What Does It Mean to Be Human? | Season One Bonus Episode

For our Season One bonus episode, we return to the question at the heart of so many of our conversations: what can a single word reveal about the way we live, the way we relate to one another, and the world we share?

This season, we’ve explored where words come from, what they carry, and how their meanings shift through the people who use them. Now, thanks to Sarah Ogilvie, Professor of Language and Lexicography at the University of Oxford, we have our word of the season: Human.

We invited each of our Season One guests to offer their own definition. What follows is a collection of reflections that move between science and feeling, instinct and free will, individual experience and our shared existence.

For some, being human is to care for others as much as we care for ourselves. For others, it is to feel the full range of our emotions, to connect through language, or to recognise that we are part of a delicate ecosystem rather than separate from it. We explore the relationship between human and humane, the responsibilities we carry towards one another and the natural world, and the possibility that humanity is not simply a state we inhabit, but something we must continually aspire to.

There is no single definition that captures every voice. Thank you to each of our season one guests for all their time and words: Elif Shafak, Hak Baker, Prof. David Nutt, David Larbi, Nick Mulvey, Remi Olajoyegbe, Waad Al-Kateab, Tim Rice & Stephen Fry.

As we bring Season One to a close, we leave you with the same question we put to our guests:

What does it mean to be human?

We’d love to hear your answer.

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Season two coming November 4th 2026