In Our Spare Times

Conservatism

In this episode, Jan-Willem Prügel discusses the historical origins and philosophical characteristics of Conservatism with two brilliant Oxford students of the humanities. Some say Conservatism is not even a proper political belief, some think of it as shorthand for the politics of the Tory or Republican party. Alas, it is so much more than that and so much more difficult to grasp. Explore the nature of this strange political creature and find out if there are not some aspects of it you find charming and worthy of implementing into your very own view of the world around you. Hello, little platoons, hello useful traditions.

Number Systems

Jan-Willem Prügel questions three Oxford mathematicians about the mythical entities known as numbers. What are they? And perhaps even more importantly, why are they? Show notes: https://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/ball/in_our_spare_time/sparetimes-number-systems-show-notes.pdf

The Problem of Evil

Oxford students discuss the problem posed by the existence of evil in the world to the Christian and Hindu gods.

Nuclear Fusion

Aled Walker, Justin Ball, Valerian Chen, Jason Parisi discuss nuclear fusion as part of the In Our Spare Time series.

Language, Mobility and Belonging

A new episode of of in our spare time, this time looking at the social aspects of language.