University of Cambridge

Best-selling author Tara Westover talks to Guardian columnist Hadley Freeman about her memoir, Educated, which tells of her experiences growing up in rural Idaho, raised by a radical, survivalist father who was intensely paranoid about government interference in the lives of his family. In the book she writes of how, through the pursuit of knowledge, she evolved into a 'new self'. She says: 'You could call this selfhood many things. Transformation. Metamorphosis. Falsity. Betrayal. I call it an education.'

Read Tara's feature article: https://www.festivalofideas.cam.ac.uk/educated-tara-westover-conversation-hadley-freeman

With huge internal and external pressures facing the European Union, including the rise of nationalist and populist movements of all types across Europe - both inside the EU and outside, as well as the power struggle going on for control of Europe, can it survive?

With Ian Kearns, co-founder of the European Leadership Network and author of Collapse: Europe after the European Union, Dr Julie Smith, Director of the European Centre in the Department of Politics and International Studies at Cambridge University, John Breuilly, professor of nationalism and ethnicity at the London School of Economics, and Timothy Less, associate researcher at the University of Cambridge and director of the Nova Europa consultancy, which provides political risk analysis of Eastern Europe.

Chaired by BBC Radio Cambridgeshire's Chris Mann.

This panel reflects on mystical experiences in epilepsy and what they can teach us about empathy, personal reflection, and how different traditions of faith or non-faith can intersect in big questions about the nature of personal experience.

This panel includes experts on the psychology of religion and people who have had mystical seizures. By using a rare and unusual phenomena that has implications for both medical and faith communities, this talk aims to address how we engage with the hard to understand subjective experiences of others and how competing understandings of the nature of these extreme experiences can share the explanatory landscape. Rather than simply focusing on the science of mystical seizures, this panel aims to address what these experiences tell us about spiritual plurality, interfaith understanding, and how we grapple with first hand accounts of experiences inaccessible to most people.

With Prof. Rev. Alasdair Coles, Joseph Tennant, Ian Ball, Mordecai Zeller

In this podcast, Peter Clarke, Professor Emeritus of Modern British History, discusses Theresa May’s leadership of the Conservative Party, her approach to the Brexit negotiations, and what he thinks will be the outcome of her Chequers deal when it is eventually put to parliament later this year. Prof Clarke is a Fellow and former Master of Trinity Hall. Recorded at the end of October 2018.

Why do fundamentalist beliefs and practices function as they do? Why are they so attractive? How should we distinguish between fundamentalism, extremism, radicalism and orthodoxy?

Professor Kim Knott, Lancaster University, Ed Kessler MBE, Woolf Institute, Cambridge, and Tobias Müller, Woolf Institute and POLIS, University of Cambridge, present their reflections on fundamentalisms, particularly in Jewish, Muslim, Christian and non-religious contexts. They draw on case studies and fieldwork in religious communities in the UK and Europe. In addition, the panellists present some conceptual proposals on how best to study and conceptualise fundamentalism in order to make it an analytical and useful category that takes seriously the historical development of the term. The presentations focus on shared characteristics such as the role of patriarchy, the desire to return to a golden age, the significance of sacred texts and truth claims, anti-pluralist attributes, the importance of charismatic leadership and the influence of globalisation. At the same time, the presentations will point out characteristics that are particularly noticeable amongst some religious fundamentalisms but not others, for example sacred land is important to Jewish, Sikh and Hindu fundamentalists but less so for Christian and Buddhist. Finally, the panel will address how fundamentalism relates to mainstream interpretations of the same religion.

Chair: Dr Sara Silvestri, Senior lecturer, City, University of London and Bye Fellow, St Edmund's College, Cambridge

Read Tobias' feature article: https://www.festivalofideas.cam.ac.uk/what-fundamentalism-and-what-should-we-do-about-it

The dangers of the dark web are explored in a discussion that looks at how anonymous users can purchase illegal firearms and drugs on this hidden part of the internet. The challenges this poses and what could be done to manage its impact are also examined.

• Giacomo Persi Paoli is a research leader at RAND Europe in the Defence, Security and Infrastructure Group, where he leads the National Security and Resilience research portfolio. Giacomo will give an introduction to RAND Europe’s research into cryptomarkets – the black markets on the dark web – and reveal the size and scope of the dark web and what is available for trade, with a focus on illegal firearms.

• Stijn Hoorens is the head of RAND Europe's Brussels Office and an associate director of RAND Europe. His research interests are broad, but most of his work has revolved around issues related to illicit markets, security, demographic issues, employment, and skills. Stijn will be looking at how the dark web has facilitated the trade in illicit drugs and how the findings converge and differ between firearms and drugs.

• Steve Welsh is a senior manager at the National Crime Agency in the UK and heads up the Dark Web Intelligence Collection and Exploitation department. He will be giving an insight into the evolving threat of dark web markets and sharing some of the UK’s success in combatting it with international partners.

• Judith Aldridge is Professor of Criminology in the School of Law at the University of Manchester in the UK, she is the author of over 80 publications in the drugs field; 19 of these on ‘darknet’ drug markets. As a counterpoint, Judith will explore some of the unexpected benefits of the dark web, such as how it may reduce some of the harms generally associated with global drug prohibition.

Hello and welcome to We are the University. A podcast about the people who make Cambridge University unique. I’m your host Nick Saffell.

In this episode we meet James Biddulph, the headmaster of the University of Cambridge Primary School.

We talk about the school’s character and vision, how a trip to Nepal helped him realise that he wanted to teach as a career and we find out how he inspires the team of teachers that work with him.

https://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/people/staff/biddulph/

Ed Bullmore - Inflamed mind: A radical new approach to depression by University of Cambridge

Terri Apter - Passing Judgment: praise and blame in everyday life by University of Cambridge

Lucy Delap - Men and Feminism by University of Cambridge