. The debate focuses on the past and future of in vitro fertilisation, a century after J.B.S. Haldane's 'Daedalus' lecture at Cambridge popularised the concept.
Anna Alexandrova, ‘What Can Science Tell Us About Happiness?’, On Humans
10 December 2022
Anna Alexandrova discusses the concept of happiness with philosophy graduate Ilari Mäkelä. The discussion includes whether we can scientifically measure happiness, what metrics we should use, and why some countries are happier than others.
Nick Hopwood, ‘Human Embryo Research from Carnegie Department to HDBI’, Human Developmental Biology Initiative Ethics Seminar
23 September 2022
Nick Hopwood joins an ethics seminar with Professor Kate Storey. He breaks down the rise of human embryology in the first half of the 20th century, its subsequent decline, and how advances in technology revived it in the last three decades.
Nick Hopwood, ‘Fertility Frontiers: What is a “Permitted Embryo” in Law?’, Progress Educational Trust
25 May 2022
Nick Hopwood appears on a panel discussing UK laws for the use of embryos in assisted conception. He explains the history of these laws, the changing legal definition of embryos, and their effect on research.
Nick Hopwood, ‘Cambridge at the Forefront of Human Embryo Research’, Cambridge Festival
8 April 2022
Nick Hopwood chairs a panel of scholars from Cambridge and other institutions at the 2022 Cambridge Festival. The discussion focuses on new research into human embryos, and how this research could change embryology laws.
Joshua Nall, ‘The Blazing World with Michael Bravo’, On the Road with Penguin Classics
9 February 2022
Joshua Nall, Director of the Whipple Museum, is an interviewee in an exploration of Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle. The episode concerns The Blazing World, a groundbreaking work of fantasy, philosophy, and feminism. Nall discusses its use of then-new science, such as the invention of the telescope, using objects from the Whipple Museum.
Mary Brazelton, ‘RoundTable: Technology and Innovation’, Health Futures Forum
25 August 2021
Mary Brazelton joins a table of experts to discuss the future of technology in healthcare with the World Health Organization. Discussions from Brazelton and others include advances in genomics, artificial intelligence, and robotics.
Nick Hopwood, ‘New Research on Human Embryos: 14 Days of Human Life’, Deutschlandfunk
13 June 2021
Nick Hopwood is one of several scholars, including others from Cambridge, contributing to this podcast episode on breakthroughs in embryology. The focus is on the 14-day limit for embryo research in UK law, and how advances in embryo cultivation are now challenging those laws.
Nick Hopwood, ‘How Organoids Help Us Understand Ourselves and Treat Diseases’, Cambridge Festival
29 March 2021
Nick Hopwood and colleagues are interviewed about organoids – three dimensional reproductions of organs, which maintain their original organs' conditions. He explains how human embryology and its cultivation of stem cells gave rise to organoids.
Joshua Nall, ‘What Did the Future Look Like in the Past?’, Mind Over Chatter
26 March 2021
Joshua Nall appears in Cambridge University's own podcast, Mind Over Chatter, as part of a panel on how people in the past viewed the future. Nall discusses how technology in the 19th century changed people's perception of modernity and utopias.
Joshua Nall, ‘From Life on Mars to Dangerous Space Junk’, Free Thinking
9 March 2021
Joshua Nall joins a group discussion about the history of our fascination with the universe. Using a 19th-century Mars globe in the Whipple Museum, he discusses how society became fascinated with other planets and the idea of life on Mars. He also discusses how ideas from the 19th century affect astronomy today.
Nick Hopwood, ‘Visions of Reproductive Health’, The Fertility Podcast
8 February 2021
Nick Hopwood joins a table of scholars and artists, breaking down how various media have depicted reproduction over the centuries. He outlines changes in medical science since the 18th century, but particularly since the 1960s. Focus is given to the impacts of embryo imaging, in-vitro fertilisation, and racial embryology.
Mary Brazelton, ‘Alexandre Yersin and the Race to Fight the Plague’, The Forum
7 January 2021
Mary Brazelton appears on the BBC World Service programme The Forum, as part of a panel on the bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. The discussion focuses on Yersin's discovery of the bubonic plague bacillus, how it was discovered, and what happened to him after.
Mary Brazelton, ‘Epidemic Control’, China Throughlines
1 September 2020
Mary Brazelton joins Micah Muscolino on the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy's podcast. They discuss China's handling of COVID-19, and China's history of mass mobilisation in health and medical campaigns since 1949.
Mary Brazelton, ‘Mass Vaccination: Citizens’ Bodies and State Power in Modern China’, New Books Network
31 August 2020
Mary Brazelton talks to Victoria Lupascu about her study on vaccination in the People's Republic of China. They cover the PRC's mass immunisation project, and its simultaneous role in curing diseases and controlling the population.
30 April 2021
Mary Brazelton returns to the New Books Network to delve further into the history of China's medical programmes. This time she looks into China before the Communist government. Subjects include the role of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, and the advantages of Yunnan Province during WWII.
Mary Brazelton, ‘Perspectives on Science, Technology and Medicine: Mary Augusta Brazelton on COVID-19’, Perspectives on the COVID-19 Pandemic
10 June 2020
As part of a series in which scholars in the humanities and social sciences explore how the COVID-19 pandemic relates to their work, Mary Brazelton focuses on China's immunisation history. She examines the healthcare programmes under multiple Chinese governments in the 20th century, showing how their approaches influenced China's response to COVID.
Joshua Nall, ‘Time: It’s All Relative’, The Naked Scientists
25 February 2020
Joshua Nall is an interviewee in an episode about the study of time. He goes back to the 18th century, revealing how the dawn of maritime trading created John Harrison's maritime clock.
Nick Hopwood, ‘When Was Reproduction Invented?’, Cambridge Festival of Ideas
17 October 2019
Nick Hopwood and other specialists in the field of reproduction discuss how the topic has been approached across history, from the Ancient Greeks to today. He argues that the political and cultural shifts in the nineteenth century make it the point when the modern field of reproduction was invented.
Joshua Nall, ‘Scientific Instruments’, Artist: Unknown
5 July 2019
What can we learn from an object whose maker is unknown to us? This was the subject of a Kettle's Yard exhibition, which displayed a variety of objects with no known maker. Joshua Nall presents a globe and astrolabe initially thought to be 16th-century in origin, but actually made in the 1920s. This provides a springboard to discuss how fakes arise, and how they are uncovered.
Nick Hopwood, ‘Why Reproduction Matters’, ReproSoc ‘Remaking Reproduction’ Conference
18 January 2019
Nick Hopwood is interviewed by the University's Reproduction Society about the implications of reproductive science, and why it's worth studying.
Nick Hopwood, ‘Paul Ehrlich’s “Magic Bullet” and the Cure for Syphilis’, Science Stories
1 June 2016
Nick Hopwood is an interviewee in this episode of the BBC Radio 4 podcast. The episode focuses on Paul Ehrlich, creator of Salvarsan, the first targeted treatment for a disease. Hopwood focuses on Ehrlich's process of developing medicine, and the backlash against Salvarsan.
Joshua Nall, ‘Eureka Streaker: Experiments that Changed the World’, The Naked Scientists
3 March 2015
Joshua Nall appears on an episode about experiments that changed science. The subject is his personal favourite experiment – the discovery of the Sun's composition. Using a spectroscope, he demonstrates how observing different-coloured light allowed scientists to determine the gases that made up the Sun.
Hasok Chang, ‘Epistemic Iteration’, The HPS Podcast
13 December 2013
Hasok Chang appears on the University of Melbourne's podcast to discuss the scientific method. He challenges the common assumption that scientific inquiries start at a place of knowledge about their hypothesis. Instead, he proposes that many great scientific discoveries come from a lack of knowledge, and a desire to investigate and test unlikely hypotheses.
Nick Hopwood, ‘Proteus’, Darwin Correspondence
29 October 2012
Nick Hopwood introduces this episode of the podcast about Darwin's research and legacy. This episode focuses on the documentary Proteus, about the work of German evolutionist Ernst Haeckel.
Joshua Nall, ‘Mars Globes and the History of Astronomy’, The Naked Scientists
19 December 2010
Discussions about science rarely focus on public engagement – but it is just as important as research. Joshua Nall uses 19th-century globes of Mars to demonstrate this, explaining how globes such as these ignited public curiosity for the red planet.