In 1845, a young and charismatic African-American abolitionist sailed from America to Ireland for a four-month lecture tour. Frederick Douglass had been born into slavery but escaped bondage on a plantation in Maryland by fleeing to the North, where he became a prominent anti-slavery activist.Paul Oakley Stovall and Nikhil Saboo, Broadway Hamilton actors and US artivists join Quercus scholars Alana Daly Mulligan and Nyala Thompson Grunwald to discuss the legacy of Frederick Douglass, Ireland's inaugural #DouglassWeek and a forthcoming production on man once termed ‘The greatest American of the nineteenth century.’Also featured in this episode is a collaboration with UCC Music Department students, the spiritual 'Sometimes I Feel like a Motherless Child'.douglassincork.com for more information on Douglass Week.

Plain Speaking

The greatest American of the nineteenth century

John Daley, Chief Executive of the Grattan Institute, joins the podcast to examine the growth of international education in Australia, and to discuss what impact the coronavirus is having on Australian universities. This episode was recorded in the University of Melbourne.

The impact of the coronavirus on Australia's universities

Ireland's Ambassador to the United States, Dan Mulhall, joins the podcast to discuss the continued relevance of Irish America and diplomacy in a time of increasing nationalism throughout the world. 

Inside Trump's America

How has our understanding of the universe changed overtime, how will our universe end and are we alone? Katie Mack, Assistant Professor of Physics at North Carolina State University joins us on the podcast to discuss. Katie is a theoretical astrophysicist who studies a range of questions in cosmology, the study of the universe from beginning to end. Throughout her career she has studied dark matter, the early universe, galaxy formation, black holes, cosmic strings, and the ultimate fate of the cosmos. Alongside her academic research, she is an active science communicator and has been published in a number of popular publications such as Scientific American, Slate, Sky & Telescope, Time.com, and Cosmos Magazine, where she is a columnist. You can find her on Twitter as @AstroKatie.

Staring at the Stars

Lord David Puttnam joins the podcast to discuss the value of arts and humanities degrees.Lord Puttnam spent thirty years as an independent producer of award-winning films including The Killing Fields, Chariots of Fire, Midnight Express, Bugsy Malone and Local Hero. Together these films have won ten Oscars, ten golden globes, twenty-five Baftas and the Palme D'Or at Cannes from 1994 to 2004, he was Vice President and Chair of Trustees at the British Academy of Film & Television Arts (BAFTA) and was awarded a BAFTA Fellowship in 2006. He is also a Fellow of the British Film Institute and is a member of the House of Lords in Westminster.

In Defence of the Arts

Keith Humphreys, former drug adviser to the Obama and Bush White Houses and the Esther Ting Memorial Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University, joins the podcast to outline how America's opioid crisis occurred, and what other countries can learn from it.

Inside America's Opioid Crisis

Former Irish President Mary Robinson, who also served as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, discuses climate change. 

Time is Running Out

Irish and global experts in conversation on a podcast from University College Cork

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Plain Speaking

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