In Conversation: An OUP Podcast

About In Conversation: An OUP Podcast

Interviews with Oxford University Press authors about their books

Publisher

New Books Network

Category

arts · history · science

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

13 Jun 2008

Latest episode

10 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

1 of 1,822 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   10 Oct 2026

   Europe in the Eleventh Century: Beyond Revolution and Reform with Charles West (Oxford UP, 2025)

   Eleventh-century Europe was diverse and fast-changing. Historians have often debated this change through two sets of competing arguments, one about the shifting role of the Church and the Papacy, and the other about the rise of castellan lords and a proliferation in violence. Yet these arguments about 'Church Reform' and 'Feudal Revolution' only really apply to one part of Europe, the Latin West. Europe in the Eleventh Century: Beyond Revolution and Reform (Oxford University Press, 2025) by Professor Charles West takes its cue from contemporary perceptions of Europe, and includes Byzantium (or East Rome) and Muslim al-Andalus in scope. In doing so, it presents a new perspective on Europe in the period. Its chapters assess different scales of action and interaction within this wide space. They take from the reader from the peasants living in small village settlements, via the great city of Constantinople, the taifa emirates, kingdoms from Ireland to Hungary, and the two universal empires, up to contemporary ideas, cosmologies, and representations of the wider world. Viewed in this broad setting, the Latin West's remarkable expansion during this period, dramatically illustrated by the First Crusade at the century's end, can best be understood as the poorly controlled overspilling of internal dynamics, as the established public order was disrupted. Elsewhere in Europe, existing structures proved more resilient and better able to accommodate internal economic and social development, though remaining vulnerable to aggression from outside. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.

2. 

   9 Oct 2026

   The Technocratic International: Experts and the Making of a World from Nowhere with Jan Eijking (Oxford UP, 2026)

   Most international organisations today-from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to the World Health Organisation-present themselves as technical institutions separate from political concerns. And yet they are frequently accused, whether by the public or by governments, of hiding behind this technocratic veil only to privilege a few rich and powerful nations. Experts appear as guardians of stability and protectors of an unequal status quo. Scholars of International Relations (IR) and international law have illuminated the production and contestation of expertise. But its historical emergence and distinctiveness remain under-explored. The Technocratic International: Experts and the Making of a World from Nowhere (Oxford UP, 2026) by Dr. Jan Eijking is the first book to historically examine and comprehensively theorise the role of experts in the institutionalisation of modern international order. How exactly did technical expertise come to be a central tenet to the work of international organisations? Based on archival material from Paris, London, and Geneva, The Technocratic International reconstructs the neglected history of expert mobilisation at early moments of institutionalised international cooperation in the nineteenth century. To understand how expertise works at the international level, examining how expert status and knowledge are produced is not enough. Instead, we must bring into view how expertise relates to claims about the very domain in which it operates. Historically, experts were not merely-as institutionalist and functionalist accounts assume - mobilised to epistemically optimise international policymaking. Instead, technocratic elites constructed “the international” through Eurocentric performances of expert approval. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.

3. 

   8 Oct 2026

   A Pacific Power: Liberal Imperialism in German Samoa with Matthew P. Fitzpatrick (Oxford UP, 2025)

   Before the First World War Germany was a global empire with colonies in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. Annexed to this empire in 1900 was Samoa, a thriving Polynesian trading hub which had previously been the site of conflict between Britain, Germany, and the United States. A Pacific Power: Liberal Imperialism in German Samoa (Oxford University Press, 2025) by Dr. Matthew Fitzpatrick brings to light an often-overlooked history of German imperialism in the Pacific. Focusing on Samoa, it shows the tension between German rulers and Samoan subjects, as well as the variety of ways the Germans sought to reshape the colony according to their own requirements. It looks at how Samoa became a colonial site that brought Germany into conflict not only with Britain and the United States, but also China, New Zealand, and the Vatican. At the same time, it uncovers the social and cultural experiments of a colony that treated matters of sexuality, race, and religion in often unexpected ways. Through a study of colonial conflicts and crises, A Pacific Power brings to light Germany's strategies of imperial rule and Samoan methods of resisting and co-opting German institutions. It investigates how German rule transformed Samoa and altered German culture and politics. It shows how Samoa brought Germany into conflict not only with Britain and the United States, but also China, New Zealand, and the Vatican. Laying bare the exploitative and racist nature of German colonial labour practices, it also uncovers the surprising social and cultural experiments of a colony that treated matters of sexuality, race, and religion in often unexpected ways. Through careful attention to archival sources and the personal recollections of those who colonised Samoa and those who were colonised, Dr. Fitzpatrick reorients German imperial history towards Polynesia, emphasising the too often overlooked importance of the Pacific to German attempts to globalise their economy, culture and military reach. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.

Inside a recent episode

Jeremy Snyder, "Exploiting Hope: How the Promise of New Medical Interventions Sustains Us--and Makes Us Vulnerable" (Oxford UP, 2020)

Published 1 Dec 2020 · Transcript excerpt

[…] And it can be an entirely rational and even beneficial attitude to take because hope does a great deal of good for us. And this is kind of the duality I was trying to get out with the climbed image and the example of from grapes of rafts, Steinbeck of people migrating to the West Coast during the the Dust Bowl. And this idea is that hope is a wonderful thing. It gives you optimism. There's a lot of evidence actually in the medical context. People who have been given either a terminal diagnosis or even been told that they have a very serious medical condition. Having hope for the future is a little bit self -puffilling in the sense that it can reduce stress and make people more likely to follow medical advice and keep trying to improve their health as that sustaining value that actually makes it more likely that they will survive or have a longer life or higher quality of life. […]

Who has been a guest on In Conversation: An OUP Podcast

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Janet McIntosh
• Edward Schatz
• Rachel Silvey
• Didi Kuo
• Jennifer Crane

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 66 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

99

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

85

Contact In Conversation: An OUP Podcast

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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