In the lead up to the launch of Season 5, we at The HPS Podcast are re-releasing some favourite episodes from our collection. In this episode Professors Lorraine Daston and Peter Harrison talk to Samara Greenwood on the often complex, sometimes fraught relationship between practicing scientists and the history of science. This episode was originally released on March 07, 2024. The transcript can be found at - S3 Ep1 - Lorraine Daston & Peter Harrison Transcript Thanks for listening to The HP...
May 09, 2025•31 min•Season 4Ep. 16
In the lead up to the launch of Season 5, we at The HPS Podcast are re-releasing some favourite episodes from our collection. In this episode, Professor Hasok Chang talks with Samara Greenwood about his concept of 'Epistemic Iteration', the idea that scientific inquiries do not start from a solid foundation, but rather begin from an imperfect position, using the outcomes of our further inquiry to refine and correct the original starting point. This episode was originally released on December 4, ...
May 09, 2025•35 min•Season 4Ep. 15
In the lead up to the launch of Season 5, we at The HPS Podcast are re-releasing some favourite episodes from our collection. In this episode we have Dr Rachael Brown talking to Samara Greenwood on challenge the common idea that Science is (and should be) 'Value-Free'. At a practical level, in choosing which phenomena to study, and how best to study them, can science really ever be value-free? Second, would we want it to, even if it could? Isn't it possible that, if used appropriately, values pr...
May 09, 2025•25 min•Season 4Ep. 14
In the lead up to the launch of Season 5, we at The HPS Podcast are re-releasing some favourite episodes from our collection. First, we have Dr Kristian Camilleri talking with Samara Greenwood about the relatively recent realisation that this thing we call 'Science' is a less unified phenomena then is typically supposed. The 'disunity' becomes clear when we appreciate that scientific disciplines have developed in divergent ways and often employ very different methods and practices. This episode ...
May 09, 2025•25 min•Season 4Ep. 13
Today we have not one, not two, but five fabulous guests who all presented at this year’s conference for the Society for Philosophy of Science in Practice, or SPSP24 for short. Many philosophers of science we have featured on the podcast, including Hasok Chang , Rachel Ankeny and Sabina Leonelli , were founding members of SPSP. Also, our earlier episode on ‘ The Turn to Practice ’ in philosophy of science has been one of our most popular. Therefore, it seemed an obvious decision to dedicate our ...
Dec 04, 2024•29 min•Season 4Ep. 12
"It wouldn’t make sense to leave the entire burden of upholding objectivity in science on the shoulders of fallible individuals, right?" Prof. Fiona Fidler Today, we return to one of our favourite episodes, with the person who first came up with the idea for our podcast – Professor Fiona Fidler. Fiona is head of our History and Philosophy of Science Program at the University of Melbourne and co-lead of the MetaMelb research initiative. In this episode Fiona first discusses her early move from ps...
Nov 27, 2024•21 min•Season 4Ep. 11
" These conversations are the focus of fierce debate, not because scientists lack authority, but because these are the intellectual battles worth fighting. These are the stakes on which modern society depends" Our guest today is Erika Milam, Charles C. and Emily R. Gillispie Professor in the History of Science at Princeton University. Through her research, Erika has found it useful to coin the term ‘Colloquial Science’ to describe work that deals with technical scientific topics but is produced ...
Nov 20, 2024•30 min•Season 4Ep. 10
“This is Holden Thorp. I'm the Editor in Chief of Science and thanks to Sam and Carmelina for all they're doing to get the word out about the history and philosophy of science” Today's guest is Holden Thorp, professor of chemistry at George Washington University and Editor-in-Chief of the Science family of journals. In April of this year, Holden published an editorial in Science with the tantalising title ‘Teach Philosophy of Science’. Holden called for more substantial teaching of history and p...
Nov 13, 2024•31 min•Season 4Ep. 9
Today, Carmelina is joined by Dr. Nicole C. Nelson, Associate Professor in the Department of Medical History and Bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Nicole is an ethnographer of science and a familiar face to many within both Science and Technology Studies, and Metascience. Today, Nicole explains how ethnographic studies can help us to make sense of the world, and how she uses ethnography to construct the story of science in a way that the published record of scientific articles ca...
Nov 06, 2024•27 min•Season 4Ep. 8
" In response to that article, I was getting hate mail. I was getting attacked. I thought, these people have a script. This is a story that people need to understand. This isn't just something of academic interest. This is something that has real political and cultural consequences." Today's very special guest is acclaimed historian of science, Professor Naomi Oreskes, author of Merchants of Doubt , Science on a Mission and her most recent book with long time collaborator Erik Conway – The Big M...
Oct 30, 2024•36 min•Season 4Ep. 7
"Doing the thing is not the whole thing, it's also the sharing it with the audiences who either need it or are simply interested in it...science isn't finished until it's communicated" Our guest today is Associate Professor Jen Martin. Jen leads the University of Melbourne’s acclaimed Science Communication Teaching program and is passionate about helping scientists develop the skills they need to be visible, to make connections and to have impact. As well as teaching, Jen is a prolific communica...
Oct 23, 2024•29 min•Season 4Ep. 6
Today our guest presenter Thomas Spiteri is joined by Professor Edouard Machery, Distinguished Professor in the University of Pittsburgh’s HPS department and director of the Center for Philosophy of Science. Edouard, a leading figure in experimental philosophy (X-Phi), shares insights into the X-Phi movement, which integrates empirical methods into philosophical inquiry. He discusses the limitations of traditional philosophical methods, particularly the use of intuitions, and explains how X-Phi ...
Oct 16, 2024•28 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Today Carmelina is joined by Dr Darrin Durant a Senior Lecturer in HPS at the University of Melbourne specialising in Science and Technology studies. Darrin's research covers two seemingly distinct areas: nuclear energy and expertise. Yet nuclear energy and other contested public policy issues are informed by experts on both sides of the debate. As Darrin explains in today’s episode, there are different types of expertise and we must learn to better judge who is, and who isn’t an expert. Using r...
Oct 09, 2024•28 min•Season 4Ep. 4
This episode forms Part 2 of our extended interview with the celebrated historian of science, and master communicator, Professor Simon Schaffer. Today, we continue to focus our discussion on the book Simon co-wrote with Steven Shapin in the early 1980s, Leviathan and the Air-Pump . Simon reveals fascinating insights into the production of the book, including his many deep dives into rare books collections, as well as the back and forth of typewritten pages between Simon in London and Steven in E...
Oct 02, 2024•26 min•Season 4Ep. 3
This episode is the first of two in which the celebrated Professor of History of Science, Simon Schaffer, discusses the famous HPS publication, Leviathan and the Air-Pump: Hobbes, Boyle and the Experimental Life , which Simon co-wrote with another esteemed HPS scholar, Steven Shapin, in the early 1980s. The book went on to become one of the most well-known across both HPS and STS, with next year marking 40 years since its first release. In todays episode, Simon discusses his own academic story, ...
Sep 25, 2024•27 min•Season 4Ep. 2
Welcome back to The HPS Podcast for Season 4. In today's episode, Carmelina and Samara touch on a variety of topics, but a core theme is 'how we study science through the lens of the humanities'. Both Sam and Carmelina believe the skills and perspectives developed through disciplines such as history, sociology, and philosophy are crucial to resolving many of today's problems. So, it is incredibly sad that they continue to be undervalued by many. We hope The HPS Podcast - in its own small way - c...
Sep 18, 2024•21 min•Season 4Ep. 1
We are pleased to bring you a special five episode podcast series Working Fathers created by Professor in HPS Cordelia Fine , political philosopher Associate Professor Dan Halliday , social psychologist, Dr Melissa Wheeler and historian Dr Annabelle Baldwin. What’s next for Australian fathers? In this final episode of the mini-series, we look at the future of fatherhood. So far, one thing all our guests seem to agree on is that, for many families, current arrangements aren’t working as well as t...
Sep 04, 2024•37 min•Season 3Ep. 18
We are pleased to bring you a special five episode podcast series Working Fathers created by Professor in HPS Cordelia Fine , political philosopher Associate Professor Dan Halliday , social psychologist, Dr Melissa Wheeler and historian Dr Annabelle Baldwin. In Episode 4, Give Dads a Break , we look at more of the pressures that prevent fathers from being active and equal caregivers in their children’s lives. In particular, we look at the gender norms that dictate what it means to be a good man,...
Sep 02, 2024•40 min•Season 3Ep. 17
We are pleased to bring you a special five episode podcast series Working Fathers created by Professor in HPS Cordelia Fine , political philosopher Associate Professor Dan Halliday , social psychologist, Dr Melissa Wheeler and historian Dr Annabelle Baldwin. How much freedom do fathers have? Do fathers have real choices about how to divide their time between paid work and caring for the kids at home? Where do government and organisational policies fit in? One of the major societal changes of the...
Aug 28, 2024•46 min•Season 3Ep. 16
We are pleased to bring you a special five episode podcast series Working Fathers created by Professor in HPS Cordelia Fine , political philosopher Associate Professor Dan Halliday , social psychologist, Dr Melissa Wheeler and historian Dr Annabelle Baldwin. How people divide labour within and beyond the family unit has changed throughout human history. The current model in many Western nations, including Australia, is a version of the 'breadwinner model', where one parent is designated the prim...
Aug 26, 2024•37 min•Season 3Ep. 15
We are pleased to bring you a special five episode podcast series created by Professor in HPS Cordelia Fine , political philosopher Associate Professor Dan Halliday , social psychologist, Dr Melissa Wheeler and historian Dr Annabelle Baldwin. The series is called Working Fathers , and explores the varied roles fathers play in contemporary Australia and how policy can better recognise, value and support fatherhood. In this first episode, ‘Where’s Dad?’ host Dan Halliday notes that, despite signif...
Aug 21, 2024•28 min•Season 3Ep. 14
In a break from our usual format, we are pleased to bring you a special five episode podcast series created by Professor in HPS Cordelia Fine , political philosopher Associate Professor Dan Halliday , social psychologist, Dr Melissa Wheeler and historian Dr Annabelle Baldwin. The series is called Working Fathers , and explores the varied roles fathers play in contemporary Australia and how policy can better recognise, value and support fatherhood. In this introduction to the series, Dan provides...
Aug 21, 2024•4 min•Season 3Ep. 13
Our guest today is Professor of Philosophy and History of Science at the University of Exeter, Sabina Leonelli. Sabina recently released a book in the Cambridge Elements Philosophy of Science series on The Philosophy of Open Science. In her book, Sabina offers a stimulating perspective on the Open Science movement, discussing both its strengths and some of its unintended downsides, including constraining academic diversity and worsening epistemic injustices in some cases. In this episode, Sabina...
May 29, 2024•40 min•Season 3Ep. 12
Today Carmelina is joined by Professor Uljana Feest, Philosopher of Psychology and Chair for Philosophy of Social Science and Social Philosophy at the Leibniz University of Hannover. In this episode, Uljana discusses her work on the philosophy and history of psychology as it relates to the replication crisis. In a recent article ‘What is the Replication Crisis a Crisis Of?’ Uljana proposes something is missing from current debates which typically focus on one of two positions. On one hand are th...
May 22, 2024•28 min•Season 3Ep. 11
Today we are joined by Miguel Ohnesorge and Aja Watkins to talk about a new subfield of HPS - The Philosophy of the Geosciences. Miguel and Aja recently co-authored an article titled 'What is the Philosophy of the Geosciences?' In today's episode, we discuss many of the themes introduced in the paper, including common problems found across such diverse geoscientific disciplines as palaeontology, seismology and climate science. Aja and Miguel highlight how the geosciences have had to develop simi...
May 16, 2024•26 min•Season 3Ep. 10
How are we to understand Indigenous biological difference in the twenty-first century? Is it a racist ruse, a stubborn residue of racial pseudoscience? Or is it a potentially empowering force that can be unlocked by newly accurate science? Or by being under Indigenous control? Today’s guest is Deakin Distinguished Professor Emma Kowal. Emma first trained as a doctor and public health researcher, before turning to cultural and medical anthropology. Now Emma also works across Science and Technolog...
May 09, 2024•26 min•Season 3Ep. 9
We have a very special episode today with guest host Dr Joshua Eisenthal interviewing fellow philosopher of science, and good friend, Dr Haixin Dang on the fascinating subject of Disagreement in Science. It might seem like scientists should always aspire to achieve consensus, and therefore any disagreement in science is a mark of failure. However, as Haixin points out, disagreement is in fact a vital part of healthy scientific practice. Disagreement helps scientists be reflective about their wor...
Apr 24, 2024•31 min•Season 3Ep. 8
Today's episode features one of our favourite philosophers of physics, Dr Sophie Ritson. Sophie's research focuses on the way contemporary physicists – of both the experimental and theoretical kind – work together to develop reliable knowledge and find creative ways to expand our fundamental understanding of the universe. Sophie is unafraid to dig in where others fear to tread. She began her career examining the string theory controversy and, more recently, has studied first-hand the high stakes...
Apr 18, 2024•23 min•Season 3Ep. 7
Today's guest is Dr Kirsten Walsh, a philosophy lecturer at the University of Exeter. Kirsten’s research primarily focuses on Isaac Newton and his methodology, but she is careful to consider philosophical issues alongside a sensitivity and consideration for historical contexts. In today’s episode Kirsten gives us a sense of how our historical understanding of Newton has changed over time, and the role various archival practices have played in what knowledge is developed. Kirsten’s lively discuss...
Apr 10, 2024•27 min•Season 3Ep. 6
This week the team at The HPS Podcast are taking a mid-semester break! To celebrate we are reposting one of our favourite episodes from Season 1 featuring Professor Greg Radick, a leading historian of biology at the University of Leeds. In the podcast Greg discusses the use of counterfactuals in history of science - the term we use for asking ‘What if?’ questions about history - and their potential to subvert our conventional thinking. In Greg’s research, a central counterfactual question is: “W...
Apr 03, 2024•29 min•Season 3Ep. 5
