The Conversation Weekly

The pseudoscientific scale looksmaxxers use to rate each other

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 15:45:00 +0100

If you have teenagers in your life, they’ll probably have heard of the PSL scale. Or at least the language associated with it. Chad. Stacy. Normie. Subhuman.

The PSL scale is a pseudoscientific attractiveness rating system used by looksmaxxers, men in a part of the manosphere who can go to extreme methods to change their appearance.

The roots of this rating system lie in misogynistic online forums used by incels or involuntarily celibates, but now it’s all over social media. So how did the language of incels, and this one way of quantifying attractiveness and beauty, go so mainstream?

In this episode, we speak to Jordan Foster, an associate professor of sociology at MacEwan University in Alberta, Canada, who researches social media, beauty and masculinity. He explains the origins of the PSL scale, where it fits into the manosphere, and how some looksmaxxing influencers are making money off it.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood and Gemma Ware was the executive producer. Mixing by Eleanor Brezzi and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Mentioned in this episode:

The We Society

Tackling the big questions through a social science lens, the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences brings you some of the best ideas to shape the way we live. Join acclaimed journalist and Academy president Will Hutton, as he invites guests from the world of social science to explore the stories behind the news and hear their solutions to society’s most pressing problems.

The Making of One Nation: the unlikely rise of Australia’s Pauline Hanson

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 15:00:00 +0100

From a fish and chip shop in regional Queensland to the heart of Australian politics: this is the unlikely story of One Nation, Australia's most controversial minor party.

For thirty years, One Nation and Pauline Hanson have been ridiculed, dismissed and shut out. Now, no one is laughing. This week we're running the first episode of The Making of One Nation, a new series from The Conversation hosted by Ashlynne McGhee. She explores how a party built on fear and grievance thrived, died and rose again to upend Australian politics.

Hanson's infamous 1996 maiden speech to the Australian Senate — warning that Australia was "being swamped by Asians" — still echoes through Australian political life.

But who was Pauline Hanson before she became a phenomenon, and what did she actually represent? Was she a cause of a new kind of politics, or a symptom of one already forming?

We hear from Anna Broinowski, documentary maker and senior lecturer at the School of Art, Communication and English at the University of Sydney, who made a documentary and wrote a book about Hanson.

Follow The Making of One Nation to make sure you don't miss more episodes in the coming weeks.

Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation. If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Artemis II: NASA’s long road back to the Moon

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 15:15:00 +0100

Final preparations are underway for NASA’s Artemis II mission, the first crewed mission around the Moon for more than 50 years. Four astronauts, three men and one woman, will spend 10 days aboard the Orion spacecraft, going further into space than any other humans as they orbit the Moon and return to Earth.

The mission is the next step of the Artemis programme, which plans to land astronauts back to the Moon by 2028. China has its own programme targeting a full crewed mission to the lunar surface by 2030.

In this episode, we speak to Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University about why the US is going back to the Moon. Pace worked in space policy for the George W. Bush Administration, followed by a stint at NASA before his appointment as the executive secretary of the National Space Council during the first Trump administration, where he worked on the launch of the Artemis programme.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

How the US cloned Iran's drones

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 15:45:00 +0100

The day after the US began bombing Iran, US Central Command confirmed it had used a new, cheap type of kamikaze drone called a Lucas for the first time in a combat operation. These drones were made in America, but their roots actually lie in Iran – they are reverse engineered copies of an Iranian drone called a Shahed that the Russians have also been using to bomb Ukraine.

In this episode, PhD researcher and military expert Arun Dawson at King's College London explains how the Iranians developed the Shaheds, why the US decided to copy them, and what role these low-cost drones might play in the future of warfare.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware was the executive producer. Mixing by Eleanor Brezzi and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Making of an Autocrat

Search "The Conversation Weekly" for our new series: The Making of an Autocrat. Is America watching its democracy unravel in real time? In The Making of an Autocrat from The Conversation, six of the world’s pre-eminant scholars reveal the recipe for authoritarian rule. From capturing a party, to controlling the military, Donald Trump is borrowing from the playbook of strongmen thoughout history. This is the story of how democracies falter — and what might happen next.

Mystery covid methane spike solved

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 15:45:00 +0100

Six years ago, as countries around the world went into COVID lockdowns, the air got cleaner. Factories slowed down, roads emptied and aeroplanes were grounded. As people stayed home, the world burned fewer fossil fuels and so carbon dioxide emissions dropped.

But something else was also happening in the atmosphere. Levels of methane, an extremely potent greenhouse gas that warms the planet even faster than CO2, rose faster in 2020 than at any point since records began in the 1980s. And methane levels kept on rising during 2021 and 2022.

Ever since, scientists have been trying to piece together what caused this sudden mysterious increase in methane. Now, they think they have the answer – and it was partly due to COVID lockdowns.

In this episode, we speak to Philippe Ciais, a researcher at the Laboratory for Environmental and Climate Science at Université Paris-Saclay in France, and one of the authors of a new study in the journal Science about the spike in methane levels, who explains how they solved the mystery.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood and Gemma Ware was the executive producer. Mixing by Eleanor Brezzi and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Making of an Autocrat

Was the Gulf blindsided on Iran?

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 15:30:00 +0100

As Israel and the US continued to bomb Iran after killing the country's supreme leader Ali Khamenei, Iran lashed out at its neighbours with multiple drone strikes, including against the US embassy in Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia and Iran have a long and bitter rivalry. Yet, in recent years, the Saudis had begun building new diplomatic relationship with Iran, even as they and other Gulf states continued to host American military bases, and court American investment.

Now the Gulf states find themselves in the middle of the very regional conflict many of its leaders hoped to avoid. It's one which threatens longstanding efforts to cement the Gulf as a hub for finance, travel and tourism, and as an oasis of security.

Were they blindsided? Or did some actually want the US to attack Iran? With the US and Israel seemingly calling the shots, what will the Gulf states do now?

In today's episode, we speak to Simon Mabon, a professor of international relations at Lancaster University in the UK and expert in Saudi-Iran relations, about how the Gulf's delicate balancing act between the US and Iran came toppling down.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood. The executive producers was Gemma Ware. Mixing by Eleanor Brezzi and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Making of an Autocrat

South Korea's birth rate is rising, but the population is still shrinking

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 15:45:00 +0100

South Korea’s very low birth rate and ageing population have long served as a cautionary tale for other governments worried that they’ll see similar demographic challenges.

But now, for the second year running, more people in South Korea are having children. The 6.8% rise in births in 2025 is the largest rise since 2007, and has taken the country’s total fertility rate to 0.80, up from 0.75 in 2024. The news is being cautiously celebrated, but with South Korea’s overall population still shrinking, it is yet to reverse its demographic fortunes.

In this episode, we speak to Stuart Gietel-Basten, a demographer and professor of social science and public policy at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, about how South Korea has got to this point and some of the structural issues the country still faces.

This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware and Katie Flood. Mixing by Eleanor Brezzi and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Making of an Autocrat

The 'national humiliation' behind Russia's war on Ukraine

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 15:45:00 +0100

As the 21st century dawned, a newly-elected Vladmir Putin was making friends on the world stage. He smiled for photo ops at G8 meetings, and was the first foreign leader to call George W. Bush after the attacks of 9/11, offering his support against terrorism.

So what changed? To understand Russia's view of the world now – and its continued aggression towards Ukraine – it helps to know more about the psyche of the country and its leader.

In today's episode, we talk to James Rodgers, a reader in international journalism at City St George's, University of London, about how a festering sense of national humiliation after the collapse of the Soviet Union hardened Putin's tough man regime and led Russia to turn its back on the west.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware with editing help from Ashlynne McGhee. Mixing by Michelle Macklem and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Making of an Autocrat

How Minneapolis is organising against ICE

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 15:50:00 +0100

Whenever federal immigration agents pull up to a location in Minneapolis, people take their whistles out, start blowing them and start filming.

In December, US government sent more than 2,000 Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agents into Minnesota in December as part of Operation Metro Surge. The residents of the metropolitan area known as the Twin Cities – Minneapolis and St. Paul – quickly came together to protect and support their neighbours at risk of being caught up in ICE raids.

In this episode, we speak to Daniel Cueto-Villalobos, a doctoral candidate at the University of Minnesota, who lives in southern Minneapolis and studies race, religion and social movements. He tracks the neighbourhood groups that have sprung into action in response to the ICE presence back to mutual networks set up during the 2020 Covid pandemic and in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis policeman.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood with editing help from Mend Mariwany. The executive producer is Gemma Ware. Mixing by Michelle Macklem and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Making of an Autocrat

The Super Bowl that kickstarted prop betting in America

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 16:00:00 +0100

Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest night in American sports. A popular destination to watch – and bet – on the Super Bowl is Las Vegas, Nevada.

And it was in Las Vegas, ahead of the 1986 Super Bowl between the Chicago Bears and the New England Patriots, that one enterprising casino would kickstart a new direction in American sports gambling: prop betting. It offered odds not just on the result of the game, but on the outcome of an individual event within it – whether one defensive player called William Perry, nicknamed The Refrigerator, would score a touchdown.

Today, as American sports face multiple gambling scandals, we speak to John Affleck, Knight Chair in sports journalism and society at Penn State, about that 1986 Super Bowl, the history of prop betting, and why he believes its explosion is threatening the integrity of professional sports in the US.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

How Iran shut down the internet

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 15:45:00 +0100

On January 8, as thousands of Iranians took to the streets in nationwide protests, the government cut off the internet. Under cover of digital darkness, the Iranian regime launched a brutal and deadly crackdown against anti-government protesters.

After three weeks of internet blackout, reports from web traffic monitor Netblocks suggest that the internet is slowly coming back online but predominantly for government-approved users.

Yet for most of the shutdown, banks and some local government websites and apps still worked. And that’s because Iran is developing its own, national internet, cut off from the rest of the world.

In this episode, we speak to Amin Naeni, a PhD candidate researching digital authoritarianism at Deakin University in Australia, about how Iran built one of the world’s most sophisticated systems of digital control.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware with editing help from Katie Flood. Mixing by Michelle Macklem and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Making of an Autocrat

A lost US military base under Greenland's ice sheet

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 15:45:00 +0100

In the summer of 1959, a group of American soldiers began carving trenches in the Greenland ice sheet. Those trenches would become the snow covered tunnels of Camp Century, a secret Arctic research base powered by a nuclear reactor.

Camp Century operated for six years, during which time the scientists based there managed to drilling a mile down to collect a unique set of ice cores. But by 1966, it had been abandoned, deemed too expensive and difficult to maintain.

Today, Donald Trump’s territorial ambitions for Greenland continue to cause concern and confusion in Europe, particularly for Denmark and Greenlanders themselves who insist their island is not for sale.

One of the attractions of Greenland is the gleam of its rich mineral wealth, particularly rare earth minerals. Now that Greenland’s ice sheet is melting due to global warming, will this make the mineral riches easier to get at?

In this episode, we talk to Paul Bierman, a geologist and expert on Greenland’s ice at the University of Vermont in US. He explains why the history of what happened to Camp Century – and the secrets of its ice cores, misplaced for decades, but now back under the microscope – help us to understand why it’s not that simple.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Making of an Autocrat

A new treaty to protect our oceans

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 16:00:00 +0100

In a moment being celebrated by global marine conservationists, a new UN high seas treaty comes into force on January 17 providing a new way to govern the world's oceans.

The UN high seas treaty will allow for the creation of protected areas in international waters, like national parks. But the treaty has some grey areas – notably its powers to regulating fishing in international waters, and mining of the seabed.

In this episode we speak to Callum Roberts, professor of marine conservation at the University of Exeter in the UK, about how the treaty came to be and the challenges now facing its implementation.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware. Mixing by Michelle Macklem and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

The Making of an Autocrat: co-opt the military

Sun, 04 Jan 2026 15:15:00 +0100

In November, six Democratic lawmakers recorded a video directed at members of the US military and intelligence agencies. In it, they issued a blunt reminder:

"The laws are clear: you can refuse illegal orders. […] You must refuse illegal orders."

The lawmakers were issuing the warning against the backdrop of US airstrikes on boats off the coast of Latin America the Trump administration claims are suspected drug runners. Many Democrats and legal experts, however, argue these strikes are illegal.

Since returning to office, Trump has successfully expanded his power over his own party, the courts and the American people. Now, like many autocrats around the world, he’s trying to exert control over the military.

In the final episode of The Making of an Autocrat, Joe Wright, a political science professor at Penn State University, says:

"I am very concerned that getting the military to do illegal things will not only put US soldiers at more risk when they do engage in international missions in the future […] it’s a first step to using the military to target domestic political opponents. That’s what really worries me."

This episode was written by Justin Bergman and produced and edited by Isabella Podwinski and Ashlynne McGhee. Sound design by Michelle Macklem.

The Making of an Autocrat: suppress the people

Sun, 04 Jan 2026 15:00:00 +0100

The list of people Donald Trump has punished or threatened to punish since returning to office is long. It includes the likes of James Comey, Letitia James, John Bolton, as well as members of the opposition, such as Adam Schiff, Mark Kelly and Kamala Harris.

In fact, he has gone so far as to call Democrats “the enemy from within”, saying they are more dangerous than US adversaries like Russia and China.

According to Lucan Way, a professor of democracy at the University of Toronto, when a leader attacks the opposition like this, it’s a clear sign a country is slipping into authoritarianism.

As Way says in episode 5 of The Making of an Autocrat:

"In other kind of countries with weaker justice systems, you can literally jail members of opposition or bankrupt them. In a country like the United States, where the rule of law is quite robust, this is not possible, you can’t just jail rivals at will."

But Trump has other ways of making the cost of opposing him too high for his critics to bear. This includes investigations, lawsuits, audits, personal attacks – anything to distract and silence them.

The effect is his opponents become much more reluctant to engage in behaviour they know that Trump won’t like, Way says:

"So it really has this kind of broader silencing effect that I think is quite pernicious."

This episode was written by Justin Bergman and produced and edited by Isabella Podwinski and Ashlynne McGhee. Sound design by Michelle Macklem.

The Making of an Autocrat: beat the courts

Sun, 28 Dec 2025 15:45:00 +0100

In democratic systems, the courts are a vital check on a leader’s power. They have the ability to overturn laws and, in Donald Trump’s case, the executive orders he has relied on to achieve his goals.

Since taking office, Trump has targeted the judiciary with a vengeance. He has attacked what he has called “radical left judges” and is accused of ignoring or evading court orders.

The Supreme Court has already handed the Trump administration some key wins in his second term. But several cases now before the court will be pivotal in determining how much power Trump is able to accrue – and what he’ll be able to do with it.

As Paul Collins, a Supreme Court expert from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, explains in episode 4 of The Making of an Autocrat:

"It’s all about presidential power. And that’s really significant because it’s going to enable the president to basically inject a level of politics into the federal bureaucracy that we frankly haven’t really seen before in the US."

This episode was written by Justin Bergman and produced and edited by Isabella Podwinski and Ashlynne McGhee. Sound design by Michelle Macklem.

The Making of an Autocrat: manufacture a crisis

Sun, 28 Dec 2025 15:30:00 +0100

Donald Trump has sounded the alarm, over and over again, that the United States is facing an “invasion” by dangerous gang members. He blames immigrants for the country’s economic problems and claims protesters are destroying US cities.

Trump is not the first would-be autocrat to manufacture a crisis to seize extraordinary powers.

As Natasha Lindstaedt, an expert in authoritarian regimes at the University of Essex, says in episode 3 of The Making of an Autocrat, a strongman “loves a crisis”.

"A crisis is the way that they mobilise their base, the way that they can depict themselves as the saviour, as this messianic type of figure that is going to save people from this chaotic world."

So, is the United States really facing a national emergency? Or is this just a tactic on Trump’s part to amass more power?

This episode was written by Justin Bergman and produced and edited by Isabella Podwinski and Ashlynne McGhee. Sound design by Michelle Macklem.

The Making of an Autocrat: recruit an architect

Sun, 28 Dec 2025 15:15:00 +0100

Every autocrat needs a clan of loyalists, strategists, masterminds – these are the figures behind the scenes pulling the strings.

They’re unelected and unaccountable, yet they wield a huge amount of power.

This is the role Stephen Miller has played for Donald Trump – he is the architect in chief for the second Trump administration. He has so much power, in fact, he’s reportedly referred to as the "prime minister."

So who is Stephen Miller? And why are architects so important in helping a would-be autocrat amass power?

As Emma Shortis, a Trump expert and an adjunct senior fellow at RMIT University in Melbourne, explains in episode 2 of The Making of an Autocrat:

"[Miller] is the kind of brains behind particularly Trump's hardline stances on immigration and the Trump administration's ability to use the levers of power, and expand the power available to the president.

I think what Stephen Miller demonstrates and, and history has demonstrated over and over again is that autocrats cannot rise to power by themselves. They often require a singular kind of charisma and a singular kind of historical moment, but they also need architects behind them who are able to facilitate their rise to power."

This episode was written by Justin Bergman and produced and edited by Isabella Podwinski and Ashlynne McGhee. Sound design by Michelle Macklem.

The Making of an Autocrat: hijack a party

Sun, 28 Dec 2025 15:00:00 +0100

We used to have a pretty clear idea of what an autocrat was. History is full of examples: Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, along with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping today. The list goes on.

So, where does Donald Trump fit in?

In this six-part podcast series, The Making of an Autocrat, we are asking six experts on authoritarianism and US politics to explain how exactly an autocrat is made – and whether Trump is on his way to becoming one.

This episode was written by Justin Bergman and produced and edited by Isabella Podwinski and Ashlynne McGhee. Sound design by Michelle Macklem.

Coming soon: The Making of an Autocrat

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 17:00:00 +0100

Is America watching its democracy unravel in real time? In The Making of an Autocrat from The Conversation, six of the world’s pre-eminant scholars reveal the recipe for authoritarian rule. From capturing a party, to controlling the military, Donald Trump is borrowing from the playbook of strongmen thoughout history. This is the story of how democracies falter — and what might happen next.

Venezuela's plan to resist a US invasion

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 12:20:00 +0100

In the latest escalation of tensions between the US and Venezuela, the US President Donald Trump ordered a "complete blockade" of sanctioned oil tankers going into and out of Venezuela. His Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro, called the move "warmongering threats", and accused the US of trying to steal its resources.

In this episode we speak to Pablo Uchoa, a PhD candidate researching Venezuela's military, on how Venezuela has long been preparing for this moment, ever since a failed coup attempt on Maduro's predecessor, Hugo Chávez.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware with assistance from Katie Flood. Mixing by Michelle Macklem and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Making of an Autocrat

How Timor-Leste is fighting back against Asia’s scamming gangs

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 15:00:00 +0100

Oecusse, a rugged, remote district of Timor-Leste in south-east Asia, is usually a pretty sleepy place. But in August, Oecusse was rocked by a large police raid on a suspected scam centre, later linked by a UN report to organised crime networks running scamming operations across south-east Asia.

And then in early September, a Facebook post by one of Timor-Leste’s highest political officials made some explosive allegations about a murky criminal underworld trying to get a foothold in the country.

In this episode, we speak to Michael Rose, an anthropologist and adjunct lecturer at the University of Adelaide who has lived and worked in Timor-Leste, about how Asia’s scamming gangs set their sights on Timor-Leste as their next frontier – and the movement to keep them out.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood and Gemma Ware with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Mixing by Michelle Macklem and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Making of an Autocrat

Why the US is fixated on South Africa’s white Afrikaners

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 15:00:00 +0100

Donald Trump’s fixation on South Africa’s white Afrikaner minority has become a central plank of US refugee policy, with their applications now given priority under a new refugee system.

This preoccupation by some Americans with white Afrikaners has a long history dating back to the publication of a large sociological study focusing on poor white Afrikaners in the 1930s.

In this episode, we speak to Carolyn Holmes, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, to trace the history of the links between white nationalists in the US and South Africa.

This episode was produced by Gemma Ware, Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood. Mixing by Michelle Macklem and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Making of an Autocrat

The 40 scientists who decide which flu shot you'll get

Thu, 27 Nov 2025 15:00:00 +0100

Twice a year, 40 scientists gather together for five days to decide what strains of influenza to vaccinate against for the next flu season. It takes around six months to prepare the vaccine – which usually includes protection against three different strains of flu.

Europe and the US are heading into a flu season that some are warning could be particularly severe this winter. While even as summer approaches in Australia, the country is still registering high numbers of cases after a record-breaking flu season earlier in the year.

So how does the process of deciding on a flu vaccine each year actually work? And does what happens in the southern hemisphere influence the way the virus circulates in the northern hemisphere?

In this episode, we speak to Ian Barr, deputy director for the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza, based at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, part of the University of Melbourne. Barr is one of those 40 scientists who attend the meetings to decide what strains to focus vaccination efforts on.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany, Katie Flood and Gemma Ware. Mixing by Michelle Macklem and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Making of an Autocrat

How China cleaned up its air pollution

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 15:00:00 +0100

As Pakistanis and Indians struggle with hazardous air quality, in Beijing – a city once notorious for its smog – the air quality is currently rated as good.

Ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government was so concerned about pollution that it introduced temporary restrictions on cars, shut down factories and work on some construction sites. It would take a few more years before the Chinese government implemented a clean air action plan in 2013. Since then, China has achieved a dramatic improvement in its air quality.

In this episode, we speak to Laura Wilcox, a professor at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science at the University of Reading in the UK, to understand how China managed to clean up its air pollution. But Wilcox’s recent research uncovered some unintended consequences from this cleaner air for the global climate: the pollution was actually helping to cool the atmosphere and by taking it away, it may have accelerated global warming.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Making of an Autocrat

How early climate models got global warming right

Thu, 13 Nov 2025 16:00:00 +0100

Since the 1960s, scientists have been developing and honing models to understand how the earth’s climate is changing. One such pioneer of early climate modelling is Syukuro Manabe, who won the Nobel prize in physics in 2021 for his work laying the foundation for our current understanding of how carbon dioxide affects global temperatures. A seminal paper he co-published in 1967 was voted the most influential climate science paper of all time.

In this episode, we speak to Nadir Jeevanjee, a researcher at the same lab in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration where Manabe once worked, to look at the history of these early climate models, and how many of their major predictions have stood the test of time.

And yet, as climate negotiators gather in the Brazilian city of Belem on the edge of the Amazon for the Cop30 climate summit, the data sources that climate scientists around the world rely on to monitor and model the climate are under threat from funding cuts by the Trump administration.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany, Katie Flood and Gemma Ware. Mixing by Eleanor Brezzi and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

How organised crime infiltrated Brazil

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 15:00:00 +0100

At dawn on October 28, residents of Rio de Janeiro woke to the sound of gunfire. Battles continued throughout the day in the favelas of Alemão and Penha, as police mounted a huge operation targeting the Commando Vermelho, or the Red Command, one of Brazil’s largest organised criminal gangs.

In the days that followed, as graphic images showed lines of bodies on the streets, it emerged that at least 115 civilians and four police officers had been killed, making it the most violent police operation in Brazilian history.

In this episode, we speak to Robert Muggah, founder of the Institute Igarapé and a research collaborator at the Brazil LAB at Princeton University, about how organised crime become so deeply embedded in Brazil – and if there's a better way to confront it.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Ghosts vs demons: a 16th century Halloween showdown

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 14:00:00 +0100

In the 16th century, witches and demons weren’t just for Halloween. People were terrified and preoccupied with them – even kings.

In 1590, James VI of Scotland – who was later also crowned James I of England – travelled by sea to Denmark to wed a Danish princess, Anne. On the return journey, the fleet was hit by a terrible storm and one of the ships was lost.

James, a pious Protestant who would go on to sponsor the translation of the King James bible, was convinced he’d been the target of witchcraft. A few years later, James decide to write a treatise called Daemonologie, setting out his views on the relationship between witches and their master, the devil.

Meanwhile, another firm Halloween favourite – ghosts – had fallen out of favour in the wake of the Protestant Reformation because they were seen as a hangover from Catholicism.

In this episode, Penelope Geng, an associate professor of English at Macalester College in the US who teaches a class on demonology, takes us back to a time when beliefs around witches, ghosts and demons were closely tied to religious politics. She explains how these beliefs have come to influence the way witches and ghouls have been portrayed in popular culture ever since.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood with mixing by Eleanor Brezzi. Theme music by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Bitcoin buys: the risks and rewards of companies buying crypto

Thu, 23 Oct 2025 15:45:00 +0100

One American company called Strategy owns more than 3% of all bitcoin in existence. In August 2020, its executive chairman, Michael Saylor, pioneered a new business model where publicly listed companies buy cryptocurrency assets to hold on their balance sheet.

More than 100 other public companies have since followed Saylor’s lead and become bitcoin treasury companies, together holding more than $114 billion of bitcoin. There’s been a new rush into crypto treasury assets in 2025 following the general crypto enthusiasm of the new Trump administration.

But holding bitcoin assets also comes with some big risks, particularly given the volatility of cryptocurrency prices, and the share prices of some of these companies are now coming under pressure.

In this episode, we speak to Larisa Yarovaya, director of the centre for digital finance at the University of Southampton in the UK, about whether bitcoin treasury companies are the future of corporate finance, or another speculative bubble waiting to burst.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware with assistance from Katie Flood. Mixing by Michelle Macklem and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

The hidden sources of forever chemicals

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 15:45:00 +0100

As one of the birthplaces of the industrial revolution, the River Mersey in northern England is no stranger to pollution flowing into its waters. Now it's got a new problem: monitoring shows the amount of forever chemicals, also known as PFAS, entering the Mersey catchment area is among some of the highest in the world.

In this episode we speak to water scientist Patrick Byrne at Liverpool John Moores University in the UK about why so many per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), are still making it into our rivers, many from sources that are lying hidden. Identifying these sources of pollution, can help prioritise how to clean them up.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany, Katie Flood and Gemma Ware. Sound design and mixing by Michelle Macklem and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Nobel laureate Shimon Sakaguchi on his immune system breakthrough

Thu, 09 Oct 2025 16:00:00 +0100

Back in the 1980s, when Shimon Sakaguchi was a young researcher in immunology, he found it difficult to get his research funded. Now, his pioneering work which explains how our immune system knows when and what to attack, has won him a Nobel prize.

Sakaguchi, along with American researchers Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell, were jointly awarded the 2025 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for the work on regulatory T-cells, known as T-regs for short, a special class of immune cells which prevent our immune system from attacking our own body.

In this episode Sakaguchi tells The Conversation about his journey of discovery and the potential treatments it could unlock.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

The diagnosis dimension to the rise in autism

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 16:45:00 +0100

As Donald Trump gives oxygen to unproven theories about what might be behind a recent rise in autism cases, experts repeatedly point to the changing nature of how autism is diagnosed and viewed.

A key moment in the history of autism diagnosis was the publication in 1994 of a new version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It's a reference book of psychiatric conditions and how to diagnose them, used by psychiatrists and psychologists around the world.

In this episode, Andrew Whitehouse, a professor of autism research at the University of Western Australia, explains why this shift in autism diagnosis happened in the 1990s, what impact it had, and what it's meant for the support autistic people get.

This episode was produced by Katie Flood, Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware. Sound design and mixing by Michelle Macklem and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Pressuring the Fed doesn't end well

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 16:45:00 +0100

Donald Trump is not letting up pressure on the US Federal Reserve. He's taken efforts to fire one of its governors, all the way up to the US Supreme Court.

Trump's clash with the Fed echoes pressure that Richard Nixon put on the central bank in the 1970s to lower interest rates. In this episode, Cristina Bodea, professor of political science at Michigan State University, why that moment – and the inflation spike that followed – became a cautionary tale about what can happen if politicians threaten the independence of central banks.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood and Gemma Ware with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Sound design and mixing by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Palestinian statehood: the route to recognition

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 17:00:00 +0100

With France, the UK, Australia and Canada expected to recognise an independent Palestinian state at UN General Assembly in New York, what are the origins of the state they plan to recognise?

In this episode, Palestinian-American historian Maha Nassar from the University of Arizona describes the events leading up to the original declaration of Palestinian independence in 1988, including the compromises made within the Palestinian liberation movement. Nassar then traces how we've got to the point where more than 150 countries will recognise an independent Palestinian state – a move that she believes is more of a symbolic gesture than a meaningful route to Palestinian sovereignty.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware with assistance from Katie Flood. Sound design and mixing by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

The sovereign citizen movement's spread around the world

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 17:15:00 +0100

Police in Australia are continuing a huge manhunt in the mountains for Dezi Freeman, a man accused of killing two police officers and injuring a third in late August.

Freeman identifies as a sovereign citizen, someone who believes they aren't subject to the law.

In this episode we speak to criminologist Keiran Hardy from Griffith University about the origins of the sovereign citizen movement in the US, how it spread to Australia and was taken up by the self-styled Prince Leonard in the 1970s, and why the movement grew during Covid-19.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware with assistance from Katie Flood and editing help from Ashlynee McGhee. Sound design and mixing by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

How China is weaponising the history of WWII

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 17:00:00 +0100

As China invited world leaders to a vast military parade marking the end of the second world war on September 3, President Xi Jinping said China is "never intimidated by bullies" and would "stand by the right side of history". In a coded message about China's territorial ambitions over Taiwan, Xi added that "the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation was unstoppable".

China and Taiwan both claim their forces bore the true burden of Chinese resistance against Japan during the second world war, and use this contested history to lay claim to power and territory. Now China is weaponising this history, pushing for a "correct" perspective of the war as it seeks to reshape the world order.

In this episode, historian Meredith Oyen from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, explains how disagreements between China and Taiwan over who fought the Japanese more than 80 years ago are still raging and why China's military parade raised tensions with Taiwan up another notch.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

The secret ingredients for creative flow

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 10:30:00 +0100

This week, we're re-running an episode first published in June 2024 featuring neuroscientist John Kounios at Drexel University in the US. He scanned the brains of jazz musicians as they were improvising, and revealed the secret ingredients need to achieve a state of creative flow.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware. Sound design and mixing by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

LSE IQ: is AI destroying the planet?

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 10:30:00 +0100

AI is transforming the world around us, offering increased productivity and promising to tackle difficult problems like global warming. But behind the scenes, its environmental costs are mounting. From massive energy use to vast quantities of water required to cool data centres, AI’s footprint is growing fast. So, in an age of water scarcity and climate crisis, can we justify this technological boom?

As The Conversation Weekly team takes a production break in August, we're delighted to bring you an episode of LSE IQ, an award-winning, monthly social science podcast produced by a team from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Each episode they ask leading social scientists and other experts to answer one intelligent question and speak to people affected by the issues explored. Like artificial intelligence.

In this episode of LSE IQ which aired in early May, producer Anna Bevan sets out to find out the environmental costs of AI.

This episode was produced and edited by Anna Bevan, with script development from Sophie Mallet and on location sound recording from Oliver Johnson. Mixing help for this episode for The Conversation from Eloise Stevens. Subscribe to LSE IQ here.

Teaching animals irrelevant skills can reveal the secrets of cognition

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 10:30:00 +0100

Scientists can get animals to do the strangest things. They’ve taught goldfish to drive cars, primates to perform calculations with Arabic numerals and giraffes to do statistical reasoning. But what’s the point?

In this episode, biologist Scarlett Howard from Monash University in Australia – who has taught bees to tell the difference between odd and even numbers – defends the importance of these seemingly ecologically irrelevant experiments.

She argues that they can help us understand the secrets of animal cognition, and even potentially unlock future technological developments for humanity too.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood. The host and executive producer is Gemma Ware. Sound design and mixing by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

How the world got hooked on plastic

Thu, 07 Aug 2025 10:30:00 +0100

Countries around the world are meeting in Geneva in August to negotiate a global plastics treaty aimed at curbing plastic pollution. The last round of negotiations failed last November after oil-producing countries refused to sign up to a clause calling for the world to reduce its production of plastics.

But how did the world become hooked on plastic in the first place? This week, we're re-running an episode we first aired in January 2025 featuring an interview with Mark Miodownik, professor of materials and society, at UCL in the UK. He explains the history of plastic, how it’s shaped our lives, and what can be done to make sure more plastic is recycled and less ends up polluting the planet.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood and Gemma Ware with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Sound design and mixing by Michelle Macklem and Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

How Rupert Murdoch helped to build brand Trump

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 10:30:00 +0100

Donald Trump is suing Rupert Murdoch, alongside the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones and others, for libel after the Journal published an article alleging that Trump once wrote a “bawdy” birthday letter to the convicted sex offender, the late Jeffrey Epstein. Trump is seeking US$10 billion in damages.

Trump and Murdoch have a transactional friendship that goes back decades. Despite past tensions, this rupture is something new in a relationship that has continued to serve both men’s interests.

In this episode, professor of journalism Andrew Dodd at the University of Melbourne takes us back to where their relationship began in 1970s New York, to understand how Murdoch helped to build brand Trump.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware with editing help from Ashlynne McGhee. Sound design and mixing by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Israel’s secret deal to build a nuclear arsenal

Thu, 24 Jul 2025 13:15:00 +0100

Israel has never officially confirmed or denied having nuclear weapons and has never signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Instead, even as evidence has emerged about its nuclear capabilities, Israel has maintained a policy of nuclear ambiguity.

The origins of this opacity lie in a secret deal forged in a one-on-one meeting between Israeli prime minister, Golda Meir, and the US president, Richard Nixon, at the White House in September 1969.

In this episode, we speak to Avner Cohen, professor of non-proliferation studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterrey in the US, about that 1969 deal and why it has endured for more than 50 years.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware with assistance from Katie Flood and Ashlynne McGhee. Sound design and mixing by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

What will batteries of the future be made of?

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 10:30:00 +0100

The majority of the world’s rechargeable batteries are now made using lithium-ion. Most rely on a combination of different rare earth metals such as cobalt or nickel for their electrodes. But around the world, teams of researchers are looking for alternative – and more sustainable – materials to build the batteries of the future.

In this episode, we speak to four battery experts who are testing a variety of potential battery materials about the promises they may offer.

Featuring Laurence Hardwick from the University of Liverpool, Robert Armstrong from the University of St Andrew's, Ulugbek Azimov from Northumbria University and Bill Yen from Stanford University.

Applications are now open for early career researchers to submit their projects for the Prototypes for Humanity 2025 awards and showcase in Dubai.

This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware with assistance from Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood. Sound design and mixing by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

An enduring anti-fascist legacy in Italy

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 10:30:00 +0100

Across Europe, far-right movements are gaining ground. By normalising nationalist rhetoric and challenging democratic institutions, these parties raise comparisons with former periods of fascism on the continent. Between 1943 and 1945, when Nazi forces occupied northern Italy, ordinary people in towns and villages across the country took up arms against fascism in one of Europe’s largest resistance movements. Now, 80 years later, in many of these same towns, anti-fascist sentiment remains unusually strong.

In this episode, we speak to political scientist Juan Masullo at Leiden University, who’s been finding out about the enduring legacy of these partisan movements.

This episode was hosted by Gemma Ware and written and produced by Mend Mariwany. Sound design and mixing by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

How Europe dropped the ball on its own defence

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 10:00:00 +0100

The language from European leaders was fawning and obsequious. At one point, the head of Nato, Mark Rutte, even called Donald Trump “daddy”. But when the US president left the Nato summit in late June, there was a sigh of relief that he had not made any more angry criticism of the alliance.

And after months of American pressure, Nato members agreed to increase their spending on defence to 5% of GDP by 2035.

So how did Europe become so unable to defend itself that it was forced to resort to outright flattery of an American president?

In this episode, we report from the recent Siena Conference on the Europe of the Future in Italy about how the EU dropped the ball on its own defence and what its options are now. Featuring Ana E. Juncos, professor of European politics and the University of Bristol in the UK, Francesco Grillo, academic fellow at Bocconi University in Italy, and François Lafond, former assistant professor at Sciences Po University in France and a former advisor to the Western Balkans.

This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware with assistance from Katie Flood and Mend Mariwany. Sound design and mixing by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Autism, RFK Jr and avoiding disability surveillance

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 10:30:00 +0100

Robert F Kennedy Jr caused controversy in April by promising to find a cause for autism by September. Claims by the new US secretary for health and human services that autism is a “preventable disease” with an environmental cause, contradict a body of research that suggests autism is caused by a combination of genetic and external factors.

The US government announced that to support its new research effort into autism it would build a “data platform” involving data on claims, medical records and consumer wearables.

In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, we speak to Amy Gaeta, a research associate at University of Cambridge in the UK who studies disability surveillance. Gaeta talks us through some of the strategies people are using to avoid potential surveillance, from self-diagnosis, to withholding information or being careful with the language they use to describe themselves.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Sound design and mixing by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Self-censorship and what drives it

Thu, 19 Jun 2025 09:00:00 +0100

Faced with the choice in their daily lives, their work or their politics, why do some people decide to keep quiet, to censor themselves in anticipatory obedience, even if they’re not ordered to do so?

In this episode we talk to self-censorship expert Daniel Bar-Tal at Tel Aviv University about what drives people to censor themselves, and its consequences for society.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Sound design and mixing by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Cash for releasing sharks has a catch

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 05:20:00 +0100

As Jaws marks its 50th anniversary, sharks continue to get a bad rap. Film after film portrays them as terrifying hunters, the bane of surfers and swimmers. But in Indonesia, sharks are the hunted. It’s the world’s largest shark-fishing nation, with more species of sharks found in Indonesian waters than in any other country.

So Indonesia was the ideal place for conservation scientist Hollie Booth at the University of Oxford to test out a new idea: would paying fishermen to release any sharks and rays caught accidentally in their nets help to keep more alive? Listen to Booth and her colleague M. Said Ramdlan in Indonesia discuss the unintended consequences of the incentive programme.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

The 15% solution part 2: can a global tax make the world fairer?

Fri, 06 Jun 2025 04:30:00 +0100

In October 2021, 136 countries agreed to establish new tax rules requiring large multinational companies to pay at least 15% in corporate tax. Nearly four years later, this ambitious agreement is finally being implemented around the world, but its success faces big challenges.

In the second part of The 15% solution, we examine progress towards implementing the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's global tax framework. Featuring Martin Hearson, a research fellow at the Institute of Development Studies in the UK.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Mend Mariwany. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Mixing and sound design by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Sound design and mixing by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. Donation

The 15% solution part 1: why global tax reform is long overdue

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 05:30:00 +0100

For decades, multinational corporations have used sophisticated strategies to shift profits away from where they do business. As a result, countries around the world lose an estimated US$500 billion annually in unpaid taxes, with developing nations hit particularly hard.

In the first episode of The 15% solution, we explore how companies have exploited loopholes in the global tax system. We speak to Annette Alstadsæter, director of the Centre for Tax Research at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, and Tarcisio Diniz Magalhaes, a professor of tax law at the University of Antwerp in Belgium.

In 2021, after years of international negotiations, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development unveiled a global tax deal designed to address tax avoidance through a minimum corporate tax rate of 15%. But will this new framework actually work? And what happens when major economies refuse to participate? The 15% solution explores why a new global tax regime is needed, whether it can fix a broken system, and what’s at stake if it fails.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. Donation

The trafficked American guns fuelling Mexico’s cartel violence

Thu, 29 May 2025 05:30:00 +0100

More than two thirds of guns recovered at Mexican crime scenes originate in the U.S. For decades, Mexico has struggled with staggering levels of gun violence fuelled in large part by weapons trafficked across its northern border.

Now an investigation published by The Conversation has arrived at a new estimate of the scale of this illicit gun trade between the U.S. and Mexico in 2022: 135,000 guns.

Investigative journalist Sean Campbell and Topher McDougal, a professor of economic development at the University of San Diego, spent a year combing through multiple databases and court documents and conducting interviews to understand how the flow of guns works.

Their investigation reveals where in the U.S. the guns are coming from, what impact these American guns are having in Mexico, and how difficult it is for American law enforcement agencies to prosecute those trafficking guns across the border.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware. Mixing and sound design by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

New theories of Alzheimer's taking the search for a cure in a different direction

Thu, 22 May 2025 05:45:00 +0100

For much of the 21st century, one theory has dominated research efforts to cure Alzheimer's disease: the amyloid hypothesis. Beta-amyloid is a protein that builds up in clumps, or plaques, in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease and is linked to their cognitive decline.

But in recent years, despite the emergence of a couple of new drugs targeting these plaques, some scientists have begun to doubt the amyloid hypothesis. Donald Weaver, a professor of chemistry at the University of Toronto in Canada, is one of them.

Weaver no longer believes there will be one magic bullet found to cure Alzheimer’s disease. Instead, he advocates for a magic shotgun approach that is likely to involve multiple ways of treating the problem, including starting much earlier in a person’s life. He tells us about shifts in the understanding of Alzheimer's during his career of more than 30 years, and the theories now emerging about what might cause the disease and how to treat it.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Gemma Ware is the host and executive producer. Sound design and mixing by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

After USAID: the future of foreign aid

Thu, 15 May 2025 05:30:00 +0100

Three months after the Trump administration made drastic cuts to its aid agency, USAID, the effects are being felt across the world, particularly in Africa. In this episode we speak to Bright Simons, an African aid expert and visiting senior fellow at ODI Global about where the decimation of US aid leaves the debate about the future of development assistance.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Donation

The 'Mo Salah effect' on reducing prejudice

Thu, 08 May 2025 05:30:00 +0100

Liverpool FC just won the English Premier League. Contributing to their 5-1 victory over Tottenham to seal the title was Mohamed Salah, the Egyptian superstar who is the league's top scorer in the 2024-5 season.

We're revisiting an episode that we first ran in December 2022 about research which used Salah to demonstrate how a celebrity footballer who is openly Muslim can help to reduce Islamophobia. Salma Mousa, now an assistant professor of political science at UCLA in the US, talks to us about her research.

This episode was produced and written by Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our other producers are Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. More details can be found in an article that accompanied the original episode.

Three scientists on what it's like to have research funding cut by the Trump administration

Thu, 01 May 2025 05:00:00 +0100

The Trump administration’s cuts to funding for American universities and research have left many scientists reeling and very worried. At the National Institutes of Health, which has an annual budget of US$47 billion to support medical research both in the U.S. and around the world, nearly 800 grants have been terminated. The administration is considering cutting the overall budget of the NIH by 40%.

In this episode, we speak to three scientists, Brady West and Sunghee Lee from the University of Michigan in the US, and Glenda Gray, an expert in HIV vaccines from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, about what it’s like to have funding cut by the Trump administration.

This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware and Katie Flood. Sound design and mixing by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Brazil’s anti-vax disinformation economy

Thu, 24 Apr 2025 05:30:00 +0100

Few places on earth are immune to the explosion of anti-vaccination conspiracy theories and health disinformation fuelled by the COVID pandemic. But in countries like Brazil, where the disinformation flowed from the very top of government, the problem is even more acute and some people are exploiting the fear of others to make money.

In this episode we speak to Ergon Cugler at the Brazilian Institute of Information on Science and Technology about his new research into how peddlers of disinformation on social media also sell fake cures and vaccine detoxes. And we ask disinformation researcher Igor Sacramento at Brazil's Oswaldo Cruz Foundation why some people are looking for solutions to their health problems in these dangerous chemicals and unproven protocols.

Editor’s note: The Conversation learned after publishing this podcast that one of the interviewees, Igor Sacramento, passed away in late April. He was interviewed on 27 March for this episode. We’re deeply saddened to learn of his death and send our deepest sympathies to his friends, family and colleagues.

This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Sound design and mixing by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

The Birkin bag game

Thu, 17 Apr 2025 05:30:00 +0100

The Birkin bag made by French luxury retailer Hermès has become a status symbol for the global elite. Notoriously difficult to obtain, the world's rich obsess over how to get their hands on one. But when US retailer Walmart recently launched a much cheaper bag that looked very similar to the Birkin, nicknamed a "Wirkin" by others, it sparked discussions about wealth disparity and the ethics of conspicuous consumption.

In this episode we speak to two sociologists, Parul Bhandari from the University of Cambridge in the UK and Aarushi Bhandari from Davidson College in the US, about the Birkin and what it symbolises.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood. Sound design and mixing by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

How AI could influence the evolution of humanity

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 09:02:00 +0100

Some of the leading brains behind generative AI have warned about the risk of artificial superintelligence wiping out humanity, if left unchecked. But what if the influence of AI on humans is much more mundane, influencing our evolution over thousands of years through natural selection?

In this episode we talk to evolutionary biologist Rob Brooks about what AI could do to the evolution of humanity, from smaller brains to fewer friends.

This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Ancient cities had hidden disease protections

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 05:30:00 +0100

Five years since Covid, not only has the pandemic affected the way we live and work, it’s also influencing the way researchers are thinking about the past.

In this episode archaeologist Alex Bentley from the University of Tennessee explains how the pandemic sparked new research into how disease may have affected ancient civilisations, and the clues this offers about a change in the way humans designed their villages and cities 8,000 years ago.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood and hosted by Gemma Ware. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Shipping produces 3% of global emissions. How to get that down, quickly

Thu, 27 Mar 2025 06:30:00 +0100

Ships transport around 80% of the world’s cargo. From your food, to your car to your phone, chances are it got to you by sea. The vast majority of the world’s container ships burn fossil fuels, which is why 3% of global emissions come from shipping – slightly more than the 2.5% of emissions from aviation.

The race is on to reduce these emissions, and quickly, to meet the Paris agreement targets. In this episode we find out what technologies are available to shipping companies to reduce their carbon emissions – from sails, to alternative fuels or a 'Google maps for the ocean'. Featuring Daniel Precioso, post-doctoral researcher at IE University in Spain and Alice Larkin, Professor of Climate Science and Energy Policy, University of Manchester.

This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Prospects of lasting peace between Turkey and the Kurds

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 05:51:00 +0100

For over 40 years, the Kurdistan Workers Party, the PKK, has waged an armed insurgency against Turkey, fighting for Kurdish rights and autonomy.

But in late February, Abdullah Öcalan, the PKK’s imprisoned founder, called for the group to lay down its arms and dissolve itself. Days later, the PKK, which is labelled as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, Europe and the US, declared a ceasefire with Turkey.

In this episode, we speak to political scientist Pinar Dinc at Lund University in Sweden about what’s led to this moment and whether it could be the beginning of a lasting peace between Turkey and the Kurds.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

The surreal story of how COVID took over a remote city in the Amazon

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 06:30:00 +0100

When the first cases of COVID-19 began to spread around the world in early 2020, people in Iquitos, a remote city in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, weren’t unduly worried. They assumed their isolation would protect them. It didn’t. Peru, and Iquitos, were hit fast, and hard.

In a surreal situation, people were left to fend for themselves, fighting to get hold of oxygen on the black market for their loved ones and forced to put themselves in danger to survive.

In this episode we speak to researcher Japhy Wilson from Bangor University in Wales who spent a year living in Iquitos, trying to understand what happened there during the pandemic.

This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware with assistance from Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

The fossil that proved humanity's common origins in Africa

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 05:30:00 +0100

One hundred years ago, a paper was published in the journal Nature that would radically shift our understandings of the origins of humanity. It described a fossil, found in a lime mine in Taung in South Africa, which became known as the Taung child skull.

The paper’s author, an Australian-born anatomist called Raymond Dart, argued that the fossil was a new species of hominin called Australopithecus africanus. It was the first evidence that humanity originated in Africa.

In this episode, we talk to science historian Christa Kuljian about Dart’s complicated legacy and to paleoanthropologist Dipuo Kgotleng about what’s happened to the city of Taung itself, and how paleoanthropology has changed over the last century.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was presented by Gemma Ware and written and produced by Katie Flood with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens, and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Scam Factories Ep 3: Great Escapes

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 13:00:00 +0100

Every day that he was locked up in a scam compound in Southeast Asia, George thought about how to get out. "We looked for means of escaping, but it was hard," he said.

Scam Factories is a podcast series taking you inside Southeast Asia's brutal fraud compounds. It accompanies a series of multimedia articles on The Conversation.

In our third and final episode, Great Escapes, we find out the different ways survivors manage to escape, what it takes for them to get home, and what is being done to clamp down on the industry.

The podcast series was written and produced by Gemma Ware with production assistance from Katie Flood and Mend Mariwany. Sound design by Michelle Macklem. Leila Goldstein was our producer in Cambodia and Halima Athumani recorded for us in Uganda. Hui Lin helped us with Chinese translation. Editing help from Justin Bergman and Ashlynee McGhee.

Scam Factories Ep 2: Inside the operation

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 13:00:00 +0100

A few weeks after Ben Yeo travelled to Cambodia for what he thought was a job in a casino, he found himself locked up in a padded room. “It’s a combination between a prison and a madhouse,” he remembers. He was being punished for refusing to conduct online scams.

Scam Factories is a podcast and multimedia series taking you inside Southeast Asia's brutal fraud compounds. The Conversation collaborated for this series with three researchers: Ivan Franceschini, a lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Melbourne, Ling Li, a PhD candidate at Ca' Foscari University of Venice, and Mark Bo, an independent researcher.

In the second episode, Inside the Operation, we explore the history of how scam compounds emerged in Southeast Asia and who is behind them. We hear about the violent treatment people receive inside through the testimonies of two survivors, Ben, and another man we're calling George to protect his real identity.

Scam Factories Ep 1: No skills required

Sun, 23 Feb 2025 14:20:00 +0100

Scam factories is a special three-part series taking you inside Southeast Asia's brutal fraud compounds. Hundreds of thousands of people are estimated to work in these scam factories. Many were trafficked there and forced into criminality by defrauding people around the world.

The Conversation collaborated for this series with three researchers: Ivan Franceschini, a lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Melbourne, Ling Li, a PhD candidate at Ca' Foscari University of Venice, and Mark Bo, an independent researcher.

In episode 1, our researchers travel to a village in Cambodia called Chrey Thom to see what these compounds look like. And we hear from two survivors about how they were recruited into compounds in Laos and Myanmar.

Locked in: the inside story of Southeast Asia's fraud compounds

Tariffs: the winners and losers

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 05:30:00 +0100

As the Trump administration ratchets up its threat to slap tariffs on allies and economic rivals alike, the world is bracing for another wave of costly economic disruption. This protectionist shift is all the more remarkable given how the US championed trade liberalisation for decades.

So what does it actually take for a country to use protectionism to grow its economy? Some developing countries have successfully used tariffs to do so, while others have struggled. In this episode, we talk to Jostein Hauge, a development economist at the University of Cambridge in the UK, about who wins and who loses from tariffs and protectionism.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Mend Mariwany with assistance from Katie Flood and Gemma Ware. Sound design was by Michelle Macklem, and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

How does decentralised social media work?

Thu, 13 Feb 2025 05:30:00 +0100

Since Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter in 2022, many users have looked for alternatives, fuelling a wave of online migration from the social media platform.

How do alternative platforms such as Mastodon or Bluesky differ from traditional social media, and what does the future hold for these online spaces? In this episode, we speak to Robert Gehl, Ontario Research Chair of Digital Governance at York University, Canada, about the evolving landscape of decentralised social media.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Mend Mariwany with assistance from Katie Flood and Gemma Ware, Sound design was by Michelle Macklem, and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Where support for Germany’s far-right AFD is growing and why

Thu, 06 Feb 2025 07:30:00 +0100

As Germany heads towards elections on February 23, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AFD) is polling in second place on 20% of the national vote. The AFD's roots are in nationalistic and racist movements. It continues to take an ultra anti-immigration stance and is calling for "demigration" – effectively the deportation of migrants.

In this episode, Rolf Frankenberger, an expert on right-wing extremism at the University of Tübingen in Germany, talks to Laura Hood, senior politics editor at The Conversation, about where the AFD draws its support from and what type of Germany it wants to return to.

This episode was Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware with sound design by Michelle Macklem. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up for The Conversation Europe's newsletter to get the best from our European scholars in a weekly digest.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, which is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

How close are quantum computers to being really useful?

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 10:30:00 +0100

Quantum computers have the potential to solve big scientific problems that are beyond the reach of today’s most powerful supercomputers, such as discovering new antibiotics or developing new materials. But to achieve these breakthroughs, quantum computers will need to perform better than today’s best classical computers at solving real-world problems. And they’re not quite there yet. So what is still holding quantum computing back from becoming useful?

We speak to quantum computing expert Daniel Lidar at the University of Southern California in the US about what problems scientists are still wrestling with when it comes to scaling up quantum computing, and how close they are to overcoming them.

This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware and Katie Flood with production assistance from Mend Mariwany and sound design by Michelle Macklem. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, which is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. And please do rate and review the show wherever you listen.

A wildfire warning from California's Ice Age past

Thu, 23 Jan 2025 10:36:15 +0100

Firefighters in Los Angeles continue to battle devastating wildfires that have killed at least 27 people and left thousands of homes destroyed. Today, we’re revisiting an interview we ran in late 2023 with Emily Lindsey, a paleoecologist who works at the La Brea tar pits archaeological site in Los Angeles, about a wildfire warning from southern California’s ice age history.

The interview originally aired in November 2023. This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens and Michelle Macklem. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, which is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. And please do rate and review the show wherever you listen.

Silicon Valley’s bet on a future of AI-enabled warfare

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 10:20:00 +0100

From Gaza to Ukraine, today’s war zones are being used as testing grounds for new systems driven by artificial intelligence. Billions of dollars are now being pumped into AI weapons technology, much of it from Silicon Valley venture capitalists.

In this episode, we speak to Elke Schwarz, a reader in political theory at Queen Mary University of London in the UK who studies the ethics of autonomous weapons systems, about what this influx of new investment means for the future of warfare.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware with sound design by Michelle Macklem. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, which is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. And please do rate and review the show wherever you listen.

How the world fell in love with plastic without thinking through the consequences

Thu, 09 Jan 2025 10:30:00 +0100

Every year, 400 million tons of plastic are produced worldwide, and every year, approximately 57 million tons of plastic waste is created. And yet in November, the latest round of negotiations to agree the first legally binding international treaty on plastics pollution collapsed.

So what can we really do about the plastics pollution problem? In this episode we sat down with Mark Miodowonik, professor of materials and society at UCL in the UK, to understand the history of plastic, how it’s shaped our lives, and what can be done to make sure more plastic is recycled and less ends up polluting the planet.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood and Gemma Ware with sound design by Michelle Macklem. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, which is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. And please do rate and review the show wherever you listen.

Brain implants, agentic AI and answers on dark matter: what to expect from science in 2025

Thu, 02 Jan 2025 10:30:50 +0100

In a special episode to start 2025, we’ve brought together three science editors from The Conversation’s editions around the world to discuss what to look out for in the world of science and technology in the coming year.

Host Gemma Ware is joined by Paul Rincon from The Conversation in the UK, Elsa Couderc from The Conversation in France and Signe Dean from The Conversation in Australia.

This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware and Katie Flood with sound design by Michelle Macklem. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, which is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. And please do rate and review the show wherever you listen.

How Zimbabwe reached the point of abolishing the death penalty

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 10:30:00 +0100

Zimbabwe is on the cusp of abolishing the death penalty after its Death Penalty Abolition Bill was approved by the senate on December 12. The bill is now sitting on the desk of Zimbabwe’s president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, a known opponent of the death penalty, waiting for his assent.

In this episode, we speak to two experts on the death penalty, Carolyn Hoyle and Parvais Jabbar from the University of Oxford's Death Penalty Research Unit, who explain how Zimbabwe got here and what abolition means for both the country, and the continent.

This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware and Mend Mariwany with sound design by Michelle Macklem. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, which is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. And please do rate and review the show wherever you listen.

Why distrust in powerful politicians is part of a functioning democracy

Thu, 12 Dec 2024 10:33:41 +0100

Surveys suggest that in many western democracies, political trust is at rock bottom. But is it really such a bad thing for people living in a democracy to distrust their government?

In this episode, we talk to political scientist Grant Duncan, visiting scholar in politics at City St George's, University of London, about why he thinks a certain level of distrust and scepticism of powerful politicians is actually healthy for democracy. And about how populists, like Donald Trump, manage to use people’s distrust in political elites to their advantage.

This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware, Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood with sound design by Michelle Macklem. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, which is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. And please do rate and review the show wherever you listen.

How do animals understand death?

Thu, 05 Dec 2024 10:30:00 +0100

An orca that pulled along the corpse of its baby for 17 days. An opposum that plays dead to fool predators. And a chimpanzee that cleaned the teeth of its dead baby. Observations of behaviours like these suggest animals have a complex relationship with death.

In this week’s episode, we speak to Susana Monsó, an associate professor of philosophy at the National Distance Education University in Madrid, Spain, about the different ways animals understand death.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood with sound design by Michelle Macklem and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, which is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. And please do rate and review the show wherever you listen.

Further reading

The story of one Amazon warehouse in the UK that pushed to unionise

Thu, 28 Nov 2024 10:30:00 +0100

The online retail giant Amazon is known for its resistance to unions. In this week’s episode, we tell the story of what happened at one warehouse in Coventry in the UK when its workers tried to gain official recognition for the GMB union, one of the country’s biggest labour unions.

We talk to Tom Vickers, a sociologist at Nottingham Trent University in the UK, who spent weeks observing workers’ efforts to unionise at the warehouse as part of a research secondment with the GMB. And John Logan, a professor of labor and employment Studies at San Francisco State University in the US, explains why some companies, many of them American, are so doggedly anti-union. The episode also includes an introduction from Sarah Reid, business and economy editor at The Conversation in the UK.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, which is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. And please do rate and review the show wherever you listen.

50 years since the discovery of ancient hominin fossil Lucy in Ethiopia, calls grow to decolonize paleoanthropology

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 10:30:00 +0100

It's been 50 years since the American paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson discovered the fossil of ancient hominin 'Lucy' in the Afar region of Ethiopia. The find took the story of human evolution back beyond 3 million years for the first time. Yet, despite largely centring on the African continent as the "cradle of mankind", the narrative of hominin fossil discovery is striking for its lack of African scientists.

In this week's episode, Yohannes Haile-Selassie, director of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University in the US, explains why the story of ancient human origins is so western-centric, and why he's calling for the decolonisation of paleoanthropology.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany with sound design by Michelle Macklem and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, which is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. And please do rate and review the show wherever you listen.

The controversy over cod fishing in Canada

Thu, 14 Nov 2024 11:00:00 +0100

For generations, cod fishing was a way of life in Newfoundland and Labrador, the easternmost province in Canada. But in 1992, after cod stocks in the north Atlantic plummeted, the federal government imposed a moratorium on cod fishing. It was to last for 32 years until June 2024, when the government lifted the ban in a controversial decision.

In this episode we speak to Tyler Eddy, a research scientist in fisheries science at Memorial University of Newfoundland, to shed light on what’s happened. It's a story that offers a cautionary tale for those politicians trying to balance the complex demands of protecting ecosystems that also support substantial economies.

This episode was produced by Katie Flood and Gemma Ware. Sound design was by Michelle Macklem and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, which is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. And please do rate and review the show wherever you listen.

Gangsters who leave their gang behind for something new

Thu, 07 Nov 2024 10:31:32 +0100

What happens when a gangster leaves their life on the street? How do they transition to something new? We find out through the life stories of two people who joined them as young men and came out the other side.

Featuring an interview with Gaz, a former gang member in Sierra Leone, and Dennis Rodgers, a research professor at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, Switzerland who leads a global research project on gangs.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware. Sound design was by Michelle Macklem and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, which is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. And please do rate and review the show wherever you listen.

What is motivating Americans as they decide who to vote for

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 10:30:00 +0100

Amid deep political polarization and extreme campaign rhetoric, the U.S. presidential election on November 5 is likely to be decided by a small number of voters in swing states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan. But why is it so close?

In this episode Naomi Schalit, senior politics editor at the The Conversation U.S., speaks to Jesse Rhodes, associate professor of political science at UMass Amherst, who has been surveying Americans on the issues that matter to them, and their concerns as the election approaches.

This episode was produced by Katie Flood with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Sound design was by Michelle Macklem and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, which is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. And please do rate and review the show wherever you listen.

Origins of South Australia’s mysterious pink sands revealed

Thu, 24 Oct 2024 09:30:00 +0100

Take a walk along a beach in parts of South Australia, and you may come across unusual patches of pink sand. When a team of geologists began analysing samples of this mysterious sand to find out where it comes from, their search took them back through time to a previously undiscovered mountain range in Antarctica. In this episode Sharmaine Verhaert, a PhD candidate in earth sciences at the University of Adelaide, explains how the discovery was made.

This episode was produced by Gemma Ware, Katie Flood and Mend Mariwany. Sound design was by Michelle Macklem and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, which is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. And please do rate and review the show wherever you listen.

Further reading:

MicroRNA: Victor Ambros on the discovery that won him the Nobel prize

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 09:30:00 +0100

Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun were awarded the 2024 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for their discovery of microRNA, tiny biological molecules that tell the cells in our body what kind of cell to be by turning on and off certain genes.

In this episode, we speak to Ambros, who is professor of natural sciences at UMass Chan Medical School in the US, about the discovery that led to his Nobel prize and find out what he’s researching now. And we hear from Justin Stebbing, professor of biomedical sciences at Anglia Ruskin University in the UK, about how a deeper understanding of microRNA is opening up new avenues for potential treatment of diseases such as cancer.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, which is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. And please do rate and review the show wherever you listen.

Know Your Place: when did class stop predicting the way British people vote?

Mon, 14 Oct 2024 10:30:00 +0100

In an extra episode this week, we're running the first part of Know Your Place: what happened to class in British politics, a new series from The Conversation Documentaries. Host Laura Hood, senior politics editor at The Conversation in London, explores when the relationship between class and voting in the UK broke down and why.

Featuring John Curtice, professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde and senior research fellow at the National Centre for Social Research, Paula Surridge, professor of political sociology at the University of Bristol, Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London and Geoffrey Evans, professor in the sociology of politics at the University of Oxford.

Subscribe to The Conversation Documentaries to listen to the full series.

Know your place is a series supported by the National Centre for Social Research. It's produced and mixed by Anouk Millet for The Conversation. This episode of The Conversation Weekly was mixed by Michelle Macklem. Full credits available here.

The Conversation Documentaries, formerly The Anthill podcast, is home to in-depth audio series from The Conversation UK, a not-for-profit independent news organisation. Find out more and donate here. And consider signing up for our free daily newsletter.

Further reading

What Israel and its neighbours want now

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 10:37:07 +0100

The Middle East is perilously close to all-out war. In the year since the October 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel, millions of people have been displaced from their homes in Gaza, Israel, the West Bank and now Lebanon, and tens of thousands killed.

In this episode, we speak to two experts from the Middle East, Mireille Rebeiz and Amnon Aran, to get a sense of the strategic calculations being made by both Israel and its neighbours at this frightening moment for the region. Rebeiz is chair of Middle East Studies at Dickinson College in the US and Aran is professor of International Relations, City St George's, University of London in the UK.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and mixed by Michelle Macklem. Full credits for this episode are available.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, which is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. And please do rate and review the show wherever you listen.

HIV breakthrough in preventing infection via injection

Thu, 03 Oct 2024 09:30:31 +0100

A new drug to prevent HIV infection is showing hugely promising results in clinical trials when injected every six months.

In this episode, we speak to South African HIV doctor and scientist Linda-Gail Bekker at the University of Cape Town about her involvement in one of the trials for lenacapavir and why she thinks it could be so ground-breaking.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and sound design was by Michelle Macklem. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, which is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. And please do rate and review the show wherever you listen.

Himpathy: the psychology of why some people side with perpetrators of sexual misconduct

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 09:46:42 +0100

What makes some people more likely to feel disproportionate sympathy to people facing accusations of sexual misconduct – a concept known as himpathy? In this episode, we speak to a human behaviour expert whose research seeks to understand the psychological factors behind it.

Featuring Samantha Dodson, assistant professor of organizational behaviour and human resources at the University of Calgary in Canada, and an introduction form Eleni Vlahiotis, business and economy editor at The Conversation in Canada.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood with assistance from Mend Mariwany and sound design by Michelle Macklem. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, which is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. And please do rate and review the show wherever you listen.

A lonely ancient plant needs a female partner – researchers are using drones and AI to find it

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 09:30:00 +0100

A rare and ancient plant has been waiting for its long-lost mate. The only known specimens of Encephalartos woodii, a rare and ancient species of cycad, are male, all clones of the same plant found over 100 years ago deep in a South African forest. Now a team of researchers is on a mission to find an elusive female version of the plant with the help of drones and artificial intelligence.

In this episode we speak to Laura Cinti, a research fellow at the University of Southampton in the UK, about her determined quest to save the species – called the world's "loneliest" plant.

The story in this episode came out of our series Plant Curious, exploring scientific studies that challenge the way you view plantlife. The episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with assistance from Katie Flood and sound design by Michelle Macklem. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation. A transcript is also available.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, which is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. And please do rate and review the show wherever you listen.

Why mpox in Africa was ignored for too long and children are dying as a result

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 09:30:00 +0100

An epidemic of mpox in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, is spreading quickly, particularly among young children. Mpox is a serious, at times fatal, virus – and the world knows how to prevent it. There are effective vaccines stockpiled in many western countries. Yet, after an earlier global epidemic in 2022 was largely brought under control in Europe and North America, the ongoing battle to protect people in Africa from mpox was ignored.

In this episode we ask a virologist and a paediatrician why Africa's mpox crisis was so neglected and what needs to happen now to save lives, particularly children's.

Featuring Nadia Adjoa Sam-Agudu, professor of paediatric infectious diseases at the University of Minnesota in the US and Wolfgang Preiser, head of the division of medical virology at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, with an introduction from Nadine Dreyer, health and medicine editor at The Conversation Africa.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with assistance from Katie Flood and sound design by Michelle Macklem. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, which is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. And please do rate and review the show wherever you listen.

The emotional toll of dating apps and why they're no longer about finding love

Thu, 05 Sep 2024 09:30:09 +0100

Dating apps are having a rocky moment, with some of the biggest struggling to attract paying users. In this episode, we hear from researchers exploring how dating apps have changed modern dating and the expectations around it. And we find out why some dating app users aren’t actually there looking for love, but keep on swiping anyway.

Featuring Treena Orchard, associate professor at the School of Health Studies at Western University in Canada, and Carolina Bandinelli associate professor in media and creative industries at the University of Warwick in the UK.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany, with assistance from Katie Flood and sound design by Michelle Macklem. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, which is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. And please do rate and review the show wherever you listen. If you listen on PocketCasts, they've just launched the ability to rate shows here.

Geoengineering part 2: the case against reflecting sunlight to cool the Earth

Fri, 30 Aug 2024 09:30:00 +0100

In the second of two episodes on geoengineering, we hear the case against trying to reflect sunlight to cool the Earth.

Solar radiation modification has attracted attention and investment in recent years as a way to potential reverse the effects of climate change, but it remains a controversial idea.

We hear from researchers pushing a non-use agreement for solar geoengineering who explain why they believe these types of technologies are a dangerous distraction from what needs to be done to reduce fossil fuel emissions.

Featuring Chukwumerije Okereke, professor in global governance and public policy at the University of Bristol, and Co-Director at the Center for Climate Change and Development at Alex Ekwueme Federal University in Nigeria and Aarti Gupta, professor of global environmental governance at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. And responses from Shaun Fitzgerald at the Centre for Climate Change at the University of Cambridge in the UK

Listen to the first episode to hear scientists who argue modifying the climate can help buy the world time.

Further reading:

Geoengineering part 1: the case to try modifying the climate

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 08:48:42 +0100

Geoengineering, the modification of the climate using technological interventions to reverse climate change, is a hugely divisive issue and we’ve decided to explore it in two episodes.

In this first episode, we talk to scientists working on potential geoengineering technologies who argue the case for conducting research into these interventions. We speak to Shaun Fitzgerald, director of the Centre for Climate Repair at the University of Cambridge in the UK and Hugh Hunt, deputy director at the Centre, as well as Ben Kravitz, assistant professor of Earth and atmospheric sciences at Indiana University in the US. We're also joined by Stacy Morford, environment and climate editor at The Conversation in the US.

Part two, out tomorrow, will focus on the case against a particular type of solar geoengineering called solar radiation management.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood, Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Michelle Macklem. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

A tooth that rewrites history? The discovery challenging what we knew about Neanderthals

Thu, 22 Aug 2024 09:30:22 +0100

As we take a short production break in August, we're re-running an episode from 2023 about Neanderthals, and what new discoveries about their research could tell us about Homo Sapiens.

For generations, Neanderthals have been a source of fascination for scientists. This species of ancient hominim inhabited the world for around 500,000 years until they suddenly disappeared 42,000 years ago. Today, the cause of their extinction remains a mystery.

Archaeologist Ludovic Slimak at the University of Toulouse III, Paul Sabatier in France and his team have spent three decades excavating caves, studying ancient artefacts and delving into the world of Neanderthals and they've recently published provocative new findings. He tells us more about how Neanderthals lived, what happened to them and why their extinction might hold profound insights into the story of own species, Homo Sapiens.

This episode was produced and written by Mend Mariwany with assistance from Katie Flood. The executive producer was Gemma Ware. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript is now available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Borders and Belonging: is Japan turning into a migration state?

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 09:30:21 +0100

As The Conversation Weekly takes a short production break in August, we're bringing you a recent episode from our partners at the Borders and Belonging podcast about Japan’s evolving stance on immigration.

With a rapidly ageing population and a shrinking workforce, Japan is facing an unprecedented crisis: by 2030, it's projected to have a shortfall of nearly 6.4 million workers. But despite Japan’s reputation for being closed off to migrants, there are signs that the country’s national immigration policy is starting to shift.

Each episode of Borders and Belonging takes an in-depth look at a different regional migration issue and puts it into a global context. They do this through interviewing people with deep knowledge and experience of the region, including a couple of academic experts. The show is hosted by Maggie Perzyna, a researcher with the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and integration programme at Toronto Metropolitan University in Canada.

This episode features Nicholas A. R. Fraser, a senior research associate at Toronto Metropolitan University, Ito Peng, professor of sociology and public policy at the University of Toronto and Nana Oishi, associate professor in Japanese Studies at the University of Melbourne.

Borders and Belonging is produced by CERC Migration in collaboration with Lead Podcasting. Sound design for this episode of The Conversation Weekly was by Michelle Macklem, with production by Mend Mariwany. Sign up for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation and to support what we do, please consider donating to The Conversation.

Curious Kids: Why is my dog so cute?

Thu, 08 Aug 2024 09:30:56 +0100

A chance to hear an episode from the first season of The Conversation's Curious Kids, a new podcast where kids from around the world get to ask their questions direct to experts.

In this episode: do you think your dog is the cutest thing you've ever seen? Ten-year-old Grace does! But why? She joins our host Eloise and psychologist Deborah Wells from Queen's University Belfast to find out!

You can read an article of this episode here or explore more articles from our Curious Kids series on The Conversation.

The Conversation's Curious Kids podcast is published in partnership with FunKids, the UK's children's radio station. It's hosted and produced by Eloise. Gemma Ware is the executive producer.

Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation. To support what we do, please consider donating to The Conversation.

Fightback mounts against trade deals fossil fuel investors can use to sue countries over climate action

Thu, 01 Aug 2024 09:30:16 +0100

Momentum is growing against clauses in investment treaties that permit companies to sue a state if it decides to keep fossil fuels in the ground. In this episode, we revisit the secretive world of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), which some experts are worried could jeopardise global efforts to save the climate and cost countries billions of dollars in the process.

Kyla Tienhaara, Canada research chair in economy and environment at Queen's University, Ontario in Canada, comes back on The Conversation Weekly to update us on the latest resistance to these clauses.

Part of this episode was first aired in October 2022. You can listen to the original episode here. It was produced by Gemma Ware and Mend Mariwany, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

New options for managing chronic pain after the opioid crisis

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 09:30:26 +0100

Chronic pain affects hundreds of millions of people around the world. But the opioid crisis in North America led many health care providers to realize they relied too heavily on drugs to help patients manage their pain.

In this episode, a pain management specialist discusses new developments in pain treatment and why there’s hope for patients with chronic pain. Rachael Rzasa Lynn Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus speaks to Amanda Mascarelli Senior Health and Medicine Editor at The Conversation in the US about emerging chronic pain treatments.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive editor. Full credits available here. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation. To support what we do, please consider donating to The Conversation.

Can shared experiences bring people closer together?

Thu, 18 Jul 2024 10:12:50 +0100

Across the world, fans will soon be tuning in at all hours of the day and night to watch the Paris Olympics. In a world where on-demand media streaming is now increasingly the norm, sport is something of a rarity. It’s watched live, often with other people.

Can something as simple as watching a sporting competition at the same time bring people closer together? In this episode, we explore this question with a Garriy Shteynberg an associate professor of psychology at the University of Tennessee in the US who studies the impact of shared experiences.

We're running a listener survey to hear what you think about the podcast. It should take just a few minutes of your time and we’d really appreciate your thoughts. You can fill it in here.

What next for the French and British right?

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 09:32:43 +0100

A few days after Labour leader Keir Starmer was elected British prime minister on July 4 with a landslide victory, ending 14 years of Conservative-led rule, a coalition of left-wing parties came out on top in the French legislative elections. It was a good week for the left in this corner of Europe.

In this episode, we’ve brought together an expert from each country to help analyse the results and what they tell us about the right in French and British politics. Featuring Tim Bale, Professor of Politics, Queen Mary University of London and Safia Dahani, post-doctoral researcher in sociology at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.

We're running a listener survey to hear what you think about the podcast. It should take just a few minutes of your time and we’d really appreciate your thoughts. You can fill it in here.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive editor. Full credits available here. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation. To support what we do, please consider donating to The Conversation.

Underwater soundscapes of seagrass meadows revealed in new recordings

Thu, 04 Jul 2024 08:39:17 +0100

Seagrass, a marine plant that flowers underwater, has lots of environmental benefits – from storing carbon to preventing coastal erosion. In this episode, we speak to Isabel Key, a marine ecologist at the University of Edinburgh in the UK, about her work recording the soundscape of Scottish seagrass meadows to uncover more about the creatures living within them.

She also explains how this is the first step in the development of a seagrass sound library and potentially even artificial intelligence tools that could help us better understand the sounds of the sea.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive editor. Full credits available here. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation. To support what we do, please consider donating to The Conversation.

Further reading:

Don't Call Me Resilient: as war rages in Sudan, a new type of community resistance takes hold

Mon, 01 Jul 2024 08:20:21 +0100

We’re bringing you an extra episode this week from Don’t Call Me Resilient, another podcast from The Conversation. Hosted by Vinita Srivastava at The Conversation in Canada, Don’t Call Me Resilient is your weekly dose of news and current events through a sharply-focused anti-racist lens.

In this episode Vinita talks to Nisrin Elamin about the ongoing war in Sudan, which has displaced more than 10m people. Elamin, an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology and African Studies at the University of Toronto in Canada, says that in the absence of a properly functioning government and looming famine, grassroots groups are stepping in to help people survive. This episode originally aired on May 30, 2024.

You can listen to or follow Don’t Call Me Resilient on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Further reading and listening:

3D printed guns: unmasking the designer of the FGC-9

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 07:22:09 +0100

3D-printed guns are now appearing the world over, including in the hands of organised criminals in Europe and anti-junta rebels in Myanmar. Made using a 3D printer and a few metal parts that can be easily sourced online, these shadow guns are untraceable, and becoming a popular choice for extremists too.

In this episode, we talk to researcher Rajan Basra at King's College London about this clandestine world, and about his hunt to uncover the real identity of the man who designed the world's most popular 3D-printed gun, the FGC-9. Read an article by Basra from our Insights series about his research too.

This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware with assistance from Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive editor. Full credits available here. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading

The Brexit roots of the UK's Rwanda asylum plan – and why other EU leaders might want to copy it

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 09:14:13 +0100

A controversial British government plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda has been central to the UK’s response to a recent sharp increase in the number of people making the dangerous journey across the English Channel in small boats. But if the Conservative party lose the general election in early July, the Rwanda plan is likely to be abandoned.

In this episode, two experts in UK immigration policy explain how the Rwanda plan became such a crucial part of the immigration debate in the UK. And how, whatever happens in the election, it’s already shifting the wider conversation in Europe about how to deal with migrants and asylum seekers.

Featuring Nando Sigona, professor of international migration and forced displacement and director of the Institute for Research into International Migration and Superdiversity at the University of Birmingham and Michaela Benson, professor in public sociology at Lancaster University. They're both co-hosts of the Who do we think we are? podcast. This episode also includes an introduction from Avery Anapol, one of the politics team at The Conversation in the UK.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany with assistance from Katie Flood. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive editor. Full credits available here. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Scientists can't agree on how fast the universe is expanding – why this matters so much for our understanding of the cosmos

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 10:37:19 +0100

It’s one of the biggest puzzles in cosmology. Why two different methods used to calculate the rate at which the universe is expanding don’t produce the same result. Known as the Hubble tension, the enigma suggests that there could be something wrong with the standard model of cosmology used to explain the forces in the universe. Now, recent observations using the new James Webb Space Telescope are shaking up the debate on how close the mystery is to being resolved.

In this episode, Vicent J. Martínez, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Valencia in Spain, and his former teacher, Bernard J.T. Jones, emeritus professor of astronomy at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, explain why the Hubble tension matters so much for our understanding of the universe. Also featuring Lorena Sánchez, science editor at The Conversation in Spain.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive editor. Full credits available here. A transcript will be available shortly. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Creative flow: what's going on inside our brains when everything just clicks

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 09:57:42 +0100

If you’ve ever experienced a state of creative flow, perhaps when writing, playing music, or even gardening, you’ll know that it feels like everything just clicks into place. But what is actually happening inside the brain? In this episode, we speak to a neuroscientist who scanned the brains of jazz musicians as they were improvising, and revealed the secret ingredients need to achieve a state of flow.

Featuring John Kounios, professor of psychological and brain sciences at Drexel University in the US, plus an introduction from Kate Kilpatrick, Philadelphia editor at The Conversation in the US.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany, with assistance from Katie Flood. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive editor. Full credits available here. A transcript is available here. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Breakthroughs and failures on the road to a universal snake bite antivenom

Thu, 30 May 2024 09:55:00 +0100

Snake bites kill tens of thousands of people around the world each year. But we still use techniques invented in the late 19th century to make antivenom, and each bite needs to be treated with antivenom for that specific type of snake.

We hear from two scientists whose recent breakthroughs – and failures – could save many more lives and help achieve the holy grail: a universal antivenom. Featuring Stuart Ainsworth, senior lecturer at the University of Liverpool in the UK and Christoffer Vinther Sørensen, postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Antibody Technologies at the Technical University of Denmark.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood, with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive editor. Full credits available here. A transcript will be available shortly. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Moments of hope: how Indians keep pushing back against the hollowing out of democracy

Thu, 23 May 2024 09:51:30 +0100

After six weeks of voting in the world’s largest democracy, on June 4, Indians will learn who is to be their next prime minister. Narendra Modi, standing for a third term, is the frontrunner. Critics of Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party argue that India’s democracy has been hollowed out during his premiership. Thousands of Indians have taken to the streets to protest against Modi’s policies.

For Indrajit Roy, professor of global development at the University of York in the UK, these pushbacks by Indians against threats to their democracy is an example of an audacious type of hope. He talks to us for this episode about what it means to be living in hope, and where he sees moments of that in India.

This episode was written by Gemma Ware and produced by Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits available here. A transcript will be available shortly. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading and listening:

Assisted dying: Canada grapples with plans to introduce euthanasia for mental illness

Thu, 16 May 2024 10:11:55 +0100

A growing number of countries now permit some form of assisted dying and politicians in a number of others, including Ireland, Scotland and France, are now seriously debating it.

In Canada, where medical assistance in dying, known as MAID, became legal in 2016, the government intends to extend eligibility to people whose sole reason for ending their life is mental illness. But the planned expansion, now twice delayed, is controversial. In this episode, we speak to a leading psychiatrist, Karandeep Sonu Gaind, professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto about the situation in Canada and why he’s a vocal opponent of the expansion.

Also featuring Patricia Nicholson, health and medicine editor at The Conversation in Canada.

Further reading and listening:

How to spend the billions needed for climate adaptation – and make sure frontline communities have a say

Thu, 09 May 2024 10:43:07 +0100

As global temperatures continue to rise, the ramifications of climate change – from more frequent and severe extreme weather events to rising sea levels and ecosystem disruptions – are becoming increasingly evident around the world. But their effects are not evenly distributed, often hitting vulnerable communities the hardest.

In this episode we speak to Katherine Browne, a research fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute, and Margaret Angula, a senior lecturer at the University of Namibia, about a UN pilot programme in Namibia that's trialling a new approach to financing climate adaptation by empowering local communities. Also featuring an introduction with Kofo Belo-Osagie, commissioning editor at The Conversation in Nigeria.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany with assistance from Katie Flood. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Full credits available here. A transcript will be available shortly. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading and listening

Data poisoning: how artists are trying to sabotage generative AI

Thu, 02 May 2024 08:30:13 +0100

Content created with the help of generative artificial intelligence is popping up everywhere, and it’s worrying some artists. They’re concerned that their intellectual property may be at risk if generative AI tools have been built by scraping the internet for data and images, regardless of whether they had permissions to do so.

In this episode we speak with a computer scientist about how some artists are trying novel ways to sabotage AI to prevent it from scraping their work, through what’s called data poisoning, and why he thinks the root of the problem is an ethical problem at the heart of computer science.

Featuring Daniel Angus, professor of digital communication at Queensland University of Technology in Australia. Plus an introduction from Eric Smalley, science and technology editor at The Conversation in the US.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Full credits available here. A transcript will be available shortly. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

What happened to Nelson Mandela's South Africa part 3: Dream deferred

Thu, 25 Apr 2024 10:14:41 +0100

Some young South Africans have begun to question Nelson Mandela's legacy, and the choices made in the transition to democracy after the end of apartheid in 1994. Some have even called him a "sellout".

In the third and final part of our special series What happened to Nelson Mandela's South Africa?, marking 30 years of democracy in South Africa post-apartheid, we talk to two academics about the way Mandela is viewed by young South Africans today, and the challenges facing the African National Congress, which has governed the country for three decades, and its current president, Cyril Ramaphosa.

Featuring Sithembile Mbete, lecturer in political science at the University of Pretoria and Richard Calland, associate professor in public law at the University of Cape Town.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany with assistance from Gary Oberholzer and Katie Flood. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Full credits available here. A transcript will be available shortly. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

What happened to Nelson Mandela's South Africa part 2: Tasting the fruits of freedom

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 09:39:46 +0100

In the second part of our special series What happened to Nelson Mandela's South Africa?, marking 30 years of democracy in South Africa post-apartheid, we talk to two experts about the economic policies introduced to transform the country under Mandela's successor, Thabo Mbeki, and the ensuing turmoil of the Jacob Zuma presidency that followed.

Featuring Mashupye Maserumule, a professor of public affairs at Tshwane University of Technology and Michael Sachs, adjunct professor of economics at the University of Witwatersrand.

Further reading:

What happened to Nelson Mandela's South Africa part 1: Liberation, transition and reconciliation

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 08:44:00 +0100

It was a moment many South Africans never believed they'd live to see. On 10 May 1994, Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as president of a democratic South Africa, ending the deadly and brutal white minority apartheid regime.

To mark 30 years since South Africa's post-apartheid transition began, we're running a special three-part podcast series, What happened to Nelson Mandela's South Africa? In this first episode, two scholars who experienced the transition at first hand reflect to Thabo Leshilo, The Conversation's politics editor in Johannesburg, on the initial excitement around Mandela's election, the priorities of his African National Congress in the transition and the challenges that lay ahead for South Africa as it set out to define its post-apartheid future.

Featuring Steven Friedman, professor of political studies at the University of Johannesburg and Sandy Africa, associate professor of political sciences at the University of Pretoria.

Further reading:

Trailer: What happened to Nelson Mandela's South Africa?

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 12:35:56 +0100

It's been 30 years since Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa and the country's brutal and deadly apartheid system came to a formal end. As part of The Conversation's coverage of the anniversary, we're running a special three-part podcast series this month on The Conversation Weekly.

In What happened to Nelson Mandela's South Africa?, Thabo Leshilo, politics and society editor at The Conversation Africa, speaks to prominent political scholars who experienced South Africa's post-apartheid transition, about the country's journey over the past three decades.

Listen to the trailer for What happened to Nelson Mandela's South Africa? The first episode will be available on April 11.

The Anthropocene epoch that isn't

Thu, 04 Apr 2024 10:05:24 +0100

For almost 15 years, scientists have debated whether the Anthropocene should be an official geological epoch marking the profound influence of humans on the planet. Then in March, an international panel of scientists formally rejected the proposal for a new Anthropocene epoch.

In this episode, two scientists give us their different opinions on whether that was the right decision and what it means for the future use of the word Anthropocene.

Featuring Jan Zalasiewicz, professor of palaeobiology at the University of Leicester in the UK, and Erle C. Ellis, professor of geography and environmental systems at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in the US. Plus an introduction from Will de Freitas, environment and energy editor at The Conversation in the UK.

This episode was written and produced by Tiffany Cassidy with assistance from Katie Flood. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Full credits available here. A transcript is now available

will be available shortly. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading

Don't Call Me Resilient: starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza

Mon, 01 Apr 2024 10:01:37 +0100

In this episode, Vinita talks to Hilal Elver about the use of hunger as a tool of war in Gaza. Hilal is a former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food and a research professor of Global Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara in the US. This episode originally aired on March 21, 2024.

You can listen to or follow Don’t Call Me Resilient on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Further reading and listening:

Invisible lines: how unseen boundaries shape the world around us

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 09:43:29 +0100

Our experiences of the world are diverse, often changing as we move across borders from one country to another. They can also vary based on language or subtle shifts in climate. Yet, we rarely consider what causes these differences and divisions.

In this episode we speak to geographer Maxim Samson at De Paul University in the US about the unseen boundaries that can shape our collective and personal perceptions of the world – what he calls "invisible lines".

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany with assistance from Katie Flood. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Full credits available here. A transcript is available now. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading

Climate quitting: the people leaving their fossil fuel jobs because of climate change

Thu, 21 Mar 2024 11:23:44 +0100

As the climate crisis gets ever more severe, the fossil fuel industry is struggling to recruit new talent. And now a number of existing employees are deciding to leave their jobs, some quietly, some very publicly, because of concerns over climate change. In this episode we speak to a researcher about this phenomenon of climate quitting.

Featuring Grace Augustine, associate professor in business and society at the University of Bath in the UK, and Sam Phelps, commissioning editor for international affairs at The Conversation in the UK.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Full credits available here. A transcript will be available shortly. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

How conspiracy theories help to maintain Vladimir Putin’s grip on power in Russia

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 10:54:27 +0100

As Russians head to the polls for presidential elections, conspiracy theories are swirling everywhere. In this episode we speak to a disinformation expert about the central role these conspiracy theories play in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Featuring Ilya Yablokov, lecturer in journalism and digital media at the University of Sheffield in the UK. Plus an introduction from Grégory Rayko, international editor at The Conversation in France.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Gemma Ware and Katie Flood with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits available here. A transcript will be available shortly. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

How North Korea is turning into a matriarchy

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 10:20:38 +0100

High heels, lace and handbags. In recent decades, there’s been a huge shift in the role of North Korean women and the choices they’re able to make – including what they wear. In this episode, we hear about new research on how North Korean women are driving a new form of grassroots capitalism, and changing the country in the process.

Featuring Bronwen Dalton, head of the department of management at the University of Technology Sydney Business School in Australia, and Kyungja Jung, Associate Professor at the University of Technology Sydney. Plus an introduction from Justin Bergman, international affairs editor at The Conversation in Australia.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Gemma Ware and Mend Mariwany with assistance from Katie Flood. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits available here. A transcript will be available shortly. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Intellectual humility: the rewards of being willing to change your mind

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 11:12:00 +0100

With unlimited information at our fingertips and dozens of platforms on which to share our opinions, it can sometimes feel like we’re supposed to be experts in everything. It can be exhausting. In this episode, we talk to a psychologist whose research and experiences of intellectual humility have taught him that acknowledging what we don’t know is as important as asserting what we do know.

Featuring Daryl Van Tongeren, associate professor of psychology at Hope College in Michigan, and Maggie Villiger, senior science and technology editor at The Conversation in the US.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Katie Flood with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Full credits available here. A transcript will be available shortly. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Israel-Gaza: how opinion polls used in Northern Ireland could pave a way to peace

Thu, 22 Feb 2024 11:00:11 +0100

When the war in Gaza eventually ends, pressure will mount for negotiations to begin for a deal. When that day comes, how can opposing sides in the Israel-Palestine conflict find enough common ground to reach an agreement? In this episode, we hear about a method called peace polling, tried out successfully in Northern Ireland, that could offer a blueprint for how to reach a settlement between Israelis and Palestinians.

Featuring Colin Irwin, a research fellow at the Department of Politics at the University of Liverpool in the UK, and Jonathan Este, senior international editor at The Conversation in the UK.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written by Gemma Ware and produced by Mend Mariwany with assistance from Katie Flood. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Full credits available here. A transcript will be available shortly. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation, and a fortnightly Gaza Update email.

As we dream, we can listen in on the waking world

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 11:51:38 +0100

Humans spend about one third of our lives asleep and while most of us dream regularly, some people remember their dreams more than others. But scientists still know surprisingly little about why or how we experience dreams. In this episode we find out about new research from a sleep lab in France that has unlocked a way to find out more by communicating with people as they dream.

Featuring Başak Türker, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute du Cerveau in Paris, and Lionel Cavicchioli, health and medicine editor at The Conversation in France.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Katie Flood with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Full credits available here. A transcript will be available shortly. Sign up to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Deepfakes and disinformation swirl ahead of Indonesian election

Mon, 12 Feb 2024 11:38:29 +0100

Indonesia, the world’s third-largest democracy, goes to the polls on February 14 to elect a new president. It’s one of the largest elections to take place since an explosion of generative AI tools became available that can manipulate video and audio – and a number of deepfake videos have gone viral during the campaign.

In this episode, we look at what Indonesia’s experience is revealing about the disinformation battleground ahead in 2024, when an estimated four billion voters will be eligible to vote in an election.

Featuring F.X. Lilik Dwi Mardjianto, a journalism researcher at Universitas Multimedia Nusantara in Inodnesia and Nuurrianti Jalli, assistant professor of Professional Practice, School of Media and Strategic Communications, Oklahoma State University in the US.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware with assistance from Katie Flood. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits available here. A transcript will be available shortly. Sign up to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Environments can shape the differences between cultures

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 10:52:39 +0100

In some cultures, people are frugal while in others they tend to be generous. Some cultures favour meticulous planning while others favour living in the moment. Theories abound about how and why differences like these between cultures emerge and, increasingly, researchers are looking to the environments people live in for answers.

In this episode, Mend Mariwany explores what role ecological factors, including the climate, play in shaping cultural norms and behaviour. Featuring Michael Varnum, associate professor of psychology at Arizona State University in the US.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written by Mend Mariwany, and produced by Mend Mariwany and Meher Batia with assistance from Katie Flood. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. The executive producer is Gemma Ware. Full credits available here. A transcript will be available shortly. Sign up to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

The complicated journey toward a list of all life on Earth

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 11:38:14 +0100

In our chaotic, rapidly changing modern world, many of us have come to rely on science for objectivity and to provide sense of order. So it may be disconcerting to learn that there is no single, definitive list of all life on Earth. And there never has been.

In this episode, we take you inside the world of taxonomy, where competing lists, rogue taxonomists and recent accusations of anarchy have revealed the messy struggle to classify the world around us.

Featuring Stephen Garnett, professor of conservation and sustainable livelihoods at Charles Darwin University in Australia, and Signe Dean, science and technology editor for The Conversation in Australia.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. The executive producer is Gemma Ware. Full credits available here. A transcript will be available shortly. Sign up to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation and to The Conversation's Science Wrap newsletter.

Descendants of Holocaust survivors explain why they are replicating Auschwitz tattoos on their own bodies

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 11:01:43 +0100

Nearly eight decades on from the liberation of Auschwitz on January 27 1945, the number of concentration camp prisoners forcibly tattooed, remains, for many, the symbol of the Holocaust. The Nazis murdered six million Jews, one million of whom died at Auschwitz. Today, there are ever fewer survivors still alive to bear witness to this genocide.

In this episode, brought to us by Dale Berning Sawa, we find out what motivates some descendants of Holocaust survivors to replicate the Auschwitz tattoo of their parent or grandparent on their own bodies, and hear about the reactions they’ve had. Featuring Alice Bloch, professor of sociology at the University of Manchester, Orly Weintraub Gilad and David Rubin.

This episode was written by Dale Berning Sawa and produced by Mend Mariwany, with assistance from Gemma Ware and Katie Flood. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. The executive producer is Gemma Ware. Full credits available here. A transcript will be available shortly. Sign up to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Women lifestyle influencers are changing the face of the far right

Thu, 18 Jan 2024 14:31:11 +0100

When you think about the far right, you probably picture groups of young, white men carrying images of swastikas or torches. But the face of the far right is changing, at least on social media. In this episode, we hear about new research into a cohort of women influencers pushing far right ideology on mainstream platforms like Instagram and YouTube.

The Conversation's Avery Anapol speak to Eviane Leidig, a postdoctoral research fellow at Tilburg University in the Netherlands who focuses on far right ideology, gender and the internet.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany with production assistance from Katie Flood. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. The executive producer is Gemma Ware. Full credits available here. A transcript is also available. Sign up to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Interoception: the sixth sense we use to read hidden signals from our body

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 11:18:29 +0100

At every moment, your body’s internal organs are sending signals to your brain. You’ll be mostly unaware of them, but sometimes they cut through: for example when you’re hungry, or when you need to go to the bathroom. Our ability to tap into these hidden signals is called interoception – sometimes known as a sixth sense. In this episode, we speak to a cognitive neuroscientist and expert on interoception about how new research on this connection between our minds and bodies could lead to breakthroughs in mental and physical healthcare.

Featuring Sarah Garfinkel, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London in the UK, and Vivian Lam, associate health and biomedicine editor at The Conversation in the US.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood with production assistance from Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. The executive producer is Gemma Ware. Full credits available here. A transcript is now available. Sign up to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading and listening:

Wolves return to Europe: what to do about them is a people problem

Thu, 04 Jan 2024 09:50:46 +0100

Wolves are making a comeback across Europe. As their populations grow, 65,000 livestock are killed each year by wolves. Now, moves are underway to change the protection status of the wolf in the European Union. In this episode we speak to a social scientist researching the best ways for humans and wolves to coexist.

Featuring Hanna Pettersson, a postdoctoral research associate at the Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity at the University of York in the UK and Jack Marley, environment and energy editor at The Conversation in the UK.

Sign up to Imagine, a newsletter from The Conversation in which researchers imagine a world where climate action is the norm.

Further reading and listening:

Social media drains our brains and impacts our decision making

Thu, 21 Dec 2023 10:10:59 +0100

Ever found yourself scrolling through social media late at night and accidentally buying something you regretted? In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, we talk to an advertising expert about research into how social media can overload ours brains and make us buy products we don’t need or want.

Featuring Matthew Pittman, a professor of advertising at the University of Tennessee in the US, and Kate Kilpatrick from The Conversation in the US.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany with production assistance from Katie Flood and our intern Jusneel Mahal. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. The executive producer is Gemma Ware.Full credits available here. A transcript is now available.

Further reading and listening:

Israel-Gaza war on campus part 2: a chilling effect on academic freedom

Mon, 18 Dec 2023 13:55:06 +0100

Across parts of academia, concerns are mounting that the Israel-Gaza war is having a chilling effect on academic freedom. In the second of two episodes exploring how the war is affecting life at universities, we speak to an Israeli legal scholar, now based in the UK, about the pressures that academics and students are facing to rein in their views about the war.

Featuring Neve Gordon, professor of international law and human rights, Queen Mary University of London in the UK.

This episode was written by Gemma Ware and produced by Mend Mariwany. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits available here. A transcript is now available.

Further reading and listening:

Israel-Gaza war on campus part 1: American universities in the spotlight

Thu, 14 Dec 2023 10:34:17 +0100

Tensions have been running high at many universities around the world since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 and the subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza. In the first of two episodes exploring how the war is affecting life at universities, we explore what's been happening at one American public college campus.

Featuring David Mednicoff, chair of the Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies and an associate professor of Middle Eastern studies and public policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Naomi Schalit, senior politics and society editor at The Conversation in the US.

Further reading and listening:

Kenya at 60: the patriotic choral music used to present one version of history

Mon, 11 Dec 2023 12:18:46 +0100

Kenya is marking 60 years since its independence from British colonial rule on December 12, 1963. Each year, the country celebrates the occasion with a national holiday, Jamhuri Day. And for much of the past 60 years, patriotic choral music has been a regular feature of those celebrations. In this episode, we explore how much one song can tell you about the politics of a new nation – and who controls what gets remembered and what gets forgotten.

Featuring Doseline Kiguru, a research associate in cultural and literary production in Africa at the University of Bristol in the UK, plus Julius Maina, East Africa editor at The Conversation based in Nairobi.

This episode was produced by Katie Flood and Mend Mariwany. It was written by Gemma Ware, who is the executive producer of the show. Full credits for this episode are available here. A full transcript is now available.

Further reading:

Why unprecedented drought in the Amazon is so dangerous for the planet

Thu, 07 Dec 2023 11:43:54 +0100

As world leaders and their climate negotiators gathered at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai in early December, on the other side of the world, Brazil was experiencing an unprecedented drought in the Amazon. Scientists fear it could release of billions of additional tons of carbon into the atmosphere. In this episode, we speak to an ecologist who has spent 45 years living and studying in the Amazon about the causes of the drought, why it’s so dangerous for the planet and what can be done to protect the rainforest.

Featuring Philip Fearnside, ecologist and professor at the National Institute of Amazonian Research in Brazil.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood with production assistance from Mend Mariwany. Gemma Ware is the executive producer of the show. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript is also available.

Further reading:

Genocide: the history of the term and what it means under international law

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 12:16:58 +0100

In the weeks since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 and the Israeli bombardment and ground assault on Gaza, both sides have traded accusations of genocide. Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis and took more than 200 hostage, while Israel’s subsequent aerial and ground attack on Gaza have killed more than 15,000 Palestinians and displaced millions. In this episode we speak to an expert on genocide about the history of the term and what’s needed to prove it under today’s international legal definition.

Featuring Alexander Hinton, distinguished professor of anthropology and director for the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights at Rutgers University Newark in the US.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany with production assistance from Katie Flood. Gemma Ware is the executive producer of the show. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript is also available.

Further reading:

Brandalism: the environmental activists using spoof adverts to critique rampant consumerism

Thu, 23 Nov 2023 12:15:39 +0100

Amid the flurry of billboards promoting cut price deals in the run up to Black Friday, some activists have slipped in the odd spoof advert. By subverting public advertising space, they’re risking legal action to try and make serious points about the excesses of consumer culture and the perilous state of the environment. In this episode, we find out about the subvertising movement and its links to a wider conversation about mass consumerism and the environment.

Featuring Eleftheria Lekakis, a senior lecturer in media and communication at the University of Sussex in the UK.

This episode was written, produced and sound designed by Eloise Stevens, with production assistance from Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood. Gemma Ware is the executive producer of the show.. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript is now available.

Further reading:

Antibiotic resistance: microbiologists turn to new technologies in the hunt for solutions

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 11:34:55 +0100

The rise of drug-resistant infections is one of the biggest global threats to health, food security and development. Antibiotic-resistant superbugs were estimated to kill 1.27 million people in 2019, and the UN projects that drug-resistant diseases could cause 10 million deaths a year by 2050. In this episode, we hear from a microbiologist at a hospital in Nigeria working on the frontlines against antibiotic resistance, and find out about the new scientific techniques, including artificial intelligence, being deployed to find new potential antibiotics.

Featuring Nubwa Medugu, a clinical microbiologist at Nile University of Nigeria and André O. Hudson, dean of the College of Science and professor of biochemistry at Rochester Institute of Technology in the US.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware with assistance from Katie Flood. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive producer of the show. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript is also available.

Further reading:

After Morocco's earthquake, artisans in Marrakech’s old medina face an uncertain future

Thu, 09 Nov 2023 10:48:07 +0100

Two months after the earthquake, we hear why Marrakech and its medina are so important to Islamic heritage – and why some researchers are worried that the expertise of the city's traditional artisans could being overlooked in the reconstruction.

Featuring Abbey Stockstill, assistant professor of art history at Southern Methodist University in the US; Nour Eddine Nachaoune, professor of heritage at Université Mohammed V in Rabat; and Kalpana Jain, senior religion and ethics editor and director of the Global Religion Journalism Initiative at The Conversation in the US.

This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware and Katie Flood with assistance from Mend Mariwany, who also recorded the English voiceover in this episode. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive producer of the show. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript is now available.

Further reading:

The wildfires that led to mass extinction. A warning from California's Ice Age history

Thu, 02 Nov 2023 12:06:39 +0100

In recent years, Californians have had to deal with some deadly and destructive wildfires. But in fact, this part of the western United States has been shaped by fire for millennia. And in this episode we hear about new research from California into a decades-old mystery about the extinction of large animals at the end of the Ice Age, which is providing some worrying lessons from history about the way humans, fire and ecosystems interact.

Featuring Emily Lindsey, associate curator at La Brea Tar Pits and adjunct faculty at University of California, Los Angeles, and Stacy Morford, environment and climate editor at The Conversation in the US.

This episode was produced and written by Katie Flood Gemma Ware. The executive producer was Gemma Ware. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

When domicide razed my city: a view from Homs in Syria

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 10:27:26 +0100

Homs was once the centre of the Syrian revolution. Today, 12 years on, much of the city remains scarred and deserted after years of siege and heavy bombardment. In this episode we speak to an architect from Homs about what the deliberate destruction of homes and neighbourhoods, known as domicide, does to people displaced by conflict – and his perspective on the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.

Featuring Ammar Azzouz, research fellow in geography and the environment at the University of Oxford in the UK.

This episode was produced and written by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware. The executive producer was Gemma Ware. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Don't Call Me Resilient: why are brown and Black people supporting the far right?

Tue, 24 Oct 2023 10:44:10 +0100

We’re bringing you an extra episode this week to share an interview from Don’t Call Me Resilient, another podcast from The Conversation. Hosted by Vinita Srivastava at The Conversation in Canada, Don’t Call Me Resilient is your weekly dose of news and current events through a sharply-focused anti-racist lens.

In this episode which we're running in full, Vinita talks to Daniel Martinez HoSang, a professor of ethnicity, race and migration and American studies at Yale University about why brown and Black people are being drawn to far-right politics in the United States. It originally aired in early October 2023.

You can listen to or follow Don’t Call Me Resilient on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Further reading:

Quantum dots: Louis Brus on the discovery that won him the Nobel prize

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 10:07:38 +0100

Imagine a particle so small that it’s the same relative size to a soccer ball as that football is to the planet Earth. That’s the size of a quantum dot – a type of nanocrystal that changes colour depending on its size, and was once thought impossible to actually make. Now, three scientists who helped discover and synthesise these quantum dots have been awarded the 2023 Nobel prize in chemistry.

In this week’s episode we speak to Louis Brus, one of these new Nobel laureates, and an emeritus professor of chemistry at Columbia University in New York, about his work on quantum dots and what winning the accolade means.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced and written by Gemma Ware and Katie Flood with assistance from Mend Mariwany. The executive producer was Gemma Ware. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Neanderthals: what their extinction could tell us about Homo Sapiens

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 14:01:42 +0100

Archaeologist Ludovic Slimak at the University of Toulouse III, Paul Sabatier in France and his team have spent three decades excavating caves, studying ancient artefacts and delving into the world of Neanderthals and they've recently published provocative new findings. In this week’s episode he tells us more about how Neanderthals lived, what happened to them and why their extinction might hold profound insights into the story of own species, Homo Sapiens.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced and written by Mend Mariwany with assistance from Katie Flood. The executive producer was Gemma Ware. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript is now available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Why Australia is putting a First Nations Voice to Parliament to a referendum

Thu, 05 Oct 2023 11:36:27 +0100

Australia goes to the polls on October 14 in a referendum on whether to enshrine an Indigenous advisory body, known as the Voice to Parliament, into the country's constitution.

In this episode, a political theorist from the Torres Strait Islands, an archipelago between Australia and Papua New Guinea, explains the background to the Voice and the arguments for and against it. Plus, we hear a view from Canada on how the Voice proposal compares with Indigenous systems of representation elsewhere in the world.

Featuring Sana Nakata, principal research fellow at James Cook University in Australia. And Kiera Ladner, professor of Indigenous politics and Canadian politics at the University of Manitoba in Canada. Hosted by Gemma Ware with Carissa Lee, First Nations and public policy editor at The Conversation in Melbourne.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced and written by Gemma Ware and Mend Mariwany. The executive producer was Gemma Ware. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript is available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading and listening:

New malaria vaccine: a step closer to eradication

Tue, 03 Oct 2023 14:10:41 +0100

The world has waited decades for a malaria vaccine, and now two have come along in quick succession. On October 2, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended that a new malaria vaccine developed by the University of Oxford be rolled out for the prevention of malaria in children, just two years after another vaccine, the RTS,S, got their endorsement. We find out why it's been so hard to find a malaria vaccine – and hear from the scientists behind the new breakthrough. We’ve been waiting for the official announcement to publish this story, so listeners will hear from former hosts Daniel Merino and Nehal El-Hadi.

Featuring Faith Osier, co-director of the Institute of Infections at Imperial College London; Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute at Oxford University, and Alassane Dicko, professor of epidemiology and public health at the Malaria Research and Training Center at the University of Bamako.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced and written by Katie Flood. The hosts are Dan Merino and Nehal El-Hadi. The executive producer was Mend Mariwany. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript is now available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Spain's egg donation boom

Thu, 28 Sep 2023 11:22:06 +0100

Spanish women are having fewer and fewer children, and yet the country has become the egg donation capital of Europe. We find out about the experiences of women who decide to donate their eggs, and whether there are enough protections in place to prevent them from being exploited.

Featuring Anna Molas, research fellow in anthropology at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in Spain.

This episode was produced and written by Katie Flood with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive producer of The Conversation Weekly. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Inside the Oslo Accords part 3: the legacy

Tue, 26 Sep 2023 16:01:58 +0100

In part 3 of Inside the Oslo Accords we explore the legacy of the Oslo peace process and the future of a two-state solution for Israel-Palestine.

Hanan Ashrawi is a Palestinian political and civil society leader and in the 1990s was the official spokesperson of a joint Palestinian-Jordanian delegation to the Middle East peace process. Yossi Beilin was Israel's deputy foreign minister and one of the key participants during the secret negotiations in Oslo.

This series is made in collaboration with James Rodgers, reader in international journalism and Amnon Aran, professor of international politics, both at City, University of London in the UK.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware with production assistance from Katie Flood. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript is now available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Inside the Oslo Accords part 2: after the handshake

Tue, 19 Sep 2023 15:42:24 +0100

In part 2 of Inside the Oslo Accords, a special series marking the 30th anniversary of the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, we hear from two negotiators about what happened in the years after the famous handshake on the White House lawn.

This series is made in collaboration with James Rodgers, reader in international journalism and Amnon Aran, professor of international politics, both at City, University of London in the UK.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany with production assistance from Katie Flood. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript is now available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Inside the Oslo Accords part 1: why Norway was in the Middle East

Tue, 12 Sep 2023 16:21:40 +0100

Inside the Oslo Accords is a three-part series marking the 30th anniversary of the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. It's hosted in collaboration with James Rodgers, reader in international journalism and Amnon Aran, professor of international politics, both at City, University of London in the UK. They'll revisit the history of this moment in history, through conversations with leading participants in the Oslo process.

In part 1, we hear from Jan Egeland, who was deputy foreign minister of Norway in the early 1990s, about his role in the secret negotiations that led to the Oslo Accords.

Further reading

Fear and Wonder: how species are responding to climate change

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 10:55:05 +0100

Around half of all life on Earth is on the move because of climate change. It's another staggering statistic from the recent synthesis report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and a shift explored in a recent episode of Fear & Wonder, a new podcast from The Conversation. We're running that full episode through our channel this week. It features Finnish fisherman scientist Tero Mustonen and Australian marine ecologist Gretta Pecl from the University of Tasmania.

Fear and Wonder is hosted by IPCC lead author Joelle Gergis and journalist Michael Green. It's produced by Michael Green and is sponsored by the Climate Council, an independent, evidence-based organisation working on climate science, impacts and solutions.

Further listening:

Production break

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 11:00:00 +0100

The Conversation Weekly will be taking a production break in August and will be back in September with new episodes. Stay tuned and subscribed!

Discovery: Thirty years after Jurassic Park hit movie screens, its impact on science and culture remains as strong as ever

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 13:51:50 +0100

Based on Michael Crichton's novel by the same name, Jurassic Park told the story of an ambitious theme park that used resurrected dinosaurs as its attractions. But as the story unfolds, things start to go wrong. We speak to Travis Holland, who researches media and fan studies,at the popular and scientific cultural impact Jurassic Park continues to have today.

Featuring Travis Holland, Senior Lecturer in Communication at Charles Sturt University in Australia.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood. The executive producer is Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

The bacteria and microbes in your gut can affect your body and mental health, and engineering them promises new forms of treatment

Thu, 13 Jul 2023 15:03:56 +0100

The human body is a complex organism, made up of trillions of cells. But not all of them are human. About half of them are fungi, microbes and bacteria. Scientists are starting to understand how and why these communities — referred to as microbiomes — are crucial to the functioning of various body systems. We speak to three experts who study the gut microbiome: a gastroenterologist, a neuroscientist and a biological engineer. Their research considers how these microbiomes are important, what the relationship is between microbiomes and well being, and how synthetically engineered microorganisms promise new forms of therapies.

Featuring Chris Damman, a gastroenterologist and clinical associate professor at the University of Washington, Andrea Merchak, an incoming postdoctoral scholar at the University of Florida, who studies the gut biome as it affects and is affected by various conditions, and Tae Seok Moon, a biological engineer at Washington University at St. Louis, who looks at how synthetic biology can be employed within the gut.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany, who is also the show’s executive producer. With production assistance from Katie Flood. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

How fine dining in Europe and the US came to exclude immigrant cuisine

Thu, 06 Jul 2023 15:56:28 +0100

The history of restaurants, food and, especially, fine dining, is deeply tied to the history of immigration to the U.S. and French cultural power in the early 20th century. Not surprisingly, the story that leads to Yelp and Anthony Bourdain is not without its share of racism that the modern food world and its taste makers are still grappling with today. We speak to three experts who study food culture and fine dining about the perceptions and definitions of what’s considered good food. We explore how food trends are deeply tied to immigration, how the history of western culinary techniques limits the creativity and authenticity of modern restaurants and how social media compares to the Michelin Guide as a tool in the quest for "good food."

Featuring Krishnendu Ray, a professor of food studies at New York University in the US, Zeena Feldman is a professor of digital culture at King's College in London, in the UK, and Gillian Gualtieri is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Barnard College in the US.

This episode was produced and written by Dan Merino and Katie Flood. Mend Mariwany is the executive producer of The Conversation Weekly. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation. Full credits for this episode available here.

Further reading:

Debunking migration myths: the real reasons people move, and why most migration happens in the Global South

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 11:57:32 +0100

Around the world, borders between countries are getting tougher. Governments are making it more difficult to move, especially for certain groups of vulnerable people. This comes with a message, subtle or not: that people are moving to higher-income countries to take advantage of the welfare system, or the jobs of people already living there. But research shows that much of what we think about migration in the Global North is wrong, and political narratives shape the conversation and public attitudes toward migration. We speak to three experts who explain what migration really looks like around the world, what drives people to uproot their lives and move, and how some countries in Africa are welcoming refugees.

Heaven Crawley is a researcher at UN University Centre for Policy Research based in New York in the US, Valentina Di Iasio is a research fellow at the University of Southampton in the UK, and Christopher Nshimbi is a researcher at the University of Pretoria in South Africa.

This episode was written and produced by Avery Anapol and Mend Mariwany. The executive producer is Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

How protest movements use feminine images and social media to fight sexist ideologies of authoritarian regimes

Thu, 22 Jun 2023 13:14:28 +0100

Modern protest movements, like the ongoing protests in Iran, often center around women who have been killed or harmed by agents of authoritarian governments. While it can be easy to chalk up this consistent, state-sponsored abuse of women to simple sexism, researchers say there is a deeper story at play. We speak to three experts who have studied protests and the role of gendered ideology, images and social media as tools of resistance as well as of oppression.

Parichehr Kazemi is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Oregon, in the US, Aliaksei Kazharski researches international politics and security at Charles University in Prague, in the Czech Republic, and Michaela Grančayová is an independent researcher who focuses on language and politics, at Comenius University in Slovakia.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood. The executive producer is Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Crowdsourcing new constitutions: how 2 Latin American countries increased participation and empowered groups excluded from politics

Thu, 15 Jun 2023 14:16:24 +0100

Over the past few decades, countries across Latin America have witnessed a surge in demands by its people for increased political participation and representation. Colombia and Chile stand out as notable examples of countries responding to these calls through constitutional reform. We speak with two researchers about Latin America’s ongoing democratic transition, with a particular focus on the involvement of populations in democratic processes in Colombia and Chile. We examine how countries are looking to empower their populations through crowdsourcing participation, what the implications of these reforms for marginalized communities are and how Chile’s rejection of a progressive constitution remains a significant step for empowering citizens.

Featuring Carlos Bernal, professor of Law at the University of Dayton in the United States, and commissioner of the America Human Rights Commission, and Jennifer Piscopo, associate professor of politics at Occidental College in Los Angeles, in the United States.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced and written by Mend Mariwany, who is also the show’s executive producer. With assistance from our producer Katie Flood. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Beauty procedures from manicures to cosmetic surgery carry risk and the potential reward of a better life

Thu, 08 Jun 2023 12:46:31 +0100

Making yourself more beautiful can result in tangible, material rewards. Pretty privilege, as it is called, can lead to greater access to money and social capital, resulting in a better quality of life.

In Brazil, this understanding that beauty is important to one’s social status and mental and emotional wellbeing has prompted the state to subsidize cosmetic surgery. But this pursuit of beauty carries a dark side, and can often mean exposure to harm. We speak to an anthropologist and a cancer researcher about the potential harm inherent in seeking beauty treatments.

Featuring Carmen Alvaro Jarrín, associate professor of anthropology at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, in the US, and Maria Zhivagui, a postdoctoral researcher in environmental toxicology and cancer genomics at the University of California, in the US.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced and written by Nehal El-Hadi and Mend Mariwany, who is also the show’s executive producer, and with assistance from our producer Katie Flood. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Governments and environmental groups are turning to international courts to combat the impacts of climate change

Thu, 01 Jun 2023 12:17:52 +0100

A number of activist groups, mostly from developing nations already facing the realities of a changing climate, are taking a new legal approach to climate action. They are arguing that climate change cases are human rights cases and in doing so are wading into unprecedented legal waters. We speak with three scholars about current legal cases tying climate change and human rights together, what these cases might mean for the climate movement and how human rights law can produce real change on the ground.

Featuring Niak Sian Koh, postdoctoral researcher in Sustainability Science at the Stockholm Resilience Center at Stockholm University in Sweden; Zoe Nay, PhD candidate with Melbourne Law School at the University of Melbourne, Australia; and Jackie Smith, professor of sociology at the University of Pittsburgh, in the US.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood. The executive producer is Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Improving how the IMF does business could help billions of people worldwide

Thu, 25 May 2023 12:03:19 +0100

In countries across the Global South, the launch of IMF programs often sparks considerable concern. This is because of the IMF’s reputation: during the 1980s, many nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America turned to the IMF seeking loans to mitigate economic challenges. These loans were accompanied by stringent conditions, and countries faced pressure to reduce public subsidies and social spending, downsize the public sector workforce, and increase taxes. We speak with two researchers about the impact of IMF loans on recipient countries and why countries continue to rely on IMF loans. We also discuss potential alternatives to this system.

Featuring Danny Bradlow, a professor of International Development Law and African Economic Relations and senior fellow at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, and Attiya Waris is Ambassador of Fiscal Law and Policy at the University of Nairobi in Kenya.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced and written by Mend Mariwany, who is also the show’s executive producer. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

The solutions needed to address climate change already exist – Fear and Wonder podcast

Thu, 18 May 2023 16:01:41 +0100

One of the key findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Synthesis Report is that there are solutions available right now, across all sectors of the economy, that could at least halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. “The problem is getting worse,” explains Greg Nemet, a Canadian renewable policy expert and IPCC author. “But we’ve got solutions now that are so much more affordable than they were.”

Fear & Wonder is a new podcast from The Conversation that takes you inside the UN’s era-defining climate report via the hearts and minds of the scientists who wrote it. In this episode, we’re delving into one of the major shifts in the public communication of climate change – the attribution of extreme weather events to climate change.

Featuring Gregory Nemet, Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US, and Yamina Saheb, Senior Energy Policy Analyst at OpenEXP.

Fear and Wonder is produced by Michael Green and is sponsored by the Climate Council, an independent, evidence-based organisation working on climate science, impacts and solutions.

Further reading:

Fast Fashion: Why garment workers’ lives are still in danger 10 years after Rana Plaza

Thu, 11 May 2023 12:34:17 +0100

Ten years ago this month, much attention turned to the global garment industry when a group of garment factories collapsed at Rana Plaza near Dhaka, Bangladesh. The accident, called a “mass industrial homicide” by unions in Bangladesh, killed 1,124 people and injured at least 2,500 more. Most of the people who went to work that day were young women, almost all were supporting families with their wages and all were at the bottom of the global production chain.

We feature an episode from our colleagues of the series Don’t Call Me Resilient, to look back at the Rana Plaza disaster to explore how much — or how little — has changed for garment worker conditions since.

Featuring Dina Siddiqi, Clinical Associate Professor of Liberal Studies at New York University in the US, and Minh-Ha T. Pham, Associate Professor at Pratt Institute, also in the US.

This episode of Don’t Call Me Resilient was produced by Vinita Srivastava, the associate producer is Boke Saisi, with contributions from Jennifer Moroz and Ateqah Khaki. Sound design is by Rehmatullah Sheikh and the show’s student journalist this year was Ollie Nicholas. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Cloud seeding can increase rain and snow, and new techniques may make it a lot more effective

Thu, 04 May 2023 12:36:04 +0100

Small amounts of rain can mean the difference between struggle and success. For nearly 80 years, an approach called cloud seeding has, in theory, given people the ability to get more rain and snow from storms and make hailstorms less severe. But only recently have scientists been able to peer into clouds and begin to understand how effective cloud seeding really is. We speak with three researchers about the simple yet murky science of cloud seeding, the economic effects it can have on agriculture and research that may allow governments to use cloud seeding in more places.

Featuring Katja Friedrich, Associate Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder; Dean Bangsund, Research Scientist in Agribusiness and Applied Economics at North Dakota State Univeristy; and Linda Zou, Professor of Civil Infrastructure and Environmental Engineering at Khalifa University.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced and written by Katie Flood. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Dangerous and dirty – but cheap – used cars exported from the US and Europe are filling roads in Africa

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 12:03:11 +0100

In countries across Africa and Latin America, old used cars from places like the U.S. and Europe provide vital access to transportation to people who would otherwise be unable to afford their own vehicles. While this process extends the lives of these cars, the practice is not without problems, in particular with regards to pollution and passenger safety. We speak with two researchers about why richer countries export used cars, what impacts they have in developing nations and whether import restrictions are effectively stemming the rise in pollution and accidents caused by this practice.

Featuring Festival Godwin Boateng, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Sustainable Urban Development at The Earth Institute at Columbia University in the US, and Paul Bledsoe, Professional Lecturer at American University in the US.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany, who is also the executive producer of The Conversation Weekly. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Fear and Wonder podcast: how scientists attribute extreme weather events to climate change

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 10:48:47 +0100

Last month the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its Synthesis Report of the Sixth Assessment Report. It showed global temperatures are now 1.1℃ above pre-industrial levels. This warming has driven widespread and rapid global changes, including more frequent and intense weather extremes that are now impacting people and ecosystems all over the world. But when an extreme weather event hits, how certain can we be that it was made more likely by climate change? How do we know it wasn’t just a rare, naturally-occuring event that might have happened anyway?

Featuring Dr Friederike Otto, Senior Lecturer in Climate Science at the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London in the UK, David Karoly honorary Professor at the University of Melbourne in Australia, and Tannecia Stephenson, Physics Professor at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica.

Fear and Wonder is produced by Michael Green and is sponsored by the Climate Council, an independent, evidence-based organisation working on climate science, impacts and solutions.

Further reading:

How recognising cultural practices in environmental regulation can help protect natural resources like sandalwood

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 13:12:28 +0100

Conserving or protecting natural resources, like landscapes or products, can involve limiting people's access or use. When natural resources are connected to cultural, religious or spiritual practices, conservation needs to consider both biological and cultural diversity. Indian or red sandalwood, highly valued for its wood and oil, is a natural resource with significant economic and cultural value. The fragrant wood is used for carvings, furniture and in buildings, while the oil distilled from its heartwood has perfume, incense and medicinal applications. We speak with a chemist, an environmental historian and an environment and society researcher on why cultural preservation is key to the sustainable management of natural resources like sandalwood.

Featuring Danny Hettiarachchi, chemist and adjunct research fellow at the University of Western Australia, Ezra Rashkow, an environmental and South Asian historian at Montclair State University in the US,, and Jules Pretty, professor of environment and society at the University of Essex in the UK.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced and written by Nehal El-Hadi and Mend Mariwany, who is also the show’s executive producer. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Do glitzy awards like the Earthshot Prize actually help fight climate change?

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 13:29:03 +0100

We speak with three researchers who study how climate research is funded to find out whether the pomp and circumstance of high-profile climate innovation prizes outweighs the actual research they fund, or whether they actually play an important role in the larger effort to find climate solutions.

Featuring David Reiner, University Senior Lecturer in Technology Policy at the Cambridge Judge Business School; Abbas Abdul, Researcher at the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex; and Mark Maslin, professor of Earth System Science at University College London.

Further reading:

Too many digital distractions are eroding our ability to read deeply

Thu, 30 Mar 2023 13:33:15 +0100

In an era of ceaseless notifications from apps, devices and social media platforms, as well as access to more information than we could possibly consider, how do we find ways to manage? And is the way that we think, focus and process information changing as a result? We speak with three researchers who study human-computer interaction, technology design and literacy about how all of these demands on our attention are affecting us, and what we could possibly do about it.

Featuring Maryanne Wolf, director of the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice at the University of California, in the United States, Kai Lukoff, assistant professor at Santa Clara University, US, and Daniel Le Roux, a senior lecturer at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.

Further reading:

Back to the Moon

Thu, 23 Mar 2023 13:35:47 +0100

Both the U.S. and China have plans to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon. You might be wondering: why now? The answer to that is the relatively recent discovery of water on the Moon. The question of how humanity will establish a Moon base is perhaps a deeper and more important one. We speak with two people, a planetary scientist who studies lunar geology and a scholar who works on space law and politics, about the challenges facing nations as humanity heads to the Moon.

Featuring Mahesh Anand, Professor of Planetary Science and Exploration at The Open University in the UK, and Michelle L.D. Hanlon, Professor of Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi in the US.

This episode was written by Katie Flood and produced by Dan Merino and Katie Flood. The executive producer is Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

If you like The Conversation Weekly, we encourage you to check out two limited series podcasts produced by The Conversation: Fear & Wonder and Great Mysteries of Physics. Available on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen to your podcasts.

Iraq 20 years on: researchers assess how US invasion shapes lives today

Thu, 16 Mar 2023 13:46:46 +0100

On March 19, 2003, the United States led an unlawful invasion into Iraq, occupying the country for over eight years until the official withdrawal of troops throughout 2011. It is estimated that around 405,000 deaths occurred as a direct result. Most of these deaths were of Iraqi civilians, hundreds of thousands of others were injured, and over nine million displaced. The invasion was followed by the rise of sectarian violence that followed between 2006 and 2010, and the Islamic State group’s occupation in parts of the country from 2013-17. We speak to two researchers who examine the impact the invasion and conflict have had on the lives of Iraqis.

Featuring Sana Murrani, associate professor in spatial practice with a background in architecture and urban design at the University of Plymouth, UK, and Inna Rudolf, senior research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Divided Societies, King's College London in the UK.

Further reading:

Is time an illusion?

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 13:36:16 +0100

Without a sense of time, leading us from cradle to grave, our lives would make little sense. But on the most fundamental level, physicists aren't sure whether the sort of time we experience exists at all. We talk to three experts and find out if time could potentially be moving backwards as well as forwards.

Featuring Sean Carroll, Homewood professor of natural philosophy at Johns Hopkins University, Emily Adlam, postdoctoral associate of the philosophy of physics at Western University and Natalia Ares, Royal Society university research fellow at the University of Oxford.

This episode was presented by Miriam Frankel and produced by Hannah Fisher. Executive producers are Jo Adetunji and Gemma Ware. Social media and platform production by Alice Mason, sound design by Eloise Stevens and music by Neeta Sarl. A transcript is available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Three AI experts on how access to ChatGPT-style tech is about to change our world

Thu, 02 Mar 2023 15:49:44 +0100

When ChatGPT burst onto the technology world in November 2022, it gained 100 million users within just two months after its launch. The technology itself is fascinating, but part of what makes ChatGPT uniquely interesting is the fact that essentially overnight, most of the world gained access to a powerful generative artificial intelligence that they could use for their own purposes. We speak with researchers who study computer science, technology and economics to explore how the rapid adoption of technologies has, for the most part, failed to change social and economic systems in the past – but why AI might be different, despite its weaknesses.

Featuring Daniel Acuña, Associate Professor of Computer Science, at the University of Colorado Boulder in the US, Kentaro Toyama, Professor of Community Information at the University of Michigan, also in the US, and Thierry Rayna, Professor of Innovation and Entrepeneurship Management, École polytechnique in France.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced by Katie Flood and Dan Merino, and also written by Katie Flood. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Mend Mariwany is the show's executive producer. Full credits for this episode are available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Discovery: Biologists discovered a new species of tiny owl on the forested island of Príncipe, and it's already under threat

Mon, 27 Feb 2023 11:32:24 +0100

An international team of biologists has discovered a tiny new species of owl, called the Príncipe scops owl, living in a remote forest on an island off the west coast of Africa.

Featuring Bárbara Freitas, a Ph.D. fellow who studies bird evolution at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood and hosted by Dan Merino. The interim executive producer is Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.

Full credits for this episode are available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

After oil: the challenge and promise of getting the world off fossil fuels

Thu, 23 Feb 2023 14:32:45 +0100

Our dependence on fossil fuels is one of the biggest challenges to overcome in the fight against climate change. But production and consumption of fossil fuels is on the rise, and expected to peak within the next decade. We speak to two researchers who examine the political challenges of transitioning to a world after oil, and what it means for those states who rely on oil for resources.

Featuring Caleb Wellum, Assistant Professor of U.S. History, at the University of Toronto in Canada, and Natalie Koch, Professor of Human Geography at the University of Heidelberg, in Germany.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced and written by Mend Mariwany who is also the show's executive producer. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Loneliness is making us physically sick, but social prescribing can treat it

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 14:04:04 +0100

Social isolation and loneliness are increasingly becoming a societal problem, as they increase polarization and impact on our physical health. In 2018, two years before the pandemic, the United Kingdom created a ministerial portfolio for loneliness. Japan, where nearly 40 per cent of the population report experiencing loneliness, began a similar position in 2021. We speak to three researchers who invite us to more deeply consider loneliness and social isolation, and their impacts on our health and society.

Featuring Ananya Chakravarti, an associate professor of the history of emotions at Georgetown University in Washington in the US, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University in the US, and Kate Mulligan, an assistant professor at the Dalla Lana School of Health in Canada.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany, who is also the show’s executive producer. Eloise Stevens does our sound design and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Lack of diversity in clinical trials is leaving minority patients behind and harming the future of medicine

Thu, 09 Feb 2023 13:14:46 +0100

Despite the many biological differences between people of different sexes, races, ages and life histories, chances are that if two people walk into a doctors office with the same symptoms, they are going to get the same exact treatment. As you can imagine, a whole range of treatments – from drugs to testing – could be much more effective if they were designed to work with many different kinds of bodies, not just some abstract, generic human. We speak to three researchers who are looking at ways to make medicine more precise. It starts with simply making sure that clinical trial participants look like the actual patients a drug is meant to treat. And in the future, precision medicine could help each person get medical care that is tailored to their own biology, just like a custom shirt.

Featuring Jennifer Miller, professor of medicine at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, in the US, Julia Liu, professor of medicine at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, in the US, and Keith Yamamoto, head of Precision Medicine at the University of California San Francisco in the US.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced and written by Katie Flood. Mend Mariwany is the show's executive producer. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Influencers are getting hired by smaller cities to attract new residents and generate revenue

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 13:16:08 +0100

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the demographics of cities shifted. As stay-at-home orders, remote work and bubbling reduced social interaction, and restaurants, venues and arts destinations shut down temporarily, people started reconsidering their decision to remain in a big city. We spoke with two urban theorists about why people were leaving larger cities for smaller ones, how authenticity was marketed using social media influencers, and why smaller and mid-sized cities are underrated.

Featuring Avi Friedman, a professor of architecture at McGill University in Montréal, Canada, and David A. Banks, lecturer in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Albany in New York, US.

Further reading:

Beavers and oysters are helping restore lost ecosystems with their engineering skills

Thu, 26 Jan 2023 13:23:00 +0100

Whether you’re looking at tropical forests in Brazil, grasslands in California or coral reefs in Australia, it’s hard to find places where humanity hasn't left a mark. The scale of the alteration, invasion or destruction of natural ecosystems can be mindbogglingly huge. Thankfully, researchers, governments and everyday people around the world are putting more effort and money into conservation and restoration every year, but the task is large. How do you plant a billion trees? How do you restore thousands of square miles of wetlands? How do you turn a barren ocean floor back into a thriving reef? In some cases, the answer lies with certain animals – called ecosystem engineers – that can kick start the healing. We talk to three experts about how ecosystem engineers can play a key role in restoring natural places and why the human and social sides of restoration are just as important as the science.

Featuring Josh Larsen, associate professor in water science at the University of Birmingham in the UK, Dominic McAfee, a postdoctoral researcher in marine ecology at the University of Adelaide in Australia, and Andy Kliskey, professor of landscape architecture and Co-director of the Center for Resilient Communities at the University of Idaho in the US.

This episode was produced by Katie Flood. The executive producer is Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Discovery: Secretly documenting starvation in the Warsaw Ghetto

Mon, 23 Jan 2023 13:53:55 +0100

During the years of suffering and tragedy that defined the Warsaw Ghetto in the midst of World War II, a team of Jewish doctors secretly documented the effects of starvation on the human body when the Nazis severely limited the amount of food available in the Jewish ghetto.

Featuring Merry Fitzpatrick, an assistant professor at Tufts University who studies food security and malnutrition.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and hosted by Dan Merino. The executive producer is Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.

Further reading:

Social welfare services are being cut across the world – but providing them is about more than just money

Thu, 19 Jan 2023 13:42:48 +0100

Across the globe, health-care workers have gone on strike to protest the stress placed on them by the global COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn, pushing already-strained services beyond their limits. These labour actions are part of the challenges faced by countries attempting to provide welfare services to their populations. We talk to three experts about why social welfare services are being cut, and what actions governments may need to take to ensure better access.

Featuring Miguel Niño-Zarazúa, senior economics lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London in the UK, Christine Corlet Walker, a research fellow at the Center for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity at the University of Surrey, also in the UK, and Erdem Yörük, assistant professor at Koç University in Istanbul in Turkey.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood. The executive producer is Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Discovery: Reindeer's fascinating color-changing eyes

Wed, 21 Dec 2022 12:55:33 +0100

Reindeer's noses may not glow red, but these cold-loving creatures have evolved the ability to change the color of their eyes to help them thrive in northern winters. A neuroscientist explains how he discovered that a part of the reindeer eye called the tapetum lucidum is perfectly adapted to the dim, blue in the Arctic.

Featuring Glen Jeffery, a professor of neuroscience at the Institute of Opthamology at University College London in the UK.

This episode was produced by Katie Flood. The interim executive producer is Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading

How reindeer eyes transform in winter to give them twilight vision

Five ways reindeer are perfectly evolved for pulling Santa’s sleigh

James Webb Telescope reveals unexpectedly busy early universe

Thu, 15 Dec 2022 14:55:43 +0100

If you want to know what happened in the earliest years of the universe, you are going to need a very big, very specialized telescope. Much to the joy of astronomers and space fans everywhere, the world has one – the James Webb Space Telescope. In this episode, we talk to three experts about what astronomers have learned about the first galaxies in the universe and how just six months of data from James Webb is already changing astronomy.

Featuring Jeyhan Kartaltepe, Associate Professor of Astrophysics at Rochester Institute of Technology, Jonathan Trump, Associate Professor of Physics at University of Connecticut and Michael J. I. Brown, Associate Professor in Astronomy at Monash University.

This episode was produced by Katie Flood and Daniel Merino, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. It was written by Katie Flood and Daniel Merino. Mend Mariwany is the show’s executive producer. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Changing a nation's diet

Thu, 08 Dec 2022 10:49:57 +0100

How do you get a country to change its national diet? That’s what China has been trying by introducing potato as a staple as part of an effort to improve food security. In this episode, we talk to three experts about why countries need to shift what their citizens eat, and what the optimum diet for our planet might be.

Featuring Xiaobo Xue Romeiko, assistant professor of Environmental Health Sciences at University at Albany, State University of New York in the US, Paul Behrens, associate professor of energy and environmental change at Leiden University in The Netherlands and Marco Springmann, professor of climate change food systems and health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the UK, and a senior researcher at the University of Oxford.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood with sound design by Eloise Stevens. It was written by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware is the show's executive producer. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Discovery: how celebrity footballers can help reduce prejudice against minorities

Mon, 05 Dec 2022 15:20:39 +0100

In the latest episode of Discovery, an ongoing series where we explore the stories behind new research discoveries from around the world, we hear about how a Muslim celebrity footballer helped reduce Islamophobia. In this episode, Salma Mousa, assistant professor of political science at Yale University in the US, explains how she found a "Mo Salah effect" and why she's now testing how durable it is.

This episode was produced and written by Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our other producers are Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.

More episodes of our Discovery series will be published via The Conversation Weekly every couple of weeks.

Further reading and listening:

How to depolarise deeply divided societies – podcast

Brazil’s iconic football shirt was a symbol of Bolsonaro – here’s how the World Cup is changing that

Young people’s shifting relationship with alcohol

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 11:20:08 +0100

The amount of alcohol young people drink in many high-income countries has seen a marked decline since the early 2000s. But in many developing countries, the opposite is happening. In this episode we talk to three experts studying trends in youth drinking to find out why and explore the questions this raises about the way young people see themselves and their place in the world.

Featuring Amy Pennay, research fellow at La Trobe University in Australia, Jonas Raninen, a researcher at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Emeka Dumbili a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Nigeria.

This episode was produced by Katie Flood, Dan Merino and Mend Mariwany. It was written by Katie Flood and Dan Merino. The executive producer is Gemma Ware. Eloise Stevens does our sound design and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Treating mental illness with electricity

Thu, 24 Nov 2022 10:30:25 +0100

Mental illnesses like obsessive compulsive disorder, depression and addiction are notoriously hard to treat and often don't respond to drugs. But a new wave of treatments that stimulate the brain with electricity are showing promise on patients and in clinical trials. We talk to three experts and one patient about the history of treating mental illness, how new technology and deeper understanding of the brain are leading to better treatments and where the neuroscience of mental illness is headed next.

Featuring Rachel A. Davis, a psychiatrist and researcher at University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in the US and her patient Moksha Patel, a physician and professor at the University of Colorado who has severe obsessive compulsive disorder. We also hear from Joseph J. Fins, a neuroethicist and professor of medicine at Wei Cornell Medical College, part of Cornell University in the US and Jacinta O'Shea, a neuroscientist and associate professor at the University of Oxford.

Further reading:

Uncharted Brain 3: the role viruses may play in Alzheimer’s

Sat, 19 Nov 2022 08:09:16 +0100

There are many competing theories about what causes Alzheimer's disease. For more than 30 years, Ruth Itzhaki has been accumulating evidence that viruses are involved in its development in the brain. We investigate in the In the third and final part of Uncharted Brain: Decoding Dementia.

Featuring Ruth Itzhaki, professor emeritus of molecular neurobiology at the University of Manchester in the UK, Dana Cairns, a postdoctoral research fellow at Tufts University in the US and Davangere P. Devanand, director of geriatric psychiatry and professor of psychiatry and neurology, Columbia University Medical Center in the US.

The series is hosted by Paul Keaveny and Gemma Ware and was initially published via The Anthill podcast from the team at The Conversation in the UK.

Uncharted Brain was produced by Tiffany Cassidy with sound design by Eloise Stevens. The executive producer is Gemma Ware. The Conversation Weekly theme music is by Neeta Sarl.

Further reading:

Uncharted Brain 2: the family trauma of dementia from sports injuries

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 08:27:21 +0100

In the second of a three-part series, Uncharted Brain: Decoding Dementia, we explore chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a form of dementia that athletes from a whole range of sports can develop. We hear about the toll it can take on family members, who are often unaware of what’s happening to their loved ones.

Featuring Matthew Smith, a senior lecturer in sport and exercise psychology at the University of Winchester in the UK and Lisa McHale, director of family relations at the Concussion Legacy Foundation.

The series is hosted by Paul Keaveny and Gemma Ware and was initially published via The Anthill podcast from the team at The Conversation in the UK.

Uncharted Brain was produced by Tiffany Cassidy with sound design by Eloise Stevens. The executive producer is Gemma Ware. The Conversation Weekly theme music is by Neeta Sarl.

Further reading:

Uncharted Brain 1: a lifelong study unlocks clues to Alzheimer’s

Thu, 17 Nov 2022 11:02:46 +0100

This week we're running a three-part series called Uncharted Brain: Decoding Dementia exploring new research searching for answers to how dementia works in the brain and the damage it leaves behind.

The series is hosted by Paul Keaveny and Gemma Ware and was initially published via The Anthill podcast from the team at The Conversation in the UK.

In the first episode, we explore how a study which began just after the end of the second world war is revealing new insights into the risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease. Featuring Marcus Richards, professor of psychology in epidemiology and Jonathan Schott, professor of neurology, both at UCL in the UK and David Ward, one of the cohort study participants.

Uncharted Brain was produced by Tiffany Cassidy with sound design by Eloise Stevens. The executive producer is Gemma Ware. The Conversation Weekly theme music is by Neeta Sarl.

Further reading:

Africa's stolen objects: what happens after they return

Thu, 10 Nov 2022 11:37:06 +0100

Momentum is growing for objects stolen during the colonial era that are now held in museums in Europe and North America to be returned to the places and communities that they were taken from. We talk to three experts about what happens to these objects once they're returned and the questions their restitution is raising about the relationship between communities and museums in Africa.

Featuring John Kelechi Ugwuanyi, senior lecturer in archaeology and tourism at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka, Farai Chabata, visiting lecturer in heritage studies at the University of Zimbabwe and senior curator of ethnography for the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe and Aribiah David Attoe, lecturer in philosophy at the University of Witwatersrand.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood. The executive producer is Gemma Ware. Eloise Stevens does our sound design and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading

How to depolarize deeply divided societies

Thu, 03 Nov 2022 11:25:51 +0100

From the US, to Brazil, to India, deepening political polarisation is used as a frame through which to see a lot of 21st century politics. But what can actually be done to depolarise deeply divided societies, particularly democracies? In this episode we speak to a political scientist and a philosopher trying to find answers to that question.

Featuring Jennifer Lynn McCoy, professor of political science at Georgia State University in the US and Robert B. Talisse, professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University in the US.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood. The executive producer is Gemma Ware. Eloise Stevens does our sound design and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. Read a transcript of this episode. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading and listening:

Discovery: celibacy's surprising evolutionary advantages

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 10:25:56 +0100

Welcome to the first episode of Discovery, a new series via The Conversation Weekly where we hear the stories behind new research discoveries from around the world. In this episode, Ruth Mace, professor of anthropology at University College London in the UK, explains how her research with the families of Tibetan monks in China suggests celibacy might have some surprising evolutionary advantages.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. The executive producer was Gemma Ware. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.

More episodes of our Discovery series will be published via The Conversation Weekly every couple of weeks.

Further reading:

Celibacy: its surprising evolutionary advantages – new research

Radiation, pollution and urbanization are taking over natural selection

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 10:31:04 +0100

Humans do a lot of different things to the environment, and there aren’t many natural processes that can rival the scale of changes brought on by human activity. In this episode, we speak to three experts who study different ways that human action – from radiation to pollution to urbanization – is affecting how plants and animals evolve, and how humanity has become the single biggest driver of evolutionary changes on Earth.

Featuring Germán Orizaola, a biologist at the University of Oviedo in Spain, Andrew Whitehead, a professor of environmental toxicology at University of California, Davis in the US and Marc Johnson, a professor of biology at the University of Toronto in Canada.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and Daniel Merino and the executive producer is Gemma Ware. Eloise Stevens does our sound design and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading and listening:

When digital nomads come to town

Thu, 20 Oct 2022 10:12:01 +0100

Digital nomads who work as they travel are often attracted by a life of freedom far removed from the daily office grind. Many head to cities that have become known hotspots for remote workers. In this episode, we find out what impact digital nomads have on these cities and the people who live there, and how governments are responding to the phenomenon.

Featuring Dave Cook, PhD candidate in anthropology at UCL in the UK, Adrián Hernández Cordero, head of sociology at Metropolitan Autonomous University in Mexico and Fabiola Mancinelli, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Barcelona in Spain.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. Read a transcript of this episode. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading and listening:

Inside Brazil’s divisive gun debate

Thu, 13 Oct 2022 10:10:17 +0100

Soon after Jair Bolsonaro’s election as president of Brazil in 2018, he began making it a lot easier for people in the country to buy guns. In this episode, we speak to two experts about Brazil’s boom in private gun ownership and why it’s exacerbating fears about political violence ahead of a run-off presidential election on October 30.

Featuring Erika Robb Larkins, associate professor of anthropology and director of the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University in the US and Juliano Cortinhas, professor of international relations at the University of Brasilia in Brazil.

This episode was produced by Gemma Ware and Mend Mariwany, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. Read a transcript of this episode. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading and listening:

Secretive lawsuits by fossil fuel companies could hold back climate action

Thu, 06 Oct 2022 10:13:05 +0100

A new barrier to climate action is opening up in an obscure and secretive part of international trade law which fossil fuel investors are using to sue countries if policy decisions go against them. We speak to experts about the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism and how it works. Many are worried that these clauses in international trade deals could jeopardise global efforts to save the climate – costing countries billions of dollars in the process.

Featuring Kyla Tienhaara, Canada research chair in economy and environment at Queen's University, Ontario in Canada, Emilia Onyema, reader in international commercial Law at SOAS, University of London in the UK, Lea Di Salvatore, PhD researcher at the University of Nottingham in the UK and Maria-Rita D'Orsogna, anti-oil activist and professor of mathematics at California State University, Northridge in the US.

This episode was produced by Gemma Ware and Mend Mariwany, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript is also available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Psychedelic research: balancing trippyness with a new scientific rigor

Thu, 29 Sep 2022 10:36:08 +0100

As research into psychedelics and their medical uses makes a comeback, scientists are having to deal with the legacy – both scientific and social – of a 40-year near total freeze on psychedelic research. In this episode, we speak with three experts about the early rise and fall of psychedelics in western science and culture, how the mystical and often vague language of the 60s and 70s still pervades research today and what it’s like to actually run clinical trials using psilocybin.

Featuring Robin Carhart-Harris at the University of California, San Francisco in the US; Wayne Hall, at the University of Queensland in Australia; and Josjan Zijlmans at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript is also available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Thwaites Glacier: the melting, Antarctic monster of sea level rise

Thu, 22 Sep 2022 10:39:40 +0100

The Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica is one of many bodies of ice that are melting, but this massive glacier is uniquely important when it comes to sea level rise. In this episode we talk to three experts studying the glacier in Antarctica to find out what's happening and why it's so significant.

Featuring Yixi Zheng, a PhD candidate in Oceanography at the University of East Anglia in the UK, Ted Scambos, a senior research scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder and Paul Holland, an ocean and ice scientist at the British Antarctic Survey.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript is also available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

Keeping buildings cool as it gets hotter

Thu, 15 Sep 2022 10:34:14 +0100

For thousands of years, people living in parts of the world used to high temperatures have deployed traditional passive cooling techniques in the way they design their buildings. But "modern" styles of architecture using concrete and glass often usurped local building techniques better suited to hotter climates. In this episode, we explore why that happened, and how some architects are championing traditional techniques to help keep buildings cool.

Featuring Anthony Ogbuokiri, senior lecturer in architectural design at Nottingham Trent University in the UK, Vyta Pivo, assistant professor of architecture at the University of Michigan in the US and Susan Abed Hassan, professor of architectural engineering at Al-Nahrain University in Baghdad, Iraq.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript is available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

The cold war double agent abandoned by the spy agencies he risked his life for

Wed, 27 Jul 2022 12:49:59 +0100

M was a double agent during the cold war, working on the side of the west. But when the Iron Curtain fell, he felt abandoned by the secret services he risked his life for.

M's story is told by Eleni Braat, associate professor of international history at Utrecht University and Ben de Jong, research fellow at Leiden University. They've been interviewing him in depth for their research on what happens to spies when their secret service days come to an end.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced by Gemma Ware and Mend Mariwany. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here.

Further reading:

What did dinosaurs actually look like?

Thu, 16 Jun 2022 14:32:21 +0100

As the latest Jurassic World Dominion film hits cinemas, we’re re-running a story originally aired in 2021 about what dinosaurs really looked liked – and how scientists' understanding of their appearance keeps evolving.

Featuring Maria McNamara, professor of palaeobiology at University College Cork in Ireland and Nicolas Campione, senior lecturer in paleaobiology at the University of New England in Australia.

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode available here.

Read a transcript of the original version of this story.

Further reading:

A brief update

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 10:31:01 +0100

A little update about The Conversation Weekly podcast and what we'll be up to over the next few months.

If you've not yet completed our listener survey, we'd love to hear what you think about the show. It should take about five minutes to complete. Thank you!

India and Pakistan heatwave is a sign of worse to come

Thu, 26 May 2022 10:46:56 +0100

India and Pakistan have been sweltering under an unprecedented heatwave, the severity of which scientists attribute to climate change. In this episode we explore how much worse heatwaves in the region could get and how farmers can prepare for it.

Featuring Alan Thomas Kennedy-Asser, a research associate in climate science at the University of Bristol in the UK, Andrew King, a senior Lecturer in climate science at the University of Melbourne in Australia and Shruti Bhogal, who's just finished working as a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Cambridge in the UK.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available shortly.

Further reading

Australian election: how the country’s political landscape is shifting

Wed, 18 May 2022 22:29:12 +0100

As Australians prepare to vote in federal elections on May 21, in this episode we explore how the country’s political landscape is shifting – and why it's not looking good for Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Featuring Michelle Grattan, a professorial fellow at the University of Canberra and political correspondent for The Conversation in Australia. Grattan, who is one of Australia's most respected political journalists, also hosts the Politics with Michelle Grattan podcast for The Conversation.

We'd love to hear what you think about The Conversation Weekly. Please let us know via our listener survey, which should take about five minutes to complete. Thank you!

Further reading

What is adult ADHD and how to treat it

Thu, 12 May 2022 13:13:32 +0100

We'd love to hear what you think about The Conversation Weekly. Please let us know via our listener survey, which should take about five minutes to complete. Thank you!

Parents and doctors have known about childhood ADHD – attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – for decades, but it is only recently that the medical field has started to recognise, diagnose and seriously study ADHD in adults. In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, we explore what adult ADHD looks like, how it is diagnosed today and the many new treatments available to help those with the disorder live better lives.

Featuring Laura E Knouse an associate professor of psychology a the University of Richmond in the US, and Tamara May, senior research fellow at Monash University in Australia.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced by Mend Mariwany. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here.

You can also read a full transcript of this episode too.

Further reading

Neutrality: why countries choose not to join a war – and what responsibilities come with it

Thu, 05 May 2022 09:35:04 +0100

We'd love to hear what you think about The Conversation Weekly. Please let us know via our listener survey, which should take about five minutes to complete. Thank you!

When war breaks out, what does it mean for a country to remain neutral? In this episode we explore the advantages and disadvantages of neutrality – and what responsibilities come with the choice not to take sides. We talk to an historian about how an age of neutrality emerged in the 19th century and what lessons it has for the war in Ukraine. And we dig down into the reasons why one country – India – has decided to remain neutral on the conflict.

Featuring Maartje Abbenhuis, professor of history at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, and Swaran Singh, professor of diplomacy and disarmament at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India.

Further reading

Ukraine invasion threatens international collaboration in space – is current space law equipped to handle a new era of shifting power structures?

Thu, 28 Apr 2022 10:11:01 +0100

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is challenging the structures of international collaboration in space. In this episode, we talk to two experts about how space is entering a new era of international competition – and whether the existing laws are ready for what comes next.

Featuring Kuan-Wei (David) Chen, executive director of the Centre for Research in Air and Space Law at McGill University in Canada and Svetla Ben-Itzhak, assistant professor of space and international relations at Air University in the US.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced by Gemma Ware. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode available here. A transcript is also available to read.

Further reading

How your culture informs your emotional reaction to music

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 09:35:00 +0100

How much does your cultural background influence the way you react to music? Or whether you think a piece of music sounds happy or sad? That's what George Athanasopoulos and his colleagues decided to investigate. They travelled to a remote part of northwest Pakistan to spend time with the Kalash and Kho people who live there and find out how they reacted to western music. Athanasopoulos, an ethnomusicologist at Durham University in the UK, tells us what they discovered.

This episode is an extended version of an interview first published on February 3.

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode available here.

Further reading:

Why Indonesia plans to relocate its capital from Jakarta to a new forest city on the island of Borneo

Thu, 14 Apr 2022 09:45:52 +0100

Indonesia plans to move its capital city from Jakarta on the island of Java to a new forest city on the island of Borneo called Nusantara. We talk to three experts in urban planning and ecology to find out why, what the problems are with Jakarta – and what the environmental impacts of the project could be.

Featuring Eka Permanasari, associate professor in urban design, Monash University Australia, Hendricus Andy Simarmata, lecturer in urban planning at the University of Indonesia and Alex Lechner, associate professor in landscape ecology at Monash University Indonesia.

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode available here.

Further reading

Could lead makeup really have killed an 18th century socialite? A scientist investigated

Thu, 07 Apr 2022 10:06:32 +0100

Can makeup really kill you? That’s the myth attached to Maria Gunning, the Countess of Coventry, an 18th century socialite who reportedly died from her lead-based makeup in 1760, aged just 27. In this episode, we speak to Fiona McNeill, a professor of physics at McMaster University in Canada, who has recreated some centuries-old recipes for white lead makeup to test how dangerous these cosmetics really were.

Plus, an extract from a special episode of The Conversation's Don't Call Me Resilient podcast, about Will Smith's Oscar slap.

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with reporting from the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra by Ellen Duffy. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode available here.

Further reading

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy – 50 years of ongoing protest for Indigenous sovereignty in Australia

Thu, 31 Mar 2022 08:04:31 +0100

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy – a site of First Nations protest in Canberra, Australia – marks its 50th anniversary this year. In this episode, Carissa Lee, First Nations and public policy editor at The Conversation in Australia, explores its history and hears how the ongoing protest has influenced a new generation of Indigenous activism.

Featuring Bronwyn Carlson, professor of Indigenous studies and director of the Centre for Global Indigenous Futures at Macquarie University in Australia; Lynda-June Coe, a PhD candidate at Macquarie University and her Aunty Jenny Munro, a member of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy protest site in Canberra.

Plus, new research into how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the lives of young people born into poverty around the world – and their job prospects. We talk to Catherine Porter, director of the Young Lives study at the University of Oxford. (Listen from 33m46s)

This episode of the The Conversation Weekly is supported by the UK/Australia Season Patrons Board, the British Council and the Australian Government as part of the UK/Australia Season, which centres on the theme Who Are We Now? The season's programme reflects on the two countries’ shared history, explores their current relationship, and imagines their future together.

Further reading

How has Emmanuel Macron changed France?

Thu, 24 Mar 2022 12:13:21 +0100

It's been five years since Emmanuel Macron rocked the French political establishment with his victory in the 2017 presidential elections. France is now returning to the polls for two rounds of voting and Macron is favourite to win a second five-year term on April 24. In this episode, we ask two French politics experts: how has Macron changed the French political system?

Featuring, Gilles Ivaldi, a researcher in political science at Sciences Po Paris in France, and Anne-Cécile Douillet, a professor of political science at the University of Lille.

And, we talk to bee expert Adrian Dyer, an associate professor at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, about humanity’s long love affair with bees – and his research showing how people expressed this appreciation through art for thousands of years. (From 33m55)

And Claudia Lorenzo, culture editor for The Conversation in Madrid, Spain, talks about the Ukrainian cultural heritage at risk from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (From 44m20)

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Thanks to Dale Berning Sawa for the voiceover in this episode. Full credits for this episode available here.

Further reading

The history and evolution of Ukrainian national identity

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 14:00:59 +0100

What does it mean to be a Ukrainian? In this episode, we talk to three experts about the origins of Ukrainian nationalism, and how Ukrainian national identity is changing. Featuring Volodomyr Kulyk, head research fellow at the Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kyiv; Dominique Arel, professor and holder of the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa in Canada; and Olga Onuch, senior lecturer in politics, University of Manchester in the UK.

And we hear about a rare archive of Ukrainian dissident literature from the Soviet era. Katja Kolcio, associate professor of dance and environmental studies at Wesleyan University in the US, whose father collected the archive, explains why it's now in danger. (From 36m)

Finally, Moina Spooner, news editor for The Conversation in Nairobi, Kenya recommends some analysis marking the two-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic. (From 48m)

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode available here.

Further reading

The trauma of life in limbo for refugees and asylum seekers in immigration detention

Thu, 10 Mar 2022 10:42:58 +0100

The life of limbo for people in immigration detention is often deeply traumatic. In this episode we talk to two experts on immigration detention in Australia and the UK about why people are waiting months, sometimes years, for a decision about their future – and the impact it's having on them. Featuring Madeline Gleeson Senior Research Fellow, Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Sydney in Australia and Blerina Kellezi, associate professor in social and trauma psychology at Nottingham Trent University in the UK.

And as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushes more than two million refugees to flee the country, we speak to sociologist Irina Kuznetsova, associate professor at the University of Birmingham in the UK, about Russia’s history of using refugees from Ukraine as geopolitical tools. (From 32m55)

Finally, Martine Turenne, editor in chief for The Conversation in Montreal, Canada, recommends some recent stories tied to International Women's Day. (From 46m32)

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Mau Loseto. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode available here.

Further reading

Climate change: IPCC scientists on the narrowing window of opportunity to adapt

Thu, 03 Mar 2022 10:50:32 +0100

Scientists on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change just published a stark new warning about the impacts climate change is already having on our planet. Some of these impacts are already irreversible. In this episode, we talk to three of the scientists involved in the report about what the future may hold – and the narrowing window of opportunity to adapt to climate change.

Featuring Mark Howden, director of the ANU Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions at Australian National University, Balsher Singh Sidhu, postdoctoral research fellow in resources, environment and sustainability at the University of British Columbia in Canada and Edward R. Carr, professor and director of international development, community, and environment, Clark University in the US.

And a section of a rocket is about to crash on the Moon. Paul Hayne, assistant professor of astrophysical and planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder in the US tells us what he’s hoping to learn from studying the collision. (Listen from 36m)

And Jonathan Este, international politics editor at The Conversation in Cambridge in the UK, recommends some recent analysis on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Listen from 46m30)

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode available here.

Nuclear fusion record broken – what will it take to start generating electricity?

Thu, 24 Feb 2022 16:55:05 +0100

Scientists at a nuclear fusion lab in the UK just broke the world record for the amount of energy produced in a single fusion reaction. In this episode, we ask two nuclear experts what this means, and how long it’ll take before we can switch on the world’s first nuclear fusion power plant.

Featuring Livia Casali, assistant professor in nuclear engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in the US and Angel Ibarra Sanchez, a research professor in fusion technology at the Center for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research in Madrid, Spain.

And in our second story, we explore why living in a country that scores highly on global happiness rankings might not be all that it's cracked up to be. Brock Bastian, a professor of psychological sciences at the University of Melbourne in Australia, talks to us about his new research on the social pressure some people feel to be happy.

And Eric Smalley, science and technology editor at The Conversation in Boston, recommends some recent analysis on the cybersecurity and technology dimensions of the unfolding Ukraine war.

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode available here.

Further reading

Sahel security: what a wave of military coups means for the fight against jihadi groups in West Africa

Thu, 17 Feb 2022 11:50:14 +0100

Military juntas have seized power in a series of coups in recent months in Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso. We ask three experts what the coups mean for the war against jihadi insurgents in the Sahel – and for the future of French and European soldiers in the region.

Featuring Folahanmi Aina, PhD candidate at King's College London in the UK, Mady Ibrahim Kanté, lecturer at the University of Legal and Political Sciences of Bamako in Mali and Thierry Vircoulon, a researcher at the University of Paris in France.

And, we talk to researcher looking for ways to alleviate discrimination faced by people who speak English with a foreign accent. Shiri Lev-Ari, a lecturer in psychology at Royal Holloway University of London in the UK, explains why people might discriminate against non-native speakers even if they are not prejudiced – and what to do about it. (From 31m40s)

And Jack Marley, an environment editor for The Conversation in Newcastle, England, recommends some recent articles on the ethical questions raised by eating meat. (From 43m40s)

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode available here.

Further reading

Mapping the contours of Jihadist groups in the Sahel

In the Sahel, France is being pushed out (in French)

France has started withdrawing its troops from Mali: what is it leaving behind?

Here’s why people might discriminate against foreign accents – new research

Cow documentary shows the need for fundamental legal rights for animals

The meat paradox: how your brain wrestles with the ethics of eating animals

If Russia invades Ukraine, what could happen to natural gas supplies to Europe?

Thu, 10 Feb 2022 10:12:34 +0100

As frantic diplomatic efforts continue to avert a Russian invasion of Ukraine, Europe’s reliance on Russian gas supplies – and what would happen to them in the case of a war – remains an ever-present threat.

We speak to two experts on the geopolitics of natural gas about the history of the energy relationship between Russia and Europe, and the role gas supplies play in the current diplomatic efforts to avoid war. Featuring Michael Bradshaw, professor of global Energy at Warwick Business School at University of Warwick in the UK and Anastasiya Shapochkina politics lecturer at Sciences Po in France.

And, the Beijing winter Olympics are the first games to use 100% artificial snow. We talk to a Madeleine Orr, lecturer in sport ecology at Loughborough University in the UK about what that might mean for the athletes – and for the environment around the Olympic sites. (Listen from 30m30)

Plus, Haley Lewis for The Conversation in the Canadian capital Ottawa recommends some recent analysis of protests by truckers against COVID-19 restrictions that continue to block the city's streets. (Listen from 42m50)

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode available here.

Further reading:

The inside story of discovering omicron: South African scientists on the lessons their experience offers the rest of the world

Thu, 03 Feb 2022 11:28:59 +0100

What is it like to discover a new COVID-19 variant? We hear the inside story from Jinal Bhiman at South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases, one of the scientists who first alerted the world to the omicron variant. And Shabir A Madhi, professor of vaccinology at the University of Witwatersrand, explains what lessons South Africa's experience can offer the rest of the world about future coronavirus variants. We’re joined by Ozayr Patel, digital editor for The Conversation based in Johannesburg for this story.

And new research finds a person’s emotional reaction to music has a lot to do with their cultural background – we speak to George Athanasopoulos, a musicologist at Durham University in the UK. (From 34m15s)

Plus, Laura Hood, politics editor for The Conversation based in London, recommends some recent analysis on the political pressures facing the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, over parties held during coronavirus lockdowns. (From 47m10s)

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode available here. A transcript of this episode is available here.

Further reading:

China's plans for Xinjiang, and what it means for the region's persecuted Uyghurs

Thu, 27 Jan 2022 12:03:37 +0100

When the Beijing Winter Olympics open on February 4, diplomats from a number of countries, including the US, UK, Canada and Australia, will not be there to watch. Their diplomatic boycott hinges on concerns about human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. We talk to three experts about China’s long-term vision for Xinjiang, and what its strategy there means for the region’s persecuted Uyghurs.

Featuring Darren Byler, assistant professor of international studies at Simon Fraser University in Canada; David Tobin, lecturer in east Asian Studies at the University of Sheffield in the UK; and Anna Hayes, senior lecturer in politics and international relations at James Cook University in Australia.

And what toxic heavy metals are lingering in houses around the world? Cynthia Faye Isley, postdoctoral research fellow in environmental science at Macquarie University in Australia, explains what she's found analysing vacuum cleaner dust from around the world.

Plus, Matt Williams, breaking news editor at The Conversation in New York, recommends his picks of recent analysis on the build-up of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border.

Further reading:

The science of sugar – why we're hardwired to love it and what eating too much does to your brain

Thu, 20 Jan 2022 09:57:16 +0100

What are the evolutionary origins of sugar cravings? What makes something taste sweet? And what does too much sugar do to the brain? This week we talk to three experts and go on a deep dive into the science of sugar.

Featuring Stephen Wooding, assistant professor of anthropology and heritage studies at the University of California, Merced; Lina Begdache, assistant professor of nutrition at the Binghamton University, State University of New York and Kristine Nolin, associate professor of chemistry at the University of Richmond.

And after the Canadian government agreed in principle to pay CAN$40bn (US$32bn) over discrimination against First Nations children by the country’s child welfare system, we talk to Anne Levesque, assistant professor at the faculty of law at the University of Ottawa in Canada, about the long fight for justice. (From 29m20)

Plus, Veronika Meduna, science and health editor at The Conversation in New Zealand, recommends analysis of the recent Tonga volcano eruption. (From 45m45)

Further reading:

Read more from The Conversation's series on sugar's effects on human health and culture
Making sugar, making ‘coolies’: Chinese laborers toiled alongside Black workers on 19th-century Louisiana plantations, by Moon-Ho Jung, University of Washington
As a lawyer who’s helped fight for the rights of First Nations children, here’s what you need to know about the $40B child welfare agreements, by Anne Levesque, University of Ottawa
Why the volcanic eruption in Tonga was so violent, and what to expect next, by Shane Cronin, University of Auckland
The Tonga volcanic eruption has revealed the vulnerabilities in our global telecommunication system, by Dale Dominey-Howes, University of Sydney

Crypto countries: Nigeria and El Salvador's opposing journeys into digital currencies

Thu, 13 Jan 2022 11:35:53 +0100

We dive into the world of crypto and digital currencies in this episode to take a close look at two countries approaching them in very different ways. In 2021, El Salvador made the cryptocurrency bitcoin legal tender, while Nigeria launched its own central bank digital currency. Experts talk us through why they've taken such radically different paths.

Featuring Iwa Salami, Reader (Associate Professor) in Law at the University of East London in the UK and Erica Pimentel, Assistant Professor at the Smith School of Business at Queen's University, Ontario in Canada.

And if the latest Matrix film has left you wondering whether we are really living in a simulation, we talk to Benjamin Curtis, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Ethics at the Nottingham Trent University in the UK, on the long history of that idea. (At 30m20)

Plus, Rob Reddick, COVID-19 editor at The Conversation in the UK, picks out some recent coverage of the wave of omicron cases sweeping the world. (At 42m10)

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. You can sign up to The Conversation’s free daily email here. Full credits for this episode available here. And a transcript is available here.

Further reading:

Nigeria’s digital currency: what the eNaira is for and why it’s not perfect, by Iwa Salami, University of East London
After a big year for cryptocurrencies, what’s on the horizon in 2022?, by Erica Pimentel, Bertrand Malsch, and Nathaniel Loh, Queen's University, Ontario
Free Guy’s philosophy: could we just be lines of code in a grand simulation, by Benjamin Curtis, Nottingham Trent University
What are the symptoms of omicron?, by Tim Spector, King's College London
Why does omicron appear to cause less severe disease than previous variants?, by Paul Hunter, University of East Anglia

2022 science preview: mRNA vaccines, asteroid missions and collaborative robots

Wed, 05 Jan 2022 15:38:08 +0100

From new mRNA vaccines, to space mission and developments in robotic automation, in this episode we talk to three experts about some of the scientific advances they’re watching out for in 2022.

Featuring Deborah Fuller, professor of microbiology at the School of Medicine at University of Washington in the US and an expert on mRNA and DNA vaccines; Monica Grady, professor of planetary and space sciences at The Open University in the UK; Teresa Vidal-Calleja, associate professor at the Robotics Institute at University of Technology Sydney.

We also speak about what 2022 holds in store for global inequality with economist Carlos Gradín, research fellow at United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research in Helsinki in Finland.

And Naomi Schalit, senior politics and society editor at The Conversation in Boston in the US, recommends some reading to mark the one year anniversary of the attack on the Capitol in Washington D.C.

Further reading:

Material from asteroid Ryugu starts to give up secrets of early Solar System, by Monica Grady, The Open University
Global inequality may be falling, but the gap between haves and have-nots is growing, by Carlos Gradín, United Nations University & colleagues
The ‘sore loser effect’: Rejecting election results can destabilize democracy and drive terrorism, by James Piazza, Penn State
American support for conspiracy theories and armed rebellion isn’t new – we just didn’t believe it before the Capitol insurrection, by Amanda J. Crawford, University of Connecticut

How the arts can help us come back together again

Thu, 16 Dec 2021 11:31:56 +0100

In this episode we bring you three stories from Australia and the UK exploring the role of art in helping people deal with the challenges life throws at them.

We talk to Cherine Fahd, associate professor at the School of Design at the University of Technology Sydney about Being Together: Parramatta Yearbook, a photography project in a suburb of Sydney bringing people back together again as COVID-19 restrictions lift.

Angelina Hurley, PhD candidate at Griffith University in Brisbane tell us how art is used to process the trauma of colonisation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in Australia, and about the work of her father, the late artist Ron Hurley. And Kirsty Sedgman, a lecturer in theatre at the University of Bristol in England, explains why the second world war led to the birth of public funding for arts buildings in Britain – and how the Bristol Old Vic theatre became the first recipient.

And Gregory Rayko, international editor for The Conversation in Paris, France give us his recommended reading.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with reporting by Rhianna Patrick and Olivia Rosenman and sound design by Eloise Stevens. You can sign up to The Conversation’s free daily email here. Full credits for this episode available here.

Further reading

‘Art is our voice’: why the government needs to support Indigenous arts, not just sport, in the pandemic, by Angelina Hurley, Griffith University
Yearning for touch — a photo essay, by Cherine Fahd, University of Technology Sydney
Arts rescue package: by all means protect Britain’s ‘jewels’ – but don’t forget the rest of the crown, by Kirsty Sedgman, University of Bristol
Should we be alarmed by the sound of boots on the Russia-Ukraine border?, by Christine Dugoin-Clément, IAE Paris – Sorbonne Business School (in French)
France-Algeria: the diplomatic impasse, by Luis Martinez, Sciences Po (in French)

Peering into the history of the universe: astronomers explain why the James Webb Space Telescope is such a big deal

Thu, 09 Dec 2021 11:27:43 +0100

With a mirror six and half metres in diameter, a sun shield the size of a tennis court and an instrument compartment bigger than a phone booth, the James Webb Space Telescope is enormous. After years of delays, it's now set for launch on December 22. We speak to two astronomers about the telescope and the questions they hope it will answer about the beginning of the universe and the conditions on exoplanets orbiting far-away stars.

Featuring Martin Barstow, professor of astrophysics and space science at the University of Leicester in the UK and chair of the Space Telescope Science Institute Council; and Marcia Rieke, Regents professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona in the US and principal investigator on the near-infrared camera onboard the James Webb Space Telescope.

In our second story, Edwin Kwong, a research fellow at the University of Melbourne in Australia, explains his recent research into the tactics used by the food industry to boost sales of ultra-processed foods in middle-income countries.

And Luthfi Dzulfikar, an editor for The Conversation in Jakarta, Indonesia recommends some analysis on the recent volcanic eruption on the island of Java.

Further reading:

Planet pharma: what the industry got out of COVID

Thu, 02 Dec 2021 11:35:27 +0100

After nearly two years of COVID, how is the pharmaceutical industry faring? In this episode, we explore where drug companies were before the arrival of COVID and how they performed financially during the pandemic. And we hear about the ongoing tensions between profits and equitable access to vaccines.

Featuring, Ray Moynihan, assistant professor at the Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare at Bond University in Australia; Jérôme Caby, professor of corporate finance at Sorbonne Business School in Paris, France; Ana Santos Rutschman, assistant professor of law at Saint Louis University in the US; and Nicole Hassoun, professor of philosophy at Binghamton University, State University of New York in the US.

And Ozayr Patel, digital editor at The Conversation in Johannesburg, South Africa, recommends some reading on the emergence of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Further reading:

COVID vaccines offer the pharma industry a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reset its reputation. But it’s after decades of big profits and scandals, by Ray Moynihan, Bond University
Why Moderna won’t share rights to the COVID-19 vaccine with the government that paid for its development, by Ana Santos Rutschman, Saint Louis University
The US drug industry used to oppose patents – what changed? by Joseph M. Gabriel, Florida State University
The hunt for coronavirus variants: how the new one was found and what we know so far, by a panel of experts in South Africa
Omicron is the new COVID kid on the block: five steps to avoid, ten to take immediately, by Shabir A. Madhi, University of the Witwatersrand

How abortion access is changing around the world

Thu, 25 Nov 2021 10:17:13 +0100

Justices on the US Supreme Court are considering two challenges to abortion restrictions that could have wide-reaching implications for access to abortion across the country. In this episode, we look at what's at stake, and how else abortion laws are changing around the world.

Featuring Amanda Jean Stevenson, assistant professor of sociology, University of Colorado Boulder; Sydney Calkin, lecturer in political geography, Queen Mary University of London and Jane Marcus Delgado, professor of political science, College of Staten Island, CUNY.

We talk to a forensic scientist, Patrick Randolph-Quinney, Associate Professor of Forensic Science, Northumbria University, Newcastle in England. He explains how he studied bones to help solve the mystery of how to tell if a person was killed by a lightning strike.

And Wale Fatade, commissioning editor at The Conversation in Lagos, gives us some recommended reading.

Glasgow Climate Pact: what happened at COP26 and what it means for the world

Thu, 18 Nov 2021 11:34:01 +0100

What did the Glasgow COP26 climate change summit actually achieve? In this episode, we're joined by Jack Marley, energy and environment editor for The Conversation in the UK, as we speak to researchers from around the world to get their views on the negotiations and what needs to happen now.

Featuring Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate and Development at the Independent University Bangladesh; Richard Beardsworth, professor of international relations at the University of Leeds in England; Rachel Kyte, dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts University in the US; Anna Malos, country lead for Australia at ClimateWorks, part of Monash University in Australia; and Intan Suchi Nurhati, a senior scientist at the National Research and Innovation Agency in Indonesia.

And Stephen Khan, global executive editor for The Conversation, based in London, gives us some recommended reading.

Further reading:

COP26: experts react to the UN climate summit and Glasgow Pact, various authors
After COP26, the hard work begins on making climate promises real: 5 things to watch in 2022, by Rachel Kyte, Tufts University
Glasgow Climate Pact: where do all the words and numbers we heard at COP26 leave us?, by Mary Gagen, Swansea University
Here’s how some of Cape Town’s gangsters got out – and stayed out, by Dariusz Dziewanski, University of Cape Town
How to function in an increasingly polarized society, by Fiona MacDonald, University of Northern British Columbia

Ten years to 1.5°C: how climate anxiety is affecting young people around the world

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 12:02:27 +0100

We speak to a climate scientist who just updated a clock he created that counts down the seconds until the world reaches 1.5°C of global warming. And we hear from experts about the latest research evidence on climate anxiety – what it is, how common it is around the world and what to do about it.

Featuring Damon Matthews, professor and Concordia University research chair in climate science and sustainability at Concordia University in Canada, Caroline Hickman, lecturer in the department of social and policy sciences at the University of Bath in England, Charles Ogunbode, assistant professor in applied psychology at the University of Nottingham in England and Teaghan Hogg, PhD candidate in clinical psychology at the University of Canberra in Australia.

And Fabrice Rousselot, editor at The Conversation in Paris, gives us some recommended reading from the team in France.

Tigray: the devastating toll of Ethiopia's vicious year of war

Thu, 04 Nov 2021 11:49:01 +0100

A year since war broke out in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, conflict in the country is intensifying. In this episode, we talk to two experts about the worsening humanitarian situation in Tigray and the international community’s response to the conflict.

Featuring Emnet Negash, a PhD candidate at Ghent University in Belgium who is tracking the food situation in Tigray, and Mukesh Kapila, professor emeritus of global health and humanitarian affairs at the University of Manchester in England and a former UN official.

In our second story, we hear from Alejandro Gallego Schmid, senior lecturer in circular economy and life cycle sustainability assessment at the University of Manchester, about his findings that reusable food containers aren’t always better for the environment than disposable ones. (Listen at 32m25)

And Nicole Hasham, environment and energy editor at The Conversation in Australia, recommends some analysis tied to the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. (Listen at 43m30)

Further reading

Decades of progress gone in one year: Tigray’s healthcare system has been destroyed, by Berhe W Sahle, Deakin University and Mulu A Woldegiorgis, Swinburne University of Technology
Following the Tigray conflict, the rocky road to peace in Ethiopia, by Mukesh Kapila, University of Manchester
Reusable containers aren’t always better for the environment than disposable ones - new research, by Alejandro Gallego Schmid and Adisa Azapagic, University of Manchester and Joan Manuel F. Mendoza, Ikerbasque Foundatio
Scott Morrison attends pivotal global climate talks today, bringing a weak plan that leaves Australia exposed, by Frank Jotzo, Australian National University
Global emissions almost back to pre-pandemic levels after unprecedented drop in 2020, new analysis shows, by Pep Canadell, CSIRO and colleagues

Degrowth: why some economists think abandoning growth is the only way to save the planet

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 10:55:41 +0100

Some economists have long argued that to really save the planet – and ourselves – from the climate crisis, we need a fundamental overhaul of the way our economies work. In this episode, we explore the ideas of the degrowth movement and their calls for a contraction in the world’s consumption of energy and resources. We also compare degrowth to other post-growth proposals for governments to reduce their fixation on economic growth.

Featuring Samuel Alexander, research fellow at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute at the University of Melbourne in Australia, Lorenzo Fioramonti, full professor of political economy at the University of Pretoria in South Africa and also a serving Italian MP, and Beth Stratford PhD candidate at the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds in the UK.

And Veronika Meduna, science, health and environment editor at The Conversation in Wellington, gives us some recommended reading about the coronavirus situation in New Zealand.

Further reading

Beyond GDP: here’s a better way to measure people’s prosperity, by Henrietta Moore,UCL
Time for degrowth: to save the planet, we must shrink the economy, by Jason Hickel, London School of Economics and Political Science
Rediscover the ideas of Jacques Ellul, pioneer of décroissance, by Patrick Chastenet, Université de Bordeaux (in French)
‘If you want summer, get vaccinated’ – Jacinda Ardern sets the target for re-opening New Zealand, by Michael Plank, University of Canterbury and Shaun Hendy, University of Auckland
New Zealand cannot abandon its COVID elimination strategy while Māori and Pasifika vaccination rates are too low, by Collin Tukuitonga, University of Auckland

Taiwan: what is China's long-term strategy?

Thu, 21 Oct 2021 10:44:33 +0100

As military tensions run high once again across the Taiwan Strait, we talk to two experts about China’s longer-term reunification strategy – and what that means for Taiwan. Featuring Wen-Ti Sung, sessional lecturer in Taiwan Studies at the Australian National University and Olivia Cheung, research fellow at the SOAS China Institute at SOAS University of London.

Plus, we’re joined by Vinita Srivastava, host of the Don’t Call Me Resilient podcast from The Conversation in Canada. We feature part of their recent episode on the phenomenon of white – or mostly white people – in North America who pretend to be Indigenous. The conversation features two Indigenous scholars: Veldon Coburn, assistant professor in the Institute of Indigenous Research and Studies at the University of Ottawa and Celeste Pedri-Spade an associate professor in Indigenous Studies at Queen’s University. Listen to the full episode here.

And Luthfi Dzulfikar, education and young people’s editor at The Conversation in Jakarta, gives us some recommended reads from Indonesia.

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl and music in the Don't Call Me Resilient section is by Jahmal Padmore. You can sign up to The Conversation’s free daily email here. Full credits for this episode available here.

Further reading

Why Taiwan remains calm in the face of unprecedented military pressure from China, by Wen-Ti Sung, Australian National University
Taiwan: how the ‘porcupine doctrine’ might help deter armed conflict with China, by Zeno Leoni, King's College London
Stolen identities: What does it mean to be Indigenous? Don’t Call Me Resilient Podcast EP 8
Fostering girls’ education will be challenging under a Taliban regime, but Afghanistan can learn a lot from Indonesia, by M Niaz Asadullah, University of Malaya
Indonesia’s shrimp paste reigns supreme among others used in Asian cuisine, has potential, but needs a solid export strategy by Widya Agustinah, Universitas Katolik Atma Jaya (In Bahasa Indonesia)

Explaining the 2021 Nobel Prizes: how touch works, a better way to make medicine and the fiction of Abdulrazak Gurnah

Thu, 14 Oct 2021 10:48:47 +0100

Six prize announcements later, 12 men and one woman from 11 countries are now settling down to their new lives as Nobel laureates. In this episode, we delve into the scientific discoveries around touch and organic catalysts awarded the 2021 prizes in medicine and chemistry. And we talk to a friend and collaborator of Abdulrazak Gurnah, the Tanzanian writer awarded the Nobel prize for literature.

Featuring Kate Poole, associate professor in physiology, at the University of New South Wales in Australia, David Nagib, associate professor of chemistry at the Ohio State University and Susheila Nasta, emeritus professor of modern and contemporary literatures at Queen Mary University of London.

Plus, Ina Skosana, health editor at The Conversation in Johannesburg, recommends some recent analysis on a huge breakthrough for the African continent: the approval of a malaria vaccine. (At 41m30)

Further reading

My PhD supervisor just won the Nobel prize in physics – here’s how his research on complex systems changed science, by Paolo Barucca, UCL
Nobel Peace Prize for journalists serves as reminder that freedom of the press is under threat from strongmen and social media, by Kathy Kiely, University of Missouri-Columbia
Nobel winner David Card proves immigrants don’t reduce the wages of native-born workers, by Arvind Magesan, University of Calgary
Breakthrough malaria vaccine offers to reinvigorate the fight against the disease, by Eunice Anyango Owino, University of Nairobi
Malaria vaccine is a major leap forward: but innovation mustn’t stop here, by Jaishree Raman and Shüné Oliver, National Institute for Communicable Diseases

New clues to consciousness + AI helps finish Beethoven's 10th symphony

Thu, 07 Oct 2021 08:59:36 +0100

What’s happening in our brains to create consciousness? In this episode we hear from two scientists uncovering clues to where dopamine fits into this mystery. It could help the recovery of people with severe brain injuries.

Featuring Emmanual Stamatakis, who leads the cognition and consciousness imaging group at the Division of Anaesthesia, University of Cambridge in the UK and Leandro Sanz, a medical doctor and PhD candidate in medical sciences at the Coma Science Group at the University of Liège in Belgium.

Plus, the story of how artificial intelligence – and its human helpers – completed Beethoven’s unfinished 10th symphony. Ahmed Elgammal, a professor of computer science and director of the Art and AI lab at Rutgers University in New Jersey, who led the artificial intelligence side of the project, tells us how they did it.

And Holly Squire, arts and culture editor at The Conversation in Brighton gives us some of her recommended reading from this week.

Further reading

Consciousness: how the brain chemical ‘dopamine’ plays a key role – new research, by Barbara Jacquelyn Sahakian, Christelle Langley, Emmanuel A Stamatakis and Lennart Spindler, at the University of Cambridge
Science as we know it can’t explain consciousness – but a revolution is coming, by Philip Goff, Durham University
How a team of musicologists and computer scientists completed Beethoven’s unfinished 10th Symphony, by Ahmed Elgammal, Rutgers University
Remembering the Black abolitionists of slavery in Yorkshire, by Emily Zobel Marshall, Leeds Beckett University
How Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors became an LGBTQ+ anthem, by James Barker, Newcastle University

Germany election winners, losers, and how the Greens emerged as kingmakers + the benefits of saunas

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 10:36:57 +0100

After Germany’s recent election, coalition talks are now underway to determine the composition of the next government and who will succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor. We speak to three experts about what the results tell us about German voters’ priorities – and dig into the history of the Greens, now one of the kingmakers in coalition negotiations.

Featuring Jasmin Riedl, professor of political science at Bundeswehr University Munich in Germany, Niko Switek, visiting professor for German studies at University of Washington in the US and Chantal Sullivan-Thomsett, PhD candidate in German and politics at the University of Leeds in the UK.

In our second story, we talk to Charles James Steward, PhD candidate at the Centre for Sport, Exercise and Life Sciences at Coventry University in the UK, on his research looking at the health benefits of saunas and hot baths, particularly after exercise.

Plus, Lucía Caballero, environment and energy editor at The Conversation in Madrid gives us some of her recommended reading.

Further reading

German election explained: why is it always so hard to form a government?, by Alim Baluch, University of Bath
Germany election: Olaf Scholz’s social democrats come out on top but smaller parties hold the key to government, by Ed Turner, Aston University
German election sees centre-left eke out a slim victory over Angela Merkel’s party, by James M. Skidmore, University of Waterloo
Can’t face running? Have a hot bath or a sauna – research shows they offer some similar benefits, by Charles James Steward, Coventry University
Why we continue to live near volcanoes despite the risk, by María Belén Benito Oterino , Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) (in Spanish)
Can cities continue to grow in an unlimited way?, by Juan Manuel Ros García , CEU San Pablo University (in Spanish)

Have climate change predictions matched reality?

Thu, 23 Sep 2021 10:44:41 +0100

For decades, scientists have warned that unchecked global warming could bring climate extremes such as severe droughts, flash floods and rising sea levels. We talk to three climate change experts on how predictions of a changing world are holding up against the reality we’re living through.

Featuring Christopher White, head of the Centre for Water, Environment, Sustainability and Public Health at the University of Strathclyde in the UK, Victor Ongoma Assistant Professor, at Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique in Morocco, and Kewei Lyu a postdoctoral researcher in ocean and climate at CSIRO in Australia.

And Justin Bergman, deputy politics editor at The Conversation in Melbourne, Australia, recommends some recent analysis of the fallout from the recent AUKUS defence pact.

Further reading

How summer 2021 has changed our understanding of extreme weather, by Christopher J White, University of Strathclyde
Insights for African countries from the latest climate change projections, by Victor Ongoma, Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique
Pinpointing the role of climate change in every storm is impossible – and a luxury most countries can’t afford, by Friederike Otto, University of Oxford and Luke Harrington, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
IPCC says Earth will reach temperature rise of about 1.5℃ in around a decade. But limiting any global warming is what matters most, by Michael Grose and Pep Canadell at CSIRO; and Malte Meinshausen and Zebedee Nicholls, The University of Melbourne
C'est fini: can the Australia-France relationship be salvaged after scrapping the sub deal?, by Romain Fathi, Flinders University and Claire Rioult, Monash University
After AUKUS, Russia sees a potential threat — and an opportunity to market its own submarines, by Alexey D Muraviev, Curtin University

Why is Justin Trudeau more popular abroad than in Canada? + Clues on why mosquitoes bite some of us more than others

Thu, 16 Sep 2021 10:43:31 +0100

Ahead of Canadian elections on September 20, two experts in Canadian politics profile the current prime minister, Justin Trudeau. They explore why he's so much more popular abroad than at home and assess what his real foreign policy record has been beyond being a celebrity.

Featuring Alex Marland, professor of political science at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Jeremy Wildeman, Research Fellow at the Human Rights Research and Education Centre, University of Ottawa and Adjunct Assistant Professor at Queen's University, Ontario.

In our second story (at 28m55), we hear about research providing new clues on why mosquitoes bite some people more than others. Madelien Wooding, a researcher at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Pretoria, explains how her team pinpointed some of the chemical compounds that make our skin more attractive to mosquitoes.

We also hear (25m50) from Clea Chakraverty, politics editor at The Conversation in France about their new podcast series on what it takes to be president of France, Moi président·e, and Moina Spooner, assistant editor at The Conversation in Nairobi, recommends some reading on two concerning recent events in Guinea (39m38).

Further reading

From sunny ways to pelted with stones: Why do some Canadians hate Justin Trudeau?, by Fenwick McKelvey, Concordia University and Scott DeJong, Concordia University
Rhetoric Check: Historically, how important is the 2021 Canadian election?, by Alex Marland, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Canada’s non-diplomacy puts Canadians at risk in an unstable Middle East, by Jeremy Wildeman, University of Bath
We’re a step closer to figuring out why mosquitoes bite some people and not others, by Madelien Wooding, University of Pretoria and Yvette Naudé, University of Pretoria
Pasha 121: Why we need mosquitoes, featuring Jeremy Herren, Scientist, International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology
Guinea coup highlights the weaknesses of West Africa’s regional body, by Benjamin Maiangwa, Lakehead University
Marburg in Guinea: the value of lessons from managing other haemorrhagic outbreaks, by Michelle J. Groome, National Institute for Communicable Diseases and Janusz Paweska, National Institute for Communicable Diseases

Haiti's history of cascading crises and political fragility

Thu, 09 Sep 2021 10:33:21 +0100

From earthquakes, to hurricanes, disease and drug violence, the Caribbean island of Haiti has faced a decade of cascading crises. In this week’s episode of The Conversation Weekly we talk to experts about what Haiti’s history tells us about its political fragility, and what that means for the country’s ability to recover from disasters.

Featuring disaster management expert Louise Comfort, professor of public and international affairs at the University of Pittsburgh and Haitian American historian Jean Eddy Saint Paul, professor of sociology at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.

In our second story (at 27m40s), we talk to historian Susan Kamei, lecturer in history at the University of Southern California Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences about her new research chronicling the experiences of Japanese Americans interned by the US government during the second world war.

And Kalpana Jain, senior religion and ethics editor at The Conversation in the US, recommends some reading from our coverage marking the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks (at 41m).

Further reading:

Assassinations and invasions – how the US and France shaped Haiti’s long history of political turmoil, by Jean Eddy Saint Paul, Brooklyn College
Will recent political instability affect Haiti’s earthquake response? We ask an expert, by Louise K. Comfort, University of Pittsburgh
Earthquake expert who advised the Haiti government in 2010: ‘Why were clear early warning signs missed?’, by Luigi Di Sarno, University of Liverpool
Haiti: what aid workers can learn from the previous earthquake as they struggle to rebuild the country, by David Alexander, UCL
The crisis in Haiti reflects the failure of the international community to stabilize the country, by Chalmers Larose, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
How memories of Japanese American imprisonment during WWII guided the US response to 9/11, by Susan H. Kamei, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Why some Muslim women feel empowered wearing hijab, a headscarf, by Kalpana Jain, The Conversation
At the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, ancient Greece and Rome can tell us a lot about the links between collective trauma and going to war, by Joel Christensen, Brandeis University

Back to school with COVID: how to keep children safe

Thu, 02 Sep 2021 10:29:36 +0100

As many children head back to school, in this episode we look at what really works to help stop COVID-19 transmission in the classroom. And for those countries where masks remain mandatory in schools, we hear some tips for teachers and students on how to communicate.

Featuring, Brandon Guthrie, an associate professor of global health an epidemiology at the University of Washington in the US and Laura Abou Haidar, a professor of linguistics at the Université Grenoble Alpes in France.

In our second story, we dig into the science behind daydreaming. Thomas Andrillon, research fellow at the Paris Brain Institute in France and an adjunct research fellow at Monash University in Australia, explains his new research on what's happening in our brains when our mind wanders.

And Heather Kroeker, a health editor at The Conversation in London, recommends some recent health stories.

Further reading:

Schools can reopen safely – an epidemiologist describes what works and what’s not worth the effort, by Brandon Guthrie, University of Washington
COVID-19 back to school Q&A: Is it safe for unvaccinated children to go to school in person? Is the harm of school closures greater than the risk of the virus? by Joanna-Trees Merckx and Jay Kaufman, McGill University; Catherine Haeck, Université du Québec à Montréal; Dimitri Van der Linden, Université Catholique de Louvain
Teaching with a masked face: a challenge? by Laura Abou Haidar, Université Grenoble Alpes (in French)
What is daydreaming? Parts of the brain show sleep-like activity when your mind wanders, by Thomas Andrillon, Inserm; Jennifer Windt, Monash University, and Naotsugu Tsuchiya, Monash University
Feeling tired? Here’s how the brain’s ‘hourglass’ controls your need for sleep – new research , by Lukas B. Krone, Vladyslav Vyazovskiy and Zoltán Molnár, University of Oxford
Sugar: why some people experience side-effects when they quit, by James Brown, Aston University

The origins of the Taliban

Thu, 26 Aug 2021 10:41:13 +0100

Twenty years after they were ousted from Kabul, the Taliban are now back in control of most of Afghanistan. In this episode, two Afghan experts trace the origins of the Taliban back to the late 1970s, and explain what's happened to the group over the past two decades.

Featuring Ali A Olomi, assistant professor of history at Penn State Abington in the US and Niamatullah Ibrahimi, lecturer in international relations at La Trobe University in Australia.

And Lee-Anne Goodman, politics editor at The Conversation in Toronto, commends some further reading on what the Taliban takeover means for Afghans.

Further reading

The Taliban wants the world’s trust. To achieve this, it will need to make some difficult choices, by Niamatullah Ibrahimi, La Trobe University and Safiullah Taye, Deakin University
The world must not look away as the Taliban sexually enslaves women and girls, by Vrinda Narain, McGill University
Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley: the last stronghold of resistance to Taliban rule, by Kaweh Kerami, SOAS, University of London
The Taliban may have access to the biometric data of civilians who helped the U.S. military, by Lucia Nalbandian, Ryerson University
Taliban’s religious ideology – Deobandi Islam – has roots in colonial India, by Sohel Rana, Indiana University and Sumit Ganguly, Indiana University

The biological switch that could turn neuroplasticity on and off in the brain

Thu, 19 Aug 2021 09:59:56 +0100

The Conversation Weekly podcast is taking a short break in August. In the meantime, we're bringing you extended versions of some of our favourite interviews from the past few months.

This week, how researchers discovered a biological switch that could turn on and off neuroplasticity in the brain – the ability of neurons to change their structure. We speak to Sarah Ackerman, a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Neuroscience and Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Oregon, about what she and her team have found and why it matters.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly features an extended version of an interview first published on April 29. The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. You can sign up to The Conversation’s free daily email here. Full credits for this episode available here.

Further reading:

Astrocyte cells in the fruit fly brain are an on-off switch that controls when neurons can change and grow, by Sarah DeGenova Ackerman, University of Oregon
Swimming gives your brain a boost – but scientists don’t know yet why it’s better than other aerobic activities, by Seena Mathew, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor
What is brain plasticity and why is it so important?, by Duncan Banks, The Open University

Al-Shabaab: why women join the Islamist militant group

Thu, 12 Aug 2021 10:15:41 +0100

The Conversation Weekly podcast is taking a short break in August. For the next few weeks we'll be bringing you extended versions of a few of our favourite interviews from the past few months.

This week, we speak to Fathima Azmiya Badurdeen, lecturer in the department of social sciences at the Technical University of Mombasa, who interviewed Kenyan women about why they joined the militant Islamist group Al-Shabaab. She explains how she gained the trust of these women and their families, and what her findings mean for their rehabilitation.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly features an extended version of an interview first published on April 22. The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. You can sign up to The Conversation’s free daily email here. Full credits for this episode available here.

Further reading:

Why we did it: the Kenyan women and girls who joined Al-Shabaab, by Fathima Azmiya Badurdeen, Technical University of Mombasa
Why Somali clan elders could hold the key to opening dialogue with Al-Shabaab, by Mohammed Ibrahim Shire, University of Portsmouth
Somalia’s toxic political and security order: the death knell of democracy, by Abdi Ismail Samatar, University of Pretoria

How we created fake smells to trick predators and save endangered birds

Thu, 05 Aug 2021 10:35:30 +0100

The Conversation Weekly podcast is taking a short break in August. For the next few weeks we'll be bringing you extended versions of some our favourite interviews from the past few months.

This week, the story of researchers who invented an ingenious new conservation technique to protect endangered birds. Catherine Price, postdoctoral researcher in conservation biology at the University of Sydney, is part of a team of researchers who’ve found a better way. They use misinformation – in the form of fake smells – to fool predators into leaving bird nests alone.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly features an extended version of an interview first published on April 9. The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. You can sign up to The Conversation’s free daily email here. Full credits for this episode available here.

Further reading:

Scientists used ‘fake news’ to stop predators killing endangered birds — and the result was remarkable, by Peter Banks, University of Sydney and Catherine Price, University of Sydney
South Korea is bringing back bears in a country of 52 million people – I went to find out how, by Joshua Powell, UCL
‘Bat boxes’ could help revive Canada’s depleting bat population, by Karen Vanderwolf, Trent University

Four-day week: has its moment arrived? + How Nairobi’s informal settlements got their names

Thu, 29 Jul 2021 10:27:20 +0100

How close is a four-day working week? Over the last few years, companies and governments in a number of countries have begun to experiment with the idea of a four-day work week – and some of the results are in. We talk to experts about these recent trials, explore how they fit into the long history of ever-shrinking work hours, and wonder what this all might mean for the future of work.

Featuring Anthony Veal, adjunct professor a the Business School, University of Technology Sydney, Jana Javornik, associate professor of work and employment relations at Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds and José-Ignacio Antón associate professor at the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Salamanca in Spain.

In our second story, historian Melissa Wanjiru-Mwita from the Technical University of Kenya explains her research on the history and politics of how informal settlements in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, got their names.

And Catesby Holmes, international editor at The Conversation in New York, recommends two recent stories about immigration in the US.

Further reading:

The success of Iceland’s ‘four-day week’ trial has been greatly overstated, by Anthony Veal, University of Technology Sydney
Four-day week: how workplaces can successfully establish it, by Rita Fontinha, University of Reading and James Walker, University of Reading
Post-pandemic return to work is a perfect opportunity to move to a four-day week, by David Spencer, University of Leeds
Are we ready to work from only Monday to Thursday?, by José-Ignacio Antón, University of Salamanca (in Spanish)
Is it becoming easier to be a working mother?, by Jana Javornik, University of Leeds
The fascinating history of how residents named their informal settlements in Nairobi, by Melissa Wanjiru-Mwita, Technical University of Kenya
This is what happens to child migrants found alone at the border, from the moment they cross into the US until age 18, by Randi Mandelbaum, Rutgers University
DACA in doubt after court ruling: 3 questions answered, by Kevin Johnson, University of California, Davis

Olympics: the ultimate limits of human performance + lessons from 1920 Antwerp games

Thu, 22 Jul 2021 10:15:30 +0100

Are there limits to how much faster, higher or stronger humans can get? We talk to researchers in biomechanics, sports technology and psychology, to find out.

Featuring Nicole Forrester, a former Canadian Olympic high jumper and now assistant professor in the school of media at Ryerson University in Toronto, Anthony Blazevich, professor of biomechanics at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia, and Jonathan Taylor, lecturer in sport and exercise at Teesside University in the UK.

In our second story, we hear the story of the troubled 1920 Antwerp Olympics, held in the wake of the first world war and the Spanish flu pandemic from Keith Rathbone, senior lecturer in modern European history and sports history at Macquarie University in Sydney.

And Thabo Leshilo, politics editor at The Conversation in Johannesburg, recommends some analysis on the recent unrest in South Africa following the imprisonment of former president, Jacob Zuma.

Further Reading

Super shoes: Explaining athletics’ new technological arms race, by Jonathan Taylor, Teesside University
How the COVID-19 delay of the Tokyo Olympics helped some athletes break records, by Jane Thornton, Western University
The secret formula for becoming an elite athlete, by Nicole W. Forrester, Ryerson University
Sardines for breakfast, hypothermia rescues: the story of the cash-strapped, post-pandemic 1920 Olympics, by Keith Rathbone, Macquarie University
Unrest is being used to subvert South Africa’s democracy: giving in is not an option, by Mcebisi Ndletyana, University of Johannesburg
Why have South Africans been on a looting rampage? Research offers insights, by Guy Lamb, Stellenbosch University

Science of lab-grown and plant-based meat + Indonesia's child smoking problem

Thu, 15 Jul 2021 10:46:10 +0100

How do you mimic meat? We take a look at the science behind plant-based and cultured meat in this episode, where it might lead and how ready people are to eat meat grown in a lab.

Mariana Lamas, a research associate at the Centre for Culinary Innovation at Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Edmonton, Canada, talks us through some of the key elements that make a plant-based meat mimic successful. Andrew Stout, PhD candidate in biomedical engineering at Tufts University in Massachusetts, US, explains how he grows meat in a petri dish, and where he sees the future of the field. And Matti Wilks, postdoctoral research associate in psychology at Yale University in Connecticut, tells us what she's found by asking people about their readiness to eat cultured meat.

In our second story (25m30), we hear about new research on cigarette advertising and how it lures in children in Indonesia – ranked in the top 10 countries in the world for the number of adults who smoke. Nurjanah, senior lecturer in health promotion at Universitas Dian Nuswantoro in Semarang City, explains what she and her colleagues found when they mapped the proximity of cigarette advertising to schools.

And Hannah Hoag, deputy editor at The Conversation in Canada, gives us some of her recommended environment stories to dip into this week (34m40).

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. You can find us on Twitter @TC_Audio, on Instagram at theconversationdotcom or via email on podcast@theconversation.com. You can also sign up to The Conversation’s free daily email here. Full credits for this episode available here.

Further reading

How scientists make plant-based foods taste and look more like meat, by Mariana Lamas, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology
No animal required, but would people eat artificial meat?, by Clive Phillips, The University of Queensland and Matti Wilks, The University of Queensland (now Yale)
Plant-based burgers: should some be considered ‘junk food’?, by Richard Hoffman, University of Hertfordshire
Lab-grown meat could leave marginalized people in need, by Sarah Duignan, McMaster University
Research: teenagers whose schools are surrounded by cigarette advertisements tend to smoke more, Dian Kusuma, Imperial College London; Abdillah Ahsan, University of Indonesia; Nurjanah and Sri Handayani, Dian Nuswantoro University (In Bahasa Indonesia)
Putting an end to billions in fishing subsidies could improve fish stocks and ocean health, by Daniel Skerritt, University of British Columbia
Scientists aim to build a detailed seafloor map by 2030 to reveal the ocean’s unknowns, by Sean Mullan, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Tough justice for international war crimes + why sarcasm is tricky for kids

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 10:05:42 +0100

Why is it so difficult to prosecute militaries for alleged war crimes? In this episode of The Conversation Weekly, we speak to experts about the legal hurdles.

By hanging around military bases in the US and Israel, Craig Jones managed to meet a usually very secretive group of people: military lawyers. Jones, a lecturer in political geography at Newcastle University in the UK, explains what he learnt from these conversations – including the way different militaries interpret international law to suit their own purposes. And why victims and their families have such little recourse to justice.

And Amy Maguire, associate professor at the University of Newcastle Law School in Australia, tells us the history of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and how its investigations into alleged war crimes work. She explains the context of a newly opened ICC investigation into alleged war crimes in the Palestinian territories.

In our second story we look at why sarcasm is so difficult for children to understand. Penny Pexman, professor of psychology at the University of Calgary in Canada, talks about her new research aimed at making it easier for them to learn.

And Megan Clement, a commissioning editor at The Conversation in Paris, gives us some of her recommended reading.

Further reading

‘Almost divine power’: the lawyers who sign off who lives and who dies in modern war zones, by Craig Jones, Newcastle University
Why is accountability for alleged war crimes so hard to achieve in the Israel-Palestinian conflict?, by Amy Maguire, University of Newcastle
Can the world stop Israel and Hamas from committing war crimes? 7 questions answered about international law, by Asaf Lubin, Indiana University
Syria and Iraq: RAF killed only one civilian in airstrikes – why the discrepancy with what others report?, by Peter Lee, University of Portsmouth
Why it’s difficult for children to understand sarcasm, by Penny Pexman, University of Calgary
Suckers for learning: why octopuses are so intelligent, by Lisa Poncet, Université de Caen Normandie
Total an offshore wind turbines – diversifying to survive, by Sylvain Roche, Sciences Po Bordeaux (in French)

UFO report: from shrouded history to a data-driven future – podcast

Thu, 01 Jul 2021 09:43:42 +0100

After the US government released its long-awaited report on unidentified aerial phenomena, we explore the cultural history and scientific taboo around UFOs. And three months after rebels killed the president of Chad in central Africa, we talk to experts about the balance of power there. Welcome to The Conversation Weekly.

In the end, when it finally dropped on June 25, the US government's report on unidentified aerial phenomena didn’t mention the word extraterrestrial once. And nobody had expected it to. We talk to Chris Impey, university distinguished professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona, about what it did actually say and why doing serious research into UFOs has been such a taboo for scientists. And Greg Eghigian, professor of history at Penn State University, gives us a cultural history of UFOs and how what started as an American obsession spread around the world.

And in our second story, we head to Chad in central Africa where the country's long-serving president, Idriss Déby was killed suddenly by rebels in April. Line Engbo Gissel, associate professor of global political sociology at Roskilde University in Denmark and Troels Burchall Henningsen, assistant professor at the Royal Danish Defence College, talk us about Chad's 'gatekeeper politics' and why its legacy will live on beyond Déby.

And Naomi Joseph, arts and culture editor at The Conversation in London, gives us some recommended reading.

Further reading

Pentagon UFO report: No aliens, but government transparency and desire for better data might bring science to the UFO world, by Chris Impey, University of Arizona

The truth is still out there: why the current UFO craze may be a problem of intelligence failings, by Kyle Cunliffe, University of Salford

Pentagon report says UFOs can’t be explained, and this admission is a big deal , by Adam Dodd, The University of Queensland

UFOs: how to calculate the odds that an alien spaceship has been spotted, by Anders Sandberg, University of Oxford

Legacy of Chad’s gatekeeper politics lives on beyond Déby – and carries grave risks, by Line Engbo Gissel, Roskilde University and Troels Burchall Henningsen, Royal Danish Defence College

France’s decision to pull troops out of the Sahel invites a less military approach, by Folahanmi Aina, King's College London

China is using mythology and sci-fi to sell its space programme to the world, by Molly Silk, University of Manchester

Why this Rodin scholar would gladly see the back of The Thinker, by Natasha Ruiz-Gómez, University of Essex

Fire, tsunami, pandemic: how to ensure societies learn lessons from disaster

Thu, 24 Jun 2021 10:47:11 +0100

When catastrophes like a pandemic strike, how do we make sure societies learn – and implement – lessons from disaster? We talk to three researchers coming at this question in different ways.

First, a story from northern Australia about how Indigenous knowledge that can help to prevent natural disasters has been with us for thousands of years. We speak to Kamaljit Sangha, senior ecological economist at the Darwin Centre for Bushfire Research at Charles Darwin University in northern Australia.

Second, what happens when a country with a long history of preparing for disasters, faces something it didn't predict. With Elizabeth Maly, associate professor of international research at the Institute of Disaster Science at Japan's Tohoku University.

And third, use the recovery from a disaster like the pandemic as a catalyst for change. We speak to Ian Goldin, professor of globalisation and development at the University of Oxford in the UK.

And Julius Maina, East Africa editor at The Conversation in Nairobi, recommends some analysis of this week's crucial election in Ethiopia.

The stories in this episode are tied to two series on The Conversation. Resilient recovery looks at how to recover from the pandemic in a way that makes societies more resilient and able to deal with future challenges. It’s supported by a grant from PreventionWeb, a platform from the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. And a second series called Disaster and Resilience focused on the nexus between disaster, disadvantage and resilience, supported by a grant form the Paul Ramsay foundation.

Further reading:

Indigenous expertise is reducing bushfires in northern Australia. It’s time to consider similar approaches for other disasters, by Kamaljit K Sangha, Charles Darwin University; Andrew Edwards, Charles Darwin University, and Willie Rioli Sr, Indigenous Knowledge
Tsunamis, earthquakes, nuclear meltdowns and COVID-19 – what Japan has and hasn’t learned from centuries of disaster, by Elizabeth Maly, Tohoku University
COVID-19 has shown that following the same road will lead the world over a precipice, by Ian Goldin, University of Oxford
Recovery: a series from The Anthill podcast. Part 1: How Europe recovered from the Black Death, featuring Adrian Bell, University of Reading, Eleanor Russell, University of Cambridge and Mark Bailey, University of East Anglia
More than a decade after the Black Saturday fires, it’s time we got serious about long-term disaster recovery planning
Lisa Gibbs, The University of Melbourne
Learning from COVID: how to improve future supplies of medical equipment and vaccines, by Liz Breen, University of Bradford
What we can learn about risk from the COVID experience, by Geoff Mulgan, UCL

How Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro brought the military back to the centre of politics + archaeological garbage investigators

Thu, 17 Jun 2021 10:58:59 +0100

Jair Bolsonaro is openly nostalgic for the era of Brazil’s military dictatorship, which ended in 1985. Since the former army captain was elected president in 2018, he’s packed his government full of military men and maintained a close relationship with the armed forces. But in recent months it’s not always been straightforward. With Brazil heading towards presidential elections in 2022, and Bolsonaro slumping in the polls, some of those military officers who’ve tasted political power may be assessing their options.

We speak to two experts about the history of relations between politics and the military in Brazil – and what’s at stake. Maud Chirio is a lecturer in history at Université Gustave Eiffel in Paris, is a specialist in Brazil's military dictatorship. And Vinicius Mariano de Carvalho is director of King’s Brazil Institute at King's College London and former member of the army, who studies civilian-military relations.

And in our second story (24m20s), we travel back to 12th century Islamic Iberia with the help of zooarchaeologist Marcos García García, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of York in the UK. By sifting through ancient household waste at an archaeological dig outside Córdoba in Spain, he’s revealing clues about the people left out of history.

And Nick Lehr, arts and culture editor at The Conversation in the US, tells us about a new series of articles on transgender young people (34m15s). To go alongside it, The Conversation has put together an email newsletter course to help shed light on the issues that transgender young people and their families face. Anyone of any age, gender or sexuality that is interested in learning about the latest research on transgender youth can sign up here to receive the mini-course in the form of four emails over about a week.

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Mau Loseto. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. You can find us on Twitter @TC_Audio, on Instagram at theconversationdotcom. or via email on podcast@theconversation.com. You can also sign up to The Conversation’s free daily email here. Full credits for this article available here.

Further reading

Brazil’s economic crisis, prolonged by COVID-19, poses an enormous challenge to the Amazon, by Peter Richards, George Washington University
Le Brésil, une démocratie militarisée, by Maud Chirio, Université Gustave Eiffel
Populism in Brazil: how liberalisation and austerity led to the rise of Lula and Bolsonaro, by Patricia Justino, United Nations University and Bruno Martorano, United Nations University
Los cerdos no mienten: un basurero cristiano en la Córdoba islámica, by Marcos García García, University of York and Guillermo García-Contreras Ruiz, Universidad de Granada
New archaeology finding shows how Muslim cuisine endured in secret despite policing by the Spanish Catholic regime, by Aleks Pluskowski, University of Reading; Guillermo García-Contreras Ruiz, Universidad de Granada, and Marcos García García, University of York
Trans kids in the US were seeking treatment decades before today’s political battles over access to health care, by Jules Gill-Peterson, University of Pittsburgh
How the bulletin board systems, email lists and Geocities pages of the early internet created a place for trans youth to find one another and explore coming out, by Avery Dame-Griff, Appalachian State University

Why so many Iranians plan not to vote this month + fireflies need the dark for love

Thu, 10 Jun 2021 11:31:50 +0100

Iranians are about to get the chance to vote for a new president on June 18. Hassan Rouhani, president since 2013, is stepping down after serving two terms in office. The frontrunner to succeed him is Ebrahim Raisi, an ultra-conservative and head of the judiciary. Getting information about how Iranians view their society and its political leaders is notoriously difficult. In this episode we speak to two academics in The Netherlands who take a different approach – anonymous online surveys. And they’re getting tens of thousands of people to participate.

Ammar Maleki, assistant professor in public law and governance at Tilburg University, and Pooyan Tamimi Arab, assistant professor of religious studies at Utrecht University recently carried out a new survey about voting intentions via the Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in Iran, a non-profit, independent research organisation. They found there's been a dramatic decline in those who intend to vote – and we talk to them about why, and what message this will send to the rulers of the Islamic Republic.

Our second story provides advice on how to ensure future generations continue to enjoy one of nature’s greatest wonders: fireflies. We talk to Avalon Owens, a PhD candidate in biology at Tufts University, about her new research into why fireflies need the dark in their search for love.

And Haley Lewis, culture and society editor at The Conversation in Ottawa, gives us some recommended reading about the 215 First Nations children found in a mass unmarked grave in British Columbia, Canada.

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.

If you'd like to sign up for The Conversation's free daily newsletter, please subscribe here. To get in touch, find us on Twitter @TC_Audio or on Instagram at theconversationdotcom. Or you can email us on podcast@theconversation.com. Full credits for this episode can be found here.

Further reading:

Why Iranians won’t vote: new survey reveals massive political disenchantment, by Pooyan Tamimi Arab, Utrecht University and Ammar Maleki, Tilburg University
Iran’s secular shift: new survey reveals huge changes in religious beliefs, by Pooyan Tamimi Arab, Utrecht University and Ammar Maleki, Tilburg University
Why the West must challenge Iran on human rights, by Kyle Matthews, Concordia University
Iran’s leaders signal interest in new nuclear deal, but U.S. must act soon, by James Devine, Mount Allison University
No longer ‘the disappeared’: Mourning the 215 children found in graves at Kamloops Indian Residential School, by Veldon Coburn, University of Ottawa
Why many Canadians don’t seem to care about the lasting effects of residential schools, by Joanna R. Quinn, Western University
Indigenous lawyer: Investigate discovery of 215 children’s graves in Kamloops as a crime against humanity, by Beverly Jacobs, University of Windsor
Fireflies need dark nights for their summer light shows – here’s how you can help, by Avalon C.S. Owens and Sara Lewis, Tufts University

The race to make money from our oceans: who is winning? + Brazilian women avoid getting pregnant

Thu, 03 Jun 2021 09:18:24 +0100

In this episode, who is making money from our oceans and is it sustainable? And why Brazilian women who lived through Zika are avoiding getting pregnant during the COVID-19 pandemic. Listen to episode 18 of The Conversation Weekly.

From deep-sea mining, to fishing, to oil and gas exploration, the ocean economy is booming. A key question is what the economic exploitation of our oceans is doing to the ocean environment. It's important to balance economic growth both with preservation of ocean habitats and the livelihoods of the people who’ve depended on the ocean for generations.

In this episode, we speak to three experts about the scale of the problem, and what's being done to make the exploitation of the oceans more sustainable. Jean-Baptise Jouffray, post-doctoral researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University, explains the size of the ocean economy and how it’d dominated by 100 large corporations. Anna Metaxas, professor of oceanography at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, tells us what mining of the deep sea floor for precious metals could do the environment. And Ifesinachi Okafor-Yarwood, lecturer in sustainable development at St Andrew's University in Scotland, explains how the pressure on marine resources in West Africa is pushing fishing communities to criminality to survive.

In our second story, we're heading to Brazil, which remains a global epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic -- just a few years after another devastating epidemic, Zika. Catesby Holmes speaks to Letícia Marteleto, professor of sociology at the The University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts, about her new research into how Zika and COVID-19 have had a double effect on women’s attitudes about getting pregnant.

And Françoise Marmouyet, editorial coordinator for The Conversation in Paris, tells us about a new podcast series about the state of democracy in France, the US and China.

On World Ocean’s Day, June 8, The Conversation will be holding a webinar about the next ocean decade. Find out more here.

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.

Further reading:

You can read more stories from our Oceans 21 series here, examining the history and future of the world’s oceans.

Blue economy: how a handful of companies reap most of the benefits in multi-billion ocean industries, by John Virdin, Duke University; Henrik Österblom and Jean-Baptiste Jouffray, Stockholm University

Getting to the bottom of things: Can mining the deep sea be sustainable?, by Anna Metaxas, Dalhousie University and Verena Tunnicliffe, University of Victoria

Women are a mainstay of fishing in West Africa. But they get a raw deal, by Ifesinachi Okafor-Yarwood and Sayra van den Berg Bhagwandas, University of St Andrews

New mangrove forest mapping tool puts conservation in reach of coastal communities, by Trevor Gareth Jones, University of British Columbia

Scarred by Zika and fearing new COVID-19 variants, Brazilian women say no to another pandemic pregnancy, by Letícia Marteleto, The University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts

Quelle démocratie ? (1 / 3) : “La démocratie française est-elle en crise ?” (Podcast in French)

Lab-grown human embryos just got a new set of rules + Johannesburg's romcom revolution

Thu, 27 May 2021 10:18:46 +0100

New scientific guidelines have been released this week on embryo research and the use of stem cells. We talk to experts about what’s changed – including a recommendation to relax the 14-day time limit for human embryo research. And we hear about a wave of romantic comedy films emerging from South Africa that are re-imagining the city of Johannesburg. Welcome to episode 17 of The Conversation Weekly.

It's been five years since the last set of guidelines from the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) were published. Since then, scientists have made significant developments in stem cell and embryo research. Now, new ISSCR guidelines have just been published. In this episode, we look at what's changing in this field of research, and what the new guidelines say. One of the most significant shifts concerns what's called the 14-day rule, a time limit for how long human embryos can be grown in the lab. While these aren't law, they guide the regulations about this kind of research in countries around the world.

We hear from Megan Munsie, deputy director for the Centre for Stem Cell Systems at the University of Melbourne and one of the scientists who sat on the panel that reviewed the guidelines about what's changed. Jun Wu, assistant professor in molecular biology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre, explains his new research on human embryo models and why it provides an alternative to using human embryos. And César Palacios-González, senior research fellow in practical ethics at the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford, talks through some of the questions philosophers consider about the ethics of human embryo research.

In our second story (at 25m20), we head to South Africa, where a wave of romantic comedies have hit the big screen in recent years. Many of them are based in Johannesburg. Pier Paolo Frassinelli, professor of communication and media studies at the University of Johannesburg, talks to us about his research into these films and how they are reimagining the city.

And Wale Fatade, commissioning editor at The Conversation in Lagos, Nigeria, gives us his recommended reading.

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Special thanks for this episode go to Matt Williams in New York. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. If you'd like to sign up for The Conversation's free daily newsletter, please subscribe here. To get in touch, find us on Twitter @TC_Audio or on Instagram at theconversationdotcom. Or you can email us on podcast@theconversation.com. Full credits for this episode can be found here.

Further reading:

New global guidelines for stem cell research aim to drive discussions, not lay down the law, by Megan Munsie, The University of Melbourne and Melissa Little, Murdoch Children's Research Institute

Researchers have grown ‘human embryos’ from skin cells. What does that mean, and is it ethical? by Megan Munsie, The University of Melbourne and Helen Abud, Monash University

First human-monkey embryos created – a small step towards a huge ethical problem, by Julian Savulescu, University of Oxford and César Palacios-González, University of Oxford

South Africa’s romcom revolution and how it reimagines Joburg, by Pier Paolo Frassinelli, University of Johannesburg

Ethiopia’s blockchain deal is a watershed moment – for the technology, and for Africa, by Iwa Salami, University of East London

Why young Nigerians are returning to masquerade rituals, even in a Christian community, by Kingsley Ikechukwu Uwaegbute, University of Nigeria

The racial hunger gap in American cities and what to do about it

Thu, 20 May 2021 11:24:51 +0100

In this episode, we look at why millions of Americans are struggling to feed themselves. We explore some of the reasons behind racial disparities in U.S. food insecurity, and hear from experts with their suggested solutions. And the discovery of the bones of a small child, carefully buried in Kenya 78,000 years ago, provide a peek into the minds of ancient humans. Listen to episode 16 of The Conversation Weekly podcast.

Before the pandemic hit, official food insecurity rates in the U.S. were at an all time low. But there was a big racial divide. In 2019, the official food insecurity rate for Black people was 19% – more than twice as high as it was for white people at just under 8%. It was just under 16% for Hispanic people. To find out why, and what’s been going on during the pandemic, we’ve talked to three experts who study food insecurity and food justice. Caitlin Caspi, associate professor in the Department of Allied Health Sciences at the University of Connecticut, explains what happened at a local level during the pandemic, and the role food pantries play in helping people put food on the table. Craig Gundersen, professor of agricultural and consumer economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, talks us through what has happened to food insecurity rates, and where the racial disparities are. And Julian Agyeman, professor of urban and environmental policy and planning at Tufts University, explains what the legacy of racist urban planning policies has meant for access to food in American cities.

In our second story, we talk to Maria Martinón-Torres, director of the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana in Spain, about a landmark archaeological find in a cave in south-eastern Kenya that turned out to be the oldest burial ever discovered in Africa.

And Jonathan Este, international affairs editor at The Conversation in the UK, recommends some recent analysis by experts about the conflict in Israel-Palestine.

Further reading:

All the articles in our ongoing series on food and poverty in the US are available here.

What is food insecurity?, by Caitlin Caspi, University of Connecticut
How urban planning and housing policy helped create ‘food apartheid’ in US cities, by Julian Agyeman, Tufts University
The Biden administration can eliminate food insecurity in the United States – here’s how, by Craig Gundersen, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Why people with disabilities are at greater risk of going hungry – especially during a pandemic, by Melissa L. Caldwell, University of California, Santa Cruz
A nutrition report card for Americans: Dark clouds, silver linings, by Dariush Mozaffarian, Tufts University
Un niño recostado delicadamente, el primer enterramiento humano de África, by María Martinón-Torres, Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH)
A cave site in Kenya’s forests reveals the oldest human burial in Africa, by Alison Crowther, The University of Queensland and Patrick Faulkner, University of Sydney
Jerusalem: the politics behind the latest explosion of violence in the Holy City, by Carlo Aldrovandi, Trinity College Dublin
Israeli politics and the Palestine question: everything you need to know, by John Strawson, University of East London

Why India's COVID-19 vaccine rollout is faltering

Thu, 13 May 2021 11:03:49 +0100

As India’s COVID-19 crisis continues, we look at what’s holding back the country's vaccination rollout and how a shift in distribution and pricing strategy is causing concern. And we speak to a researcher who went hunting for fungi in the world's largest seed bank. Listen to episode 15 of The Conversation Weekly podcast.

The Conversation is a non-profit organisation. If you're able to support what we do, please consider donating here. Thank you.

India's catastrophic COVID-19 crisis shows little sign of improving. By early May, just over 2% of India's population had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. In this episode, we look at why it's currently so hard to get a vaccine in India and speak to three experts about the situation. Rajib Dasgupta, professor and chairperson at the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, tells us that the decision to open up vaccine eligibility to all adults from May 1 had been held back by a shortage of supply. R Ramakumar, professor of economics at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai, raises concerns about a shift in pricing and distribution that happened at the same time. And Gagandeep Kang, professor of microbiology at the Christian Medical College in Vellore, explains what we know so far about the vaccines and the variants currently circulating in the country.

In our second story, Rowena Hill, a PhD candidate at Kew Gardens and Queen Mary University of London, explains how she found a hidden world of microscopic fungi living inside the seeds of the world's largest seed bank.

And Carissa Lee, Indigenous and public policy editor at The Conversation in Australia gives some recommended reading on a recent series marking 30 years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Special thanks for this episode go to Namita Kohli in New Delhi. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. If you'd like to sign up for The Conversation's free daily newsletter, please subscribe here. To get in touch, find us on Twitter @TC_Audio or on Instagram at theconversationdotcom. Or you can email us on podcast@theconversation.com. Full credits for this episode can be found here. And a transcript is available here.

Further reading:

Why variants are most likely to blame for India’s COVID surge, by Rajib Dasgupta, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Charging Indians for COVID vaccines is bad, letting vaccine producers charge what they like is unconscionable, by R. Ramakumar, Tata Institute of Social Sciences
India: election loss in West Bengal may be start of a backlash against Modi’s handling of COVID crisis, by Saba Hussain, Coventry University
COVID in India: the deep-rooted issues behind the current crisis, by Vageesh Jain, UCL
‘Each burning pyre is an unspeakable, screeching horror’ – one researcher on the frontline of India’s COVID crisis. by Vyoma Dhar Sharma, University of Oxford
COVID in India: a tragedy with its roots in Narendra Modi’s leadership style, by Nitasha Kaul, University of Westminster
How we discovered a hidden world of fungi inside the world’s biggest seed bank, by Rowena Hill, Queen Mary University of London
Not criminals or passive victims: media need to reframe their representation of Aboriginal deaths in custody, by Amanda Porter and Eddie Cubillo, The University of Melbourne
Indigenous deaths in custody: inquests can be sites of justice or administrative violence, by Alison Whittaker, University of Technology Sydney

Cuba's race for a coronavirus vaccine + making life's big decisions

Thu, 06 May 2021 11:17:08 +0100

In this episode, how Cuba is pushing ahead with the development of its own coronavirus vaccines – and could be nearing vaccine sovereignty. And we hear from a researcher about what he learnt from asking hundreds of people about the biggest decisions of their lives. You’re listening to episode 14 of The Conversation Weekly podcast.

Throughout 2020, the small island nation of Cuba was able to limit the spread of COVID-19. By early May, 675 people had died from the disease. But case numbers have been increasing in 2021 and there are currently around 1,000 new cases being recorded each day. That makes Cuba’s race to make its own coronavirus vaccine even more urgent.

This week we speak to three experts to help explain how Cuba’s race for a coronavirus vaccine is going – and where it fits into the wider picture of global vaccine diplomacy: Amilcar Pérez Riverol, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of São Paulo State in Brazil, Jennifer Hosek, professor of languages, literatures and cultures at Queen's University, Ontario in Canada, and Peter Hotez, professor of paediatrics and molecular virology at Baylor College of Medicine in the US.

In our second story, we speak to Adrian Camilleri about his research asking people about the big decisions they've taken in their lives. He tells us that the process of making a big decision can have an impact on how you think about it later in your life.

And Finlay Macdonald, senior editor at The Conversation in New Zealand, gives us his recommended reads for the week.

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. If you'd like to sign up for The Conversation's free daily newsletter, please subscribe here. To get in touch, find us on Twitter @TC_Audio or on Instagram at theconversationdotcom. Or you can email us on podcast@theconversation.com. Full credits for this episode can be found here. A transcript of the episode is available here.

Further reading

The scene from Cuba: How it’s getting so much right on COVID-19, by Jennifer Ruth Hosek, Queen's University, Ontario
Cuba’s economic woes may fuel America’s next migrant crisis, by William M. LeoGrande, American University School of Public Affairs
Cuba steps up in the fight against coronavirus, at home and around the world, by Janice Argaillot, Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)
By sending doctors to Italy, Cuba continues its long campaign of medical diplomacy, by Stéphanie Panichelli-Batalla, University of Warwick
I asked hundreds of people about their biggest life decisions. Here’s what I learned, by Adrian R. Camilleri, University of Technology Sydney
NZ’s hate speech proposals need more detail and wider debate before they become law, by Eddie Clark, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
Forensics and ship logs solve a 200-year mystery about where the first kiwi specimen was collected, by Paul Scofield, University of Canterbury and Vanesa De Pietri, University of Canterbury

Why Scotland's May election is crucial to independence movement, and the UK + an on/off switch for neuroplasticity

Thu, 29 Apr 2021 10:46:46 +0100

In this episode, as Scotland prepares to vote in landmark parliamentary elections on May 6, we explore why the question of independence from the UK is dominating the debate. And a team of researchers working with fruit flies, has discovered a biological switch that can turn neuroplasticity on and off in the brain. What might that mean? Welcome to episode 13 of The Conversation Weekly.

It's been seven years since Scotland voted to remain the UK in the 2014 independence referendum. Now, as Scotland prepares to vote in elections for the Scottish Parliament on May 6, all eyes are on first minister Nicola Sturgeon and her pro-independence Scottish National Party. If pro-independence parties win a majority in the Scottish parliament – Sturgeon will ask the UK government in Westminster, led by prime minister, Boris Johnson, for a second referendum on Scottish independence. But he's highly unlikely to agree. To find out more about what’s at stake in these upcoming elections, we speak to three experts, including one high-profile politician turned academic, to explain the situation.

Kezia Dugdale, is director of the John Smith Centre and a lecturer in public policy at the University of Glasgow, and a former leaders of the Scottish Labour Party. She describes the political landscape going into the elections. Darren Nyatanga, a PhD candidate at the University of Liverpool, talks us through the constitutional questions at the heart of the independence debate. And economist Graeme Roy, dean of external engagement at the School of Social Sciences at the University of Glasgow, explains Scotland's economic circumstances, and the economic arguments being used by nationalists and unionists.

For our second story, we hear about some new research into neuroplasticity – the brain's ability to change its structure. Sarah Ackerman, postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Neuroscience and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Oregon, explains what her team has found about what controls these changes.

And Moina Spooner, commissioning editor at The Conversation in Nairobi, Kenya, gives us her recommended reads for the week.

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.

Further reading

Scottish independence: could wind power Scotland back into the EU?, by Piotr Marek Jaworski, Edinburgh Napier University and Kenny Crossan, Edinburgh Napier University
Scottish independence referendum: why the economic issues are quite different to 2014, by Graeme Roy, University of Strathclyde
Scottish election: Alex Salmond’s Alba gamble could yet tip scales on second independence referendum, by William McDougall, Glasgow Caledonian University
Scotland could vote to separate in 2021, testing Canada’s independence formula, by Catherine Frost, McMaster University
Astrocyte cells in the fruit fly brain are an on-off switch that controls when neurons can change and grow, by Sarah DeGenova Ackerman, University of Oregon
Somalia: toxic elite politics and the need for cautious external mediation, by Claire Elder, London School of Economics and Political Science
Why Kenya is on thin ice in its justification for sending Somali refugees back home, by Oscar Gakuo Mwangi, National University of Lesotho

Why children keep getting kidnapped in Nigeria + the Kenyan women who join Al-Shabaab

Thu, 22 Apr 2021 09:55:03 +0100

In this episode, insurgent groups in northern Nigeria continue to kidnap schoolchildren as the government struggles to protect communities against militants such as Boko Haram. And we speak to a researcher who has interviewed Kenyan women about why they joined the jihadist group Al-Shabaab. Welcome to episode 12 of The Conversation Weekly.

Schoolchildren in northern Nigeria continue to be abducted by insurgents, including the jihadist group Boko Haram, whose name means ‘Western education is forbidden’. In this episode, Wale Fatade from The Conversation in Lagos speaks to two experts to find out why children are still at such risk. Hakeem Onapajo, senior lecturer in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Nile University in Nigeria, explains that Boko Haram targets children for us as slaves in its camps, including girls as sex slaves. And Samuel Okunade, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Pretoria, laments that the government’s failure to improve the security situation has left communities to fend for themselves.

In our second story, we cross the continent to Kenya to hear about women who joined the jihadist group, Al-Shabaab. Fathima Azmiya Badurdeen, lecturer in the Department of Social Sciences at the Technical University of Mombasa in Kenya, has been interviewing women who have since left Al-Shabaab about their experiences and why they joined the group. She explains that while some joined willingly, others were forcibly recruited, and the line between voluntary and involuntary is often blurred.

And Bryan Keogh, business editor at The Conversation in New York, gives us his recommended reads.

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.

Further reading

Why children are prime targets of armed groups in northern Nigeria, by Hakeem Onapajo, Nile University of Nigeria
Nigeria’s poor response to Boko Haram has left border communities feeling abandoned, by Samuel Okunade, University of Pretoria
Why there’s a mismatch between funding for Nigeria’s military and its performance, by Temitope Francis Abiodun, University of Ibadan
Why we did it: the Kenyan women and girls who joined Al-Shabaab, by Fathima Azmiya Badurdeen, Technical University of Mombasa
Pasha 100: Tackling banditry, terrorism and kidnapping in Nigeria, including an interview with Sheriff Folarin, Covenant University
How climate insecurity could trigger more conflict in Somalia, by Andrew E. Yaw Tchie, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Why Somali clan elders could hold the key to opening dialogue with Al-Shabaab, by Mohammed Ibrahim Shire, University of Portsmouth
Vaccine mandates aren’t the only – or easiest – way for employers to compel workers to get their shots by Elizabeth C. Tippett, University of Oregon
At what age are people usually happiest? New research offers surprising clues by Clare Mehta, Emmanuel College.

The colourful feathered world of what dinosaurs really looked like + Israel’s post-election foreign policy

Thu, 15 Apr 2021 10:29:36 +0100

In this episode, how new discoveries continue to change our understanding of what dinosaurs looked like – and are helping to shed light on bigger questions about evolution. And after Israel’s fourth election in two years ended in another political stalemate, a foreign policy expert explains what this could mean for the Middle East. Welcome to episode 11 of The Conversation Weekly, the world explained by experts.

Ever since palaeontologists started classifying fossils and bones as dinosaurs in the early 19th century, artists have been using them to try and imagine what dinosaurs looked like. But, however much Hollywood may have instilled a certain vision of dinosaurs into our minds in recent decades, we’re still a long way off having all the answers about what dinosaurs actually looked like.

We speak to two palaeontologists about what new evidence is emerging and how our dinosaur imaginings have changed. Maria McNamara, professor of palaeobiology at University College Cork in Ireland, explains about the, at times controversial, history of feathered dinosaurs – and what new information is starting to emerge about dinosaur colour. And Nicolas Campione, senior lecturer in palaeobiology at the University of New England in Australia, tells us the two main techniques palaeontologists have used for estimating the size of dinosaurs.

In our second story, we head to Israel, where coalition negotiations are continuing following elections on March 23. Whatever happens next will have ramifications for Israel’s foreign policy, which is closely tied with domestic politics. Amnon Aran, senior lecturer in international politics of the Middle East, at City, University of London, talks us through how history could inform what happens next, and what the foreign policy stakes are for whoever takes the reins of the next Israeli government.

And Eva Catalán, associate editor at The Conversation in Spain, gives us her recommended reads.

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.

Further reading:

Prehistoric pigments reveal how melanin has shaped bird and mammal evolution, by Maria McNamara, Tiffany Slater and Valentina Rossi, University College Cork
The mystery of feather origins: how fluffy pterosaurs have reignited debate, by Maria McNamara, University College Cork and Zixiao Yang, Nanjing University
How do you weigh a dinosaur? There are two ways, and it turns out they’re both right, by Nicolas Campione, University of New England
Largest ever flying creatures had longer necks than giraffes – we found out how these pterosaurs kept their heads up, by David Martill, University of Portsmouth and Cariad Williams, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Godzilla vs. Kong: A functional morphologist uses science to pick a winner, by Kiersten Formoso, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Stark choice for Israel as voters head to polls for fourth time in two years, by Amnon Aran, City, University of London
Israel elections: Netanyahu may hold on to power, but political paralysis will remain, by Ran Porat, Monash University
Israel election: why is Palestine no longer an important campaign issue?, by Peter Malcontent, Utrecht University
What can statistics tell us about vaccine safety?, by Virgilio Gómez Rubio, University of Castilla-La Mancha and Anabel Forte Deltell, University of València (in Spanish)
The success of influencers in their use of the Spanish language: idiolects and emotions in social networks, by María Nayra Rodríguez Rodríguez, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (in Spanish)

The zombie company problem and what it means for our economies

Thu, 08 Apr 2021 10:22:55 +0100

In this episode, why some economists are worried about a growing army of "zombie companies" with lots of debts – and what this could mean for the shape of our economies. And the researchers who've found a new way to prevent predators from eating the eggs of endangered birds – via a form of biological, psychological warfare. Welcome to episode 10 of The Conversation Weekly, the world explained by experts.

With interest rates at record lows, many companies have been able to borrow money at very little cost. This cheap cash, which was flooding financial markets before the pandemic began, led some companies to rack up big debts. Economists call these “zombie companies” – firms that may struggle to pay the interest on their large debts. It’s a problem that’s been exacerbated by the pandemic, as revenues dried up in many sectors of the economy. Karl Schmedders, professor of finance at the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland, explains how zombie companies are born, why the pandemic could have made the problem worse and what might happen next. And Sandy Brian Hager, senior lecturer in international political economy at City, University of London, explains his research about why the size of a company has a bearing on the shape of the recovery ahead.

In our second story, we hear about a new technique to protect endangered birds whose nests are often attacked by invasive predators. Scientists used fake smells to trick predators such as ferrets and hedgehogs into ignoring the birds' eggs. Catherine Price, postdoctoral researcher in conservation biology at the University of Sydney, tells us what happened when they tested the idea in the Mackenzie Basin on New Zealand's South Island.

And Luthfi Dzulfikar, associate editor at The Conversation in Indonesia, gives us his recommended reads.

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.

Further reading

Takeovers: a tidal wave of buyouts is coming in 2021 – here’s what it means, by Karl Schmedders and Patrick Reinmoeller, International Institute for Management Development (IMD)
Attack of zombie companies: don’t let them eat bailouts that are vital to restore the economy, by Robert Earle, University of Zürich; Jung Park and Karl Schmedders, International Institute for Management Development (IMD)
Giant firms have a hidden borrowing advantage that has helped keep them on top for decades – new research, by Sandy Brian Hager, City, University of London and Joseph Baines, King's College London
Biggest companies pay the least tax, leaving society more vulnerable to pandemic – new research, by Sandy Brian Hager, City, University of London and Joseph Baines, King's College London
Scientists used ‘fake news’ to stop predators killing endangered birds — and the result was remarkable, by Peter Banks, University of Sydney and Catherine Price, University of Sydney
A study on the undocumented shows the glaring inequality gap in Indonesia's civil registration system, by Widi Sari, Harriz Jati, Meutia Aulia Rahmi, and Santi Kusumaningrum, PUSKAPA (in Bahasa Indonesia)
National Film Day: Indonesia's young "santri" are producing film to preserve and criticize the Islamic boarding school tradition, by Ahmad Nuril Huda, Universitas Islam Negeri Raden Intan Lampung (in Bahasa Indonesia)

A new force of nature? The inside story of fresh evidence from Cern that's exciting physicists

Thu, 01 Apr 2021 10:02:11 +0100

This week, the inside story of how scientists working at Cern’s Large Hadron Collider found tantalising new evidence which could mean we have to rethink what we know about the universe. And an update on the situation for Rohingya refugees from Myanmar living in Bangladesh after a deadly fire swept through a refugee camp there. Welcome to episode 9 of The Conversation Weekly, the world explained by experts.

In late March, particle physicists working at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a massive particle accelerator at Cern in Geneva, announced, tentatively, that they’d had a bit of a breakthrough. If what they think they’ve seen is proven correct, it could mean evidence for brand new physics – perhaps even a new force of nature. We get the inside story from Harry Cliff, a particle physicist at the University of Cambridge who works on the LHCb, one of Cern's four giant experiments. And Celine Boehm, professor and head of physics at the University of Sydney, explains the bigger picture of where this all fits into the world of theoretical physics, including the ongoing hunt for dark matter.

In our second story, Rubayat Jesmin, a PhD candidate at Binghamton University in New York explains why the situation got even more precarious situation for hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, after a fire ripped through one of the camps where many were living in Bangladesh.

And Nehal El-Hadi, science and technology editor at The Conversation in Toronto, gives us some recommended reading.

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.

Further reading

Evidence of brand new physics at Cern? Why we’re cautiously optimistic about our new findings, by Harry Cliff, University of Cambridge; Konstantinos Alexandros Petridis, University of Bristol, and Paula Alvarez Cartelle, University of Cambridge
New physics at the Large Hadron Collider? Scientists are excited, but it’s too soon to be sure, by Sam Baron, Australian Catholic University
The Standard Model of particle physics: The absolutely amazing theory of almost everything, by Glenn Starkman, Case Western Reserve University
Without school, a ‘lost generation’ of Rohingya refugee children face uncertain future, by Rubayat Jesmin, Binghamton University, State University of New York
We know how to cut off the financial valve to Myanmar’s military. The world just needs the resolve to act, by Jonathan Liljeblad, Australian National University
Resistance to military regime in Myanmar mounts as nurses, bankers join protests – despite bloody crackdown, by Tharaphi Than, Northern Illinois University
Previously thought to be science fiction, a planet in a triple-star system has been discovered, by Samantha Lawler, University of Regina
Bursting social bubbles after COVID-19 will make cities happier and healthier again, by Meg Holden, Atiya Mahmood, Ghazaleh Akbarnejad, Lainey Martin and Meghan Winters at Simon Fraser University

The great remote work experiment – what happens next?

Thu, 25 Mar 2021 11:46:08 +0100

In this episode of The Conversation Weekly, four experts dissect the impact a year of working from home has had on employees and the companies they work for — and what a more hybrid future might look like. And we talk to a researcher who asked people to sit in bath tubs full of ice cold water to find out why some of us are able to stand the cold better than others.

For many people who can do their job from home, the pandemic meant a sudden shift from office-based to remote working. But a year of working from home, has taken its toll on some. We hear from Marie-Colombe Afota, assistant professor in leadership, IÉSEG School of Management in France on her new research into remote working during the pandemic, and Dave Cook, PhD candidate in anthropology at University College London, explains why burnout has become a public health issue. Jean-Nicolas Reyt, assistant professor at McGill University in Montreal, tells us how the view of chief executives towards remote working shifted over the past year and why. And Ruchi Sinha gives us a view of the conversations going on in Australia where hybrid working is already becoming a reality.

In our second story, we talk to Victoria Wyckelsma, postdoctoral research fellow in muscle physiology at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, about her new study which revealed how our genes influence how resistant we are to cold temperatures.

And Sunanda Creagh from The Conversation in Australia gives us some recommended reading about the recent floods in Sydney.

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.

Further reading

COVID a year on: inequalities and anxieties about returning to workplaces are becoming clearer, by Jane Parry and Michalis Veliziotis, University of Southampton
Faced by their employers' scepticism, remote workers are make themselves more available to signal their engagement, by Marie-Colombe Afota, IÉSEG School of Management; Ariane Ollier-Malaterre and Yanick Provost Savard, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM); and Emmanuelle Léon, ESCP Business School
Work-life balance in a pandemic: a public health issue we cannot ignore, by Dave Cook, UCL; Anna Rudnicka, UCL, and Joseph Newbold, Northumbria University, Newcastle
What Canada’s top CEOs think about remote work, by Jean-Nicolas Reyt, McGill University
Your genetics influence how resilient you are to cold temperatures – new research, by Victoria Wyckelsma, Karolinska Institutet and Peter John Houweling, Murdoch Children's Research Institute
‘They lost our receipts three times’: how getting an insurance payout can be a full-time job, by Chloe Lucas, University of Tasmania
Why do people try to drive through floodwater or leave it too late to flee? Psychology offers some answers, by Garry Stevens, Western Sydney University; Mel Taylor, Macquarie University, and Spyros Schismenos, Western Sydney University

COVID-19 caused the biggest drop in carbon emissions ever – how do we make it last?

Thu, 18 Mar 2021 12:23:09 +0100

In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast we drill down into the impact coronavirus lockdowns had on global carbon emissions – and ask what this means for the fight against climate change as governments turn their focus on the recovery. And we hear how the pandemic exacerbated the hardships faced by migrant workers in Canada.

Corinne Le Quéré, Professor of Climate Change Science at the University of East Anglia, tells globla carbon emissions dropped 7% in 2020 – by 2.6 billion tonnes. While this was the biggest drop ever, everything is relative. She puts the figures into perspective for us about what was happening before the pandemic, and what needs to happen now for the world to reach its targets under the Paris Agreement. Click here to explore a graphic she's made with her team, exploring this history of emissions around the world.

And we also talk to Steve Westlake, a PhD researcher at Cardiff University, about his research into what influences our behaviour when it comes to reducing carbon emissions -- and why he thinks individual actions still matter.

We’re also joined in this episode by The Conversation’s Vinita Srivastava, host of Don’t Call Me Resilient, a new podcast about race. She introduces a conversation she had with Min Sook Lee, Assistant Professor in Documentary Film at OCAD University in Toronto, on the harsh conditions, isolation and precarious working conditions faced by migrant farm workers in Canada.

And Wale Fatade from The Conversation in Lagos, Nigeria, gives us some recommended reading.

The Conversation Weekly is hosted by Gemma Ware and Dan Merino. The show is co-produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Visit The Conversation for full credits. A transcript of this episode is available here.

Further reading

We’ve made progress to curb global emissions. But it’s a fraction of what’s needed, Pep Canadell, CSIRO; Corinne Le Quéré, University of East Anglia and colleagues.
Climate change: yes, your individual action does make a difference, Steve Westlake, Cardiff University
Coronavirus lockdown will have ‘negligible’ impact on the climate – new study, Piers Forster, University of Leeds
How we treat migrant workers who put food on our tables: Don’t Call Me Resilient Episode 4, by The Conversation
Migrant worker segregation doesn’t work: COVID-19 lessons from Southeast Asia by Peter Vandergeest, York University, Canada; Melissa Marschke, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa, and Peter Duker, York University, Canada
Memory practices are not enough to remedy Nigeria-Biafra war injustices, by Benjamin Maiangwa, Durham University and Chigbo Arthur Anyaduba, University of Winnipeg
Beer, politics and identity – the chequered history behind Namibian brewing success, by Paul Nugent, University of Edinburgh

COVID-19: where does the WHO go from here?

Thu, 11 Mar 2021 11:33:09 +0100

In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, three experts in global health explain why COVID-19 has been a moment of reckoning for the World Health Organization (WHO), and where it goes from here. And to mark one year since the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic, we hear from Conversation editors around the world on the situation where they live right now.

The WHO had a torrid 2020. Although it declared COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern in late January, much of the world was slow to react. And it wasn’t until March 11, when the WHO’s director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described it as a pandemic, that countries began to take the virus seriously and began locking down.

In this episode, we talk to three experts about where the WHO goes from here. Peter Gluckman, former scientific advisor to the prime minister of New Zealand and Director of Koi Tū, the Center for Informed Futures at the University of Auckland, says world leaders should use this moment as a catalyst for reform. Ana Amaya, Assistant Professor at Pace University and an Associate Research Fellow at the United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration studies, tells us the current global health system is no longer acceptable to many developing countries in the global south. And Andrew Lakoff, Professor of Sociology at the University of Southern California, explains what process of inquiry the WHO went through after the H1N1 and Ebola epidemics, and why apportioning responsibility for failures is crucial in planning for the future.

Further reading

You can read a series of articles on The Conversation marking the one-year anniversary of WHO declaring COVID-19 a pandemic here. Meanwhile, here are some of the articles we've mentioned in this episode, plus a few more:

WHO reform: a call for an early-warning protocol for infectious diseases, by Peter Gluckman, University of Auckland and Andrew Gillespie, University of Waikato
Why the WHO, often under fire, has a tough balance to strike in its efforts to address health emergencies, by Andrew Lakoff, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
A year of COVID-19 lockdown is putting kids at risk of allergies, asthma and autoimmune diseases, by Byram W. Bridle, University of Guelph
COVID-19 treatments: what are the most promising leads, by Dominique Costagliola, Inserm (in French)
After a year of pain, here’s how the COVID-19 pandemic could play out in 2021 and beyond, by Michael Toole, Burnet Institute
Coronavirus one year on: two countries that got it right, and three that got it wrong, by Darren Lilleker, Bournemouth University
One year of the pandemic and we continue to look for answers, by Ildefonso Hernández Aguado and Blanca Lumbreras Lacarra, Universidad Miguel Hernández (in Spanish)

How climate change is flooding the Arctic Ocean with light

Thu, 04 Mar 2021 11:33:08 +0100

This week, two experts explain how melting ice in the far north is bringing more light to the Arctic Ocean and what this means for the species that live there. And we hear from a team of archaeologists on their new research in Tanzania's Olduvai Gorge that found evidence of just how adaptable early humans were to the changing environment.

Every summer, the sea ice in the Arctic melts -– but it's melting more and more each year. This dramatic loss is because the Arctic is warming two to three times faster than the rest of the planet. Different scientists are studying what climate change means for the various species that live in the Arctic Ocean. One of the things they’re looking at is light: as the sea ice shrinks, that means more light can get down to the depths, but also more ships can venture into the far north, bringing with them more artificial light.

We speak to two researchers who study what this increase in light means for the species that live in the Arctic: Karen Filbee-Dexter, Research Fellow in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Western Australia and Jørgen Berge, Vice Dean for Research, Arctic and Marine Biology at the University of Tromsø in Norway.

In our second story, we head to the warmer climes of the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, known as the birthplace of humanity. We speak to a team of researchers, Julio Mercader, Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Calgary in Canada, and Pastory Bushozi, Director of Humanities Research Centre and Makarius Peter Itambu, Lecturer in the College of Humanities, both at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, about their recent discoveries in the gorge. They found new evidence of just how adaptable early humans were to the changing environment around them around 2 million years ago.

And Laura Hood, politics editor at The Conversation in London, recommends a couple of recent stories by academics in the UK.

Further reading

Arctic Ocean: climate change is flooding the remote north with light – and new species, by Jørgen Berge, University of Tromsø; Carlos Duarte, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology; Dorte Krause-Jensen, Aarhus University; Karen Filbee-Dexter, Université Laval; Kimberly Howland, Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR), and Philippe Archambault, Université Laval
Oceans 21: our ongoing series on the state of our oceans featuring academics around the world
Arctic sea ice is being increasingly melted from below by warming Atlantic water, by Tom Rippeth, Bangor University
Where does plastic pollution go when it enters the ocean?, by Bruce Sutherland, University of Alberta; Michelle DiBenedetto, University of Washington and Ton van den Bremer, Delft University of Technology
Finds in Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge reveal how ancient humans adapted to change, by Julio Mercader Florin, University of Calgary
Conspiracy theories start to take hold at age 14, study suggests, by Daniel Jolley, Northumbria University, Newcastle; Karen Douglas, University of Kent, and Yvonne Skipper, University of Glasgow
COVID vaccines: how to make sense of reports on their effectiveness, by Mark Toshner, University of Cambridge

Leaving Hong Kong after China's clampdown: where people are going and why

Thu, 25 Feb 2021 11:35:35 +0100

This week three experts explain why more people are thinking about leaving Hong Kong after China's clampdown on dissent – and the choices they face about where to go. And we hear about a new way to speed up the hunt for one of the universe's most elusive enigmas: dark matter. Welcome to episode 4 of The Conversation Weekly, the world explained by experts.

Since China imposed a new National Security Law on Hong Kong in mid-2020, the situation for protesters has become much more dangerous. Many of those involved in recent pro-democracy protests are being rounded up and arrested. Some Hong Kongers are now thinking about leaving – and in this episode we hear from experts researching what is influencing these decisions. Sui Ting Kong, assistant professor in sociology at Durham University, tells us what her interviews with Hong Kongers is revealing about the different ways they describe their decision to leave. Peter William Walsh, a researcher at the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, explains the details of a new visa route the UK government has opened up those Hong Kongers who hold British National Overseas status. And Tsungyi Michelle Huang, professor of geography at National Taiwan University, talks about her research on migration from Hong Kong to Taiwan, and how Taiwan has become a more attractive destination.

In our second story, we're joined by Benjamin Brubaker, a physicist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who is on the hunt for dark matter. Dark matter is invisible – but it accounts for 85% of the matter in the universe. He explains how he and his colleagues used technology from the quantum computing world to speed up the search.

And Luthfi Dzulfikar, associate editor at The Conversation in Jakarta, recommends a couple of recent stories by academics in Indonesia.

Further reading:

Hong Kong: China crackdown is likely to boost migration to UK, by Peter William Walsh, Researcher at the Migration Observatory, University of Oxford
With mass arrests, running for office in Hong Kong is now not only futile, it can be criminal, by Brendan Clift, Teaching Fellow and PhD Candidate, University of Melbourne
Hong Kong: does British offer of citizenship to Hongkongers violate Thatcher’s deal with China? by Chi-Kwan Mark, Senior Lecturer in International History, Royal Holloway, University of London
The search for dark matter gets a speed boost from quantum technology, by Benjamin Brubaker, Postdoctoral Fellow in Quantum Physics, University of Colorado Boulder
Ignoring aspirations and threatening arrest: these 5 things show that the Jokowi administration does not accept criticism from its citizens, (in Bahasa Indonesian), by Herlambang P Wiratraman, Lecturer of Constitutional Law at Universitas Airlangga and Juwita Hayyuning Prastiwi, Lecturer in Political Science at Universitas Brawijaya
Single people in Indonesia look for happiness on the internet - but fail to find it, (in Bahasa Indonesian), by Karel Karsten Himawan, Lecturer of Psychology, Universitas Pelita Harapan

Coronavirus vaccines: what’s getting in the way of the global rollout

Thu, 18 Feb 2021 11:47:19 +0100

This week we’re talking to researchers about how COVID-19 vaccines are manufactured – and a battle over the intellectual property rights surrounding them. And we hear from a researcher looking into why China is closing down coal-fired power stations faster in some places than others. Welcome to episode 3 of a new podcast from The Conversation, the world explained by experts.

While some of the world’s richest countries are racing ahead with large-scale programmes to vaccinate their populations, for much of the developing world, the first doses of the vaccines remain a long way off. For the past few months, a group of countries has been pushing for the intellectual property rules around coronavirus vaccines to be temporarily waived temporarily, arguing this would help expand supply and push down costs. Ronald Labonté, Distinguished Research Chair in Globalization and Health Equity at the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa, talks us through the detail. Meanwhile, Mosoka Fallah, Lecturer at the School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences at the University of Liberia tells us what the vaccine situation is like on the ground in West Africa, and Anne Moore, Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry and Cell Biology, at University College Cork in Ireland, explains some of the processes behind making coronavirus vaccines.

In our second story, we talk to Hao Tan, Associate Professor at the University of Newcastle in Australia, on his new research on why – and where – China is decommissioning coal-fired power stations. He explains what this shift means for the wider region, and those countries which export coal to China.

And Clea Chakraverty, politics and society editor at The Conversation in France, gives us some recommended reading on a historic child sex abuse scandal shaking France.

Further reading:

Dummy’s guide to how trade rules affect access to COVID-19 vaccines, by Ronald Labonté, Distinguished Research Chair in Globalization and Health Equity at the School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa, and Brook K. Baker, Professor of Law, Northeastern University
No country is an island: collective approach to COVID-19 vaccines is the only way to go, by Mosoka Fallah, Part-time lecturer at the Global Health & Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Lecturer at the School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Liberia
How are COVID-19 vaccines made? An expert explains, Anne Moore, Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry and Cell Biology, University College Cork
Forget about the trade spat – coal is passé in much of China, and that’s a bigger problem for Australia, by Hao Tan, Associate Professor with the Newcastle Business School, University of Newcastle and colleagues
Inceste : au-delà du bruit médiatique, entendre la tragique banalité du phénomène, by Anne-Claude Ambroise-Rendu, Professeur d'histoire contemporaine, Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ) – Université Paris-Saclay

Myanmar's collective fury

Thu, 11 Feb 2021 12:16:24 +0100

Welcome to episode 2 of a new podcast from The Conversation, the world explained by experts. This week we’re talking to researchers about Myanmar – and what it's like looking for COVID-19 in wild animals.

Protests have rocked Myanmar in recent days as people took to the streets demanding the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's de factor leader who was arrested during a military coup on February 1.

We speak to two academics who study Myanmar, Adam Simpson, Senior Lecturer in International Studies in Justice and Society at the University of South Australia, and DB Subedi, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of New England in Australia. They explain how the country has changed in the past decade, what events led up to the coup, and what the military's options are now.

In our second story, we talk to Kaitlin Sawatzki, a virologist at Tufts University who is part of a research project that is searching for the coronavirus in wild animals in the US. She explains how viruses can jump back from humans into wild animals, the times this has happened in the past and the risks – to both people and animals – when it does.

And Catesby Holmes, international editor at The Conversation in New York gives us some recommended reading on the impeachment trial.

Further reading:

Myanmar's military has used surveillance, draconian laws and fear to stifle dissent before. Will it work again? by DB Subedi, Postdoctoral research fellow, University of New England and Johanna Garnett, Lecturer in Sociology and Peace Studies, University of New England
Myanmar's military reverts to its old strong-arm behaviour — and the country takes a major step backwards by Adam Simpson, Senior Lecturer, University of South Australia and Nicholas Farrelly, Professor and Head of Social Sciences, University of Tasmania
Myanmar coup: how the military has held onto power for 60 years, by Michael W. Charney, Professor of Asian and Military History, SOAS, University of London
Is COVID-19 infecting wild animals? We're testing species from bats to seals to find out, by Jonathan Runstadler, Professor of Infectious Disease and Global Health, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Tufts University and Kaitlin Sawatzki, Postdoctoral Infectious Disease Researcher, Tufts University
Impeachment trial: Research spanning decades shows language can incite violence, by Kurt Braddock, Assistant Professor of Communication, American University School of Communication
Congress could use an arcane section of the 14th Amendment to hold Trump accountable for Capitol attack, by Gerard Magliocca, Professor of Law, IUPUI

Why it's a big month for Mars

Thu, 04 Feb 2021 11:31:14 +0100

Welcome to the first episode of a new podcast from The Conversation, the world explained by experts. This week we’re talking to researchers about Mars – and Belarus.

For the past six months, three different space missions have been on their way to Mars. Now, all three – from the United Arab Emirates, China and the US – are due to arrive at the red planet in February within a few weeks of each other. We talk to three experts, Jim Bell, Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, Stefania Paladini, Reader in Economics and Global Security at Birmingham City University and Nidhal Guessoum, Professor of Astrophysics at the American University of Sharjah. They explain what these probes and rovers are looking for on Mars – including signs of ancient life – and the politics and symbolism behind the three missions.

In our second story we turn to Belarus, where protests continue more than six months after a disputed election. Félix Krawatzek, Senior Researcher at the Centre for East European and International Studies and Associate Member of Nuffield College, University of Oxford, talks through the initial findings from a recent public opinion survey in Belarus – and why he sees similarities between what's happening in Belarus and the protests currently rocking Russia following the detention of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

And Ina Skosana, health and medicine editor at The Conversation in Johannesburg, South Africa, gives us her story recommendations.

Further reading:

Bringing Mars rocks back to Earth – Perseverance Rover lands on Feb. 18, a lead scientist explains the tech and goals, by Jim Bell, Professor of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University
How Mars became the prize for the new space race – and why China is hellbent on winning it, by Stefania Paladini, Reader in Economics and Global Security at Birmingham City University
Belarus protests: why people have been taking to the streets – new data, by Félix Krawatzek, Senior Researcher at the Centre for East European and International Studies and Associate Member of Nuffield College, University of Oxford and Gwendolyn Sasse, Professor in Comparative Politics, Professorial Fellow, Nuffield College, University of Oxford
Results from Novavax vaccine trials in the UK and South Africa differ: why, and does it matter? by Shabir Mahdi, Professor of Vaccinology and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytical Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand
How former president Rawlings pioneered heritage tourism in Ghana – in his own words, by Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann, Associate Professor & Director, Christiansborg Archaeological Heritage Project & Adjunct Lecturer, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Trailer: The Conversation Weekly

Mon, 25 Jan 2021 16:09:46 +0100

Introducing The Conversation Weekly, the world explained by experts. Made by the team at The Conversation. Each week we talk to academics to help unpack the context behind the headlines – and hear from scholars carrying out brand new research about how the world works. Hosted by Gemma Ware in London and Dan Merino in San Francisco.

Produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens and music by Neeta Sarl.