'The New Social Contract' is a podcast that seeks to contribute to a national conversation on how the relationship between universities, the state and the public might be reshaped as we live through the COVID-19 pandemic. Universities have existed for close to a thousand years. Across the centuries they have been places for making sense of the world and for shaping it. But under the pressures of war, political, social and economic demands, these institutions have often been remade. Join us as we begin a conversation about the kind of higher education sector our society needs.