Episode library for WeAreSTS, an official podcast of UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies (STS). WeAreSTS includes project work from STS students and staff. The host and producer is Professor Joe Cain.
Two Types of WeAreSTS Episodes
REGULAR episodes explore research or teaching themes that are part of Science and Technology Studies (STS). Some episodes will be interviews about active research projects. Other episodes will support STS subjects in teaching or public engagement. We also have career-focused episodes interviewing STS alumni about life after university: how did they make that transition into their working life, and what advice do they have for those thinking about studying with us.
BONUS episodes will showcase special projects. They’ll allow listeners to hear expert discussions about topics as diverse as science policy making, science in the media, philosophy of information, history of dinosaurs, sociology of science, and history of technology.
Podcasting with Purpose
Our overall goal is to help with WeAreSTS is to help teachers, applicants, and influencers answer questions about our subject:
WeAreSTS is available for listening on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud and most other podcast listening apps. You also can find us on Libsyn.
For more about the podcast: ucl.ac.uk/sts/podcast
In this interview, Professor Simon Werrett discusses the main ideas of his book, Thrifty Science. In Britain of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the practices of reuse, re-purpose, and recycle were core to the work More…
We pay tribute to our friend and colleague, Dr William Fleming Maclehose (1967-2020). Bill was a historian of medieval medicine and an important part of STS. He was an expert in theories of sleep and More…
In this interview, Dr Melanie Smallman talks about her meta-study of attitudes across 10 emerging technologies by public, government, and politicians. Her conclusion: we talk quite differently about innovation. Smallman argues those differences matter for More…
For April Fool’s Day, we talk about a famous joke in the history of biology. Dr Rebecca Martin interviews Professor Joe Cain about the snouters. It’s a joke that began with publication of a book More…
What are the similarities between the COVID-19 pandemic and the 1918 ‘Spanish Flu’ pandemic? What can we learn by a comparison? How does history help us understand what’s happening today? One of our experts in More…
In this interview, Professor Charlotte Sleigh talks about the STS1Book for 2021, a book she has co-written with Professor Amanda Rees. It’s called Humans. In our conversation, we talk about the book and some of its More…
Every university student has “careers” on the mind, even if they’re not sure what they should be thinking about. In this interview, Professor Joe Cain talks with the STS Careers Tutor, Dr Jean-Baptiste Gouyon about More…
STS student, Nuzhah Miah, interviews Dr Jack Stilgoe about Evgeny Morozov’s 2014 book, To Save Everything Click Here, asking him why it’s recommended reading for new students coming into UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies More…
In this BONUS episode, Dr Michel Wahome presents a wide-ranging critique of the “research for development” (R4D) model in science and technology policy, with special emphasis on its assumptions about innovation and progress. The deepest More…
Professor James Lighthill, UCL Provost (1979-1989), was the author of a highly influential report to the UK government about artificial intelligence (AI). It questioned what AI was and what it could achieve. Its impact was More…
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