{"podcast":{"title":"Oxford Sparks Big Questions","slug":"oxford-sparks-big-questions-420721","podcast_index_feed_id":420721,"rss_url":"https://oxfordsparks.libsyn.com/rss","website_url":"https://www.oxfordsparks.ox.ac.uk/","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/2/2/c/f/22cf91023fb4a322/Big_Questions_Podcast_pink_HIGH_RES.jpg","author":"Fiona Jones","episode_count":100,"summary":"'Will my bacon sandwich kill me?', 'Is vaping better than smoking?', 'How do you become an astronaut?' - just some of the Big Questions we ask some of the brightest minds behind Oxford science. Join us in each podcast as we explore a different area of science.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-18T00:18:10.275517+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/oxford-sparks-big-questions-420721"},"episode":{"title":"How does reading work?","slug":"how-does-reading-work","published_at":"2026-04-08T12:30:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/oxford-sparks-big-questions-420721/how-does-reading-work","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/oxford-sparks-big-questions-420721","url":"https://oxfordsparks.libsyn.com/how-does-reading-work","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/oxfordsparks/OX_-_Reading-v1.mp3?dest-id=790107","summary":"Aside from the odd unfamiliar or complicated word, a lot of us won't think twice when it comes to reading. It's a skill we take for granted. But, relatively speaking, it's actually a fairly new skill - beginning about 5500 years ago. This suggests it's not something we evolved to do, so, how does it work? We chat to Prof Ole Jensen from Oxford's Departments of Experimental Psychology and Psychiatry, who is trying to gain a better understanding of the neural processes behind reading, with the ultimate aim of helping those who are struggling to learn.","meta_description":"Aside from the odd unfamiliar or complicated word, a lot of us won't think twice when it comes to reading. It's a skill we take for granted. But, relative…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":801,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/oxford-sparks-big-questions-420721/episodes/how-does-reading-work/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/oxford-sparks-big-questions-420721/how-does-reading-work.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}