Works in Progress at the Oxford Union

The conversations we hosted between Steven Pinker & Stuart Ritchie and Rachel Laudan & Stian Westlake are now available on YouTube.

Earlier this year, Works in Progress teamed up with the Oxford Union to deliver three conversations between some of our favorite thinkers. The recordings are now available online.

The first conversation is between Stian Westlake and Rachel Laudan on the topic “Why we should love fast, modern, processed food.” Dr Laudan is a historian of science and food and the author of the book Cuisine and Empire. She also wrote a brilliant piece for us on the topic of grinding mills and the role they played in women’s emancipation, which you can read here. You can watch their conversation below.

The second conversation was between economist Dr Tyler Cowen and entrepreneur Patrick Collison, both of whom have been tremendous supporters of Works in Progress. Unfortunately, that conversation was only available live.

The third conversation was between psychologist Stuart Ritchie and linguist and psychologist Steven Pinker on the topic “Progress and rationality.” Dr Ritchie wrote one of our favorite recent books, Science Fictions, and wrote for us previously on how science had fared during the pandemic, which you can read here. We await Prof Steven Pinker's forthcoming book Rationality. You can watch their conversation below.

We hope you enjoy listening!

– Saloni, Ben, Sam and Nick