{"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":"What is it like to be on Countdown?","slug":"what-is-it-like-to-be-on-countdown","published_at":"2025-04-16T12:30:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/oxford-sparks-big-questions-420721/what-is-it-like-to-be-on-countdown","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/oxford-sparks-big-questions-420721","url":"https://oxfordsparks.libsyn.com/what-is-it-like-to-be-on-countdown","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/oxfordsparks/Ox_-_Countdown-v2.mp3?dest-id=790107","summary":"\"I still don't believe it happened...\" What's it like to face the most famous clock on television? We chat to Oxford mathematician Dr Tom Crawford - best known as the creator of the award-winning 'Tom Rocks Maths' outreach programme - about what it was like to step into Rachel Riley's shoes on Countdown . What's the best tactic for tackling the numbers round? How did he prepare? Did he really only have 30 seconds to find a solution? Tom gives us a glimpse behind-the-scenes of this British institution.","meta_description":"\"I still don't believe it happened...\" What's it like to face the most famous clock on television? We chat to Oxford mathematician Dr Tom Crawford - best…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":957,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/oxford-sparks-big-questions-420721/episodes/what-is-it-like-to-be-on-countdown/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/what-is-it-like-to-be-on-countdown.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}