Christmas countdown day 16: a philosophical Christmas

Raise a glass to the invasion of history.

Charles Foster

Professor Charles Foster is a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, and a member of the Oxford Law Faculty.

A fish eye lens view of a person standing silhouetted, looking up to a colourful night sky with the Milky Way across it

Greg Rakozy on Unsplash.

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The Christmas Countdown

It’s the season to be jolly, stressed, and all round Christmassy. On the Seen & Unseen Aloud podcast, we’re here for you with our Aloud Christmas Countdown!

Every day in December, we’ll drop some of the best seasonal content from Seen & Unseen Aloud. From how to survive Christmas, reviews of the best Christmas movies and the origin story of Santa Claus.

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Throughout the year, the Seen & Unseen Aloud brings you the week’s best articles, in a short 20 minute podcast episode. Browse the index for episodes from Seen & Unseen Aloud, Re-enchanting and GodPod.

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Podcasts

Seen & Unseen Aloud

29 September 2025

1 min read

Severance, poverty, and what makes us human

New episode. Rick Hansen George Pitcher and Claire Williams explore the seen and unseen

Natalie Garrett

Natalie produces and narrates The Seen & Unseen Aloud podcast. She's an Anglican minister and a trained actor.

Pascal ponders a steampunk TV showing Severance.

Nick Jones/Copilot.

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About the episode

This week, Rick Hansen explores the worlds of Apple TV's Severance through the lens of Blaise Pascal; George Pitcher asks how a supposedly "Godly nation" can have such extensive levels child poverty and Claire Williams asks the biggest question of all, what makes us human?