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 S...
Oct 27, 2022•40 min
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 Uni...
Oct 20, 2022•40 min
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 ...
Oct 13, 2022•36 min
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 , Can...
Oct 06, 2022•41 min
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 Rob...
Sep 29, 2022•34 min
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 oce...
Sep 22, 2022•39 min
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 i...
Sep 15, 2022•33 min
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 ...
Jul 27, 2022•35 min
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 ...
Jun 16, 2022•24 min
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!
Jun 01, 2022•52 sec
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 ...
May 26, 2022•43 min
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. ...
May 19, 2022•30 min
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 d...
May 12, 2022•35 min•Ep. 65
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 w...
May 05, 2022•45 min
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...
Apr 28, 2022•41 min
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 extend...
Apr 21, 2022•20 min
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 Lech...
Apr 14, 2022•36 min
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 p...
Apr 07, 2022•27 min
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-J...
Mar 31, 2022•49 min
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 profe...
Mar 24, 2022•47 min
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 Man...
Mar 17, 2022•50 min
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 p...
Mar 10, 2022•49 min
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 Nati...
Mar 03, 2022•50 min
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 En...
Feb 24, 2022•40 min
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 P...
Feb 17, 2022•47 min
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 ...
Feb 10, 2022•46 min
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...
Feb 03, 2022•51 min
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 F...
Jan 27, 2022•50 min
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 chemi...
Jan 20, 2022•49 min
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 ...
Jan 13, 2022•45 min
