Best Peter Birch Podcasts (2025)

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Jane Gardam, Sir Roger Birch, Mike Peters, Francoise Hampson 27:53

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27d ago27:53

27:53

Kirsty Lang on The author Jane Gardam, whose works included The Queen of the Tambourine and Old Filth. Sir Roger Birch, the former Chief Constable of Sussex Police who oversaw the investigation following the IRAs' Brighton bomb attack in 1984. Mike Peters, the lead singer of the band The Alarm, whose own battle with cancer saw him become a campaign…

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#217 – Beth Barnes on the most important graph in AI right now — and the 7-month rule that governs its progress 3:47:09

3d ago3:47:09

3:47:09

AI models today have a 50% chance of successfully completing a task that would take an expert human one hour. Seven months ago, that number was roughly 30 minutes — and seven months before that, 15 minutes. (See graph.) These are substantial, multi-step tasks requiring sustained focus: building web applications, conducting machine learning research…

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Alan Yentob, Richard Garwin, Dr Joy Schaverien, Anne Merriman 27:58

4d ago27:58

27:58

Matthew Bannister on Alan Yentob, the BBC’s only Creative Director, who commissioned many successful TV programmes, was known as an impresario of talent and also presented Imagine. Richard Garwin, the American physicist who developed the Hydrogen bomb, but then devoted his life to nuclear disarmament. Dr. Joy Shaverien, the psychoanalyst who identi…

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Jeff Kerr: Our First Amendment Right to Receive Communications (from Monkeys) 30:14

5d ago30:14

30:14

"It is a scientific fact that these macaques, like all other primates, including humans, are communicating. They communicate in much the same way we do - facial expressions, vocalizations, body postures, those kinds of things." - Jeff Kerr Jeff Kerr is PETA foundations Chief Legal Officer. I asked him to come on the show to talk about one of PETA’s…

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Hannah Deacon, Andrew Norfolk, Dame June Clark, Martin Graham 27:51

13d ago27:51

27:51

Matthew Bannister on Hannah Deacon who ran a successful campaign to allow her son – and many others – to be treated with cannabis after he was diagnosed with a rare form of epilepsy. Andrew Norfolk, the journalist who exposed the Rotherham grooming gang scandal. Dame June Clark, the President of the Royal College of Nursing who argued for more educ…

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Beyond human minds: The bewildering frontier of consciousness in insects, AI, and more 3:34:40

13d ago3:34:40

3:34:40

What if there’s something it’s like to be a shrimp — or a chatbot? For centuries, humans have debated the nature of consciousness, often placing ourselves at the very top. But what about the minds of others — both the animals we share this planet with and the artificial intelligences we’re creating? We’ve pulled together clips from past conversatio…

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Isabella La Rocca Gonzalez: Censored Landscapes 31:41

15d ago31:41

31:41

"The one that really surprised me was the organic humane Certified Egg Farm. I thought Humane Certified would at least mean that I would see some chickens running around somewhere, but it looked exactly the [00:00:30] same as any other egg facility. They were just big warehouses. You don't see a chicken anywhere in sight. And then I learned, of cou…

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John Kinder: World War Zoos 42:33

18d ago42:33

42:33

John Kinder is the director of American studies and a professor of history at Oklahoma State University. And he is an author. His most recent book is called World War Zoos: Humans and Other Animals in the Deadliest Conflict of the Modern Age. John’s book tells a story most of us have never heard: what happened to the world’s zoos—and the animals in…

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Sir Tom Farmer, Elaine Wynn, Sue Stapely, Joseph Nye 27:42

20d ago27:42

27:42

Matthew Bannister on: Sir Tom Farmer, the Edinburgh born businessman who built up the tyre and exhaust company Kwik Fit. Elaine Wynn, who worked with her husband Steve to create a casino empire in Las Vegas. Sue Stapely, who transformed the way the legal profession communicates with the public and the media. Joseph Nye, the American political analy…

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Don’t believe OpenAI’s “nonprofit” spin (emergency pod with Tyler Whitmer) 1:12:04

21d ago1:12:04

1:12:04

OpenAI’s recent announcement that its nonprofit would “retain control” of its for-profit business sounds reassuring. But this seemingly major concession, celebrated by so many, is in itself largely meaningless. Litigator Tyler Whitmer is a coauthor of a newly published letter that describes this attempted sleight of hand and directs regulators on h…

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My QP Journey Ep4 - Mike Hadebe 43:30

21d ago43:30

43:30

This week, Peter Deegan sits down with newly qualified QP Mike Hadebe, who shares his inspiring path from NHS pharmacist to QA specialist and ultimately to QP success. In this episode, Mike opens up about: - How he built a support network of QPs to learn from diverse experiences - The value his clinical background brought to the QP application proc…

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The case for and against AGI by 2030 (article by Benjamin Todd) 1:00:06

24d ago1:00:06

1:00:06

More and more people have been saying that we might have AGI (artificial general intelligence) before 2030. Is that really plausible? This article by Benjamin Todd looks into the cases for and against, and summarises the key things you need to know to understand the debate. You can see all the images and many footnotes in the original article on th…

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Emergency pod: Did OpenAI give up, or is this just a new trap? (with Rose Chan Loui) 1:02:50

28d ago1:02:50

1:02:50

When attorneys general intervene in corporate affairs, it usually means something has gone seriously wrong. In OpenAI’s case, it appears to have forced a dramatic reversal of the company’s plans to sideline its nonprofit foundation, announced in a blog post that made headlines worldwide. The company’s sudden announcement that its nonprofit will “re…

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Virginia Giuffre, Rosy Bremer, LJ Smith, Wizz Jones 27:44

1M ago27:44

27:44

Matthew Bannister on Virginia Giuffre, who waived her anonymity to accuse the billionaire Jeffrey Epstein and his friend Ghislaine Maxwell of sex abuse and trafficking. Rosy Bremer, a leading campaigner against nuclear weapons at the women’s protest at Greenham Common airbase. LJ Smith, author of the best-selling “Vampire Diaries” series of novels …

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#216 – Ian Dunt on why governments in Britain and elsewhere can't get anything done – and how to fix it 3:14:52

1M ago3:14:52

3:14:52

When you have a system where ministers almost never understand their portfolios, civil servants change jobs every few months, and MPs don't grasp parliamentary procedure even after decades in office — is the problem the people, or the structure they work in? Today's guest, political journalist Ian Dunt, studies the systemic reasons governments succ…

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Richard (Kudo) Couto: The Hidden Horror Behind a Billion-Dollar Brand 42:18

1M ago42:18

42:18

“I used to be the largest dairy consumer on the planet. I used to eat so much dairy and meat. The more that I looked into the dairy industry, the more that I saw that it was the singular, most inhumane industry on the planet, that we've all been lied to, including myself, for years. I always believed that the picture on the milk carton, the cow sta…

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Pope Francis, Paddy Higson, David Sassoon 27:49

1M ago27:49

27:49

Matthew Bannister on Pope Francis, the first Latin American Pope who was noted for his humility and modest lifestyle. Paddy Higson, the TV and film producer once described as “the mother of the Scottish film industry”. Jed Mercurio and Clare Grogan pay tribute. And David Sassoon, the fashion designer who dressed royalty and film stars. Dame Zandra …

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Serendipity, weird bets, & cold emails that actually work: Career advice from 16 former guests 2:18:41

1M ago2:18:41

2:18:41

How do you navigate a career path when the future of work is uncertain? How important is mentorship versus immediate impact? Is it better to focus on your strengths or on the world’s most pressing problems? Should you specialise deeply or develop a unique combination of skills? From embracing failure to finding unlikely allies, we bring you 16 dive…

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My QP Journey Ep3 - Rebeca Bruzzichessi 48:05

1M ago48:05

48:05

After learning about the responsibilities of a QP and attending an introductory training module from RSSL, Rebeca Bruzzichessi decided that the role of a Qualified Person was a privilege she wanted to shoulder. In our latest episode of My QP Journey, host Peter Deegan dives into Rebeca’s journey through her training and all the way to recently pass…

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Meredith Blanchard: We’ve Cured Cancer in Mice for Decades 54:41

1M ago54:41

54:41

“There's a drug called vioxx that was found to be safe and effective in animal trials, so they moved it on to preclinical trials in humans. Once on the market, that drug caused 88,000 people to have heart attacks and killed 38,000 people.” Meredith Blanchard We have some big news at Species Unite. In January and February, our team traveled to Bainb…

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Anne Scargill, Ronnie Appleton, Cecil Wright, Mario Vargas Llosa 27:52

2M ago27:52

27:52

Matthew Bannister on Anne Scargill, who founded the Women Against Pit Closures group when her husband Arthur was leading the Miners Strike of the 1980s. The actor Maxine Peake pays tribute. Ronnie Appleton who was Chief Crown Prosecutor for Northern Ireland during the height of the troubles. Cecil Wright, the Jamaican born cricketer who made his ma…

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Rob Read: When the Ocean Bleeds 48:55

2M ago48:55

48:55

“One year, we actually offered the Faroe Islanders One million pounds to stop the hunts. 1 million pounds, which would go to promoting whale and dolphin tourism to the islands and marine conservation education to Faroese kids in schools. And the Faroese response to our offer was the most emphatic no you've ever had in your life. They actually held …

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#215 – Tom Davidson on how AI-enabled coups could allow a tiny group to seize power 3:22:44

2M ago3:22:44

3:22:44

Throughout history, technological revolutions have fundamentally shifted the balance of power in society. The Industrial Revolution created conditions where democracies could flourish for the first time — as nations needed educated, informed, and empowered citizens to deploy advanced technologies and remain competitive. Unfortunately there’s every …

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Agnes Callard on Lessons from Socrates 22:14

2M ago22:14

22:14

Does Socrates still have something to teach us? Agnes Callard thinks he has. Here she discusses the great Athenian and his continuing relevance with David Edmonds.

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Lord Kalms, Melissa Llewallyn-Davies, Rex Cowan, Wilma Finla 27:57

2M ago27:57

27:57

Matthew Bannister on Lord Kalms, who turned his family’s camera shop into the multi-million-pound Dixons electronics chain. Melissa Llewellyn-Davies, the anthropologist who made an acclaimed TV series about Kenya’s Masai tribe before turning her camera on the UK. Rex Cowan, the lawyer who changed career to become one of the world’s most successful …

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Guilt, imposter syndrome & doing good: 16 past guests share their mental health journeys 1:47:10

2M ago1:47:10

1:47:10

"We are aiming for a place where we can decouple the scorecard from our worthiness. It’s of course the case that in trying to optimise the good, we will always be falling short. The question is how much, and in what ways are we not there yet? And if we then extrapolate that to how much and in what ways am I not enough, that’s where we run into trou…

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Andrew Stein: Living with Lions 46:39

2M ago46:39

46:39

“If we march into that village and we start trying to persecute people for using poison, something that's very illegal, nobody's going to talk to us. We're not going to find out where the poison came from. We're not going to be able to shut anything down. We should take the approach that people are using poison because they're desperate, because th…

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Val Kilmer, Jane Reed, Sir Torquil Norman, Dr Marika Sherwood 27:51

2M ago27:51

27:51

Matthew Bannister on The Hollywood actor Val Kilmer, best known for his roles in Top Gun, Batman Forever and The Doors. Jane Reed, the media executive who made Woman’s Own magazine a powerful voice for its readers at a time of changing roles for women in society. Sir Torquil Norman, who used the proceeds from the sale of his successful toy business…

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#214 – Buck Shlegeris on controlling AI that wants to take over – so we can use it anyway 2:16:03

2M ago2:16:03

2:16:03

Most AI safety conversations centre on alignment: ensuring AI systems share our values and goals. But despite progress, we’re unlikely to know we’ve solved the problem before the arrival of human-level and superhuman systems in as little as three years. So some are developing a backup plan to safely deploy models we fear are actively scheming to ha…

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My QP Journey Ep2 - Gurpreet Birch 58:37

2M ago58:37

58:37

In the latest episode of My QP Journey, Gurpreet Birch shares with host Peter Deegan how after exploring various roles that left her feeling unsatisfied, she found her true calling as a Qualified Person (QP). After self funding her initial training with RSSL, she focused on making strategic career moves that offered the widest diversity of experien…

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Jaap de Roode: Doctors by Nature 43:08

2M ago43:08

43:08

"But it makes a lot of sense especially when you think about how traditional healers and shamans have worked, they haven't felt that separation from nature like Western medics do. And so to rely on the knowledge of other species actually makes a lot of sense. It's probably a lot more than we know at the moment." - Jaap de Roode Jaap de Roode is a b…

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15 expert takes on infosec in the age of AI 2:35:54

2M ago2:35:54

2:35:54

"There’s almost no story of the future going well that doesn’t have a part that’s like '…and no evil person steals the AI weights and goes and does evil stuff.' So it has highlighted the importance of information security: 'You’re training a powerful AI system; you should make it hard for someone to steal' has popped out to me as a thing that just …

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Oleg Gordievsky, Renee Goddard, Professor Richard Fortey, Sofia Gubaidulina 27:53

2M ago27:53

27:53

Matthew Bannister on Oleg Gordievsky, the KGB agent who defected to Britain and became a valued source of secret intelligence during the 1970s and 80s. Renee Goddard, the actress and TV commissioner who fled Nazi persecution only to be interned in Britain. Professor Richard Fortey, the palaeontologist who used his expertise in trilobites to tell st…

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Group Captain John Allman ‘Paddy’ Hemingway DFC, Dame Julie Kenny, Tuppy Owens, Dick McTaggart 27:52

3M ago27:52

27:52

Matthew Bannister on: Group Captain John Allman ‘Paddy’ Hemingway DFC , the last surviving pilot who fought in the Battle of Britain during the second world war. Dame Julie Kenny, the successful businesswoman from Rotherham who led the regeneration of one of Britain’s largest stately homes. Tuppy Owens, who campaigned for greater openness about sex…

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Jonathan Birch: The Edge of Sentience 31:21

3M ago31:21

31:21

“I mean, organoids in general are very exciting replacements for animal research because you could model a kidney or a liver or a or a heart without taking them from a real animal, which it’s very important to support that kind of thing. But yes, when it's the brain, there's this fear that you might end up creating another sentient being. And then …

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Athol Fugard, Janet Pharaoh, Alison Halford, Johnny Green 27:51

3M ago27:51

27:51

Kirsty Lang on: Athol Fugard, the playwright whose art became synonymous with exposing the inequities of the Apartheid regime in South Africa. Janet Pharaoh, the dancer from Yorkshire who became the artistic director at the Moulin Rouge in Paris. Alison Halford who rose through the ranks to become the first female Assistant Chief Constable. Johnny …

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Emily Herring on Henri Bergson 18:00

3M ago18:00

18:00

Henri Bergson was once one of the most living famous philosophers. Now he is less well known. Emily Herring, his biographer, discusses this and some of his key ideas in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. Nigel Warburton is the interviewer.

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Elizabeth MeLampy: Forget the Camel 39:33

3M ago39:33

39:33

"The basic premise of the event is that hunters hunt rattlesnakes from the surrounding environment all across West Texas, and bring them into the roundup for the weekend. And during the roundup, these snakes are kept in a pit and then, one by one, beheaded and skinned in front of in front of audiences." - Elizabeth MeLampy Elizabeth MeLampy is a la…

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#213 – Will MacAskill on AI causing a “century in a decade” – and how we're completely unprepared 3:57:36

3M ago3:57:36

3:57:36

The 20th century saw unprecedented change: nuclear weapons, satellites, the rise and fall of communism, third-wave feminism, the internet, postmodernism, game theory, genetic engineering, the Big Bang theory, quantum mechanics, birth control, and more. Now imagine all of it compressed into just 10 years. That’s the future Will MacAskill — philosoph…

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Emergency pod: Judge plants a legal time bomb under OpenAI (with Rose Chan Loui) 36:50

3M ago36:50

36:50

When OpenAI announced plans to convert from nonprofit to for-profit control last October, it likely didn’t anticipate the legal labyrinth it now faces. A recent court order in Elon Musk’s lawsuit against the company suggests OpenAI’s restructuring faces serious legal threats, which will complicate its efforts to raise tens of billions in investment…

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Bill Dare, Clint Hill, Valérie André, Gene Hackman 27:51

3M ago27:51

27:51

Matthew Bannister on Bill Dare, the writer and producer behind some of Radio 4’s best loved comedies, including “The Now Show” and “Dead Ringers”. Jan Ravens pays tribute. Clint Hill, the American Secret Service agent who threw himself across President John F. Kennedy’s body after he was shot in Dallas. Valérie André, the first woman General in the…

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My QP Journey Ep1 - Blair McKay 47:00

3M ago47:00

47:00

We're back with a brand new series in our Conversations on the Pharmaceutical Industry podcast, this time diving deep into the experiences of Qualified Persons (QPs)! In the first episode, Peter is joined by Blair McKay, a newly qualified RSSL QP course alumni. Blair’s journey to becoming a QP is particularly unique, having started just as the glob…

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Tom Sciolla: Free the Animals 51:23

3M ago51:23

51:23

"When we arrived, we had no records, we had nothing. We had no documentation. And one of one of the first things that you have to actually prove to all of these international government parties and so on, you need to you need to say, where did you get this elephant? And we had no idea. We were actually government officials, and we had this elephant…

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Roberta Flack, Dr D G Hessayon, Keith Dewhurst, Rose Hanks 27:50

3M ago27:50

27:50

John Wilson on: Musician Roberta Flack, best known for The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face and Killing Me Softly. Dr David Hessayon, the author of a series of gardening books known as The Expert guides. His one word advice to keen gardeners was 'mulch'. Keith Dewhurst whose work for television and stage included the National’s unconventional adapta…

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Andrianna Natsoulas: Don't Cage Our Oceans 40:50

3M ago40:50

40:50

“That's taxpayer’s money that is going to support research and development and pilot projects to develop a food system that is based on environmental destruction and greed and disregard for animals, fish, and any of the other marine mammals that might be around it.” - Andrianna Natsoulas Andrianna Natsoulas is the campaign director for Don't Cage O…

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#139 Classic episode – Alan Hájek on puzzles and paradoxes in probability and expected value 3:41:31

3M ago3:41:31

3:41:31

A casino offers you a game. A coin will be tossed. If it comes up heads on the first flip you win $2. If it comes up on the second flip you win $4. If it comes up on the third you win $8, the fourth you win $16, and so on. How much should you be willing to pay to play? The standard way of analysing gambling problems, ‘expected value’ — in which you…

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Rick Buckler, Margaret Miles-Bramwell, Harry Stewart Jr, Maureen Halton 27:44

3M ago27:44

27:44

John Wilson on Rick Buckley, the drummer in The Jam, one of the most popular and influential British bands of the 70s and 80s. Margaret Miles-Bramwell who founded Slimming World in response to what she saw as humiliation tactics by weight loss groups. World War Two fighter pilot Harry Stewart Jr, part of the all-African American Tuskegee Airmen who…

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#143 Classic episode – Jeffrey Lewis on the most common misconceptions about nuclear weapons 2:40:52

4M ago2:40:52

2:40:52

America aims to avoid nuclear war by relying on the principle of 'mutually assured destruction,' right? Wrong. Or at least... not officially. As today's guest — Jeffrey Lewis, founder of Arms Control Wonk and professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies — explains, in its official 'OPLANs' (military operation plans), the US is com…