How do religious communities engage with questions of empire, power, peace, and political action? And what can these debates tell us about global histories of non-violence? 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 Floris de Ruiter, a PhD candidate at the Institute for History, University of Leiden, whose research examines intellectual debates around violence and non-violence within ashram communities. In this episode, we’re exploring ashrams and the history of ideas about violence and non-violence in 20th-century South Asia.

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?

What is the history of Yoga? And how can something apparently Indian have become such an everyday activity for people across the world? 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 Dr Suzanne Newcombe, who was an undergraduate at Amherst College, before completing her MSc at the London School of Economics and PhD in History at Cambridge. Suzanne is now a Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at The Open University. We will be discussing Suzanne’s research, particularly focusing on her book ‘Yoga in Britain: Stretching Spirituality and Educating Yogis’.

You can find out more about Suzanne’s research here (https://profiles.open.ac.uk/suzanne-newcombe) and Robert’s here (https://history.web.ox.ac.uk/people/robert-taylor).

Host: Robert Taylor

Editor: Robert Taylor

Looking to make the most of Oxford’s world-leading professors, we decided to set up a platform to interview these academics on the niche, weird and wonderful from their subjects. We aim to create thought-provoking and easily digestible podcast episodes, made for anyone with an interest in the world around them, and to facilitate university access and outreach for students aspiring to Oxford or Cambridge.

To learn more about OxPods, visit our website ⁠www.oxpods.co.uk⁠⁠, ⁠or follow us on socials ⁠@ox.pods. ⁠ ⁠ If you would like an audio transcription of this episode, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.

OxPods is made possible through the support of our generous benefactors. Special thanks to: St Peter's College JCR, Jesus College JCR & Lady Margaret Hall JCR for supporting us in 2024.

OxPods © 2023 by OxPods is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

The witch craze that gripped early modern Europe has been the subject of many studies. What can we learn about English society in this period through the lens of belief in and persecution of witches? To begin to answer these questions, Charlie Bowden, a History student at Jesus College, speaks to Dr George Southcombe, Fellow by Special Election in History at Wadham College and author of a forthcoming book-length study of witchcraft in early modern England.

Host: Charlie Bowden

Editor: Charlie Bowden

Looking to make the most of Oxford’s world-leading professors, we decided to set up a platform to interview these academics on the niche, weird and wonderful from their subjects. We aim to create thought-provoking and easily digestible podcast episodes, made for anyone with an interest in the world around them, and to facilitate university access and outreach for students aspiring to Oxford or Cambridge.

To learn more about OxPods, visit our website ⁠www.oxpods.co.uk⁠⁠, ⁠or follow us on socials ⁠@ox.pods. ⁠ ⁠ If you would like an audio transcription of this episode, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.

OxPods is made possible through the support of our generous benefactors. Special thanks to: St Peter's College JCR, Jesus College JCR & Lady Margaret Hall JCR for supporting us in 2024.

OxPods © 2023 by OxPods is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

The British hippie movement of the 1960s left an indelible mark on popular culture and woven into this counterculture was a fascination with Indian spiritual practices. When the Beatles went to India, for instance, what did they hope to find and to what extent were their hopes wrapped up in colonial thinking about Britain's former imperial territory? To explore this understudied element of the movement, Charlie Bowden, a History student at Jesus College, speaks to Robert James Taylor, a DPhil candidate at New College, about his doctoral research on cultural Indophilia and its relation to hippiedom.

Host: Charlie Bowden

Editor: Charlie Bowden

Looking to make the most of Oxford’s world-leading professors, we decided to set up a platform to interview these academics on the niche, weird and wonderful from their subjects. We aim to create thought-provoking and easily digestible podcast episodes, made for anyone with an interest in the world around them, and to facilitate university access and outreach for students aspiring to Oxford or Cambridge.

To learn more about OxPods, visit our website ⁠www.oxpods.co.uk⁠⁠, ⁠or follow us on socials ⁠@ox.pods. ⁠ ⁠ If you would like an audio transcription of this episode, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.

OxPods is made possible through the support of our generous benefactors. Special thanks to: St Peter's College JCR, Jesus College JCR & Lady Margaret Hall JCR for supporting us in 2024.

OxPods © 2023 by OxPods is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0