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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):
➤ Oxford academics debating future societal challenges • brain/mental health: suicide prevention, youth anxiety, maternal health, trauma, brain injury rehab • workplace wellbeing • pandemics history & epidemiology • climate policy, energy, food, migration/conflict • AI ethics, bias, automation, misinformation • quantum computingThis podcast from the University of Oxford brings together academics and practitioners to debate major issues shaping society’s future. Across its seasons, it takes a themed approach—most recently focusing on brain and mental health—while earlier series examine the history of pandemics, climate change, and artificial intelligence, with an additional standalone exploration of quantum computing. Episodes are structured around expert conversations that combine current research, real-world experience, and policy or practical implications.
A significant strand of the podcast centres on mental health across the lifespan and in different settings. Discussions cover prevention and intervention, including approaches to anxiety in children and adolescents, maternal mental health in the postnatal period, and the psychological consequences of brain injury and stroke alongside rehabilitation and neuroplasticity. The podcast also addresses mental health in workplaces, drawing on research into wellbeing, productivity, and organisational factors, and includes perspectives from advocates and technology or programme builders. Several conversations explicitly engage with suicide and self-harm prevention, considering both personal testimony and clinical or population-level evidence, such as identifying higher-risk groups and evaluating strategies like restricting access to means. Another theme is mental health in crisis and humanitarian contexts, including the impacts of trauma, child protection, and collaborative resources developed with international organisations.
In its pandemic-focused season, the podcast uses historical case studies—ranging from ancient and medieval outbreaks to modern global health crises—to examine how infectious diseases spread, how societies responded, and what lessons might inform preparedness for future threats, including emerging pathogens sometimes framed as “Disease X.” The climate change season explores governance, economics, law, energy systems, and social change, addressing questions such as individual versus systemic action, the role of markets and finance, litigation, migration and conflict risks, and the balance between nature-based and technological solutions. The artificial intelligence season considers automation and work, algorithmic bias, media manipulation and disinformation, AI in health and finance, the history and trajectory of AI, and governance and ethical risk.
