OxPods

What is Sufism? How do we investigate its global history? And through what processes did it come to influence those in the West? I’m Robert Taylor, a History DPhil student at New College, researching the post-1945 British counterculture’s interest in India. Today I’m joined by Nile Green, a Professor at UCLA. Nile is a historian of South Asia with a diverse range of publications spanning global, social, religious, cultural, and literary history. He studied in Britain and taught at Oxford, before moving to the United States.

What is Hinduism? Where does it come from? How do we look at it comparatively? And which ideas have made it so influential outside of South Asia? I’m Robert Taylor, a History DPhil student at New College, researching the post-1945 British counterculture’s interest in India. Today I’m joined by Professor Gavin Flood at Campion Hall. Gavin is Professor Emeritus of Hindu Studies and Comparative Religion at Oxford.

How did hippiedom manifest in the Soviet Union? What were the differences between Western and Russian hippies? What are the problems and possibilities of using oral history to tell these sometimes-controversial stories? And how did the political views of some hippies change after the 60s and 70s? I’m Robert Taylor, a History DPhil student at New College, researching the post-1945 British counterculture’s interest in India. Today I’m joined by Professor Juliane Fuerst to discuss her 2021 book, Flowers through Concrete: Explorations in Soviet Hippieland.

Formally emerging in 1929, the Gulag was a vast system of incarceration that came to reach every corner of the USSR. At its peak, in the early 1950s, 2.5 million citizens were interned in its camps and settlements; over its lifetime, an estimated 20 million people were forcibly imprisoned. In this episode, Professor Polly Jones discusses her new book, Gulag Fiction, which considers the literary output of this expansive carceral archipelago. How did writers seek to relate the trauma they experienced while imprisoned in the Gulag? And how is that trauma fictionalised today?

Across the animal kingdom sexual behaviours have evolved which increase the chances of individuals finding a mate and successfully reproducing. However, some are more of a challenge to explain than others. Masturbation has historically been considered a behaviour which hasn’t evolved to directly improve reproductive success, but recent research has shown that its important in optimising sperm quality, and even allowing females to choose which males fertilise them.