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...
Oct 03, 2024•27 min
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 Conversatio...
Sep 26, 2024•24 min
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, abou...
Sep 19, 2024•20 min
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 paediatr...
Sep 12, 2024•30 min
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 medi...
Sep 05, 2024•29 min
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 reduc...
Aug 30, 2024•32 min
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...
Aug 29, 2024•29 min
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 T...
Aug 22, 2024•27 min
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 immigrati...
Aug 15, 2024•41 min
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 C...
Aug 08, 2024•20 min
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 T...
Aug 01, 2024•28 min
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 Sen...
Jul 25, 2024•24 min
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 i...
Jul 18, 2024•25 min
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...
Jul 11, 2024•40 min
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 intelligen...
Jul 04, 2024•18 min
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 th...
Jul 01, 2024•39 min
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...
Jun 27, 2024•27 min
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 ho...
Jun 20, 2024•31 min
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. Mar...
Jun 13, 2024•24 min
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...
Jun 06, 2024•22 min
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...
May 30, 2024•25 min
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 ...
May 23, 2024•26 min
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, Karande...
May 16, 2024•25 min
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 Namib...
May 09, 2024•25 min
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 call...
May 02, 2024•26 min
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 Con...
Apr 25, 2024•34 min
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 t...
Apr 18, 2024•37 min
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, ...
Apr 11, 2024•41 min
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-a...
Apr 10, 2024•2 min
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 ...
Apr 04, 2024•24 min
