{"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":"Is there a better way to screen blood?","slug":"is-there-a-better-way-to-screen-blood","published_at":"2025-06-25T11:30:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/oxford-sparks-big-questions-420721/is-there-a-better-way-to-screen-blood","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/oxford-sparks-big-questions-420721","url":"https://oxfordsparks.libsyn.com/is-there-a-better-way-to-screen-blood","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/oxfordsparks/OX_-_Blood_donations-v2.mp3?dest-id=790107","summary":"What's the best gift you can give? To the millions of people whose lives have been saved by complete strangers, the answer would be simple: blood. But what exactly happens when blood has been donated, and how do we know it is safe? We chat to Dr Richard Mayne from Oxford's Experimental Medicine Division about genomics, Next-Generation Sequencing, blood screening (...and Star Trek). Could you be a blood-donating hero? Blood stocks are currently critically low, with the NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) group in urgent need of new donors. Click here, and you'll be on your way to saving lives: https://www.blood.co.uk/news-and-campaigns/campaigns/blood-donor-appeal/","meta_description":"What's the best gift you can give? To the millions of people whose lives have been saved by complete strangers, the answer would be simple: blood. But wha…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":892,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/oxford-sparks-big-questions-420721/episodes/is-there-a-better-way-to-screen-blood/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/is-there-a-better-way-to-screen-blood.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}