Episode description

Lagos Fashion Week makes some unexpected connections to vegan wool, 1920s car marketing, and Right to Repair legislation. If we consider our obsession with the clothes we wear to be some result of sexual selection, do any other animals evolve their self-expression with such frequency?

Dr Ellen Garland of St Andrew’s University tells how male humpback whales change their song with surprisingly infectious rapidity, and talks us through some recent hits. Also, some catalytic promise for wastewater management, and how choosing a language in which to think changes your decision making.

Plus, this week’s messages from you, and can poetry help science?

Presenter: Caroline Steel, with Chhavi Sachdev and Godfred Boafo Producer: Alex Mansfield, with Tom Bonnet and Margaret Sessa-Hawkins