Site • RSS • Apple PodcastsDescription (podcaster-provided):
Leading scholars in History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (HPS) introduce contemporary topics for a general audience. Developed by graduate students from the HPS program at the University of Melbourne.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ history, philosophy, sociology of science • knowledge production, experimentation, modelling, measurement • trust, expertise, objectivity, values • replication, open science • science communication, controversies • gender equality, fatherhood policy • medicine, psychiatry, public healthThis podcast features interviews with leading scholars in the history, philosophy, and social studies of science, aiming to make contemporary work in these fields accessible to a general audience. Across conversations, it treats science not only as a body of results, but as a set of practices shaped by institutions, technologies, values, social relations, and public life. Guests often trace their intellectual pathways into HPS while using their own research to illuminate how scientific knowledge is produced, validated, contested, and communicated.
A recurring theme is the social character of objectivity and trust: how expertise is performed and judged, how scientific communities manage disagreement, and how norms and incentives influence what gets counted as reliable evidence. The podcast frequently returns to questions about values in science—whether science can be value-free, how responsibility and accountability operate, and what it means to rethink science’s “social contract” with wider society. Related discussions examine public controversies involving science and the political and cultural consequences of ignorance, misinformation, and strategic doubt.
The show also explores methodological and conceptual tools used to study science, including ethnography, archival research, experimental approaches in philosophy, and analyses of modelling, measurement, and representation. Episodes draw attention to the experimental foundations of knowledge-making and to historically grounded perspectives on scientific change, including how historical narratives and counterfactual “what if” questions can reshape understanding of canonical figures and key episodes in science.
Another strand connects science studies to medicine, psychiatry, and public health, with attention to stigma, evidence-based decision-making, and how social categories affect research and diagnosis. The podcast also addresses how scientific and social ideas about gender, work, and caregiving develop and persist, including a policy-oriented mini-series on contemporary fatherhood and the structures that shape caregiving roles.
Overall, listeners can expect wide-ranging, humanities-informed discussions of how science works in practice, how it intersects with society, and how its concepts and methods are analyzed across disciplines.
| Episodes: |
S5 E11 - Steven Shapin on the Social Life of Scientific Knowledge2025-Oct-19 50 minutes |
S5 E10 - Cordelia Fine on "Patriarchy Inc"2025-Oct-03 52 minutes |
S5 E9 - Miriam Solomon on How Stigma Shapes Psychiatry2025-Sep-19 26 minutes |
S5 E8 - Philip Kitcher on Philosophy for Science and the Common Good2025-Sep-11 47 minutes |
S5 E7 - Lydia Patton on HOPOS2025-Aug-28 34 minutes |
S5 E6 - Sarah Blaffer Hrdy on ‘Rethinking our Starting Assumptions’2025-Aug-21 29 minutes |
S5 E5 - Cristian Larroulet Philippi on Measurement in the Human Sciences2025-Aug-13 28 minutes |
S5 E4 - Heather Douglas on Rethinking Science’s Social Contract2025-Aug-07 46 minutes |
S5 E3 - Hans-Jörg Rheinberger on 'Epistemic Things'2025-Jul-31 29 minutes |
S5 E2 - Surekha Davies on Humans: A Monstrous History2025-Jul-24 19 minutes |
S5 E1 - Samara and Thomas: Reflections and Roads Ahead2025-Jul-17 30 minutes |
Audience Faves: Daston & Harrison on 'Scientists and History'2025-May-09 30 minutes |
Audience Faves: Hasok Chang on 'Epistemic Iteration'2025-May-09 35 minutes |
Audience Faves: Rachael Brown on 'Values in Science'2025-May-09 25 minutes |
Audience Faves: Kristian Camilleri on 'The Disunity of Science'2025-May-09 24 minutes |
S4 Ep 12 - Joshua Eisenthal et al. on 'Philosophy of Science in Practice'2024-Dec-04 28 minutes |
S4 Ep 11 - Redux: Fiona Fidler on 'Collective Objectivity'2024-Nov-27 20 minutes |
S4 Ep 10 - Erika Milam on 'Colloquial Science'2024-Nov-20 30 minutes |
S4 Ep 9 - Holden Thorp on 'Teach History and Philosophy of Science'2024-Nov-13 30 minutes |
S4 Ep 8 - Nicole C. Nelson on 'Ethnographies of Science'2024-Nov-06 27 minutes |
S4 Ep 7 - Naomi Oreskes on 'Writing on Ignorance'2024-Oct-30 35 minutes |
S4 Ep 6 - Jen Martin on 'Communicating Science'2024-Oct-23 28 minutes |
S4 Ep 5 - Edouard Machery on 'Experimental Philosophy'2024-Oct-16 28 minutes |
S4 Ep 4 - Darrin Durant on 'Expertise'2024-Oct-09 28 minutes |
S4 Ep 3 - Simon Schaffer on 'Leviathan and the Air-Pump: 40 years later' (Part 2)2024-Oct-02 26 minutes |
S4 Ep 2 - Simon Schaffer on 'Leviathan and the Air-Pump: 40 years later' (Part 1)2024-Sep-25 26 minutes |
S4 Ep 1 - Sam and Carmelina on 'Studying Humanities and Science'2024-Sep-18 20 minutes |
Working Fathers Mini-series. Ep 5 - What's Next?2024-Sep-04 37 minutes |
Working Fathers Mini-series. Ep 4 - Give Dads a Break2024-Sep-02 39 minutes |
Working Fathers Mini-series. Ep 3 - Are Fathers Free?2024-Aug-28 46 minutes |
Working Fathers Mini-series. Ep 2 - What Gave Rise to the Breadwinner?2024-Aug-26 36 minutes |
Working Fathers Mini-series. Ep 1 - Where's Dad?2024-Aug-21 27 minutes |
Working Fathers Mini-Series. Introduction.2024-Aug-21 4 minutes |
S3 Ep 12 - Sabina Leonelli on 'The Philosophy of Open Science'2024-May-29 39 minutes |
S3 Ep 11 - Uljana Feest on 'What is Missing in Replication Debates'2024-May-22 28 minutes |
S3 Ep 10 - Aja Watkins & Miguel Ohnesorge on 'Philosophy of the Geosciences'2024-May-16 26 minutes |
S3 Ep 9 - Emma Kowal on 'Haunting Biology'2024-May-09 26 minutes |
S3 Ep 8 - Haixin Dang on 'Disagreement in Science'2024-Apr-24 30 minutes |
S3 Ep 7 - Sophie Ritson on 'Collaboration in Science'2024-Apr-18 22 minutes |
S3 Ep 6 - Kirsten Walsh on 'Rethinking Isaac Newton through his Archive'2024-Apr-10 26 minutes |
Throwback Thursday - Greg Radick on 'Counterfactual History of Science'2024-Apr-03 29 minutes |
S3 Ep 4 - Dan Hicks on 'Public Scientific Controversies'2024-Mar-27 27 minutes |
S3 Ep 3 - Anna Alexandrova on 'Philosophy of Well-Being Science'2024-Mar-20 28 minutes |
S3 Ep 2 - Kate Lynch on 'Causal Explanation in Science'2024-Mar-13 24 minutes |
S3 Ep 1 - Lorraine Daston & Peter Harrison on 'Scientists and History'2024-Mar-06 30 minutes |
S3 - Samara & Carmelina on 'Seeing Science Differently'2024-Mar-06 19 minutes |
BOOK LAUNCH - Mauricio Suárez on 'Inference and Representation'2023-Dec-27 30 minutes |
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S2 Ep 12 - Highlights from the 2023 AAHPSSS Conference 2023-Dec-20 32 minutes |
S2 Ep 11 - Hasok Chang on 'Epistemic Iteration'2023-Dec-13 35 minutes |
S2 Ep 10 - Katherine Furman on 'The Philosophy of Public Health'2023-Dec-06 22 minutes |
S2 Ep 9 - Carl Bergstrom on 'Science and Misinformation'2023-Nov-29 27 minutes |
S2 Ep 8 - Gerhard Wiesenfeldt on 'The Unknown Scientist'2023-Nov-22 17 minutes |
S2 Ep 7 - Ian Hesketh on 'Science History in Science'2023-Nov-15 20 minutes |
S2 Ep 6 - Sarah Qidwai on 'Science and Colonialism'2023-Nov-08 23 minutes |
S2 Ep 5 - Adrian Currie on 'Opportunistic Methods'2023-Nov-01 28 minutes |
S2 Ep 4 - Duane Hamacher on 'Indigenous Science'2023-Oct-25 18 minutes |
S2 Ep 3 - Kristian Camilleri on 'The Turn to Practice'2023-Oct-18 22 minutes |
S2 Ep 2 - David Kaiser on 'Scientific Training'2023-Oct-11 31 minutes |
S2 Ep 0.5 - Season 2 Intro Episode2023-Oct-04 12 minutes |
S2 Ep 1 - Rachel Ankeny on 'Research Repertoires'2023-Oct-04 28 minutes |
BONUS EPISODE - Joshua Eisenthal & HPS Chat2023-Sep-28 30 minutes |
BONUS EPISODE - Simine Vazire on 'Making Science Better'2023-Aug-18 23 minutes |
S1 Ep12 - Fiona Fidler on 'Collective Objectivity'2023-Aug-16 21 minutes |
S1 Ep 11 - James McElvenny on 'Language and Science'2023-Aug-09 21 minutes |
S1 Ep 10 - Martin Bush on 'Knowledge Circulation and Visualisation'2023-Aug-02 19 minutes |
S1 Ep 9 - Caleb Hazelwood on 'Scientific Metaphysics'2023-Jul-26 21 minutes |
S1 Ep 8 - Samara Greenwood on 'Social Change and Science'2023-Jul-19 21 minutes |
S1 Ep 7 - Rachael Brown on 'Values in Science'2023-Jul-12 25 minutes |
S1 Ep 6 - Fallon Mody on 'Biography in Science'2023-Jul-05 23 minutes |
S1 Ep 5 - Greg Radick on 'Counterfactual History of Science'2023-Jun-28 29 minutes |
S1 Ep 4 - Cordelia Fine on 'Sex Difference Research'2023-Jun-21 21 minutes |
S1 Ep 3 - Alan Love on 'Purpose in Biology'2023-Jun-14 28 minutes |
S1 Ep 2 - Kristian Camilleri on 'The Disunity of Science'2023-Jun-07 24 minutes |
S1 Ep 1 - Donna Haraway on 'Storytelling in Science'2023-May-31 10 minutes |
S1 Ep 0.5 - Introduction to the Podcast2023-May-31 7 minutes |