In less than a year, France will play host to the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The opening ceremony will be played out along the River Seine in the nations capital city Paris. The Seine is also set to be the scene of the open-water swimming events and work is now being done to make sure the polluted waterway will be clean and safe enough for the Olympic participants. To accommodate the expected influx of visitors to the Games, new transport links are been built. Whilst its already been acknowle...
Dec 07, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Around 1 billion people around the world suffer from a mysterious neurological condition called migraine. Far more than just a headache, migraine is abnormal processing of the world around us that can have symptoms like loss of sight and speech, dizziness, nausea and extreme fatigue. There are drugs which can help those struggling with the condition like anti-depressants and anti-convulsants. However, they werent developed specifically for migraine and can come with quite a lot of side effects o...
Nov 30, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Bangladesh is set to hold parliamentary elections next January. But only time will tell whether there will be real change at the top or whether the current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League will remain in power. In recent months there has been an increase in political protests calling for a neutral interim government ahead of the polls opening. But these protests have only resulted in increasing numbers of senior leaders of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party being rounde...
Nov 23, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast The head of Ukraines armed forces, General Zaluzhny, has a frank take on his countrys conflict with Russia: "Just like in the First World War, we have reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate." He explains that using drones and remote surveillance equipment in battlezones means each side knows what the other is doing. That slows down troops advancing, and creates a standoff. In a separate essay offering solutions, the general states that fresh tech innovation is the key to c...
Nov 16, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast When the Referendum to give Australias Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders greater political rights was first announced, it was well received, with the early polls suggesting that more than sixty percent of Australians supported it. This was an opportunity for the establishment of an advisory body to Parliament that would allow Indigenous Peoples a voice on the issues affecting their own communities and for them to be recognised in the Australian constitution. The YES campaign said their prop...
Nov 09, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Human Cell Atlas is a project that has 3000 researchers in over 94 countries working to collect samples of every single cell in the human body. The idea is that an interactive map of the body will be created. It will be a reference for what every kind of normal human cell should look like. But that will also vary depending on who you are and where you live. It will give doctors a tool to measure illness and disease and make diagnosis and treatment much quicker. The database will enable any d...
Nov 02, 2023•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast After violence erupted between Hamas and Israel, President Biden flew to Tel Aviv to offer his staunch ally US support. In a very public embrace of Israel, he reinforced a relationship that goes back decades to Israel's foundation. But does the US have the diplomatic influence to bring peace to the region? This week on the Inquiry: what can US diplomacy achieve in the Middle East. Contributors: David Sanger, White House and national security correspondent and senior writer for The New York Times...
Oct 26, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Climate change and the war in Ukraine is transforming the geopolitics of the Arctic. Melting ice opens up the possibility of new trade routes making the region more valuable. Tensions in the area are rising as Russia turns to China for cooperation. China in return wants to position itself as a major power in the region. Geopolitical tensions mean that any disputes become harder to resolve and potentially more dangerous. And in a region thats vulnerable to climate change science is also suffering...
Oct 19, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Europes migration crisis began back in 2015, with the arrival of over a million refugees, the majority from the war in Syria. Many thousands more from different countries have since sought refuge on European shores for one reason or another, whilst the tightening of external borders and asylum laws have proved ineffective in stopping the boats. There have been years of disagreements over migration amongst the member states of the European Union, which have caused damage to the blocs unity. In re...
Oct 12, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast The German government was elected with a plan to build 400,000 new homes a year but it fell short last year by over 100,000. The countrys house building industry is in crisis, with hundreds of companies going into liquidation this year as order books are emptying and demand for new homes has fallen. So why cant Germany build enough homes? A combination of high construction costs caused by inflation since the Covid pandemic, and increases in interest rates in recent years has produced a difficult...
Oct 05, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast At the recent BRICS economic summit in South Africa, Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinas President Xi Jinping had a rare face-to-face meeting. For years these two world powers have been in dispute over their ill-defined border in the Himalayan region. A military escalation of this dispute in 1962 led to the creation of the line of actual control or the LAC, the de facto border between the two countries. Down the years there have been a number of clashes along the LAC and its commonly ...
Sep 28, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast The life expectancy of Americans has fallen in recent years after a long period when it had been increasing. There are a number of factors which contribute to the fall. The Covid pandemic, with over 1m deaths, made a significant impact on lowering the average life expectancy. In comparison with other peer countries, the USA also did not return to pre-Covid levels at the same rate. However there are also other important factors driving this, namely gun deaths and drug deaths as a result of opioid...
Sep 21, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is ageing and his ruling Fatah party is deeply unpopular. There have been protests against him and the Palestinian Authority. Many Palestinians feel the PA has lost legitimacy. Theres no plan for how to choose a successor to Mahmoud Abbas and any candidate is likely to be controversial. Theres a risk that an unpopular replacement may throw the occupied territories into chaos, even violence, and have major implications for the future goals of Palestinian pe...
Sep 14, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast How much do you think about your gut? Are you taking a probiotic or prebiotic? If so, youre not alone as globally we spend billions of dollars on soothing our stomachs. Our guts do so much more than just digest our food and theres a very special connection to our brain. So how exactly does our gut work? And what do we need to do in order to keep it healthy? Presenter: Tanya Beckett Producer: Louise Clarke Researcher: Matt Toulson Sound engineer: Nicky Edwards Contributors: Geoff Preidis, a gastr...
Sep 07, 2023•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast In July 2023 a group of lawmakers in the US held a session to explore evidence of extra-terrestrial life. The evidence included the famous Tic Tac videos of mysterious objects flying through the sky. Pilots described encounters with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon or UAPs. Congress also heard of a secret US government programme that retrieves and reverse engineers materials made by non-humans, including crashed and intact craft and possibly the remains of the entities that piloted them. So doe...
Aug 31, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Working from home became the norm for millions of us around the globe during the Covid-19 pandemic, but now three years on some major employers are insisting on their employees returning to the office, for at least some part of the working week. The levels of working from home currently vary, depending on the country and its culture. The Netherlands are looking at legislation to allow employees the ability to work remotely, whilst in Japanese culture the preference for employees tends to be goin...
Aug 24, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast About 60 percent of the Amazon rainforest is in Brazil and it is home to more than 300 indigenous groups. But for centuries both the rainforest and its indigenous inhabitants have been under threat, from deforestation, agri-business, mining and politics. Brazils current president, Luis Igncio de Silva, has made the future security of the Amazon and its peoples a key policy pledge. So far, the president has appointed a new minister for indigenous peoples and according to government figures, the f...
Aug 17, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Environmental activists in the UK have disrupted high profile sporting events in an effort to persuade the government to stop oil development. How would stopping oil production impact those countries around the world with economies dependent on oil? Tanya Beckett explores the history of oil, the implications of the Ukraine war for its price, how countries like Nigeria and Norway are dependent on oil revenues, and the challenges facing new oil producers in the global south as they face internatio...
Aug 10, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast South Africa once had the most abundant and cheap electricity on the continent. Now, it is experiencing power blackouts. Its called loadshedding, the process by which the power company Eskom occasionally reduces the demand for electricity on the national grid. For many South Africans this means no electricity for up to ten hours a day, almost every day. The result is disruption to everyday life, impacting on work, education, sanitation, food and heating. In 1994 Nelson Mandelas African National ...
Aug 03, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast In June 2023 the British government announced a 40 million pound pilot scheme to increase access to specialist weight management services in England -It reads Using the latest drugs to support people to lose weight will be a game-changer. The scheme will use prescription drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic, a once weekly injection that slows down the emptying of the stomach and suppresses the hunger hormone in our brains. Both these medications are made of the same of the same drug called Semaglutide....
Jul 27, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Venezuela is the country with the largest oil deposits, yet 3 in every 4 Venezuelan lives in extreme poverty. More than 7 million people are recorded as having left the country since 2015 in search of a better life, causing the largest ever displacement of people in Latin American history. And its only surpassed in numbers by those people leaving Ukraine. But Venezuela is not at war, its current humanitarian crisis is the result of years of political and economic turbulence. International sancti...
Jul 20, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Canada is in the grip of the worst wildfires in recorded history. Blazes are devouring millions of acres of forest, forcing more than a hundred thousand people from their homes. Toxic smoke has blanketed cities across North America. Why are wildfires getting more frequent and intense across the world? Part of the reason is climate change, but part of it is also population growth and land management. The question is, what should we do about it? How can we stop wildfires? Contributors: Mike Norton...
Jul 13, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Following the Wagner mutiny in Russia, and with fighting intensifying as Ukraine presses on with its counter-offensive, theres concern about increasing instability around potential use of nuclear weapons. President Putin has threatened to use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Gary ODonoghue asks how likely this is, and if the nuclear threat level is rising across the world. Are countries around the world looking at what is happening in Ukraine and adjusting their nuclear thinking? As China se...
Jul 06, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast The medieval city of Venice is situated in the heart of a lagoon on the coast of northeast Italy. It was built on a large area of low-lying marshland. A system of wooden poles driven into the soft mud created an underwater forest. It still forms the foundations of the city we see today. For centuries the City has had to battle with aqua alta or high tides from the Adriatic sea. And the gradual combination of water erosion and rising sea levels means the City is now facing a more urgent battle to...
Jun 29, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Thailands recent elections produced a shock result. A popular progressive party called Move Forward won the most seats. But the leader of the government has not yet been named as the country moves through its procedures for verifying the election results. If the head of the party, Pita Limjaroenrat, is successful, it will mean civilian rule for the first time in over a decade. But the path to that role is far from smooth. There are many challenges as military coups and court rulings have cut man...
Jun 22, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 2009 Disney bought Marvel studios and helped transform the company into a movie making powerhouse that brought a new world of superhero stories to the silver screen, called The Marvel Cinematic Universe. Since then the franchise has generated over $30 billion dollars in profit, released 32 films and has even made its way onto the small screen And its not slowing down any time soon. Before the end of next year we can expect Captain America, Thunderbolts, The Marvels and Blade in cinemas and Da...
Jun 15, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast A fifteen minute test flight of a plane fuelled only by hydrogen was successfully completed over recent months. Trucks are already running on the fuel in the US, as are trains in Canada and the UK. Both Toyota and Hyundai have expressed a desire to explore the gas as an option for their smaller vehicles. The UK has announced plans to use hydrogen as a replacement for natural gas in two trial villages, Whitby and Redcar, having already completed tests at Keele University. Several glass and tiling...
Jun 08, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ron DeSantis, the governor of the US State of Florida has now declared his republican nomination for the 2024 Presidential Election. Hes the latest in a line of republican contenders keen to take on President Joe Biden for the White House. Since his appointment as Floridas governor in 2018, Ron DeSantis has been busy stamping his own brand of cultural conservatism on the Sunshine State, including limits on abortions and restricting sex and gender identity education in schools. The latter, known ...
Jun 01, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Official figures report that there are more than eight million houses standing empty across Japan, the reality could be even higher. One of the highest concentrations of empty houses or Akiya as they are known, is in the Prefecture of Akita, in Northern Japan, where in the past five years, houses have been abandoned at a rate of 13.6 percent. The problem is being put down to a number of factors. The lack of employment or education opportunities in rural economies means more migration into the ci...
May 25, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Great Green Wall is one of the most ambitious environmental projects ever conceived, creating a vast belt of vegetation spanning Africa by 2030; from Senegal on the Atlantic to Djibouti on the Red Sea. It was heralded as Africas contribution to the fight against climate change, reversing damage caused by drought, overgrazing and poor farming techniques. The regreening of 11 Sahel countries on the edge of the Sahara Desert would create millions of jobs, boost food security, and reduce conflic...
May 18, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
