Site • RSS • Apple PodcastsDescription (podcaster-provided):
Welcome to Futuremakers, from the University of Oxford, where our academics debate key issues for the future of society.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Mental health and suicide prevention • youth, maternal, workplace wellbeing • trauma in crises • brain injury rehabilitation, neuroplasticity • pandemics history, epidemiology, COVID-19 • climate policy, energy, migration, conflict, food • AI ethics, bias, automation, misinformation • quantum computing raceThis podcast from the University of Oxford brings together academics and practitioners to debate major issues shaping society, organized into themed seasons. Across the episodes provided, a substantial focus is on brain and mental health, with conversations spanning prevention, treatment, and policy. Discussions examine evidence-based strategies to reduce suicide and self-harm, including how clinicians assess risk, what population-level data can reveal, and how restricting access to means may affect outcomes. Mental health is also explored through advocacy and lived experience, alongside approaches to improving support in schools, workplaces, and other community settings. Several episodes address specific contexts and populations, such as children and adolescents experiencing anxiety, young people’s wellbeing initiatives and survey-based research, maternal mental health in the postnatal period, and the mental health effects of trauma in crisis and humanitarian settings. The season also considers recovery after brain injury and stroke, highlighting neuroplasticity and rehabilitation systems.
Other seasons broaden the scope to global risks and governance. A history-focused strand traces major pandemics from antiquity to the present, using past outbreaks to discuss societal disruption, scientific uncertainty, and the development of public health responses such as epidemiology and vaccination, while also looking ahead to emerging threats and preparedness. Climate-change episodes tackle mitigation and adaptation through debates on policy and international agreements, energy systems, sustainable finance, legal action, food systems, migration, and security implications. The podcast also covers transformative technologies, including artificial intelligence and quantum computing, with attention to ethics, bias, labour impacts, information integrity, health applications, and geopolitical competition. Content warnings apply in places for sensitive topics.
