Public lecture podcasts

Over the last 12 months, we’ve witnessed an explosion of discussion and debate on artificial intelligence among UK Members of Parliament. But what do they think about AI, and what are their concerns? James Boyd-Wallis from the Appraise Network, an AI policy forum, explains the findings of its survey of how MPs feel about AI. The research reveals to what extent MPs feel regulators have the necessary skills and expertise to regulate AI, how optimistic and pessimistic MPs are toward the technology, and their concerns about jobs, society, and the speed of development. This IPR event took place on 24 January 2024.

In Episode Six of the University of Bath’s Research with Impact podcast, Roland Pease visits the Centre for Pain Research to find out how its academics are helping people who suffer from pain. How big an issue is it? Is it a subjective problem - and how to we quantify pain? How can we help minimise or alleviate pain? And how do we research pain in young people? Joining Roland are Professor Christopher Eccleston, Dr Emma Fisher and Professor Ed Keogh. This episode was recorded in October 2023.

In Episode Five of the University of Bath’s Research with Impact podcast, Roland visits two researchers at the forefront of debates surrounding AI development and regulation. First up, it's Nello Cristianini, Professor of Artificial Intelligence from Bath's Department of Computer Science. With a focus on machine learning, data science, computational social science, philosophy of AI and regulation of AI, Nello's book "The Shortcut: Why Intelligent Machines Do Not Think Like Us", considers how AI is embedded across our technologies, infrastructure and all our lives and asks whether we should be concerned and what should we do. Roland also heads to our Department of Social & Policy Sciences to talk to Professor Emma Carmel. Emma is Professor of Governance and Public Policy with a particular focus on how public policies, and public and private organisations interact to shape society. Emma's work has analysed social and labour market policies, migration, and most recently, AI technologies. She is interested in how AI systems are used by governments, and how this is changing the relationship between state, society, citizens and technologies. She also works on the public policy challenges that the adoption of AI presents in different settings and how it can be regulated. Among other work, Emma is co-editor of a major new international handbook on AI and Public Policy, is launching a book series on Governance, Technology and Society (Edward Elgar) in 2024. This episode was recorded in October 2023.

In this talk Dr Nathan Davies (University College London) will reflect on the applicability and benefits of a palliative approach with reference to research led by his team on palliative dementia care, including their EMBED-Care programme.

In Episode Four of the University of Bath’s Research with Impact podcast, Roland Pease heads to the roof of the Chancellors' Building to discuss the future of solar energy with experts leading the way at the University of Bath. In this episode he meets: Professor Alison Walker from Bath's Department of Physics. Alison’s research concerns multiscale modelling of perovskite solar cells and organic devices such as displays. In 2019, she chaired the Solar Commission whose aim was to show how UK innovation and industrial capabilities could be harnessed to allow the UK to be a global player in solar in the years ahead. The report was launched in the House of Lords. She directs the 7 university Centre for Doctoral Training in New and sustainable photovoltaics, CDT-PV. Locally, students funded by the CDT-PV worked with Bath Abbey to explore how could be installed on historic buildings to reduce emissions. Professor Petra Cameron from Bath's Department of Chemistry. Her group researches energy materials and makes perovskite solar cells. She focuses on understanding ion motion in perovskites (perovskites are mixed electronic-ionic conductors), making perovskite solar cells with carbon coatings for water splitting to make solar fuels. This is about making perovskites more stable to help scale up their production. Her work has helped to position the University as somewhere of real solar energy expertise and has also helped to put the UK to the forefront of perovskite development. For more information on our guests and the University of Bath’s Research with Impact Podcast please visit go.bath.ac.uk/research-with-impact or follow @uniofbath.

This event will feature presentations from Dr Diana Teggi, Dr Fawn Harrad and Carinna Lumayno who will reflect on what research tells us about how these decisions are currently managed and how practice might be improved.

Professor Doka commences our three-seminar series on ambiguous and disenfranchised loss reflecting on contemporary deaths and the ongoing relevance of his theories of anticipatory and disenfranchised grief today.

In this IPR lecture, Financial Times public policy editor Peter Foster discusses his book "What Went Wrong With Brexit: And What We Can Do About It". Six years after Brexit, Peter Foster argues that it’s time that we stop having the same conversations over and over again. We need to move on, because in the meantime so much has changed. The economic realities that are making the UK less competitive, less productive and less well-off are ever more obvious - and more and more people are finding out the Brexit they were sold was based on falsehoods and fantasy. So what exactly went wrong with Brexit? Peter Foster's book dispels the myths and, most importantly, shows what a better future for Britain after Brexit might look like. With clear-headed practicality, he considers the real costs of leaving the EU, how we can recover international trust in the UK, how to improve cooperation and trade with our neighbours, and how to begin to build the Global Britain that Brexit promised but failed to deliver. This IPR lecture took place on 9 November 2023.

Revd Canon Nigel Rawlinson, University Chaplain, is joined by Visiting Local Faith Leaders: Dr Mohammed Gamal Abdelnour (Islam), Mother Sarah (Orthodox) and Iris Segall (Jewish). Together they reaffirm the importance of building and protecting safe spaces founded on mutual respect, and discuss what is common between the faiths and strategies to support nonviolence and peace. This podcast was recorded in front of an invited audience.

New York Times bestselling author, Order of the Good Death founder, and Ask a Mortician creator Caitlin Doughty will talk with CDAS's former director and Death Studies Scholar-at-Large, John Troyer, about innovation and change in 21st Century Death World.