The Loch Ness Monster and other folk tales might not be pure fiction, but actually based on memories of events our ancestors once observed.
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Essays On Air: Monsters in my closet - how a geographer began mining myths
So you think the Loch Ness Monster never existed? Think again. Traditional myths from our ancestors might actually reveal important clues about the geological history of the world.
Emergency personnel at the Ashley Wood Recovery Centre in Salisbury as the investigation into the suspected nerve agent attack on Russian double agent Sergei Skripal continues.
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Economist, author and MP Andrew Leigh spoke to Fiona Fidler about how we should be using randomised trials more to drive decisions and policy in public life.
This episode is all about bitcoin. Will it be the currency of the future? Who’s trying to capitalise on the legal loopholes of cryptocurrencies? And is it possible to make mining them more green.
William Farren and David Pinsent: two of Farnborough’s flying mathematicians.
Pinsent family archive.
The audio version of a long read on the daring mathematicians who took to the skies to help make early air travel safer.
Why did this woman, so devoted to her political cause and to her vision of a united France, chose to be burnt at the stake at the age of 19 instead of acquiescing to her judges’ directives?
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Essays On Air: Joan of Arc, our one true superhero
The Conversation22.1 MB(download)
Joan of Arc has been depicted as a national heroine, nationalist symbol, a rebellious heretic and a goodly saint. Forget Wonder Woman and Batman – Jeanne d’Arc may be our one and only true superhero.
The personal is now commercial – beauty, fashion and feminism
The Conversation22.2 MB(download)
Sometimes I want to cheer online publications that combine politics, fashion and beauty for the way they are mainstreaming feminism. On closer inspection, though, it has produced some odd results.
Pain lets us know when there is something wrong, but sometimes our brains can trick us.
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Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation; Sasha Petrova, The Conversation; Sophie Heizer, The Conversation, and Benjamin Ansell, The Conversation
Trust Me I’m An Expert: The science of pain
The Conversation58.7 MB(download)
Our podcast Trust Me, I'm An Expert, goes beyond the headlines and asks researchers to explain the evidence on issues making news. Today, we're talking pain and what science says about managing it.
On the Sydney Mardi Gras march of 1978
The Conversation, CC BY31.7 MB(download)
On a cold Saturday night in Sydney on June 24, 1978, a number of gay men, lesbians and transgender people marched into the pages of Australian social history. I was one of them.
A nurse nun visits the graves of victims of a 1976 Ebola outbreak.
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The audio version of a long read on the historical mistakes and cover ups that hampered the response to the devastating Ebola outbreak of 2014.
In July 2017, new research was published that pushed the opening chapters of Australian history back to 65,000 years ago.
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When did Australia’s human history begin?
The Conversation, CC BY16.6 MB(download)
Today's episode of Essays On Air, the audio version of our Friday essay series, seeks to move beyond the view of ancient Australia as a timeless and traditional foundation story.
This podcast explores the latest sexology research – including the topics that are still too taboo to get funding. We talk to sex robot experts and find out how sex work has moved online.
Fairy tales are extremely moral in their demarcation between good and evil, right and wrong.
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Why grown-ups still need fairy tales
The Conversation, CC BY22.8 MB(download)
We consciously and unconsciously tell fairy tales today, despite advances in logic and science. It’s as if there is something ingrained in us that compels us to see the world through this lens.
The audio version of a long read on stalling life expectancy in the UK.
From the initial avalanche of mail triggered by Germaine Greer’s book The Female Eunuch grew a collection of 50 years of letters, emails, faxes, telegrams and newsletters.
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Essays On Air: Reading Germaine Greer’s mail
The Conversation24.4 MB(download)
The Germaine Greer Archive offers a powerful, often amusing, sometimes perplexing glimpse into the lives of people affected by her work, as well as the many faces of Greer herself.
There are ways we can stay cool in a heat wave without blasting air con at peak times.
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The urban heat island and summertime blackouts
The Conversation25.6 MB(download)
Today, we're asking why some of the most disadvantaged parts of our cities cop the worst of a heatwave and how you -- yes, you! -- can do your bit to reduce the risk of a summer time blackout.
The much heralded ‘death of the book’ has nothing to do with the death of reading or writing. It is about a radical transformation in reading practices.
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Essays On Air: Why libraries can and must change
The Conversation, CC BY23.3 MB(download)
The much heralded 'death of the book' has nothing to do with the death of reading or writing. It's about a radical transformation in reading practices, as explained in this episode of Essays On Air.
Speaking with: Professor David Field about unusual crimes that have changed the law
CC BY-ND27.2 MB(download)
Sleepwalking murders and 'battered wife' syndrome are unique precedents set by extraordinary cases. David Field talks about unusual cases that have shaped Australian law.
Ongoing controversy around wild horses in Australia encompasses debate about their impact and their cultural meaning, argues Michael Adams.
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The cultural meanings of wild horses
The Conversation18.6 MB(download)
Today's episode of Essays On Air explores how humans have related to horses over time and across the world, and asks: is it time to rethink how we 'manage' brumbies in the wild?
Professor in U.S. Politics and U.S. Foreign Relations at the United States Studies Centre and in the Discipline of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney
