Our Top Educational Podcast Recommendations….
Humanities/ Social Sciences Podcasts
A History of the World in 100 Objects
Director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor, narrates 100 programmes that retell humanity's history through the objects we have made.
Updated: No longer but many online
Examples:
Mexican Codex Map - a map that shows what happened after Catholic Spain's conquest of Mexico. 1550-1700 AD
Inside The Palace: Secrets At Court (700 - 950 AD) - Neil MacGregor describes how the Tang emperors of China left their mark, as he examines a collection of tomb figures
UnHerd Podcast
UnHerd aims to do two things: to push back against the herd mentality with new and bold thinking, and to provide a platform for otherwise unheard ideas, people and places. Their approach is refreshing. The governing ideologies of the past generation are too often either unquestioningly defended or rejected wholesale. UnHerd look at both, identifying those things that have been lost, as well as gained, by the liberal world order of the past thirty years; but strive to be always thoughtful rather than divisive. They are not aligned with any political party, and the writers and ideas they are interested in come from both left and right traditions.
Examples:
We're not the only ones having problems with the EU
Is technology making us lonely?
1619 Podcast
The New York Times podcast series, 1619, available on Spotify or on their website, is an important listen. Delving into the harrowing history of slavery in America, the series focuses not only on the brutality and unspeakable injustice, but what was borne out of this suffering.
Examples:
How the permanent blinding of returning US army African American soldier, Isaac Woodard, at the hands of the South Carolina police for asking a bus driver to use the restroom in 1946, sparked the modern civil rights movement
How American popular music as we know it owes much to the strife, struggle, and continual belief in freedom central to black lives through history and still today
Stuff You Missed in History Class
Exactly what it says on the tin! Join Holly and Tracy who explore fun and fascinating topics of History that were skipped off the school syllabus. Expand your knowledge whilst listening to this podcast that offers insights into pockets of History and exceptional figures that may have passed you by.
Examples:
SYMHC Classics: Jamaica's Maroon Wars - Colonialism in Jamaica
(Almost) 100 Years of the Equal Rights Amendment - The first version of the equal right amendment was first proposed almost 100 years ago. This amendment has been through cycles of support and opposition, but one thing that’s held true is that the loudest voices on both sides have been women
The Economist’s The Intelligence Podcast
Get a daily burst of global illumination from The Economist’s worldwide network of correspondents as they dig past the headlines to get to the stories beneath—and to stories that aren’t making headlines, but should be.
Examples:
Caught in the middle: Idlib’s humanitarian disaster
Delhi melee: India’s citizenship protests
The Week Unwrapped
The biggest unreported stories of the week, discussed, digested and debated. Engaging and interesting - this is not a podcast to miss!
Examples:
Emmanuel Macron sparks controversy with move to commemorate the city’s help during WWII
Apple and Google are being sued over alleged child labour in mines in Congo
Updated: Monthly
The Guardian UK: Politics Weekly
The Guardian's political editor, Heather Stewart, and deputy political editor, Rowena Mason, are joined by commentators, experts and politicians to unpack the week's biggest stories in politics.
Updated: Weekly
Examples:
What’s Her Name Podcast
What’sHerName women’s history podcast is hosted and produced by academic sisters Dr. Katie Nelson and Olivia Meikle. Committed to reclaiming forgotten history, What’sHerName tells the stories of fascinating women you’ve never heard of (but should have). Through compelling interviews with guest historians, writers, and scholars, Olivia and Katie bring to life the “lost” women of history.
Examples:
THE SAINT: Margaret Clitherow, Martyr of the English Reformation - life–and death–were shaped by the religious upheavals of the Protestant Reformation in Elizabethan (16th century) England.
STEM Podcasts
This Podcast Will Kill You
Run by Erin Welsh and Erin Allman Updyke, both graduates in disease ecology, this is not a podcast for the squeamish; it investigates all aspects of infectious disease, from Ebola to HIV. Finding themselves disenchanted with the insular world of academia, they wanted a way to share their love of epidemics and weird medical mysteries with the world, not just colleagues.
Examples: Whooping Cough, Corona Virus, Dengue Fever, Lyme Disease
Updated: Fortnightly
Beyond the Microscope
A podcast sharing the voices of women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The episodes are dedicated to topics in these four areas as well as business through the voices of women directly involved in those fields. They discuss current events, interview experts and engage with listeners with book clubs, movie chats and question and answer segments.
Examples: Nanomedicine, designer genes, the female visionaries who shaped the Internet
Updated: Monthly
The INSPIRE Medical Podcast
The INSPIRE podcast is dedicated to bringing you the latest research in medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine and everything in between from both students and academics. Created by a group of 4 medical and veterinary students including one of Minds Underground™’s own Parkinson’s research project hosts, the team aim to make original research more accessible and consumable by the general public without having to learn a whole new language to read academic papers.
Examples: Episode 8 - Prof. Sunetra Gupta on Breaking Through the Surface of COVID-19 and Pandemic Disease