What's the Point?: Recent Episodes
Bryony Armstrong
We tend to see medicine as a strictly scientific sector, but the arts and humanities are essential when it comes to educating our doctors and caring for patients and the planet. Doctor and Professor of Medical Education Ian Fussell joins me to talk about:
- What is medical humanities
- How and why we can use arts and humanities in medical education
- The links between planetary health, medical health, and social justice
- Why medical and scientific researchers need artists and humanities specialists
- How the humanities helped the medical field during the Covid-19 pandemic
- Medicine as an enabler of the arts and humanities
Find Bryony @BF_Armstrong
Find the pod @wtppod_
Find Ian at the University of Exeter Medical School
Artwork: Riduwan Molla https://www.canva.com/p/riduwanmolla/
Music: Madaan Mansij https://www.pond5.com/artist/mansij_tubescreamer
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Although there has been scientific consensus on the climate crisis for decades, humans have been slow to respond to its urgency. Environmental humanities researcher Conor Brennan joins me to talk about:
- What is environmental humanities?
- How can evironmental humanities help to solve the climate crisis?
- The role of popular culture in communicating the climate crisis
- The problems that arise when we take arts and humanities out of the equations
- How art convinces people to change their behaviour about the climate crisis
- How has the climate crisis affected literature and aesthetic experiments?
- Why climate activism should include humanities teaching in schools/universities
Read "The Humanities in the UK Today" report by the Higher Education Policy Institute
Other sources discussed:
- Edward Said, "Jane Austen and Empire", Culture and Imperialism (1993)
- Richard Powers, The Overstory (2018)
- Kim Stanley Robinson, The Ministry for the Future (2020)
- Olga Tokarczuk, Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead (2009)
Find Bryony @BF_Armstrong
Find the pod @wtppod_
Find Conor
Artwork: Riduwan Molla https://www.canva.com/p/riduwanmolla/
Music: Madaan Mansij https://www.pond5.com/artist/mansij_tubescreamer
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
In this time when "fake news" and "alternative facts" have become buzzwords, arts and humanities are more important than ever. Professional fact checker Sarah Turnnidge from Full Fact joins Bryony Armstrong to discuss:
- How her humanities background prepared her for being a professional fact checker
- Academic English as a lens to look at different topics
- Humanities as a natural place for the study of misinformation
- The role of AI in misinformation and how humanities can analyse that
- How humanities teaches us to use evidence
- The role of narratives in (mis)information
- The fact checking that happens within the humanities
Find Bryony @BF_Armstrong
Find Sarah @sarah_turnnidge
Artwork: Riduwan Molla https://www.canva.com/p/riduwanmolla/
Music: Madaan Mansij https://www.pond5.com/artist/mansij_tubescreamer
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Cybersecurity researcher Dr Andrea Zeffiro joins Bryony Armstrong to talk about:
- The role of humanities in addressing technological challenges in data science domains
- Using humanities to solve problems surrounding data breaches
- Considering the human elements of cybersecurity
- Understanding cybersecurity as more than a neutral protection of networks and data
- The problems we will have with cybersecurity if the humanities continue to be devalued and underfunded
The Reconfiguring Participation in Cybersecurity project at the Oxford Internet Institute can be found here.
Find Bryony @BF_Armstrong
Find Andrea here
Artwork: Riduwan Molla https://www.canva.com/p/riduwanmolla/
Music: Madaan Mansij https://www.pond5.com/artist/mansij_tubescreamer
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Researcher and upcoming author Madeline Potter joins Bryony Armstrong to talk about:
- Tackling intergenerational poverty through the arts in Roma communities
- The importance of knowing your own history
- Maddy’s upcoming book, The Roma: A Travelling History (Bodley Head/ Harper Collins, 2025)
- Why writing and research skills need to be valued and funded
- The role of humanities in combatting “fake news”
- Getting information directly from the source
- The need for the Roma to be represented by Romani people
The article announcing Maddy's book auction can be found here.
The Twitter thread that explains the truth of the Jane Austen headline can be found here.
Find Bryony @BF_Armstrong
Find Maddy @madeline_cct
Artwork: Riduwan Molla https://www.canva.com/p/riduwanmolla/
Music: Madaan Mansij https://www.pond5.com/artist/mansij_tubescreamer
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Arts Emergency co-founder Neil Griffiths joins Bryony Armstrong to talk about:
- How studying arts and humanities helps you to pursue work in culture, politics and activism
- Why all minoritised people need the option to study arts and humanities
- The power of seeing yourself represented in culture
- Breaking down the privilege associated with pursuing arts and humanities
- How reading literature can spark world-changing ideas
- The need for diversity in creative and cultural industries and politics
- Why it doesn’t make economic sense to push STEM over arts and humanities
- The insidious nature of anti-arts and humanities government policies
Donate to Arts Emergency here.
If you work in the creative and cultural sectors, love arts and humanities, and want to break down barriers to entry, check out the mentor information here.
Rishi Sunak's speech announcing the intention to get children to study maths until 18 can be found here.
Find Bryony @BF_Armstrong
Find Neil @_griff
Artwork: Riduwan Molla https://www.canva.com/p/riduwanmolla/
Music: Madaan Mansij https://www.pond5.com/artist/mansij_tubescreamer
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Business researcher Dr Ladan Cockshut joins Bryony Armstrong to talk about:
- What the Creative, Digital and IT (CDIT) sector is and how much it’s growing
- The huge array of industries that need creative skills
- How Arts and Humanities academics interact with practitioners in the CDIT sector
- How creativity can lead to income
- Creating changes and measurable economic growth with creativity
- Why it’s short sighted to say that an Arts and Humanities education doesn’t support labour market needs
Episode references:
- The Office for Students announcement about funding cuts: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/news-blog-and-events/press-and-media/ofs-confirms-funding-reforms/
- Kiln Cafe in Newcastle: https://www.kiln.cafe/
- The report on changes in the north east economy: https://dro.dur.ac.uk/30075/
Find Bryony @BF_Armstrong
Find Ladan @LadanCockshut
Get in contact with Ladan: t.l.cockshut@durham.ac.uk
Artwork: Riduwan Molla https://www.canva.com/p/riduwanmolla/
Music: Madaan Mansij https://www.pond5.com/artist/mansij_tubescreamer
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Social historian Norma Gregory joins Bryony Armstrong to discuss:
- Useful skills and knowledge from an arts and humanities education
- Making recorded history representative of the past
- The importance of accessibility in historical research
- Improving mental health and wellbeing through heritage
- Bringing people together and building communities through heritage
- Creating jobs in heritage work
- Why art, humanities and creativity are essential for life
- Why you can’t memorise your way through an arts or humanities degree
Please sign these petitions:
https://www.change.org/p/no-job-cuts-at-birkbeck-university-of-london
https://www.change.org/p/no-job-cuts-in-english-at-birkbeck-university-of-london
Find out more about the Black Miners Museum: https://blackcoalminers.com/
Find Bryony @BF_Armstrong
Find Norma @normagregoryNNC
Artwork: Riduwan Molla https://www.canva.com/p/riduwanmolla/
Music: Madaan Mansij https://www.pond5.com/artist/mansij_tubescreamer
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Lecturer in American literature Dr Xine Yao joins Bryony Armstrong to discuss:
- Why defunding the humanities limits who has cultural capital
- Feeling or unfeeling among minoritised groups
- How researching literature from the past can teach us about the present
- The relationship between humanities and social justice
- Why we can’t turn to the humanities unproblematically
- Bringing humanities research to the public
- The different types of teaching and learning that happen in STEM/A&H classrooms
- Why do people in pubs demand that we explain our research, and then criticise it when we do?!
- The need for solidarity across STEM/A&H
Content note: this episode contains some discussion about racism and homophobia.
Find Bryony @BF_Armstrong
Find Xine @XineYaoPhD
Artwork: Riduwan Molla https://www.canva.com/p/riduwanmolla/
Music: Madaan Mansij https://www.pond5.com/artist/mansij_tubescreamer
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Sensory historian Dr William Tullett joins Bryony Armstrong to discuss:
- Using smell to engage with the present
- The impact of smell research on political choices and environmental justice
- Using smell to learn about historical experience
- Changing up the hierarchies of senses and historical sources
- Why we need to tackle myths about “bad smells”
- Why connecting with heritage matters
- The impact of the humanities on other disciplines
- What you can really do when you study history
- The point of humanities in Covid-19 research
Content warning: this episode contains some discussion about racism.
Credit notes:
- Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins, 'Scratch-and-sniff Palestine: How olfaction shapes nonsovereign infrastructural spaces': https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02637758221118572
- Alex Rhys-Taylor, Food and Multiculture: A Sensory Ethnography of East London: https://www.routledge.com/Food-and-Multiculture-A-Sensory-Ethnography-of-East-London/Rhys-Taylor/p/book/9781472581150
- Sentimental Garbage: Costume Dramas with Dr Emma Southon: https://podcasts.apple.com/pl/podcast/costume-dramas-with-dr-emma-southon/id1444729607?i=1000566596029
- The artist mentioned is named Michael Pinsky: https://www.capefarewell.com/pollution-pods/
Find Bryony @BF_Armstrong
Find William @WillTullett
Artwork: Riduwan Molla https://www.canva.com/p/riduwanmolla/
Music: Madaan Mansij https://www.pond5.com/artist/mansij_tubescreamer
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
PhD researcher Ciara Gorman joins Bryony Armstrong to discuss:
- Where the humanities can take you
- The study of languages and how people communicate
- The importance of languages in political, personal and medical settings
- The skills we learn in the humanities classroom
- Why the world fears gender studies
- Paying attention to contemporary culture
Content warning: this episode contains some discussion about violence against women and mental illness.
Credit note: the linguist referenced is Paula Teixeira Moláns who can be found here: https://www.gla.ac.uk/pgrs/paulateixeiramol%C3%A1ns/. As a clarification, in her talk she was discussing Galician, and said that: 'English has a limited vocabulary and relies on a spatial metaphor such as high and low pitch whilst other languages have other strategies. For instance Galician uses son agudo and grave (as in ‘acute’ or ‘pointy’, and ‘heavy’ or ‘serious’ respectively)'.
Artwork: Riduwan Molla https://www.canva.com/p/riduwanmolla/
Music: Madaan Mansij https://www.pond5.com/artist/mansij_tubescreamer
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.