Podcast

Constant distractions affect our ability to concentrate. (Shutterstock) Nehal El-Hadi, The Conversation and Daniel Merino, The Conversation Staying focused on a single task for a long period of time is a growing concern. We are confronted with and have to process incredible amounts of information daily, and our brains are often functioning in overdrive to manage the processing and decision-making …

President Jair Bolsonaro relaxed rules around private gun ownership. Joedson Alves/EPA Gemma Ware, The Conversation and Daniel Merino, The Conversation Soon after Jair Bolsonaro was elected president of Brazil in 2018, he began making it a lot easier for people in the country to buy guns. In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, we speak to two experts about …

A protester outside an immigration detention facility in Melbourne, Austraila. FiledIMAGE/Shutterstock Gemma Ware, The Conversation and Justin Bergman, The Conversation The life of limbo for people in immigration detention is often deeply traumatic. In this week’s episode of The Conversation Weekly, we talk to two experts on immigration detention in Australia and the UK about why people are waiting months, …

Olivia Durand, University of Oxford Vladimir Putin has long insisted Ukraine is part of the country he rules. This was painted more starkly than ever as he announced that Russian troops were undertaking a “special military operation” in its western neighbour. But to the rest of the world, what Russia is undertaking is simply an invasion. Putin has been softening …

Where does our love of sugar come from? Magdalena Kucova/Shutterstock Daniel Merino, The Conversation and Gemma Ware, The Conversation What are the evolutionary origins of sugar cravings? What makes something taste sweet? And what does too much sugar do to the brain? In this week’s episode of The Conversation Weekly, we talk to three experts and go on a deep …

After South African scientists sounded the alarm about the new omicron variant, countries around the world closed their borders. Kim Ludbrook/EPA Gemma Ware, The Conversation and Daniel Merino, The Conversation What is it like to discover a new coronavirus variant? In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, we hear the inside story from one of the South African scientists …

Gemma Ware, The Conversation and Daniel Merino, The Conversation 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. In this episode of The Conversation Weekly, …

mRNA vaccines: not just for COVID. Cryptographer/Shutterstock Daniel Merino, The Conversation and Gemma Ware, The Conversation From new mRNA vaccines to space missions and developments in robotic automation, in this episode of The Conversation Weekly we talk to three experts about some scientific advances they’re watching out for in 2022. And we speak to an economist about trends in global …

The Taliban on patrol in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, in late August 2021. EPA Daniel Merino, The Conversation and Gemma Ware, The Conversation In this week’s episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, we talk to two Afghan experts about the origins of the Taliban and what’s happened over the last 20 years that enabled the group to retake control of most …

Lamu in coastal Kenya is an area where women and girls have been recuited by Al-Shabaab. Eric Lafforgue/Alamy Stock Photo Daniel Merino, The Conversation and Gemma Ware, The Conversation 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 of our favourite recent interviews. This week, …