Unitalks Unitalks: a podcast for university access

Zaid from Tower Hamlets visit Queen Mary University in East London to interview Shahidha Bari, a lecturer there in Romanticism. Zaid is deciding whether to study English or Marketing at University, and speaking to Shahidha on her passion for Keats and her love of libraries might just persuade him. Our agony aunts answer questions you’ve sent in on careers and employability after you’ve left university.

Christian from London interviews Christopher Hamilton, a senior lecturer in the Philosophy of Religion at King's College London. Despite being passionate about pursuing a career in Marine Biology, Christian isn't afraid to quiz Christopher on philosophy's toughest questions: What is the meaning of life? What's more important, pain or pleasure? Our agony aunts answer questions you've sent in on typical anxieties and apprehensions you might face at university.

Sixth former Raihana from London interviews Anne Phillips, Graham Wallace Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics. A science student with a keen interest in politics and feminism, Raihana quizzes Anne on glass ceilings, fighting inequality, and surviving and succeeding in a male-dominated field.

Sixth Form student Charlie from Newport interviews Professor of Music and international concert pianist, Kenneth Hamilton. Though she wants to study Physics at University, Charlie plays the clarinet and the Saxophone, and quizzes Kenneth on the link between music and physics, Chopin, and what makes a good piano player.

Sixth Form students, Simran and Kimjeet travel to King’s College London to interview Eleanor Knox. Simran and Kimjeet are hoping to study Law or Psychology somewhere in London, but after talking to Eleanor, they question whether to study something vocational rather than what they are passionate about. They also discover the connection between Physics and Philosophy and some of the weirder parts of Eleanor’s work which studies some of the deepest, longest, most complex puzzles in our world.

Sixth form student Riley interviews Professor Tara Shears, a world leading particle physicist at Liverpool University and researcher at the Large Hadron Collider in CERN. Riley is preparing to study Chemistry in the hopes of becoming a Forensic scientist. He asks what it really takes to be a great scientist, how to cope with the disappointment of failed experiments and what in the world bananas have to do with antimatter.