One series at a time, we break down complex issues into simple questions. 

Subscribe to the podcast here: https://mind-over-chatter.captivate.fm/listen 

In this first series, we’ll explore climate change. Climate change is likely to affect almost every area of our lives… like a toddler with sticky fingers. But how did it become this way? What are we doing about it now? And what does the future hold?

We’ll ask smart people some simple questions and see what happens!

New episodes every Thursday.

From the University of Cambridge and Cambridge Zero

Mind Over Chatter, the Cambridge University Podcast!

Welcome (or welcome back) to Mind Over Chatter, the Cambridge University Podcast! You can find us on other platforms here: 
https://mind-over-chatter.captivate.fm/listen 
One series at a time, we break down complex issues into simple questions. In this second series, we’re talking all about the future. We’ll explore the nature of time itself  - What even is the future? And is it in front of or behind us?  - and we’ll also cover some of today’s most pressing questions, like how will artificial intelligence impact democracy?

We’re going to be talking to people from all over the University of Cambridge… from linguists and philosophers to historians, biologists, demographers and many more besides!

We’ll cover everything: from the physics of time to Sapir-Whorf, the first linguistic theory to join Starfleet; from the fabulous fabulations of futures past to Elon Musk, Mars, and James’ measly net worth; from the future of wellbeing and mental health to an overabundance of Pop Tarts; from using participatory research to help create a more just future to the unequal distribution of My Little Ponies; from the future of artificial intelligence to animism and Hello Barbie; and from the future of reproduction to the maternal instincts of Darth Vader.

Please take our survey. https://forms.gle/r9CfHpJVUEWrxoyx9 

How did you find us? Do you want more Mind Over Chatter in your life? Less? We want to know. So we put together this survey. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help.

Welcome to Season 2!

Hello and welcome back to Mind Over Chatter! 

Please fill out our survey https://forms.gle/r9CfHpJVUEWrxoyx9 to tell us what your mind thinks about our chatter. Knowing what you think will really help us make the podcast even better… Now, on to the episode!

This second series is all about the future - and in this first episode we’re going to be considering what the future even is… Have you ever wondered how time works? It turns out, the answer is a lot more complicated than we thought.

Join our wondering and wonderful conversation with philosopher of science Matt Farr, professor of psychology Nicky Clayton, and professor of linguistics and philosophy, Kasia Jaszczolt. We’ll be talking about everything from physics to linguistics… and from broken eggs to Einstein’s theory of relativity. 

You can find us on other platforms here: 
https://mind-over-chatter.captivate.fm/listen 

This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan and Naomi Clements-Brod. Annie Thwaite and Charlotte Zemmel provide crucial research and production support for Series 2. 

[00:00] - Introductions

[02:10] - A bit about the guests’ research

[04:28] - Does time actually go from past to present to future? And does time really ‘flow’?

[06:04] - The A-theory of time and John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart

[07:53] - The B-theory and C-theory of time (and a little bit more about the A-theory too)

[09:53] - How do B-theorists deal with entropy? Can you un-break an egg?

[10:44] - The difference between the A-theory, B-theory and C-theory of time - does time have a direction? And does energy/entropy have a direction?

[14:12] - Recap of the first portion of the episode, reviewing A-theory, B-theory and C-theory of time

[18:58] - How the mind understands the subjective concept of time

[24:24] - How languages talk about time differently and why these differences matter

[27:11] - The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis and how the way you talk about language affects the way you perceive and think about things

[30:21] - Recap of the second portion of the episode 

[34:02] - How do the mental and linguistic concepts around time fit with philosophical  concepts and physics of time?

[40:45] - How mental time travel works and how thinking about the past is different to thinking about the future

[41:40] - All biological organisms are subject to the laws of thermodynamics so we can’t remember the future or act towards the past

[42:55] - Cultural and linguistic differences in mental time travel and whether the past is behind us or in front of us

[45:46] - Is there a conflict between the psychological and linguistic models of time and the way physics handles time?

[48:20] - Recap of the last portion of the episode

[52:44] - Closing and thank you’s

If you want some more information about the different theories of time we discussed in this episode, this article by Matt helped us understand some of what was said: https://aeon.co/essays/the-c-theory-of-time-asks-if-time-really-has-a-direction

What is the future?

We all have theories about what the future might look like. But what did the future look like in the past? And how have the advent of new technologies altered how people viewed the future? We talked with curator of modern sciences and historian of Victorian science Dr Johnua Nall, professor of Digital Humanities and director of Cambridge Digital Humanities Professor Caroline Bassett, and Junior Research Fellow in the history of artificial intelligence Dr Jonnie Penn in our attempt to understand how the future was thought of in the past. Along the way we discussed utopias and dystopias, the long history of science fiction, and how the future might come back to haunt us!

This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan and Naomi Clements-Brod. Annie Thwaite and Charlotte Zemmel provide crucial research and production support for Series 2.

Please take our survey. How did you find us? Do you want more Mind Over Chatter in your life? Less? We want to know. So we put together this survey https://forms.gle/r9CfHpJVUEWrxoyx9. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help.

What did the future look like in the past?

Our wellbeing is essential to our overall quality of life. But what is wellbeing? Why is it so hard to pin down? How is it different to mental health, and what can we do to understand, measure and improve it? We talked with psychologist and neuroscientist Dr Amy Orben, psychiatrist Dr Tamsin Ford, and welfare economist Dr Mark Fabian to try and get to grips with wellbeing. In doing so, we learnt about the negative (and positive!) effects of the pandemic, how wellbeing differs for children and adults, and the influence of ever-evolving technology on our wellbeing.  

This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan and Naomi Clements-Brod. Annie Thwaite and Charlotte Zemmel provide crucial research and production support for Series 2. 

Please take our survey.How did you find us? Do you want more Mind Over Chatter in your life? Less? We want to know. So we put together this survey https://forms.gle/r9CfHpJVUEWrxoyx9. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help. 

In this episode:

0:00 - Introductions - meet the guests

03:00 - What's the difference between well being and mental health?

05:49 -  What role does culture play in well being?

06:30 - Wellbeing and economics. How do we think about wellbeing outside of psychology? 

09:35 - How do we measure wellbeing?

13:15 - Could we measure wellbeing from moment to moment? 

15:01 - We’ve reached the recap point

19:04 - Can wellbeing be factored into factors that measure societal progress, like productivity GDP? 

21:25 - How has COVID19 affected wellbeing at a policy level? 

24:35 - Do the well being needs of children and adults differ? 

26:30 - What about adolescents, how do their needs differ?  

29:35 - How is wellbeing research going to change in the future? Could we use life satisfaction to measure social progress?

32:00 - Is there a link between technology and well being or mental health? 

35:35 - How do we react to technological change as a society? The debate around screen time. 

37:20 - Time for another recap! 

43:15 - Measuring student experiences during the pandemic

45:40 - How we might think differently about wellbeing after the pandemic

47:45 - Are we all in the same boat? How do we make sure people aren’t left behind? 

50:05 - How is this new thinking about well being going to shape our lives in the future?For individuals and for governments and policymakers? 

55:45 - What is it to live a good life?

57:30 - What do you look forward to thinking about the future?

59:05 - Recap three. Let’s close this thing out.

What is the future of wellbeing?

Our society is more unequal than ever, as the top 1% control over 44% of the world’s wealth while 689 million people are living on less than $1.90 per day. In this episode, we asked our guests what the future of fairness, justice, and equality should look like, and how their research can help to bring about a fairer society. Alexa Hagerty and Natalie Jones shared how injustice can be thought of as an existential risk to humanity, while Esra Ozyurek introduced us to the importance of understanding that different people have different needs, making equality insufficient to bring about justice. We cover topics ranging from distributive justice, the virtues and vices of empathy, and the role AI will play in shaping equality in the years to come. 

This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan and Naomi Clements-Brod. Annie Thwaite and Charlotte Zemmel provide crucial research and production support for Series 2.

Please take our survey. How did you find us? Do you want more Mind Over Chatter in your life? Less? We want to know. So we put together this survey https://forms.gle/r9CfHpJVUEWrxoyx9. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help.

What would a more just future look like?

Artificial Intelligence can be found in every aspect of our lives. From A-level grade predicting algorithms to Netflix recommendations, AI is set to change the choices we make and how our personal information will be used. 

Subscribe to the podcast here: mind-over-chatter.captivate.fm/listen

In this episode, we explore the future of AI - its potential benefits and harms - with our three guests. Beth Singler told us about the different cultural consequences of AI, and how the way we think about the future of AI reflects more about society today than the future itself. John Zerilli shared his views on the consequences of AI for democratic decision-making, and Richard Watson urged us to conceive of the future of AI in terms of ‘scenario planning’, rather than predicting the future directly. We cover topics ranging from how to make AI ‘ethical’, how the media representation of AI can colour the public’s perception of what the real issues are, and the importance of an international AI regulatory system. 

This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan and Naomi Clements-Brod. Annie Thwaite and Charlotte Zemmel provide crucial research and production support for Series 2.

Please take our survey. How did you find us? Do you want more Mind Over Chatter in your life? Less? We want to know. So we put together this survey https://forms.gle/r9CfHpJVUEWrxoyx9. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help.

What is the future of artificial intelligence?

Our reproductive capabilities are changing in exciting ways, altering our fundamental understanding of fertility, reproduction, and even parenthood. 

Subscribe to the podcast here: mind-over-chatter.captivate.fm/listen

In this episode, we asked our guests what the consequences of novel reproductive technologies are likely to be, and how they will impact the future of human reproduction. Alice Reid told us about how reproduction has changed over the last 200 years and the likely demographic impact of assisted reproduction, while Lucy Van de Wiel introduced the important ways in which reproductive technologies must be considered in the context of wide social and political issues. Thorsten Boroviak shared his exciting and cutting-edge research on developing new reproductive technologies. We cover topics ranging from egg-freezing, so-called ‘three-parent-babies, and the importance of studying the embryonic development of primates.

This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan and Naomi Clements-Brod. Annie Thwaite and Charlotte Zemmel provide crucial research and production support for Series 2.

Please take our survey. How did you find us? Do you want more Mind Over Chatter in your life? Less? We want to know. So we put together this survey https://forms.gle/r9CfHpJVUEWrxoyx9. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help.

What is the future of reproduction

In April 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the globe, close to 1.6 billion children and youth were out of school due to temporary closures, representing more than 90% of students around the world, according to the United Nations. 

Subscribe to the podcast here: https://mind-over-chatter.captivate.fm/listen


In this episode, we take an international perspective with our guests Arif Naveed, Aya Waller-Bey, and Sara Allen. We discuss the double-edged sword of education systems around the world, for example, the US and Pakistan: how education both preserves inequality and how it can help us to overcome inequality. 

Arif Naveed explores how the underlying social hierarchy that shapes day-to-day living also impacts the economic outcomes of schooling. Aya Waller-Bey talks about quality as opposed to simple access to education. Access depends on deep structural factors that mean opportunity is not equally distributed. Sara Allan gets us thinking about changing the way that institutions organise instruction and the role of the teacher. Would more of a student-centered approach improve access and inclusion in schools?

Education’s moment of reckoning: access and inclusion in schools

Season 3 is here, and we’re back discussing all things Health! 

Subscribe here: https://mind-over-chatter.captivate.fm/listen 

Welcome (or welcome back) to Mind Over Chatter, the Cambridge University Podcast. One series at a time, we break down complex issues into simple questions. In this third series, we’re talking all about Health. We’ll be exploring both physical and mental health, and we’ll discuss causes, treatments and preventions for issues like dementia, cancer, infectious diseases and obesity. 

We’re going to be talking to interesting people from all over the University of Cambridge, including geographers, surgeons, computer scientists, molecular microbiologists, sociologists… and many more!  

We’ll cover everything from infectious diseases and how we can use vaccines to prevent them, to Tinder for bacteria; from artificial intelligence helping us tackle cancer, to Grandpa JPEG and all the Little Pixels, from adolescent mental health and eating disorders to Senua, the Pict warrior hero of the blockbuster video game Hellblade; from obesity and the gene-environment debate, to how a room full of Twixes is like a room full of Borg (resistance is futile); and from dementia and new approaches to its diagnosis and treatment, to “Tau Tangles” - the new brand of Greek noodle.

Please take our survey!

How did you find us? What do you like about Mind Over Chatter? We want to know. So we put together this survey https://forms.gle/r9CfHpJVUEWrxoyx9. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help.

Welcome to Season 3!

Subscribe here: mind-over-chatter.captivate.fm/listen

What role do our genes play in influencing our body weight and what we like to eat? Why do some people gain weight more easily than others, and is it all down to genes or are there other factors at play? In this episode, we talked with a clinician and scientist Sadaf Farooqi, health psychologist Theresa Marteau, and geographer Thomas Burgoine about the multitude of factors that go into influencing our eating behaviours. Along the way, we hear about the crucial importance of the environment in influencing our eating behaviour, including “zoning” - the effort to keep fast food outlets no more than 400 yards from schools, and learn how our food has become more calorific over the past 20 to 30 years. Our guests discuss how ultimately, communicating information about obesity doesn’t necessarily change our behaviour towards food, as we are much more influenced by our genes and environment than what's inside our heads. 

This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan, Naomi Clements-Brod and Annie Thwaite. 

Please take our survey!

How did you find us? What do you like about Mind Over Chatter? We want to know. So we put together this survey https://forms.gle/r9CfHpJVUEWrxoyx9. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help.

Obesity: the gene-environment debate

Subscribe here: mind-over-chatter.captivate.fm/listen

COVID-19 has disrupted the lives of everyone, including children and young people, beyond recognition. So much so, that the proportion of children aged six to 16 with probable mental health disorders has increased from one in nine in 2017 to one in six in both 2020 and 2021. In this episode, we talked with Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Tamsin Ford, Professor of Health Neuroscience Paul Fletcher and behavioural epidemiologist Dr Esther van Sluijs about growing concern over the recent and widespread deterioration of adolescent mental health and what can be done about it. 

We cover everything from the prevalence of mental health problems and eating disorders, sedentary behaviour and mentally passive activities, to how mental illness is represented in video games and how video games can be used to engage the public with mental illness in the right way. Along the way, we hear about mental health before and during the Covid-19 pandemic.

This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan, Naomi Clements-Brod and Annie Thwaite. 

Please take our survey!

How did you find us? What do you like about Mind Over Chatter? We want to know. So we put together this survey https://forms.gle/r9CfHpJVUEWrxoyx9. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help.

Mental health and young people

What causes dementia? And how do we diagnose and treat it? Is there anything we can do to stop ourselves from developing dementia? These are the crucial questions we’ll be exploring with clinical neuropsychologist Barbara Sahakian, sociologist Richard Milne, and neurologist James Rowe. In this episode, we’ll find out more about what dementia actually is, some surprising factors that increase a person’s risk of developing dementia, and computer games that can actually help detect and diagnose dementia.

This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan, Naomi Clements-Brod and Annie Thwaite. 

Please take our survey!

How did you find us? What do you like about Mind Over Chatter? We want to know. So we put together this survey https://forms.gle/r9CfHpJVUEWrxoyx9. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help.

Dementia: risks, diagnosis and prevention

Is antimicrobial resistance (AMR) the greatest threat to human health? In this episode, we discuss how the misuse and overuse of antimicrobials in humans and agriculture have accelerated bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens’ ability to mutate and develop resistance against the treatments designed to curb and control them. 

We talked with molecular biologist Stephen Baker, virologist Ian Goodfellow and infectious disease epidemiologist Caroline Trotter about the magnitude of the problem and how it is not a problem of the future, but of the now. Along the way, we discuss whether post COVID19, are we in a better position now to deal with the next pandemic? Can we predict when it might happen? And if it does happen, will we deal with it any differently?

This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan, Naomi Clements-Brod and Annie Thwaite. 

Please take our survey!

How did you find us? What do you like about Mind Over Chatter? We want to know. So we put together this survey https://forms.gle/r9CfHpJVUEWrxoyx9. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help.

Antimicrobial resistance: the silent pandemic

What’s cancer got to do with crabs, artist Jackson Pollock, and artificial intelligence? It’s not a riddle; these are some of the things we’ll explore with surgeon Grant Stewart, computer scientist Mateja Jamnik and radiologist Evis Sala from the Mark Foundation Institute for Integrated Cancer Medicine.

In this episode, we’ll discover how artificial intelligence is making it easier for doctors to diagnose and treat cancer and we’ll share some cancer facts that are both amazing and disturbing. We also learn about the WIRE clinical trial for kidney cancer. WIRE evaluates the effectiveness of giving a short course of drug treatment to patients in the one-month “window of opportunity” between diagnosis and surgery. Patients on the WIRE trial also undergo a suite of new imaging techniques that have been brought together for the first time globally in this clinical trial.

This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan, Naomi Clements-Brod and Annie Thwaite. 


Please take our survey!

How did you find us? What do you like about Mind Over Chatter? We want to know. So we put together this survey https://forms.gle/r9CfHpJVUEWrxoyx9. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help.

Cancer and artificial intelligence

One series at a time, we break down complex issues into simple questions. 
Subscribe to the podcast here: https://mind-over-chatter.captivate.fm/listen

In this first series, we’ll explore climate change. Climate change is likely to affect almost every area of our lives… like a toddler with sticky fingers. But how did it become this way? What are we doing about it now? And what does the future hold?

We’ll ask smart people some simple questions and see what happens!

New episodes every Thursday.

From the University of Cambridge and Cambridge Zero

Welcome to Mind Over Chatter, the Cambridge University Podcast!

Climate change is likely to affect almost every area of our lives… but how did we get to this point? When and why did we first take notice of climate change? And why has climate change evaded our collective attention and action for so long?

We talked with professor of human geography, Mike Hulme,, science historian and journalist Dr Sarah Dry and environmental economist Dr Matthew Agarwala to try to figure all of this out. Along the way, we discovered new ways of thinking about climate change, from a tragic story where the issue is constantly caught between opposing forces, to more hopefully thinking of it as a source of generative change and innovation. 

This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan and Naomi Clements-Brod. 

From the University of Cambridge and Cambridge Zero

Navigating the values of climate change

Last episode, we talked about how we got to where we are now with climate change, but do we even know what’s going on with climate change right now? In this episode we’ll talk about what tipping points we’re approaching, how and why we’re still struggling to gain momentum toward action on climate change, and what difference it would make if carbon dioxide was a brown smelly substance.

To figure all of this out, we talked to a mathematician, Emily Shuckburgh, an engineer Hugh Hunt and a psychologist, Sander van der Linden. 

Along the way, we discuss solutions like geoengineering, creating a fake news ‘vaccine’ and opportunities for businesses to be more transparent about how their activities contribute to climate change. If you’re curious to find out more specific ideas about how we can build a greener future, check out Cambridge Zero’s Green Recovery Report here: https://www.zero.cam.ac.uk/green-recovery-report 

This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan, and Naomi Clements-Brod.

What are we (as a global community) doing right now?

The future is becoming harder to predict thanks to climate change and a global pandemic. But a large part of what the future will look like is in our own hands. The biggest challenge to creating a better future may be political rather than scientific or technological. 

Subscribe to the podcast here: mind-over-chatter.captivate.fm/listen

In this episode, Diane Coyle, professor of public policy, Laura Diaz Anadon, professor of climate change policy, and architectural engineer, Ruchi Choudhary, join us to talk about how we can build a future that might not be anything like the past.

We cover topics like innovation, GDP, and how the uncertainty created by climate change can help propel policy and economic decisions. Plus, we look at some of the benefits that come with building a greener future together. 

Please take our survey. https://bit.ly/38uXJaG
How did you find us? Do you want more Mind Over Chatter in your life? Less? We want to know. So we put together this survey. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help.

This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan, and Naomi Clements-Brod.

Creating a future that is not like the past

How and what we eat, and where our food comes from, these everyday choices that we often think very little about, have become increasingly relevant to climate change. 

Subscribe to the podcast here: https://mind-over-chatter.captivate.fm/listen 

With a global population projected to reach 10 billion by 2050, it is not unreasonable to ask: how are we going to feed all these people... and without causing more damage? 

In this episode we’ll cover everything from how climate change will affect the way we grow and eat food, to the pros and cons of ‘non-poo’ fertiliser. Sound appetising?

Giles Oldroyd, professor of plant science at the new Cambridge Crop Science Centre, Helen Anne Curry, lecturer in the history of modern science and technology, and developmental economist, Shailaja Fennell, helped us connect the dots between food and climate change. They discuss how we ensure people around the world will still have food to eat as the climate becomes more unpredictable.

This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan, and Naomi Clements-Brod. 

Please take our survey. https://bit.ly/38uXJaG
How did you find us? Do you want more Mind Over Chatter in your life? Less? We want to know. So we put together this survey. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help.

Guest Bios: 

Dr Helen Anne Curry (@hacurry)

My current research focuses on the history of efforts to understand and use crop diversity as a resource for agricultural development. In August 2020 I launched the project 'From Collection to Cultivation: Historical Perspectives on Crop Diversity and Food Security'. This project has its origins in my investigation of history of genetic conservation, especially the preservation of seeds and other plant materials in seed and gene banks. It is also the subject of my current book project, Endangered Maize: Indigenous Corn, Industrial Agriculture and the Crisis of Extinction. 

Dr Shailaja Fennell (@shailajafennell) 

Shailaja Fennell is a Co-Investigator on TIGR2ESS, a research programme to study how to improve crop productivity and water use, identify appropriate crops and farming practices for sustainable rural development. She is also a Co-Investigator on MillNeti, a sister research programme (2019-2021) that is focussed on how to improve iron nutrition status of people living in Ethiopia and The Gambia by assessing the bioavailability of iron from biofortified millet. Her work package focuses on the use of quantitative and qualitative surveys to understand how millets are currently grown, processed, cooked and consumed in focus villages in The Gambia and Ethiopia. 

Professor Giles Oldroyd (@gilesdoldroyd) 

Professor Giles Oldroyd studies the mechanisms by which plants form beneficial interactions with micro-organisms, both bacteria and fungi, that aid in the uptake of nutrients from the environment, including nitrogen. A long-term aim of this research is to reduce agricultural reliance on inorganic fertilisers and he currently heads an international programme funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to engineer nitrogen-fixing cereals.

How to feed 10 Billion people

In this last episode of the series, we’ll be exploring how stories work for and against climate change. 

Subscribe to the podcast here: https://mind-over-chatter.captivate.fm/listen 

We cover a lot of ground: from hippos and polar bears to how many times ‘sex’ and ‘tea’ were mentioned on TV between 2017 and 2018… so what’s all of this got to do with sustainability and climate change? Join us to find out!

Our storytelling experts this time are Richard Staley (lecturer in the history and philosophy of science, Sarah Dillon (author, researcher and broadcaster) and Martin Rees (cosmologist, astrophysicist, and Astronomer Royal).

This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan, and Naomi Clements-Brod.

Please take our survey. https://bit.ly/38uXJaG

How did you find us? Do you want more Mind Over Chatter in your life? Less? We want to know. So we put together this survey. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help.

Thanks very much.

Guest Bios:

Martin Rees (@LordMartinRees)

Martin Rees (Lord Rees of Ludlow, OM FRS) is an astrophysicist and cosmologist, and the UK's Astronomer Royal. He has been increasingly concerned in recent years about long-term global issues – the pressures that a growing and more demanding population are placing on the environment, sustainability and biodiversity; and the impact of powerful new technologies. He is co-founder of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) at the University of Cambridge with a focus on these issues. In addition to his research publications, which total over 500, he has written extensively for a general readership. His ten books include 'Just Six Numbers', 'Our Cosmic Habitat', ‘Gravity’s Fatal Attraction’, and the recently-published, 'On the Future: Prospects for Humanity'. 

https://www.martinrees.uk/ 

Dr Sarah Dillon (@drsarahdillon) 

Sarah Dillon is a Reader in Literature and Film in the Faculty of English at the University of Cambridge. Her forthcoming book (Storylistening: Narrative Evidence and Public Reasoning, co-authored with Claire Craig) makes a case for the value of attention to stories, and the importance of understanding their functions and effects, in the context of high-level decision-making and policy-making. 

http://drsarahdillon.com/ 

https://www.english.cam.ac.uk/people/Sarah.Dillon/ 



Dr Richard Staley 

Hans Rausing Lecturer and Reader in History and Philosophy of Science. Currently leading the Making Climate History project. The project develops a fundamental new perspective on the histories and geographies of climate change by linking making and knowing in the emergence of the climate sciences over the past two centuries. We examine the entwined social, physical, and economic timescales of climate change over the entire period it took to remake the climate, and to recognise that we are changing it. 

https://www.people.hps.cam.ac.uk/index/teaching-officers/staley