tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/audio-3759/articlesAudio – The Conversation2024-03-28T09:58:19Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2267842024-03-28T09:58:19Z2024-03-28T09:58:19ZInvisible lines: how unseen boundaries shape the world around us<p>Our experiences of the world are diverse, often changing as we move across borders from one country to another. They can also vary based on language or subtle shifts in climate. Yet, we rarely consider what causes these differences and divisions. </p>
<p>In this episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast, we speak to geographer Maxim Samson at De Paul University in the US about the unseen boundaries that can shape our collective and personal perceptions of the world – what he calls “invisible lines”.</p>
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<p>For Samson, invisible lines are: “Boundaries and belts that shape our understanding of and interactions with the planet, even though these boundaries and belts are, to all intents and purposes, unseen.” </p>
<p>While we may not be able to see these lines on a conventional map, people often know that they exist. </p>
<p>One example is the history of redlining in the US. Originating in the 1930s, the practice involved government-backed mortgage lenders colour-coding neighbourhoods. Green denoted the most desirable areas while red marked the highest-risk zones, often inhabited by Black communities.</p>
<p>Although redlining was officially outlawed in 1968 and the lines are no longer marked on any maps, their enduring impact resonates across America today. One example is Detroit’s <a href="https://detroithistorical.org/learn/encyclopedia-of-detroit/eight-mile-road#:%7E:text=Spanning%20more%20than%2020%20miles,east%2Dwest%20throughout%20the%20region.">8 Mile road</a>, which still segregates the city along racial lines – with predominantly African American neighbourhoods to the south, and predominantly white, affluent areas are to the north of 8 Mile.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/removing-urban-highways-can-improve-neighborhoods-blighted-by-decades-of-racist-policies-166220">Removing urban highways can improve neighborhoods blighted by decades of racist policies</a>
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<p>But it’s not just in cities that these boundaries exist. One example Samson gives from nature is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Line">Wallace line</a>, which runs through parts of Indonesia and marks a sharp transition in flora and fauna between the Asian and Australian regions. On one side, you get what are considered Asian animals such as monkeys; on the other, marsupials associated with Australia.</p>
<p>Another invisible line is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qinling%E2%80%93Huaihe_Line">Qinling-Huaihe line</a>, which separates China into two distinct regions: the humid and subtropical south and the dry, temperate north.</p>
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<p>In the early 20th century, this was identified as roughly the dividing line between places where the average January temperature would be below zero, and where it wouldn’t fall out that low. So, if you live north of the line, your town probably has a heating system. If you live south of it, it wouldn’t have one. </p>
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<p>This distinction has informed government policy and led to different levels of development in the south versus the north. By recognising the seemingly innocuous Qinling-Huaihe line, it’s possible to discern disparities in economic development, inequality and air pollution between China’s southern and northern regions that might otherwise be obscured.</p>
<p>For Samson, analysing these kinds of boundary can help understand different access to education, employment opportunities and public services, depending on which side of the invisible line someone falls.</p>
<p>Listen to the full interview with Maxim Samson on <a href="https://pod.link/1550643487">The Conversation Weekly podcast</a>. </p>
<p><em>A transcript of this episode will be available shortly.</em></p>
<p><em>This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written by Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Stephen Khan is our global executive editor, Alice Mason runs our social media and Soraya Nandy does our transcripts.</em></p>
<p><em>You can find us on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also subscribe to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a> or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226784/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maxim Samson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Maxim Samson speaks to The Conversation Weekly podcast about the hidden lines that explain variations in everything from access to education to animal speciesMend Mariwany, Producer, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2262462024-03-21T11:36:19Z2024-03-21T11:36:19ZClimate quitting: the people leaving their fossil fuel jobs because of climate change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583118/original/file-20240320-16-57513d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=89%2C134%2C5901%2C3853&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-woman-hold-piece-paper-quit-430986301">Mayuree Moonhirun/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the climate crisis gets ever more severe, the fossil fuel industry is <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/big-oils-talent-crisis-high-salaries-are-no-longer-enough-194545be">struggling to recruit new talent</a>. And now a number of existing employees are deciding to leave their jobs, some quietly, some very publicly, because of concerns over climate change. </p>
<p>In this episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly podcast</a>, we speak to a researcher about this phenomenon of “climate quitting”.</p>
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<p>My name is Caroline Dennett and this is my resignation.</p>
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<p>In a video posted on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/caroline-dennett-6161a814_jumpship-truthteller-activity-6934409781495431168-7l1f?utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=member_desktop_web">LinkedIn</a> in 2022, Caroline Dennett, a senior safety consultant working at a major oil company, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/23/shell-consultant-quits-environment-caroline-dennett">announced she was terminating her contract</a> because of what she called the company’s “double-talk” on climate. </p>
<p>When Grace Augustine and her colleague Birth Soppe saw the video, which went viral, they decided to start looking for more people who had left their jobs because of concerns over climate change. </p>
<p>Augustine, an associate professor in business and society at the University of Bath in the UK, and Soppe, an associate professor of organisation studies, at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, have so far conducted interviews with 39 people from around the world in their ongoing research. Most, though not all, of their interviewees are young people who work in white collar jobs in the oil and gas sector. </p>
<p>One man they spoke to explained the feelings that led him to leave his job.</p>
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<p>On a Friday afternoon travelling home, I would feel physically uncomfortable. And I was wondering: why am I feeling physically uncomfortable? I had a good week, I’ve done good work. And then you realise that, you may have done good work, but the goal that you’re working towards is evil in a way; does not align with your moral compass.</p>
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<p>Many referred to having a sense of cognitive dissonance – the idea that your behaviour doesn’t match your belief system. And they couldn’t live it with any longer. Augustine explained:</p>
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<p>They were increasingly feeling a sense of urgency around the climate crisis … something that they’d thought might be happening ten, 15, 20 years down the line, such as heat records being broken or climate related weather events. They felt an increasing sense that it couldn’t wait any longer for them to leave this industry.</p>
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<p>Listen to Grace Augustine talk about her ongoing research on <a href="https://pod.link/1550643487">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast, which also features extracts from her interviews and an introduction from Sam Phelps, commissioning editor for international affairs at The Conversation in the UK. </p>
<p><em>A transcript of this episode will be available shortly.</em></p>
<p><em>Thanks to Grace Augustine for getting permission for The Conversation to use clips from her interviews, and to her interview subjects who agreed to let us use their voices and statements in this podcast.</em> </p>
<p><em>This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Katie Flood, with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Stephen Khan is our global executive editor, Alice Mason runs our social media and Soraya Nandy does our transcripts.</em></p>
<p><em>Newsclips in this episode were from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAJsdgTPJpU">PBS News Hour</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>You can find us on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also subscribe to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a> or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226246/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grace Augustine receives funding from The British Academy and Leverhulme Trust. </span></em></p>Grace Augustine talks about her interviews with people who’ve chosen to leave their jobs over climate change concerns on The Conversation Weekly podcast.Gemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2257032024-03-14T11:08:01Z2024-03-14T11:08:01ZHow conspiracy theories help to maintain Vladimir Putin’s grip on power in Russia<p>As Russians head to the polls on March 15 for the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-can-we-expect-from-six-more-years-of-vladimir-putin-an-increasingly-weak-and-dysfunctional-russia-224259">presidential election</a>, conspiracy theories are swirling everywhere. In this episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly podcast</a>, we speak to a disinformation expert about the central role these theories play in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.</p>
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<p>As soon as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/navalny-dies-in-prison-but-his-blueprint-for-anti-putin-activism-will-live-on-223774">death of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny</a> in a Siberian penal colony was announced in February, conspiracy theories about who was behind it <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPn2zQWOU70">began circulating in Russia</a>.</p>
<p>“That he was killed by his puppet masters from the west, not the Kremlin. That he was killed by them because his murder would actually make Putin look awful in the eyes of global community,” explains Ilya Yablokov, a lecturer in digital journalism and disinformation at the University of Sheffield in the UK.</p>
<p>Yablokov studies the <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Fortress+Russia%3A+Conspiracy+Theories+in+the+Post+Soviet+World-p-9781509522651">spread of conspiracy theories in post-Soviet Russia</a>, and says the stories about Navalny are the most prominent of many circulating ahead of a presidential election that looks certain to keep Putin in the Kremlin until at least 2030. </p>
<p>Yablokov tells The Conversation Weekly that Russia’s conspiracy culture has become a key tool for Putin’s regime: “Conspiracy theories are one of the few ways of keeping the society together and to prevent the change of the regime.” </p>
<p>Fear of anti-Russian conspiracy now informs many pieces of domestic legislation, such as the 2022 changes to the <a href="https://cpj.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Guide-to-Understanding-the-Laws-Relating-to-Fake-News-in-Russia.pdf">criminal code</a> that were aimed at censoring criticism of the Russian military, and in particular its actions in Ukraine. Yablokov adds:</p>
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<p>Every possible activity that can shake up the regime and question its actions is forbidden on the grounds of an existing conspiracy against Russia and its regime.</p>
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<p>Conspiracy theories used to exist on the margins of Russian culture. Putin typically avoided mentioning them too much, except at key political moments such as elections or Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. But now, and in particular since the Ukraine war, they have moved to the centre of political debate. </p>
<p>Listen to <a href="https://pod.link/1550643487">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast to hear Ilya Yablokov talk about Putin’s changing relationship with conspiracy theories, plus an introduction from Grégory Rayko, international editor at The Conversation in France. </p>
<p><em>A transcript of this episode will be available shortly.</em></p>
<p><em>This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Gemma Ware and Katie Flood, with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Stephen Khan is our global executive editor, Alice Mason runs our social media and Soraya Nandy does our transcripts.</em></p>
<p><em>Newsclips in this episode were from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPn2zQWOU70">Russia Media Monitor</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgydMTmhs50">BBC News</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nJGDsOswFc">Guardian News</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nYAM-Jbfh4">NBC</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAvMgUf8nyo">News</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdKDrIR8ASY&t=88s">CBS Mornings</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tim9AodGLhU">Channel 4 News</a>.</em> </p>
<p><em>You can find us on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also subscribe to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a> or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225703/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ilya Yablokov does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Russian disinformation expert Ilya Yablokov tells The Conversation Weekly podcast about the president’s shifting relationship with conspiracy theories.Gemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2251952024-03-07T10:27:30Z2024-03-07T10:27:30ZNorth Korean women are now the breadwinners – and shifting this deeply patriarchal society towards a matriarchy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580112/original/file-20240306-25-ophz0e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=45%2C33%2C1998%2C1330&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Small shops, many run by women, are a common sight in North Korea. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/foliopix/21846701589/in/album-72177720301574198/">Lesley Parker</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>High heels, lace and handbags. In recent decades, there’s been a huge shift in the role of North Korean women and the choices they’re able to make – including what they wear. </p>
<p>In this episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly podcast</a>, we hear about new research on how North Korean women are driving a new form of grassroots capitalism, and changing the country in the process. </p>
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<p>“It’s a salutary lesson to all patriarchies. You shouldn’t take your eye off the women,” says Bronwen Dalton. She’s head of the department of management at the University of Technology Sydney Business School in Australia and a co-author, with her colleague Kyungja Jung, of <a href="https://www.routledge.com/North-Koreas-Women-led-Grassroots-Capitalism/Dalton-Jung/p/book/9780367536961">a new book on the role of women in North Korea</a>.</p>
<p>Their research was based on conversations with 52 North Korean defectors living in South Korea and China, as well as insights from three trips Dalton took to North Korea. </p>
<p>North Korea is a deeply patriarchal society, and women have traditionally been defined by two words: mother and wife. But when famine hit the country in the 1990s and the public food distribution system disintegrated, it was left to women to try to earn money to feed their families. And the state, obsessed with controlling the lives of men, mainly ignored what women were doing. </p>
<p>Many began working in markets, some of which were legal, some illegal, selling what they could to supplement the meagre wages of their husbands’ factory jobs. </p>
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<p>With this shift, it became a whole new lexicon that was derogatory around men, because the economic power had shifted. Women are the breadwinners in a very tight economic times, and men were another mouth to feed.</p>
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<p>Jung was fascinated when North Korean defectors she interviewed used the word matriarchy. She related one conversation with a woman in her 50s. </p>
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<p>She stated that women often say the patriarchy has fallen in favour of the matriarchy … And if women were once under their husband’s thumbs, men are now afraid they will be kicked out of their homes by their wives.</p>
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<p>At the same time, women’s fashion choices have shifted to become more hyper-feminine. Dalton says that North Korean women will do “anything to obtain a pair of high heels”, and they wear a lot of bling, lace and embroidered parasols. </p>
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<img alt="Two women one with a Chanel-style brooch and another with a North Korean label pin." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580095/original/file-20240306-23-1kyepn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=39%2C9%2C1956%2C892&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580095/original/file-20240306-23-1kyepn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=265&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580095/original/file-20240306-23-1kyepn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=265&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580095/original/file-20240306-23-1kyepn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=265&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580095/original/file-20240306-23-1kyepn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580095/original/file-20240306-23-1kyepn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580095/original/file-20240306-23-1kyepn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Two sides of North Korea: fashion and loyalty to the state.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/foliopix/23778076170/in/album-72177720301574198/">Lesley Parker</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Listen to <a href="https://pod.link/1550643487">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast to hear Bronwen Dalton and Kyungja Jung talk about their research on North Korea, plus an introduction from Justin Bergman, international affairs editor at The Conversation in Australia. </p>
<p><em>A transcript of this episode will be available shortly.</em></p>
<p><em>This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Gemma Ware and Mend Mariwany, with assistance from Katie Flood. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Stephen Khan is our global executive editor, Alice Mason runs our social media and Soraya Nandy does our transcripts.</em></p>
<p><em>You can find us on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also subscribe to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a> or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225195/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bronwen Dalton receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
Kyungja Jung receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Academy of Korean Studies. </span></em></p>Bronwen Dalton and Kyungja Jung explain how North Korean women are driving a new form of grassroots capitalism. Listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.Gemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2245902024-02-29T11:23:50Z2024-02-29T11:23:50ZA personal tale of intellectual humility – and the rewards of being open-minded<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578586/original/file-20240228-26-70gajp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=113%2C142%2C4531%2C2945&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Intellectual humility is about being open to changing your mind. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/signpost-countryside-landscape-image-retro-filtered-249397120">tomertu/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With unlimited information at our fingertips and dozens of platforms on which to share our opinions, it can sometimes feel like we’re supposed to be experts in everything. It can be exhausting. </p>
<p>In this episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast, we talk to a psychologist whose research and experiences of intellectual humility have taught him that acknowledging what we don’t know is as important as asserting what we do know. </p>
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<p>To Daryl Van Tongeren, the pressure to be right all the time is an “unassailably tall order”. He believes that we’re living in a moment where even when people make mistakes, apologize and say they’ve changed their minds, it isn’t good enough. </p>
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<p>We demand perfection. Not only perfection now but also perfection in one’s past and perfection in one’s future.</p>
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<p>Van Tongeren is a psychology researcher at Hope College in Michigan in the U.S. who conducts research into the concept of intellectual humility. He explains it as something that happens both within us – “our ability to admit and own our cognitive limitations” – and in our relationships with others. “It means being able to present my ideas or interact with someone in a way that’s nondefensive,” he says.</p>
<p>Overall, if somebody is intellectually humble, they are willing to be open-minded enough to revise their beliefs if presented with sufficiently strong evidence. </p>
<p>Van Tongeren’s own experience of family tragedy meant that he had to address these questions head-on in his late 20s. </p>
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<p>All of a sudden I found myself having to try to make sense of what seemed like this senseless suffering. And so it really plunged me into this period of questioning everything, questioning some of the deep beliefs that I’d held and been taught since I was very, very young.</p>
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<p>Listen to <a href="https://pod.link/1550643487">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast to hear Daryl Van Tongeren talking about his personal journey of intellectual humility, as well as explain the latest research on how to nurture it. The episode also includes an interview with Maggie Villiger, senior science and technology editor at The Conversation in the U.S.</p>
<p>Read more articles from <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/intellectual-humility-125132">our series on intellectual humility</a>. </p>
<p><em>A transcript of this <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/3169/Intellectual_Humility_Transcript.docx.pdf?1710952487">episode is now available</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Katie Flood, with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Stephen Khan is our global executive editor, Alice Mason runs our social media and Soraya Nandy does our transcripts.</em></p>
<p><em>You can find us on X, formerly known as Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also subscribe to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a> or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224590/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Some of the work described in this podcast was supported by grants from The John Templeton Foundation to Daryl Van Tongeren and his colleagues. The Converation's series on intellectual humility was produced with support from UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center and the John Templeton Foundation as part of the GGSC's initiative on Expanding Awareness of the Science of Intellectual Humility.</span></em></p>Daryl Van Tongeren explains what it means to be intellectually humble, and why it’s so important right now on The Conversation Weekly podcast.Gemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2240852024-02-22T11:10:59Z2024-02-22T11:10:59ZIsrael-Gaza: how opinion polls used in Northern Ireland could pave a way to peace<p>Amid the death and suffering unleashed by Israel’s war on Gaza and the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, prospects for lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians appear ever more elusive. But when the war eventually ends, pressure will mount for negotiations to begin for a deal. When that day comes, how can opposing sides in such an intractable conflict find enough common ground to reach an agreement?</p>
<p>In this episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast, we hear about a method called peace polling, tried out successfully in Northern Ireland, that could offer a blueprint for how to reach a settlement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.</p>
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<p>After living through decades of violence, in May 1998 the people of Northern Ireland were asked to vote in a referendum on a peace deal, known as the Good Friday Agreement. The referendum passed with a 71% majority. </p>
<p>Colin Irwin was not surprised. He’d been part of a team working for months alongside the formal negotiations on a series of public opinion polls in Northern Ireland. The questions were agreed with all the political parties involved in the negotiations, including some of those linked to the worst of the violence during Northern Ireland’s Troubles. Irwin says the most important poll he did was the one just before a deal was reached. </p>
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<p>We had a precis of the agreement and we asked people if they would accept it. Within one percentage point, we were accurate to what the final referendum was, by which time the parties knew that our polls were very accurate … They then knew that they wouldn’t be committing political suicide by signing up to the deal.</p>
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<p>Today, Irwin is a research fellow at the University of Liverpool in the UK. He’s worked to bring the method of peace polling developed in Northern Ireland to inform peace negotiations in a variety of conflicts around the world, from Syria to the Balkans and Sri Lanka. </p>
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<p>Peace polling can work in any context and we can always find out what people can accept. My personal view is that it always should be done in every conflict all the time so the world should know what the deal is and what can be accepted.</p>
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<p>In early 2009, Irwin conducted a peace poll in Israel and Palestine, meeting with political parties from all sides in the conflict, including Hamas. The only person who wouldn’t meet him, he says, was Benjamin Netanyahu. And he argues that since then, Israel <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-israel-failed-to-learn-from-the-northern-ireland-peace-process-220170">has failed to learn the lessons</a> from the Northern Ireland peace process. </p>
<p>Listen to <a href="https://pod.link/1550643487">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast to hear Colin Irwin explain about how the Inuit helped inform the design of peace polling, and more about his work in Northern Ireland and Israel-Palestine. The episode also includes an interview with Jonathan Este, senior international editor at The Conversation in the UK. </p>
<p>A transcript of this <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/3170/Peace_Polls_Transcript.docx.pdf?1710953332">episode is now available</a>. </p>
<p><em>This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Gemma Ware and Mend Mariwany, with assistance from Katie Flood. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Stephen Khan is our global executive editor, Alice Mason runs our social media and Soraya Nandy does our transcripts.</em></p>
<p><em>You can find us on X, formerly known as Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also subscribe to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a> or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224085/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Colin John Irwin receives funding from: Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, Center for Democracy and Reconciliation in South East Europe, Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, OneVoice, Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (now FCDO), Economic and Social Research Council (UK ESRC), United Nations, InterPeace, Health and Welfare Canada, Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), British Academy, Norwegian Peoples Aid, The Day After, No Peace Without Justice, US Department of State, Local Administrations Council Unit (Syria), Asia Foundation, Department for International Development (UK DFID), OpenAI, Atlantic Philanthropies, Universities: Dalhousie, Manitoba, Syracuse, Pennsylvania, Queens Belfast, Liverpool. Also member of the World Association of Public Opinion Research (WAPOR) which promotes freedom to publish public opinion polls and sets international professional standards.</span></em></p>In The Conversation Weekly podcast, researcher Colin Irwin explains how peace polls can help build consensus in conflict negotiations – but only if all parties are at the table.Gemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2117262023-12-21T10:27:16Z2023-12-21T10:27:16ZSocial media drains our brains and impacts our decision making – podcast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543273/original/file-20230817-40322-o38kim.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=798%2C167%2C7788%2C5214&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Social media can make us buy products we don't want, new research shows. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-asian-business-woman-connecting-to-social-royalty-free-image/1470073460?phrase=social+media&adppopup=true">Oscar Wong/Moment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ever found yourself scrolling through social media late at night and accidentally buying something you regretted? In this episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast, we talk to an advertising expert about recent research into how social media <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15252019.2022.2144780">can overload our brains</a> and make us buy products we don’t need or want.</p>
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<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cXqXHpsAAAAJ&hl=en">Matthew Pittman</a> is a professor of advertising at the University of Tennessee in the US. In 2022, Pittman and his colleague <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=GqkucpQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Eric Haley</a>, conducted three online studies on Americans aged 18-65 to examine how people under various mental loads respond to advertisements differently.</p>
<p>“Our brain has limited resources and it can also be taxed if we try to do too many things at once and once those resources are depleted, there are usually negative consequences,” says Pittman. </p>
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<p>If you’re on the fence about a purchase and you’re under cognitive load and you see a lot of likes or a lot of comments, or maybe it’s very attractive people in the ad that look happy … click, I’m gonna purchase it.</p>
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<p>Pittman found that those who weren’t under <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-009-9110-0">cognitive load</a> made more balanced purchasing decisions. But the group that they told to scroll through their Instagram feed for 30 seconds and then look at an advert was more susceptible to cues such as the comments and likes associated with it. </p>
<p>When asked to describe their rationale for buying a product, Pittman was surprised that those under a high mental load had diminished sentence and language capabilities. He found that Instagram put subjects in a mentally exhausted state because they were consuming different types of text, photos and posts.</p>
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<p>People that were not under cognitive load gave grammatically normal sentences that flowed logically, such as this ice cream looked tasty, or I liked the colors, but when people were under cognitive load, even their sentences were more fractured. Which explains why I can’t explain to my wife why I consistently make stupid purchases.</p>
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<p>Listen to the full episode of <a href="https://podfollow.com/the-conversation-weekly/view">The Conversation Weekly</a> to hear the different ways social media impacts our processing abilities and decision-making. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/3015/Social_Media_and_Cognitive_Load_Transcript.docx.pdf?1706201893">transcript of this episode</a> is now available.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Matthew Pittman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</em></p>
<p><em>This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany with production assistance from Katie Flood and our intern Jusneel Mahal. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. The executive producer is Gemma Ware.</em> </p>
<p><em>You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also sign up to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>.</em> </p>
<p><em>Listen to “The Conversation Weekly” via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a> or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211726/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Pittman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New research shows that scrolling through Instagram can effect our processing and language capabilities. Listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.Mend Mariwany, Producer, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2195842023-12-11T12:34:28Z2023-12-11T12:34:28ZKenya at 60: the patriotic choral music used to present one version of history – podcast<p>Kenya is marking 60 years since its independence from British colonial rule on December 12, 1963. Each year, the country celebrates the occasion with a national holiday, Jamhuri Day. And for much of the past 60 years, patriotic choral music has been a regular feature of those celebrations. </p>
<p>In this episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast, we explore how much one song can tell you about the politics of a new nation – and who controls what gets remembered and what gets forgotten. </p>
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<p>Doseline Kiguru grew up hearing the song <em>Wimbo wa Historia</em> on Kenyan national radio in the 1980s and 1990s. Kiguru says the piece of choral music, which means “song of history” in Kiswahili, was often played on national holidays. </p>
<p>Today, Kiguru is a research associate in cultural and literary production in Africa at the University of Bristol in the UK. She has published research with her colleague Ernest Patrick Monte on the <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/epdf/10.10520/EJC-f184b6256">history of patriotic choral music</a> and the role it plays in Kenyan political culture. </p>
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<p><em>Wimbo wa Historia</em> was written in the 1960s by the composer Enock Ondego. “It’s trying to write history through music,” explains Kiguru. The song focuses on Jomo Kenyatta, the first president of Kenya. According to Ondego’s autobiography, it was first performed by schoolchildren in front of Kenyatta himself.</p>
<p>The lyrics recount a part of Kenya’s violent history in the lead up to independence, including Kenyatta’s imprisonment, release and visit to London for negotiations on the country’s new constitution. </p>
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<p>We argue that presenting the first president as somebody that suffered not only emotionally, but physically in so many different ways, it means that when he becomes president … you’re supposed to revere him, he’s the person who sacrificed the most. So that means his position as a leader of government, his position as president should not be questioned. It means that we are foregrounding specific individuals, and this later became known as a cult of personalities in Kenya. </p>
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<p>The music became a stalwart at national holiday celebrations in the late 20th century. It fell out of favour in the early 2000s, but then had a comeback after 2013 when Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Jomo Kenyatta, became president. </p>
<p>When Uhuru Kenyatta’s term ended in 2022, he was replaced by the current president, William Ruto. Kiguru says the song hasn’t been played at national holiday celebrations since Ruto’s election, but she speculates that it could still reappear because of the way it frames Kenya’s leaders in a cult of personality. </p>
<p>Listen to the full interview with Doseline Kiguru on the <a href="https://podfollow.com/the-conversation-weekly/view">The Conversation Weekly</a>, and read an article she wrote about her <a href="https://theconversation.com/kenyas-patriotic-choral-music-has-been-used-to-embed-a-skewed-version-of-history-183850">research into Kenyan choral music here too</a>. </p>
<p>A transcript of this episode <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/2998/Kenyan_Music_Transcript.pdf?1704360471">is now available.</a></p>
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<p><em>This episode was produced by Katie Flood and Mend Mariwany. It was written by Gemma Ware, who is the executive producer of the show. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.</em></p>
<p><em>Newsclips in this episode from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZR099-5USo">British Pathé</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVLIzq_qhWg">DW News</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju1hugt0v4s">Al Jazeera English</a>. Wimbo wa Historia original version from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixZ2Mg-fEb4">ArapKaruiTV</a> and Leyla’s 2018 version from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPm5y2FLN6E">DJ Survival Kenya</a>. Additional music from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjG9zCCJTAo">Heko Jamhuri by Muungano National Choir</a> from Tamasha Records.</em> </p>
<p><em>You can find us on X, formerly known as Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also subscribe to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a> or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219584/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Doseline Kiguru does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As Kenya marks 60 years of independence, we explore how much one song can tell you about the politics of a new nation. Listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.Gemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2008452023-03-01T11:56:04Z2023-03-01T11:56:04ZGreat Mysteries of Physics: a mind-blowing podcast from The Conversation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512641/original/file-20230228-1442-ctc909.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C1%2C1274%2C716&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> </figcaption></figure><iframe src="https://embed.acast.com/638f4b009a65b10011b94c5e/63e3e0a32b0e2f00112ae630" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="190px"></iframe>
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<p>At the beginning of the 20th century it might have seemed that there was nothing new to discover in physics. Not anymore. Today it is becoming increasingly clear that there are problems that physics – at least as we currently know it – isn’t able to solve. Perhaps we just need more data, perhaps we need a new fundamental theory of reality. </p>
<p>Hosted by Miriam Frankel, science editor at The Conversation, and supported by <a href="https://fqxi.org/">FQxI</a>, the Foundational Questions Institute, the six-part series explores the greatest mysteries facing physicists today – and discuss the radical proposals for solving them. </p>
<h2>Part 1: Time</h2>
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<p>We cannot imagine reality without time flowing through it. But on the most fundamental level, physicists aren’t even sure whether time actually flows or even exists. In our first episode, we look at whether it could potentially move backwards as well as forwards. </p>
<p>But if that’s true, then why is our experience of time moving from the past to the future so strong? One answer is that entropy, a measure of disorder, is always increasing in the universe. When you run the numbers, explains Sean Carroll, a physicist at Johns Hopkins University in the US, it turns out that the early universe had very low entropy. And in a closed system, entropy must always rise, creating an arrow of time.</p>
<p>Emily Adlam, a philosopher of physics at the Rotman Institute of Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, on the other hand, believes the mystery of why our universe started with low entropy is a problem that ultimately stems from the fact that physics is riddled with assumptions about the time.</p>
<p>Adlam argues the best way to understand time would be to remove it entirely from our theories of nature – to strip it out of the equations. Interestingly, when physicists try to unite general relativity with quantum mechanics into a “quantum gravity” theory of everything, time often disappears from the equations.</p>
<h2>Part 2: Fundamental constants</h2>
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<p>The values of many forces and particles in the universe, represented by some 30 so-called fundamental constants, all seem to <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/817511.The_Goldilocks_Enigma">line up perfectly</a> to enable the evolution of intelligent life. But there’s no theory explaining what values the constants should have – we just have to measure them and plug their numbers into our equations to accurately describe the cosmos.</p>
<p>So why do the fundamental constants take the values they do? This is a question that physicists have been battling over for decades. </p>
<p>Some physicists aren’t too bothered by the seemingly fine-tuned cosmos. Others have found comfort in the multiverse theory. If our universe is just one of many, some would, statistically speaking, end up looking just like ours. But many physicists, including Paul Davies, a theoretical physicist at Arizona State University, are holding out for a more fundamental theory of nature which can explain exactly what values the constants should have in the first place.</p>
<p>That said, in the absence of a deeper theory, it’s hard to estimate exactly how fine-tuned our universe is. Fred Adams, a physicist at the University of Michigan, has done a lot of research to try to find out. He’s discovered that the mass of a quark called the down quark (quarks are elementary particle which make up the atomic nucleus, for example) can only change by a factor of seven before rendering the universe, as we know it, lifeless.</p>
<p>This suggests the universe is less fine tuned than a radio. Intriguingly, his work has also shown it is possible to get universes that are more life-friendly than ours. </p>
<h2>Part 3: The multiverse</h2>
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<p>The idea that we live in a universe among many others has been around for a long time. But does it have any basis in science? And if so, is it a concept we could ever test experimentally?</p>
<p>Katie Mack, Hawking chair in cosmology and science communication at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Canada, argues the idea that the universe is much bigger than we can observe is totally well accepted in cosmology. It is also supported by theories known as inflation, which has lots of experimental support, and string theory.</p>
<p>For Andrew Pontzen, a professor of cosmology at University College London in the UK, quantum mechanics is the best reason to believe in the multiverse. According to quantum mechanics, particles can be in a mix of different possible states, such as locations, which is known as a “superposition”. But when we measure them, the superposition breaks and each particle randomly “picks” one state.</p>
<p>So what happens to the other possible outcomes? Well, they may all play out in different universes.</p>
<p>Not everyone is so keen, however. Sabine Hossenfelder, a research fellow at the Frankfurt Institute of Advanced Studies, believes the theory is near impossible to test – something Pontzen and Mack disagree with.</p>
<h2>Part 4: Quantum weirdness</h2>
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<p>Quantum mechanics, which rules the microworld of atoms and particles, is famously weird. It even seems to suggest there’s no objective reality.</p>
<p>According to quantum theory, each system, such as a particle, can be described by a wave function, which evolves over time. The wave function allows particles to hold multiple contradictory features, such as being in several different places at once – this is called a superposition. But oddly, this is only the case when nobody’s looking.</p>
<p>Although each potential location in a superposition has a certain probability of appearing, the second you observe it, the particle randomly picks one – breaking the superposition. Physicists often refer to this as the wave function collapsing. But why should nature behave differently depending on whether we are looking or not? And why should it be random?</p>
<p>Not everyone is worried. “If you want to explain everything we can observe in our experiments without randomness, you have to go through some really weird and long-winded explanations that I am much more uncomfortable with,” argues Marcus Huber, a professor of quantum information at the Technical University of Vienna. </p>
<p>Chris Timpson, a philosopher of physics at the University of Oxford, talks us through the different interpretations of quantum mechanics. Chiara Marletto, a quantum physicist at the University of Oxford, talks about her meta-theory called constructor theory which aims to encompass all of physics based solely on simple principles about which physical transformations in the universe are ultimately possible, which are impossible, and why. </p>
<h2>Part 5: Life</h2>
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<p>What’s the difference between a living collection of matter, such as a tortoise, and an inanimate lump of it, such as a rock? They are, after all, both just made up of non-living atoms. The truth is, we don’t really know yet. Life seems to just somehow emerge from non-living parts.</p>
<p>The physics of the living world ultimately seems to contradict the second law of thermodynamics: that a closed system gets more disordered over time, increasing in what physicists call entropy. Living systems have low entropy. A messy lump of tissue in the womb, for example, can grow into a highly ordered state, such as a foot with five toes. </p>
<p>In this episode we hear about two main approaches to a new physics of life. Jim Al-Khalili, a broadcaster and distinguished professor of physics at the University of Surrey in the UK, explains how quantum biology might help. It’s based on the strange world of quantum mechanics, which governs the microworld of particles and atoms. The idea is that living systems may use quantum mechanics to their advantage – promoting or halting quantum processes. </p>
<p>“Evolution has had long enough to fine-tune things or to stop quantum mechanics from doing something that life doesn’t want it to do,” explains Al-Khalili, who carries out research in the area. </p>
<p>Sara Walker, an astrobiologist and theoretical physicist working as a professor at Arizona State University in the US, favours another approach, however. She is trying to create a new physical theory of life based on information theory – which takes information to be real and physical.</p>
<p>Information seems to be crucial to life. Living organisms have an inbuilt set of instructions, DNA, which non-living things simply don’t have. Similarly, when living beings invent things, such as rockets, they rely on information, such as knowledge of the laws of physics, stored in their memory. </p>
<h2>Part 6: Theory of everything</h2>
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<p>Finding a theory of everything – explaining all the forces and particles in the universe – is arguably the holy grail of physics. While each of its main theories works extraordinarily well, they clash also with each other – leaving physicists to search for a deeper, more fundamental theory.</p>
<p>Our two best theories of nature are <a href="https://theconversation.com/great-mysteries-of-physics-4-does-objective-reality-exist-202550">quantum mechanics</a> and general relativity, describing the smallest and biggest scales of the universe, respectively. Each is tremendously successful and has been experimentally tested over and over. The trouble is, they are incompatible with one another in many ways – including mathematically.</p>
<p>Physicists have already managed to unite quantum theory with Einstein’s other big theory: special relativity (explaining how speed affects mass, time and space). Together, these form a framework called “quantum field theory”, which is the basis for the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-standard-model-of-particle-physics-may-be-broken-an-expert-explains-182081">Standard Model of Particle Physics</a> – our best framework for describing the most basic building blocks of the universe. </p>
<p>But the standard model only describes three out of the four fundamental forces in the universe – electromagnetism, and the “strong” and “weak” forces which govern the atomic nucleus – excluding gravity. While the standard model explains most of what we see in particle physics experiments, there are a few gaps. And one way to bridge them could be to introduce a whole new force of nature – something recent experiments have seen hints of – explains Vlatko Vedral, a professor of physics at Oxford University.</p>
<p>But what should a theory of everything include? Would it be enough to unite gravity and quantum mechanics? And what about other mysterious properties such as dark energy, which causes the universe to expand at an accelerated rate, or dark matter, an invisible substance making up most of the matter in the universe? </p>
<p>As Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, an assistant professor in physics and astronomy at the University of New Hampshire, explains, physicists prefer to use the term “theory of quantum gravity” over “theory of everything”. She describes the two main attempts. One is string theory, which suggests the universe is ultimately made up of tiny, vibrating strings. Another is loop quantum gravity, which suggests Einstein’s space-time arises from quantum effects.</p>
<p>But is either of them correct? And do we actually need them?</p>
<p>Great Mysteries of Physics is created and presented by Miriam Frankel and produced by Hannah Fisher. Executive producers are Gemma Ware and Jo Adetunji. Social media and platform production by Alice Mason, sound design by Eloise Stevens and music by Neeta Sarl. </p>
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🎧 Listen to the trailer for Great Mysteries of Physics, a new podcast.Jo Adetunji, EditorMiriam Frankel, Senior Science EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1966492022-12-15T16:23:01Z2022-12-15T16:23:01ZHow the James Webb Space Telescope has revealed a surprisingly bright, complex and element-filled early universe – podcast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501209/original/file-20221215-15338-7jlg2y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C191%2C1886%2C1613&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The James Webb Space Telescope is providing astronomers with images and data that reveal secrets from the earliest era of the universe.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2022/034/01G7DA5ADA2WDSK1JJPQ0PTG4A?news=true">NASA/STScI</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you want to know what happened in the earliest years of the universe, you are going to need a very big, very specialized telescope. Much to the joy of astronomers and space fans everywhere, the world has one – the <a href="https://theconversation.com/james-webb-space-telescope-an-astronomer-on-the-team-explains-how-to-send-a-giant-telescope-to-space-and-why-167516">James Webb Space Telescope</a>. </p>
<p>In this episode of “<a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly</a>,” we talk to three experts about what astronomers have learned about the first galaxies in the universe and how just six months of data from James Webb is already changing astronomy. </p>
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<p>The James Webb Space Telescope successfully launched into space on Dec. 25, 2021. After about six months of travel, setup and calibration, the telescope began collecting data and NASA published the first <a href="https://theconversation.com/james-webb-space-telescope-an-astronomer-explains-the-stunning-newly-released-first-images-186800">stunning images</a>.</p>
<p>One of Webb’s nicknames is the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-james-webb-space-telescope-finding-the-furthest-oldest-youngest-or-first-galaxies-an-astronomer-explains-187915">first light telescope</a>.” This is because Webb was specifically designed to be able to see as far back as possible into the earliest days of the universe and detect some of the first visible light. </p>
<p>You can see these galaxies in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/james-webb-space-telescope-an-astronomer-explains-the-stunning-newly-released-first-images-186800">images NASA has released</a>. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AWluLnoAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Jonathan Trump</a>, an astronomer at the University of Connecticut, is on one of the teams working on some of the early James Webb data. He was watching the release of the first images live and noticed some things many nonastronomers might have missed. “In the background, behind these beautiful arcs and spirals and massive elliptical galaxies are these tiny, itty-bitty red smudges. That’s what I was most interested in, because those are some of the first galaxies in the universe.”</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501213/original/file-20221215-22-oaoozi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two images showing a suite of galaxies with small boxes around faint red smudges." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501213/original/file-20221215-22-oaoozi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501213/original/file-20221215-22-oaoozi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=247&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501213/original/file-20221215-22-oaoozi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=247&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501213/original/file-20221215-22-oaoozi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=247&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501213/original/file-20221215-22-oaoozi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501213/original/file-20221215-22-oaoozi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501213/original/file-20221215-22-oaoozi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This compound image shows some of the earliest galaxies ever seen, highlighted by the small boxes in the images on the left and right, and shown up close in the images in the center.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-draws-back-curtain-on-universe-s-early-galaxies">NASA, ESA, CSA, Tommaso Treu (UCLA)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To see any of these galaxies from the earliest days of the universe would be exciting, but right off the bat, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=oXVDWEcAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Jeyhan Kartaltepe</a>, an astronomer at the Rochester Institute of Technology, found something exciting when she started digging into the data. </p>
<p>“One of the things we’ve learned is that there are more of these galaxies than we expected to see.” In addition to working on identifying these early galaxies, Kartaltepe has been using Webb’s incredible resolution to study their structure and shape. “We expect there to be discs because discs form pretty naturally in the universe whenever you have something that’s rotating. But we’ve been seeing a lot of them, which has been a bit of a surprise.”</p>
<p>In addition to noting the shape of the galaxies in the early universe, astronomers like Trump are starting to be able to assess the <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2207.12388.pdf">chemical composition of these galaxies</a>. He does this by looking at the spectrum of light James Webb is collecting. “We look at these distant galaxies and we look for particular patterns of emission lines. We often call them a chemical fingerprint because it really is like a particular fingerprint of particular elements in the gas in a galaxy.” </p>
<p>The universe started with just hydrogen and helium, but as stars formed and fused elements together, bigger, heavier elements started to emerge and fill in the periodic table as it is today. And just like Kartaltepe, Trump is finding evidence that things were happening faster in the early universe than astronomers expected. “I would’ve guessed that the universe would have struggled to make the periodic table and build up things. But that’s not what we found. Instead, the universe seems to have proceeded pretty rapidly.”</p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This photo shows Webb’s first deep-field image, a long exposure of a small part of the sky revealing thousands of galaxies, many of which are too faint for even Hubble to detect.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2022/035/01G7DCWB7137MYJ05CSH1Q5Z1Z?news=true">NASA/STScI</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The discoveries coming out of James Webb are already changing how astronomers think of the early universe and challenging much of the existing theory. But the truly exciting part is that we are just beginning to see what this telescope is capable of, as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=npUHvbwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Michael Brown</a>, an astronomer at Monash University, explains. </p>
<p>“I’ve been on science papers that have used literally just a couple of minutes of data,” Brown says. “The image quality is just so good that a couple of minutes can do amazing things.” But soon Webb will begin to do follow-up surveys, take deep-field images and stare at parts of the sky for days and even weeks. Over the coming months, years and decades, Webb is going to keep giving astronomers plenty to work on, and astronomers like Brown are excited. “There is just all this complexity there, and we are barely scratching the surface. This will be the stuff that people who are students now are going to devote their careers to. And it’s going to be marvelous.”</p>
<hr>
<p>This episode was produced by Katie Flood and Daniel Merino, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. It was written by Katie Flood and Daniel Merino. Mend Mariwany is the show’s executive producer. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. </p>
<p>You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also sign up to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>. A transcript of this episode will be available soon. </p>
<p>Listen to “The Conversation Weekly” via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a>, or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196649/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span> </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeyhan Kartaltepe receives funding from NASA and the National Science Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Trump receives funding from NASA and NSF. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael J. I. Brown receives research funding from the Australian Research Council and Monash University.</span></em></p>It has been one year since the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope and six months since the first pictures were released. Astronomers are already learning unexpected things about the early universe.Daniel Merino, Associate Science Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationNehal El-Hadi, Science + Technology Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1962572022-12-09T10:01:56Z2022-12-09T10:01:56ZThe CIA and the new cold war: what history tells us about its influence today – podcast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499981/original/file-20221209-30192-uu5no9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=124%2C80%2C4749%2C3156&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Powerful politicians in the US once called for the dissolution of the CIA. How relevant is it today?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/surveillance-citizens-secret-service-special-agents-1303948264">Anelo via Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This episode of The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/in-depth-out-loud-podcast-46082">In Depth Out Loud podcast</a> tells the inside story of the CIA v Russia – from cold war conspiracy to “black” propaganda in Ukraine. </p>
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<p>Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, a professor emeritus of American history at the University of Edinburgh, writes that with formidable Kremlinologist William J. Burns
now in charge of the CIA, the agency might be expected to be an influential player in the US response to a “new cold war”. But how much does Washington trust the CIA these days – and how much influence does it really have on events in Ukraine? To shed light on these questions, he takes us back to the early days of the Ronald Reagan presidency.</p>
<p>The audio version of this article is narrated by Sam Scholl in partnership with Noa, News Over Audio. Listen to more articles from The Conversation, for free, on the <a href="https://newsoveraudio.com/publishers/103?mpId=17937807d4095-03ef8e1781bb1c8-445466-1fa400-17937807d41112&embedPubName=The%20Conversation&embedPubId=103">Noa app</a>. </p>
<p>This story came out of a project at The Conversation called Insights, which generates long-form journalism and is working with academics from a wide range of backgrounds who have been engaged in projects to tackle societal and scientific challenges. You can read <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218">more stories in the series here</a>.</p>
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<p><em>The music in In Depth Out Loud is Night Caves, by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvwbOVMlp3o">Lee Rosevere</a>. In Depth Out Loud is produced by Gemma Ware.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196257/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The audio version of a long form article on the history of the CIA and its relationship with Russia.Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, Professor Emeritus of American History, The University of EdinburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1961592022-12-08T10:58:39Z2022-12-08T10:58:39ZChina wants more people to eat potatoes – how changing national diets could help fix our global food crisis. Podcast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499538/original/file-20221207-3544-o2ubdo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=128%2C157%2C6442%2C4215&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">China began promoting potatoes as a staple in 2015 in an effort to combat food insecurity. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/luannan-county-china-july-3-2019-1535629190">chinahbzyg via Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>How do you get a country to change its national diet? That’s what China has been trying by introducing potato as a staple as part of an effort to improve food security. In this episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly</a>, we talk to three experts about why countries need to shift what their citizens eat, and what the optimum diet for our planet might be. </p>
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<p>Chinese farmers plant the largest <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959652621011021">amount of potatoes in the world</a>, and the country produces about 20% of the global potato output. But while fresh potatoes are a traditional part of the Chinese national diet, they’re viewed as a vegetable rather than as a staple, and China’s per capita consumption of potato is below the global average. </p>
<p>In 2015, the Chinese government decided to try and change that. It introduced a policy to promote the potato as the country’s fourth staple alongside rice, wheat and maize. As Xiaobo Xue Romeiko, a professor at the University at Albany, State University of New York in the US explains, behind the strategy lay concerns over food security and the availability of arable land. “Potato is more versatile and it can be grown in marginal land which is not suitable as our arable land,” she says.</p>
<p>Potatoes are also less energy intensive to grow and, according to her <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6695635/#B1-ijerph-16-02700">research</a>, have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from food production in China, particularly if it introduces varieties with higher yields. </p>
<p>Other countries may need to follow China’s lead. As pressures mount on the global food system thanks to climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, food security has become a central issue for many more governments. “At the moment the food system really is under the highest stress,” says Paul Behrens, associate professor in environmental change at Leiden University in the Netherlands. In 2022, the UN’s food price index, which measures monthly changes in international prices of a basket of food commodities, has <a href="https://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/foodpricesindex/en/">hit record highs</a>. </p>
<p>Behrens says that many of the responses from governments so far have been short-sighted. “I don’t see an awful lot of governments considering the fundamental system transitions that are needed to really secure food systems and make them more resilient to future climatic change.” He argues that countries need to radically change their nations’ diets, specifically in high-income nations where the over-consumption of meat is driving much of the interlocking crisis. </p>
<p>So what would an optimum diet that is nutritious and sticks within planetary boundaries actually look like? A group of researchers put their heads together to find out and came up with the <a href="https://eatforum.org/eat-lancet-commission/the-planetary-health-diet-and-you/">EAT-Lancet diet</a>, also known as the planetary health diet. </p>
<p>One of them was Marco Springman, a professor of climate change food systems and health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the UK, and also a senior researcher at the University of Oxford. “You shouldn’t have more than one serving of red meat per week. Not more than two servings of poultry per week, not more than two servings of fish per week. And if you have dairy, not more than one serving per day,” he says. Counting that up, that means being vegetarian or vegan on two days a week. </p>
<p>To find out more about where responsibility lies to shift national diets, listen to the full episode on <a href="https://podfollow.com/the-conversation-weekly/view">The Conversation Weekly podcast</a>. </p>
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<p>This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. It was written by Mend Mariwany. Gemma Ware is the show’s executive producer. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. </p>
<p>You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also sign up to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>. A transcript of this episode will be available soon. </p>
<p>Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a>, or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196159/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marco Springmann receives funding from The Wellcome Trust.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Behrens and Xiaobo Xue Romeiko do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointments.</span></em></p>Why countries need to shift what their citizens eat, and what the optimum diet for our planet might be. Listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.Gemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationDaniel Merino, Associate Science Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1958592022-12-05T15:29:20Z2022-12-05T15:29:20ZHow celebrity footballers can help reduce prejudice against minorities – podcast<p>In the latest episode of Discovery, an ongoing series via <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast, we hear about recent research that showed how a Muslim celebrity footballer helped reduce Islamophobia. </p>
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<p>When Mohamed Salah joined Liverpool football club in 2017, he quickly became the Premier League team’s star player. As Liverpool went from success to success, fans embraced the Egyptian footballer, who is a practising Muslim. They even <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-icmPutQDk">invented new songs</a> about him, including the refrain: “If he scores another few then I’ll be Muslim too.”</p>
<p>For Salma Mousa, a political scientist at Yale University in the US, Salah’s popularity presented an opportunity to study a psychological hypothesis called the <a href="https://cmsw.mit.edu/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/The-Parasocial-Contact-Hypothesis.pdf">parasocial contact theory</a>. This suggests that mass exposure to celebrities from minority groups can improve tolerance towards them. </p>
<p>Mousa wanted to know: “Does exposure to Mo Salah reduce Islamophobia and reduce prejudice toward Muslims?” When Mousa and her colleagues designed a suite of experiments to answer that question, they reported what they <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/can-exposure-to-celebrities-reduce-prejudice-the-effect-of-mohamed-salah-on-islamophobic-behaviors-and-attitudes/A1DA34F9F5BCE905850AC8FBAC78BE58">called the “Mo Salah effect”</a>. </p>
<p>Listen to the full episode to hear Mousa explain their findings, and what they’re looking into next. Follow <a href="https://podfollow.com/the-conversation-weekly/view">The Conversation Weekly</a> wherever you get your podcasts for more episodes of Discovery series every couple of weeks. </p>
<p><a href="https://podfollow.com/the-conversation-weekly/view"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491907/original/file-20221026-21-6c8otc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=212&fit=crop&dpr=1" alt="Promotional image for podcast" width="100%"></a>
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<em>Listen to episodes of Discovery by searching for <a href="https://podfollow.com/the-conversation-weekly/view">The Conversation Weekly</a> wherever you listen to podcasts.</em></p>
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<p>This episode was produced and written by Gemma Ware with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood are also producers on the show. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. The clip of football chanting in this episode is via <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-icmPutQDk">The Redmen TV on YouTube.</a></p>
<p>You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also sign up to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>. A transcript of this episode is <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/2793/Discovery_Ep2_Football_and_Prejudice_Transcript.pdf?1694452793">now available</a>.</p>
<p>Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a>, or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195859/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Salma Mousa has received funding from the Institute for Research in the Social Sciencees lab at Stanford University. </span></em></p>Listen to Discovery, a series via The Conversation Weekly podcast, telling the stories of fascinating research discoveries from around the world.Gemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1956252022-12-01T11:29:39Z2022-12-01T11:29:39ZAs young people in rich countries drink less alcohol, elsewhere youth drinking is on the rise – podcast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498241/original/file-20221130-20-yy30j2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=126%2C49%2C4547%2C3062&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Drinking is going out of fashion among young people in some parts of the world, but not others. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-party-people-men-women-drinking-126810821">Kzenon via Shutterstock.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The amount of alcohol young people drink in many high-income countries has seen a marked decline since the early 2000s. But in many developing countries, the opposite is happening. In this episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast, we talk to three experts studying trends in young people’s drinking habits to find out why and we explore the questions this raises about the way young people see themselves and their place in the world. </p>
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<p>Japan’s national tax agency raised eyebrows around the world in August when it launched a campaign urging more young people <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-62585809">to drink alcohol</a>. Its reason was economic: an ageing demographic and changing habits during the COVID pandemic meant a drop in tax revenue from alcohol sales.</p>
<p>But while Japan’s reaction to the issue may be unusual, it’s by no means the only country where young people are drinking less alcohol. High-income countries in Europe, North America and Australasia are seeing significant declines in the amount and frequency that young people drink, after a peak in around 2003. </p>
<p>“Drinking in all forms is going down,” says Amy Pennay, a research fellow at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. “Abstinence rates are rising. People are drinking less frequently and people are drinking less on an occasion when they do drink,” Pennay explains. The sharpest declines are in the under 18s, but there’s also been a flow-on effect in most high-income countries to 18- to 24-year-olds. </p>
<p>Pennay is part of a group of researchers in Australia, the UK and Sweden analysing trends in youth drinking. One of her colleagues in Sweden, Jonas Raninen at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, has been tracking drinking trends among young Swedes born in 2001 as part of a longitudinal study. “I would say that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8835253/">17 is the new 15</a>,” he says, explaining the overall decline is also pushing up the age at which people start drinking.</p>
<p>Taking all this data together, researchers are beginning to pinpoint the reasons why declines in youth drinking are happening in <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-young-people-drinking-less-than-their-parents-generation-did-172225">these high-income countries</a>. They’re finding just how different life is for today’s teenagers compared to those entering adulthood 20 years ago. “Alcohol has become for young people something that’s gone from being … a reward and pursued, to something that’s really avoided,” she explains.</p>
<p>Elsewhere in the world, however, developing countries are seeing the opposite: an increase in how much young people drink. Emeka Dumbili, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University in south-eastern Nigeria, has been <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Emeka-Dumbili">studying youth drinking in the country</a> since 2012. In his interviews with young people aged 18-25, he’s found an increase in the number who tell him that they drink, even if it’s a small amount. “Some of them are initiating consumption either before they come to university, as early as 13 years or even lower than that. And many people who didn’t drink before they got to university began to drink immediately they come to university,” he says.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/some-young-nigerians-say-heavy-drinking-is-fun-controls-must-keep-pace-with-culture-170404">Some young Nigerians say heavy drinking is fun: controls must keep pace with culture</a>
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<p>Listen to the full episode via <a href="https://podfollow.com/the-conversation-weekly/view">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast to find out more about the reasons for these different trends in youth drinking around the world. </p>
<p>This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. It was written by Gemma Ware, who is also the executive producer. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. </p>
<p>You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also sign up to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>. A <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/2786/Ep83_Youth_Drinking_Transcript.pdf?1694013681">transcript of this episode</a> is now available.</p>
<p>Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a>, or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195625/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonas Raninen has received funding from the Swedish Research Council. Amy Pennay receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She has previously received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, BeyondBlue, Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, New South Wales Health and the National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund. She is a member of the Kettil Bruun Society.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emeka Dumbili has received funding from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (Nigeria), and fellowship funding from the Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation. </span></em></p>Young people in high-income countries now drink much less than their counterparts 20 years ago. But the opposite is happening in developing countries. Why? Listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.Gemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationDaniel Merino, Associate Science Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1950712022-11-24T11:09:42Z2022-11-24T11:09:42ZTreating mental illness with electricity marries old ideas with modern tech and understanding of the brain – podcast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497106/original/file-20221123-26-b9b1b1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=64%2C27%2C962%2C556&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In deep brain stimulation, electrodes – the pale white lines – are implanted into a patient's brain and connected to a battery in a person's chest.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:X-ray_of_deep_brain_stimulation_in_OCD,_L.png#/media/File:X-ray_of_deep_brain_stimulation_in_OCD,_L.png">Jmarchn/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Mental illnesses such as obsessive compulsive disorder, depression and addiction are notoriously hard to treat and often don’t respond to drugs. But a new wave of treatments that stimulate the brain with electricity are showing promise on patients and in clinical trials. In this episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast, we talk to three experts and one patient about the history of treating mental illness, how new technology and deeper understanding of the brain are leading to better treatments and where the neuroscience of mental illness is headed next. </p>
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<p>It’s not uncommon to hear people joke about how their “OCD” makes them want to straighten a crooked picture or clean a smudge on a countertop, but for people actually living with severe obsessive compulsive disorder, the reality is anything but funny.</p>
<p><a href="https://som.ucdenver.edu/Profiles/Faculty/Profile/30555">Moksha Patel</a> is a physician and professor at the University of Colorado and has severe OCD. “OCD was really taking over my life. The most obvious of my symptoms were not being able to use any public restrooms, showering for an hour after using the restrooms each time and using chemical cleaners on my skin and my mouth,” he says. After struggling for years, Patel eventually connected with <a href="https://www.uchealth.org/provider/rachel-davis-md/">Rachel Davis</a>, a psychiatrist and researcher also at the University of Colorado. Davis suggested that he could be a good candidate for deep brain stimulation as a treatment for his OCD. </p>
<p>“Deep brain stimulation involves the implantation of electrodes in the deeper areas of the brain,” Davis explains. These electrodes then transfer into the brain itself small electrical currents that a doctor and their patient try to tune correctly. As Davis explains, “Basically we’re looking to find the settings where the patient feels that their mood is better, their anxiety is less and they have more energy.”</p>
<p>Deep brain stimulation works well for a lot of patients and has only started to get mainstream attention in the past decade or so, but ideas underlying this treatment are nearly 60 years old. As explained by <a href="https://directory.weill.cornell.edu/person/profile/jjfins">Joseph Fins</a>, a neuroethicist and professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, part of Cornell University in the US, it all started with a Spanish neuroscientist named Jose Manuel Rodriguez Delgado in 1964. “He put a thing called the stimoceiver, a deep brain stimulator, into the brain of a charging bull. And with an electrical current controlled by radio frequency, he was able to stop the bull in its tracks.”</p>
<p>While this work got Delgado on the front page of The New York Times, it came on the heels of a horrific era of mental health treatment that involved lobotomies, electroshock therapy and many other destructive and deeply unethical interventions. So when researchers began to discover drugs that could help people with mental illness, Fins says “psychosurgery and these types of somatic therapies began to fall out of favor and physicians moved away from more physical interventions.”</p>
<p>As modern neuroscience led to better understanding of how the brain works, and stigma surrounding physical treatments faded, deep brain stimulation got its second chance in the sun. And as technology has improved, researchers like <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=BD8dNTUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Jacinta O'Shea, a neuroscientist</a> at the University of Oxford have begun to study a noninvasive technique for stimulating the brain with electricity, called transcranial magnetic stimulation. </p>
<p>“If you place a ferromagnetic coil on the scalp and pass a rapidly changing electrical current through that coil, it will induce an electric field that passes painlessly through the skull and into the brain tissue underneath,” O'Shea explains. And just as with deep brain stimulation, these electrical fields can help people overcome mental health issues like depression.</p>
<p>Researchers still don’t quite know how deep brain stimulation or transcranial magnetic stimulation work, but with every new treatment, they are learning more about the complicated world of the brain and taking steps toward the treatments of tomorrow.</p>
<p>Listen to the full episode of The Conversation Weekly to find out more. </p>
<p>This episode was produced and written by Katie Flood and Daniel Merino, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. The executive producer was Gemma Ware. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. </p>
<p>You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also sign up to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>. A transcript of this episode is <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/2792/Ep82_Neural_Psychiatry_Transcript.pdf?1694452606">available now</a>.</p>
<p>Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a>, or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195071/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacinta O'Shea has consulted for Welcony Inc and is currently on the Scientific Advisory Board of Plato Science. She receives research funding from the Wellcome Trust/Royal Society and the Academy of Medical Sciences in the U.K.
Joseph Fins receives funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health BRAIN Initiative, Dana Foundation, Greenwall Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Buster Foundation, NIH CTSC, NIH Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health, Blythedale Children’s Hospital and from numerous editorial boards. He is also the president of the International Neuroethics Society, Chair-Elect and board member of The Hastings Center and a Trustee Emeritus at Wesleyan University</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Davis consults for Medtronic, Inc. She receives funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Moksha Patel has nothing to disclose. </span></em></p>Deep brain stimulation and trasncranial magnetic stimulation treat mental illness by sending electrical currents into parts of the brain. Every new patient provides researchers with a wealth of information. Listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.Daniel Merino, Associate Science Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationGemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1947732022-11-17T11:06:20Z2022-11-17T11:06:20ZUnlocking new clues to how dementia and Alzheimer’s work in the brain – Uncharted Brain podcast series<p>This week on <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast we’re running a three-part series called <em>Uncharted Brain: Decoding Dementia</em>, which delves into new research searching for answers to how dementia works in the brain and the damage it leaves behind. Hosted by Paul Keaveny and Gemma Ware, it was initially published via <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-anthill-podcast-27460">The Anthill</a> podcast from the team at The Conversation in the UK. </p>
<h2>Part 1: a lifelong study unlocks clues to Alzheimer’s</h2>
<p>In the first episode, we explore how a study which began just after the end of the second world war is discovering clues to Alzheimer’s. </p>
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<p>Based on a representative sample of 5,362 babies all born in the same week in the UK in 1946, the National Survey of Health and Development began as a one-off investigation of the cost of childbirth and the quality and efficiency of obstetric services. From there it became the longest continuously running study of health over the human life course in the world – also known as the British 1946 birth cohort. </p>
<p>Since 2016, the brains of some of its participants are revealing new insights into the risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease. We find out more from Marcus Richards and Jon Schott, two of the researchers from UCL in the UK behind the study, and David Ward, one of the study participants whose brain is being studied as part of the dementia research. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/weve-been-studying-the-same-people-for-76-years-this-is-what-weve-found-out-about-alzheimers-disease-183949">We've been studying the same people for 76 years – this is what we’ve found out about Alzheimer’s disease</a>
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<h2>Part 2: the family trauma of dementia from sports injuries</h2>
<p>In the second episode, we explore chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a form of dementia that athletes from a whole range of sports can develop. We hear about the toll it can take on family members, who are often unaware of what’s happening to their loved ones.</p>
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<p>CTE is now at the centre of a number of legal challenges involving sports from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jul/25/case-against-rugby-union-governing-bodies-on-dementia-destined-for-courts">rugby</a> to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/30/sports/football/judge-announces-settlement-in-nfl-concussion-suit.html">American football</a>.</p>
<p>After Lisa McHale’s husband Tom, a former NFL player, died in 2008, she received a request from researchers at Boston University School of Medicine to study his brain for signs of CTE – and was told he had quite a severe case. She says that learning more about the disease has been extremely helpful in processing what happened to her husband. </p>
<p>Today, McHale is director of family relations at the US-based Concussion Legacy Foundation, which works with family members who lost loved ones after they developed CTE. Matt Smith, a sports psychologist at the University of Winchester, recently led a research project interviewing some of these family members about their experiences. We talk to them both in part two of the series. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sport-induced-traumatic-brain-injury-families-reveal-the-hell-of-living-with-the-condition-172828">Sport-induced traumatic brain injury: families reveal the 'hell' of living with the condition</a>
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<h2>Part 3: the role viruses may play in Alzheimer’s</h2>
<p>There are many competing theories about what causes Alzheimer’s disease. For more than 30 years, Ruth Itzhaki has been accumulating evidence that viruses are involved in its development in the brain. We investigate this evidence in the third and final episode. </p>
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<p>Itzhaki, a neurobiologist and visiting professorial fellow at the University of Oxford, believes the common cold sore virus (herpes simplex 1 or HSV1) could be playing a vital role in Alzheimer’s. But she has faced years of hostility from many within the scientific community who didn’t take the theory seriously. Now, though, it seems the tide of opinion is at last turning in Itzhaki’s favour.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/my-work-investigating-the-links-between-viruses-and-alzheimers-disease-was-dismissed-for-years-but-now-the-evidence-is-building-184201">My work investigating the links between viruses and Alzheimer’s disease was dismissed for years – but now the evidence is building</a>
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<p><em>Uncharted Brain: Decoding Dementia</em> is reported by Paul Keaveny, investigations editor at The Conversation in the UK for the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/insights">Insights team</a>, which published articles linked to each of the episodes in this podcast series. The series is produced and written by Tiffany Cassidy with sound design by Eloise Stevens. The executive producer and co-host is Gemma Ware. The Conversation Weekly theme music is by Neeta Sarl. </p>
<p>You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194773/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marcus Richards receives funding from the UK Medical Research Council. Jonathan M Schott receives funding from Alzheimer's Research UK, Medical Research Council, Alzheimer's Association, Selfridge's Group Foundation, Brain Research UK, the Wolfson Foundation and the National Institute for Health Research University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre. He is Chief Medical Office for Alzheimer's Research UK and Clinical Advisor to UK Dementia Research Institute. Matthew Smith is affiliated with CLF-UK and has a role as research lead for Patient and Family Services. The aim of this role is to develop research that helps understand the experiences, and support patients and family members. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruth Itzhaki is currently working with David Kaplan and Dana Cairns at Tufts University on the effects of infection on their 3D brain model. Also with Professors Ken Muir and Curtis Dobson and Dr Artitaya Lophatananon at Manchester University on epidemiological aspects of HSV1 and Alzheimer's. Dana Cairns does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. D. P. Devanand has received research grants from the National Institute on Aging and Alzheimer's Association that are funding his clinical trials on valacyclovir treatment of Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment, respectively.</span></em></p>The world’s longest running cohort study reveals risk factors for dementia. Families of athletes with early-onset dementia tell their stories. Could viruses cause Alzheimer’s? Listen to the Uncharted Brain: Decoding Dementia podcast series.Gemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationPaul Keaveny, Investigations Editor, Insights, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1942102022-11-16T00:14:45Z2022-11-16T00:14:45ZFamilies of athletes with dementia linked to brain trauma on watching somebody you love disappear – Uncharted Brain podcast part 2<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494697/original/file-20221110-15-502fcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=90%2C123%2C4233%2C2865&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Traumatic brain injury from sports such as American football is linked with a form of dementia called chronic traumatic encephalopathy. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/dec-12-2021-tampa-fl-usa-2091006526">Steve Jacobson/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Dementia doesn’t just affect older people. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a form of dementia that athletes from a whole range of sports can develop. It’s now at the centre of a number of legal challenges involving sports from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jul/25/case-against-rugby-union-governing-bodies-on-dementia-destined-for-courts">rugby</a> to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/30/sports/football/judge-announces-settlement-in-nfl-concussion-suit.html">American football</a>. </p>
<p>We find out about the toll this type of dementia can take on family members, who are often unaware of what’s happening to their loved ones, in the second episode of Uncharted Brain: Decoding Dementia, a new podcast series available via <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-anthill-podcast-27460">The Anthill</a> podcast. </p>
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<p>After Lisa McHale’s husband Tom, a former NFL player, died in 2008, she received a request from researchers at Boston University School of Medicine to study his brain for signs of CTE. </p>
<p>“I remember thinking: ‘Well, Tom never had any concussion but I would imagine you need control subjects,’” McHale told us. “But when they came back to me, they said Tom had chronic traumatic encephalopathy – a pretty severe case, pretty progressed for a 45-year-old.” She says that learning more about the the disease has been extremely helpful in processing what happened to her husband. </p>
<p>Today, McHale is director of family relations at the US-based Concussion Legacy Foundation, which works with family members who lost loved ones after they developed CTE. Matt Smith, a sports psychologist at the University of Winchester, recently led a research project interviewing some of these family members about their experiences. </p>
<p>“It was very noticeable how confused the families were at first [by their loved ones’ behaviour],” says Smith. Some people talked about their husbands suddenly being prone to rage and various erratic behaviours like risky business ventures. </p>
<p>Smith has been impressed by the interviewees’ determination to change things for the better and <a href="https://theconversation.com/football-and-dementia-heading-must-be-banned-until-the-age-of-18-150575">make sport safer</a>. “The family members’ motivation to be interviewed was not only to tell their story, but also if their story could help others,” he tells us. </p>
<p>Listen to the full episode to find out more about the experience of family members whose loved ones had CTE. </p>
<p>You can also <a href="https://theconversation.com/sport-induced-traumatic-brain-injury-families-re-live-the-hell-of-living-with-the-condition-172828">read an article that Matt Smith</a> and his colleagues Adam John White and Keith Parry wrote about their research as part of The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/insights">Insights project</a>. </p>
<p><em>Uncharted Brain: Decoding Dementia</em> is hosted by Paul Keaveny, investigations editor at The Conversation in the UK, and Gemma Ware, co-host of The Conversation Weekly podcast. The series is produced and written by Tiffany Cassidy with sound design by Eloise Stevens. The executive producer is Gemma Ware.</p>
<p>All episodes of the series are available on <a href="https://podfollow.com/the-anthill/view">The Anthill</a> podcast channel. </p>
<p>You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also sign up to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194210/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span> </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Smith is affiliated with CLF-UK and has a role as research lead for Patient and Family Services. The aim of this role is to develop research that helps understand the experiences, and support patients and family members. </span></em></p>Listen to the second episode of our series Uncharted Brain: Decoding Dementia via The Anthill podcast.Paul Keaveny, Investigations Editor, Insights, The ConversationGemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1942732022-11-10T11:51:44Z2022-11-10T11:51:44ZWhy stolen objects being returned to Africa don’t belong just in museums – podcast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494469/original/file-20221109-11-ojxf6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=137%2C82%2C4256%2C2773&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Benin Bronzes: 944 objects looted in the 19th century from the Kingdom of Benin are in the British Museum in London. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-july-2018-architectural-detail-benin-2175043265">Mltz via Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Momentum is growing for objects stolen during the colonial era that are now held in museums in Europe and North America to be returned to the places and communities that they were taken from. In this episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast, we talk to three experts about what happens to these objects once they’re returned and the questions their restitution is raising about the relationship between communities and museums in Africa. </p>
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<p>The Benin bronzes are at the centre of the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/1b32105e-428a-49e8-b2f2-d3ba381c4c65">restitution movement</a>. Many of these objects, made of brass, ivory, wood and other materials as well as bronze, were looted in 1897 when British soldiers invaded the Kingdom of Benin in what is today Benin City in Nigeria. Since then, they’ve been scattered in museums and collections around the world. </p>
<p>In early November, a new website was launched called <a href="https://digitalbenin.org/">Digital Benin</a> cataloguing the location of 5,246 bronzes across 131 institutions in 20 countries. It comes as a number of collections are now moving to return the objects to Nigeria. In July, Germany signed a landmark agreement to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germany-signs-deal-give-ownership-benin-bronzes-nigeria-2022-08-25/">transfer ownership of 512 Benin bronzes to Nigeria</a>. A few have already been returned from the <a href="https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/metropolitan-museum-of-art-returns-two-benin-bronzes-1234595399/">Metropolitan Museum of Art</a> in New York, as well as from the universities of <a href="https://www.abdn.ac.uk/news/15479/">Aberdeen and Cambridge in the UK</a>. </p>
<p>Nigeria plans to build a new museum in Benin City, the <a href="https://www.emowaa.com/">Edo Museum of West African Art</a>, to house some of the returned objects. But some researchers think conversations about the objects’ future should extend beyond the national government and the present-day Oba, or king, of Benin. “There is a need to go beyond the elites and get to the members of the descendant communities whose ancestors produced and used many of these [objects] within their cultural context,” explains John Kelechi Ugwuanyi, a senior lecturer in the archaeology and tourism at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka. </p>
<p>Involving communities in the way artefacts are used and displayed is a longstanding issue for African museums, even for objects that were never taken abroad. Farai Chabata, a visiting lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe and senior curator of ethnography at the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe, told us part of this stems from the history of some museums on the continent. For example, he says the Museum of Human Sciences in Harare, where he’s based today, was founded when Zimbabwe was a British colony with the primary objective to understand the colony. “What you then see is a museum which was not actually serving the community in its inclusive form, but these were very exclusive, elitist museums that largely served a colonial white minority,” explains Chabata.</p>
<p>If objects are displayed in museums as works of art, it can <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02580136.2021.1996140">also strip them of their sacred meaning,</a> according to Aribiah David Attoe, a philosopher at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. “Some of those objects still retain their purpose or their usefulness in traditional societies,” says Attoe. “Perhaps we should give these objects their rightful place as religious objects, as sacred objects, not just artworks that can be displayed in museums, whether in Africa or in Europe or anywhere,” he says. </p>
<p>Listen to the full episode of The Conversation Weekly to find out more. </p>
<p>This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. The executive producer was Gemma Ware. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. </p>
<p>You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also sign up to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>. A transcript of this episode is <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/2791/Ep78_Africa's_Stolen_Objects_Transcript_Template.pdf?1694452345">available now</a>.</p>
<p>Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a>, or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194273/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aribiah David Attoe receives funding from the Global Philosophy of Religion Project Grant, facilitated by the John Templeton Fund. He's received funding in the past from the Centre for Leadership Ethics in Africa, University of Fort Hare and the Global Excellence Stature fund for Doctoral research, facilitated by the University of Johannesburg. He's a member and senior research fellow of the Conversational Society of Philosophy (CSP), Nigeria.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Kelechi Ugwuanyi is also a postdoctoral research fellow at the Global Heritage Lab at the University of Bonn. He's recevied funding from Nigeria’s Tertiary Education Trust Fund and the American Council of Learned Societies and the Overseas Research Scholarship at the University of York. Farai Chabata is senior curator of ethnography for the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe, based at the Zimbabwe Museum of Human Sciences in Harare.</span></em></p>Momentum is growing for the restitution of objects, such as the Benin Bronzes, stolen during colonialism. Listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.Gemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationDaniel Merino, Associate Science Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1934272022-11-03T11:55:18Z2022-11-03T11:55:18ZHow to depolarise deeply divided societies – podcast<p>From the US to Brazil to India, deepening political polarisation is used as a frame through which to see a lot of 21st-century politics. But what can actually be done to depolarise deeply divided societies, particularly democracies? In this episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast we speak to a political scientist and a philosopher trying to find answers to that question. </p>
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<p>When a country is deeply polarised it may feel that there’s no way back. But that’s not what history tells us. Jennifer McCoy, a political scientist at Georgia State University in the US, is <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2022/05/05/reducing-pernicious-polarization-comparative-historical-analysis-of-depolarization-pub-87034">studying cases of depolarisation from around the world</a> over the past century to see what lessons they have for today. She’s found that in places that have successfully depolarised, three-quarters “happened under conditions of major systemic interruption”. That could have been an independence struggle, a civil or international war, a foreign intervention, “or it was a regime change mostly from an authoritarian to a democratic type of political government”. </p>
<p>Depolarisation within liberal democracies is rarer, but it does happen – and McCoy points to South Korea and Bolivia as recent examples. Her research has now begun identifying a couple of fundamental conditions that countries which have successfully depolarised, and sustained it, can think about, which she talks to us about in this episode. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Robert Talisse, a political philosopher at Vanderbilt University in the US, identifies another type of division which is dangerous for democracy <a href="https://theconversation.com/not-all-polarization-is-bad-but-the-us-could-be-in-trouble-173833">that he calls belief polarisation</a>. It’s a cognitive phenomenon in which members of like-minded groups adopt increasingly extreme positions. “They become more dismissive of any countervailing evidence,” he says. “They become less willing to listen to dissenting voices, and importantly, they become more internally conformist.”</p>
<p>Talisse doesn’t believe polarisation can ever be eliminated – only managed. And he has a couple of suggestions for how. “Good democratic citizenship requires that we sometimes do non-political things with others, but it also requires that we sometimes do political things all by ourselves,” he says. </p>
<p>To find out more listen to the full episode of The Conversation Weekly. </p>
<p>This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. The executive producer was Gemma Ware. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. </p>
<p>You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also sign up to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>. You <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/2472/The_Conversation_Weekly_transcript_-_How_to_depolarize_deeply_divided_societies.pdf?1670590814">can find a full transcript of this episode here</a>. </p>
<p>Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a>, or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193427/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer McCoy is a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and receives funding from them for her research. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Talisse does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We talk to a political scientist and a philosopher about how to bring countries back from dangerous levels of polarisation. Listen to The Conversation Weekly.Gemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationDaniel Merino, Associate Science Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1931622022-11-02T10:07:58Z2022-11-02T10:07:58ZUncharted Brain: Decoding Dementia – a three-part series to read and listen to<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491930/original/file-20221026-6337-aorh0d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C17%2C1452%2C802&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Uncharted Brain: Decoding Dementia is a new podcast series from The Conversation. </span> </figcaption></figure><p><em>Uncharted Brain: Decoding Dementia</em> is a series of podcasts and articles from The Conversation examining new research unlocking clues to the ongoing mystery of how dementia works in the brain. Hosted by Paul Keaveny and Gemma Ware, it was published in November 2022.</p>
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<h2>Part 1: a lifelong study unlocks clues to Alzheimer’s</h2>
<p>In the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-study-which-began-just-after-the-end-of-the-second-world-war-is-discovering-clues-to-alzheimers-uncharted-brain-podcast-part-1-194201">first episode</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/weve-been-studying-the-same-people-for-76-years-this-is-what-weve-found-out-about-alzheimers-disease-183949">article</a>, we explore how a study which began just after the end of the second world war is discovering clues to Alzheimer’s. </p>
<p>Based on a representative sample of 5,362 babies all born in the same week in the UK in 1946, the National Survey of Health and Development began as a one-off investigation of the cost of childbirth and the quality and efficiency of obstetric services. From there it became the longest continuously running study of health over the human life course in the world – also known as the British 1946 birth cohort. </p>
<p>Since 2016, the brains of some of its participants are revealing new insights into the risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease. We find out more from Marcus Richards and Jon Schott, two of the researchers from UCL in the UK behind the study, and David Ward, one of the study participants whose brain is being studied as part of the dementia research. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/weve-been-studying-the-same-people-for-76-years-this-is-what-weve-found-out-about-alzheimers-disease-183949">We've been studying the same people for 76 years – this is what we’ve found out about Alzheimer’s disease</a>
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<h2>Part 2: the family trauma of dementia from sports injuries</h2>
<p>In the <a href="https://theconversation.com/families-of-athletes-with-dementia-linked-to-brain-trauma-on-watching-somebody-you-love-disappear-uncharted-brain-podcast-part-2-194210">second episode</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/sport-induced-traumatic-brain-injury-families-reveal-the-hell-of-living-with-the-condition-172828">article</a>, we explore chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a form of dementia that athletes from a whole range of sports can develop. We hear about the toll it can take on family members, who are often unaware of what’s happening to their loved ones.</p>
<p>CTE is now at the centre of a number of legal challenges involving sports from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jul/25/case-against-rugby-union-governing-bodies-on-dementia-destined-for-courts">rugby</a> to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/30/sports/football/judge-announces-settlement-in-nfl-concussion-suit.html">American football</a>.</p>
<p>After Lisa McHale’s husband Tom, a former NFL player, died in 2008, she received a request from researchers at Boston University School of Medicine to study his brain for signs of CTE – and was told he had quite a severe case. She says that learning more about the disease has been extremely helpful in processing what happened to her husband. </p>
<p>Today, McHale is director of family relations at the US-based Concussion Legacy Foundation, which works with family members who lost loved ones after they developed CTE. Matt Smith, a sports psychologist at the University of Winchester, recently led a research project interviewing some of these family members about their experiences. We talk to them both in part two of the series. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/sport-induced-traumatic-brain-injury-families-reveal-the-hell-of-living-with-the-condition-172828">Sport-induced traumatic brain injury: families reveal the 'hell' of living with the condition</a>
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<h2>Part 3: the role viruses may play in Alzheimer’s</h2>
<p>There are many competing theories about what causes Alzheimer’s disease. For more than 30 years, Ruth Itzhaki has been accumulating evidence that viruses are involved in its development in the brain. We investigate this evidence <a href="https://theconversation.com/do-viruses-play-a-role-in-the-development-of-alzheimers-uncharted-brain-podcast-part-3-194211">in the third and final episode</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/my-work-investigating-the-links-between-viruses-and-alzheimers-disease-was-dismissed-for-years-but-now-the-evidence-is-building-184201">article</a>.</p>
<p>Itzhaki, a neurobiologist and visiting professorial fellow at the University of Oxford, believes the common cold sore virus (herpes simplex 1 or HSV1) could be playing a vital role in Alzheimer’s. But she has faced years of hostility from many within the scientific community who didn’t take the theory seriously. Now, though, it seems the evidence is building in support of Itzhaki’s theory.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/my-work-investigating-the-links-between-viruses-and-alzheimers-disease-was-dismissed-for-years-but-now-the-evidence-is-building-184201">My work investigating the links between viruses and Alzheimer’s disease was dismissed for years – but now the evidence is building</a>
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<p>All episodes of the series are available on <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-anthill-podcast-27460">The Anthill</a> podcast channel. <a href="https://podfollow.com/the-anthill/view">Follow The Anthill</a> now so you don’t miss out. </p>
<p><em>Uncharted Brain: Decoding Dementia was produced by Tiffany Cassidy with sound design by Eloise Stevens. The executive producer was Gemma Ware.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193162/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
A podcast and long read series exploring new research into the brain and dementia.Gemma Ware, Head of AudioPaul Keaveny, Investigations Editor, Insights, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1931652022-10-31T10:48:33Z2022-10-31T10:48:33ZCelibacy: family history of Tibetan monks reveals evolutionary advantages in monasticism – podcast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491889/original/file-20221026-2505-can6ka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C35%2C2606%2C1712&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tibetan monks at a monastry in Gansu province in China. New research shows sending a child to a monastery can have surprising evolutionary advantages for a family. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/xiahe-china-august-25-2018-buddhist-1847914357">Matyas Rehak/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the first episode of Discovery, an ongoing series available via <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly podcast</a>, we hear about new research with the families of Tibetan monks that suggests celibacy might have some surprising evolutionary advantages. </p>
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<p>High up on the Tibetan plateau in a remote province of China called Gansu, lie clues to help answer an enduring puzzle about human behaviour. Why would somebody do something that, on the face of it, appears costly to their chance of evolutionary success?</p>
<p>In the case of the Amdo Tibetan people, why would parents choose to send one of their young sons off to a life of celibacy in a monastery if it meant reducing the chance of having grandchildren? And by extension, reducing what they could pass down to future generations, be it genes, learning or cultural practices. </p>
<p>There are historical accounts of one in seven boys being sent to monasteries in this region of China, often at around the age of seven. “It has been described as mass monasticism,” explains Ruth Mace, a professor of anthropology at University College London in the UK.</p>
<p>After interviewing family members of monks in Gansu about their families and their livelihoods, Mace and her colleagues recently <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2022.0965">published research which found</a> that people with a monk for a brother had <a href="https://academic.oup.com/beheco/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/beheco/arac059/6708494?redirectedFrom=fulltext">higher reproductive success than others</a>. </p>
<p>Listen to the full episode to find out more about how Mace and her team went about their research and what it reveals about evolutionary biology. </p>
<p>More episodes of the Discovery series will be published via The Conversation Weekly every couple of weeks. </p>
<p><a href="https://podfollow.com/the-conversation-weekly/view"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491907/original/file-20221026-21-6c8otc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=212&fit=crop&dpr=1" alt="Promotional image for podcast" width="100%"></a>
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<em>Listen to episodes of Discovery by searching for <a href="https://podfollow.com/the-conversation-weekly/view">The Conversation Weekly</a> wherever you listen to podcasts.</em></p>
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<p>This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. The executive producer was Gemma Ware. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. </p>
<p>You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also sign up to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>. A transcript of this episode is <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/2794/Discovery_Ep1_Celibacy_Transcript.pdf?1694452945">now available</a>.</p>
<p>Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a>, or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193165/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruth Mace receives funding from the European Research Council (ERC grant EvoBias). She is Editor-in-Chief of Evolutionary Human Sciences (a Cambridge University Press open access journal). She has previously been affiliated with The Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and Lanzhou University. Ruth Mace is currently a visitor at the Institute of Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST). </span></em></p>Listen to the first episode of Discovery, a new series available via The Conversation Weekly podcast, telling the stories of fascinating new research discoveries from around the world.Gemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1933752022-10-27T10:45:38Z2022-10-27T10:45:38ZFrom radiation to water pollution to cities, humans are now a driver of evolution in the ‘natural’ world – podcast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491988/original/file-20221026-17-zeh1io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=116%2C116%2C5874%2C3826&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For many species, human actions are the biggest factor in their evolution.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/parallel-world-royalty-free-image/1342327251?phrase=industry%20vs%20nature&adppopup=true">Andriy Onufriyenko/Moment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Humans do a lot of different things to the environment, and there aren’t many natural processes – aside from an asteroid impact or the like – that can rival the scale of change brought on by human activity. In this episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast, we speak to three experts who study different ways that people are affecting how plants and animals evolve – and how humanity has become the single biggest driver of evolutionary changes on Earth. </p>
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<p>The war in Ukraine has raised the specter of nuclear disaster – either through the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/09/world/europe/russia-putin-nuclear-threat.html">intentional use of weapons</a> or the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/09/world/europe/ukraine-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-power-plant-power.html">accidental meltdown of a nuclear power plant</a> – once again. Ukraine, unfortunately, is no stranger to the risks of splitting atoms. The 1986 meltdown of the Chernobyl power plant was the biggest nuclear accident in history, and its legacy is seen in the Chernobyl exclusion zone. People essentially abandoned the area for decades, leaving nature to reclaim the land around Chernobyl.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8vE70D0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Germán Orizaola</a> is a biologist at the University of Oviedo in Spain who studies frogs in the Chernobyl exclusion zone. One of the species Orizaola was looking for is called the eastern tree frog and is usually bright green. “I was alone in the ponds, listening to those males calling, and I didn’t find any. I wasn’t able to detect one until I realized that that green frog that I was looking for wasn’t green. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/eva.13476">It was black</a>. Absolutely black,” he says.</p>
<p>Other than turning from green to black, the frogs were completely healthy. But the decades of exposure to radiation left over from the accident had <a href="https://theconversation.com/chernobyl-black-frogs-reveal-evolution-in-action-191034">led to a dramatic and rapid evolutionary change in the frogs</a> – a change entirely driven by human actions. As Orizaolo explained, “As soon as humans are in the environment, the amount of pressure we put on the environment – radiation, pesticides, noise or changes in temperature – are so extreme and so fast that they also induce extremely fast evolutionary responses.”</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=S9C9C8QAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Andrew Whitehead</a>, an environmental toxicologist at the University of California, Davis in the U.S. is intimately familiar with another striking example of how humans can drive rapid evolution in animals. In particular, he looks at a little fish called the killifish. “There are populations living in these radically human-altered estuaries, and these are environments that should be lethal to them,” he explains. Certain estuaries in the U.S. are full of chemical pollution, yet the fish are thriving. As Whitehead says, “Killifish from those sites are resistant to up to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2010.04829.x">8,000 times the normally lethal concentration</a> of these chemicals.”</p>
<p>Whitehead explained that the killifish, due to equal parts luck and a large bank of genetic diversity thanks to huge population numbers, were able to quickly adapt to the polluted estuaries. Given the choice of evolve or die, the fish evolved. But, as Whitehead noted, “A lot of people respond to the killifish story as this sort of uplifting story where evolution wins out against all odds. But I think that this is more appropriately interpreted as a cautionary story.” While some species can adapt to the changed brought on by modern society, most can’t. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fNPkvLwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Marc Johnson</a>, a biologist at the University of Toronto in Canada, is one of the world’s leading researchers studying the relationship between human actions – urbanization in particular – and the evolution of plants, animals and fungi. “Life on Earth has never experienced environments like cities in its 4 billion year history,” says Johnson. “It really seems that today, the major driver of evolution is human. And we do not understand this nearly well enough.”</p>
<p>No one can change how evolution works, but one thing people can control is how we build our cities, deal with our waste or produce our power. Researchers like Johnson hope that figuring out how evolution and human actions interact will help inform decisions that can give plants and animals a better chance at adapting to a changing world. </p>
<p>Listen to the full episode to find out more.</p>
<p>This episode was produced by Daniel Merino and Mend Mariwany, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. The executive producer was Gemma Ware. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. The sound of tree frogs in this episode is via <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mp4cmmda9M">serkan gul</a>. </p>
<p>You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also sign up to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>. A transcript of this episode is <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/2485/Radiation_Final_Transcript.pdf?1671458244">available here</a>. </p>
<p>Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a>, or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193375/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>
Marc Johnson receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada, the National Science Foundation and the Canada Research Chair. He previously had a New Phytologist workshop grant. He is currently the director of the Centre for Urban Environments and director of a board for The Riverwood Conservancy.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Germán Orizaola receives funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the "Ramón y Cajal" Programme (RyC-2016-20656), the British Ecological Society (SR20-1169) and the Spanish Nuclear Safety Council (SUBV/29-2021).
Andrew Whitehead receives funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences and the U.S. National Science Foundation.</span></em></p>In this week’s episode of The Conversation Weekly, we speak with three scientists who study the ways plants and animals evolve in a world dominated by humans.Daniel Merino, Associate Science Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationGemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1927872022-10-20T10:27:15Z2022-10-20T10:27:15ZWhen digital nomads come to town: governments want their cash but locals are being left behind
– podcast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490407/original/file-20221018-8364-zq6cfj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C70%2C5217%2C3347&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Digital nomads: ditch the office chair for a backpack. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jose Luis Carrascosa via Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>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 of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly</a>, 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. </p>
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<p>The La Roma and La Condesa districts of Mexico City have become some of the Mexican capital’s favourite destinations for visitors in recent years. There are long boulevards and the streets are lined with leafy trees and dotted with picturesque parks and fountains. Wander into the right coffee shops and here you’ll find some of the city’s digital nomads, logging on to remote jobs elsewhere.</p>
<p>Speaking to The Conversation Weekly, Erica from Finland tells us she was already working remotely before the pandemic. “Mexico is cheaper, it’s great weather,” she says. “So I figured I might as well move here.”</p>
<p>“The pandemic and the normalisation of remote work has certainly given the digital nomad lifestyle some legitimacy,” says Dave Cook, an anthropologist at University College London in the UK. He’s been <a href="https://theconversation.com/digital-nomads-have-rejected-the-office-and-now-want-to-replace-the-nation-state-but-there-is-a-darker-side-to-this-quest-for-global-freedom-189835">chronicling digital nomads and their motivations</a> for the past seven years, interviewing people about their motivations. </p>
<p>The pandemic also made governments take notice of digital nomads as an economic benefit to cash-strapped economies, says Fabiola Mancinelli, an anthropologist at the University of Barcelona in Spain who also studies digital nomads. “That’s why many countries started to create special visa programmes to attract this niche of travellers,” she explains. Countries don’t expect digital nomads to participate in local life, says Mancinelli, but rather to consume locally using the higher purchasing power they get from earning in stronger currencies. </p>
<p>In Mexico City, however, the arrival of digital nomads is <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/07/28/mexico-city-residents-angered-by-influx-of-americans-speaking-english-gentrifying-area-report/">angering some local residents</a> who are worried about changes to their neighbourhoods and rising rents. Adrián Hernández Cordero, a sociologist at Metropolitan Autonomous University who studies gentrification, distinguishes between tourists and digital nomads. “They seem to me to be in an intermediate position because they don’t come just for a week – they stay for a few months,” he says.</p>
<p>In Mexico City, Cordero says digital nomads are drawn to areas such as La Roma and La Condesa where it’s easy to get around on foot or by public transport, and where there is a proliferation of restaurants and bars. He says that while these areas were already fairly well-off, the middle classes who live there are witnessing a form of “super-gentrification”. </p>
<p>Listen to the full episode to find out more about the different strategies countries are using to attract digital nomads, and what this means for local residents. </p>
<p>This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Voiceover by Alberto Rodríguez Alvarado. The executive producer was Gemma Ware. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/2473/The_Conversation_Weekly_Transcript_When_digital_nomads_come_to_town.docx.pdf?1670603037">Read a transcript of this episode</a>. </p>
<p>You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also sign up to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>.
Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a>, or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</p>
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<p><em>Adrián Hernández Cordero is part of the National System of Researchers of the National Council for Science and Technology of the Government of Mexico. Dave Cook and Fabiola Mancinelli do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192787/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
How governments around the world are trying to woo digital nomads. Listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.Gemma Ware, Head of AudioMend Mariwany, Producer, The Conversation Weekly PodcastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1918042022-10-06T10:26:28Z2022-10-06T10:26:28ZA secretive legal system lets fossil fuel investors sue countries over policies to keep oil and gas in the ground – podcast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488053/original/file-20221004-26-bvgsmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C82%2C4206%2C2724&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fossil fuel investors can use an obscure legal mechanism found in many international trade agreements to sue countries if their projects are blocked. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/oil-gas-platform-burning-power-energy-164604329">curraheeshutter via Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>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.</p>
<p>In this episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast, 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. </p>
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<p>ISDS clauses were first introduced into international trade agreements in the post-colonial period. Most of these treaties were between a developed and a developing country. “It was really intended in the first instance to protect the interests of multinational companies from the global north when they were operating in these newly decolonised parts of the world,” explains Kyla Tienhaara, an expert in ISDS and environmental governance at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada. </p>
<p>Yet Tienhaara says the use of ISDS has “morphed beyond all recognition” of the treaties’ original intentions, due to what she calls “creative lawyering” and the fact the system is stacked in favour of investors and against governments. </p>
<p>A looming concern is the chilling effect these clauses could have on countries’ decisions to phase out fossil fuels or take other action to protect the environment if investors decide to sue for compensation. In April, a summary report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change <a href="https://www.veblen-institute.org/IPCC-points-out-the-incompatibility-between-protecting-fossil-investments-and.html">singled out ISDS clauses</a> saying that they may “limit countries’ ability to adopt trade-related climate policies” and stick to their commitments under the 2015 Paris agreement. </p>
<p>In a recent study, Tienhaara and her colleagues estimated that countries could face up to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abo4637">US$340 billion in financial and legal risk</a> from cancelling fossil fuel projects covered by ISDS clauses. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-treaties-protecting-fossil-fuel-investors-could-jeopardize-global-efforts-to-save-the-climate-and-cost-countries-billions-182135">How treaties protecting fossil fuel investors could jeopardize global efforts to save the climate – and cost countries billions</a>
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<p>Some countries are more vulnerable than others because of the nature of the contracts they’ve entered into. Mozambique, with its large gas and coal reserves, is particularly so, explains Lea Di Salvatore, a PhD candidate at Nottingham University in the UK. </p>
<p>She <a href="https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-030-74380-2_26-1">analysed 29 of the country’s mega-projects for gas, coal and hydrocarbons</a> and found that the vast majority are covered by ISDS clauses. This means that “the company can directly go and initiate an arbitration against Mozambique”, she says, if it feels a government policy has negatively affected its investment. </p>
<p>We hear what it’s like inside one of these arbitration rooms from Emilia Onyema, a professor of international commercial law at SOAS, University of London in the UK. “It’s a private process,” she explains. “The parties determine who the arbitrator is. They appoint the arbitrator. They pay the arbitrator. So they have more powers over the process than they would have in litigation.” </p>
<p>And we tell the story of one ISDS case <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jul/25/outrage-as-italy-faces-multimillion-pound-damages-to-uk-oil-firm">launched against Italy</a> by the British oil company, Rockhopper Exploration. In 2016, <a href="https://www.oedigital.com/news/450543-italy-reintroduces-12-mile-exploration-restriction">Italy banned oil drilling 12 nautical miles</a> off its coast, which blocked Rockhopper’s exploration of the offshore Ombrina Mare field in the Adriatic Sea. Maria-Rita D'Orsogna, a US-based mathematician and leading campaigner against oil exploration in Abruzzo, explains what was at stake and what happened next.</p>
<p>Listen to the whole episode on The Conversation Weekly to find out about the fight back against ISDS, including moves to reform a big <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy/news/eu-uk-win-fossil-fuel-carve-out-in-energy-charter-treaty-deal/">international trade treaty covering the fossil fuel industry</a> and what countries are doing to limit their risk from ISDS climate arbitration. </p>
<p>This episode was produced by Gemma Ware and Mend Mariwany, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. The executive producer was Gemma Ware. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. </p>
<p>You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also sign up to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>. A transcript of this <a href="https://theconversation.com/secretive-lawsuits-by-fossil-fuel-companies-could-hold-back-climate-action-the-conversation-weekly-podcast-transcript-192871?notice=Article+has+been+updated.">episode is now available</a>. </p>
<p>You can listen to “The Conversation Weekly” via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a>, or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191804/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maria R. D'Orsogna was leader of the Italian "No Oil" Movement. Emilia Onyema often sits as an arbitrator on tribunals in both commercial and state disputes. To date, she has not been involved in any cases related to climate change or fossil fuel extraction. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kyla Tienhaara receives funding from the government of Canada through the Canada Research Chairs program. She does pro bono and occasionally paid work for a number of non-profit organizations including IISD, IIED and ClientEarth. Lea Di Salvatore is visiting scholar at the Business, Human Rights and the Environment research centre at the Nova Law School in Lisbon. She is also part of the Rising from the Depths Network. </span></em></p>Experts are concerned that a legal mechanism called investor-state dispute settlement could affect countries’ moves to cut fossil fuel emissions. Listen to The Conversation Weekly.Gemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationDaniel Merino, Assistant Science Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1915022022-09-29T10:46:12Z2022-09-29T10:46:12ZPsychedelics researchers balance trippyness with scientific rigor after history of legal and cultural controversy – podcast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487143/original/file-20220928-14-qtv0t5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C14%2C888%2C654&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Psychedelic experiences are deeply tied to mystical and counterculture ideas that are often at odds with science.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://deepdreamgenerator.com/ddream/d96rfaftcg1">Daniel Merino, DeepDream</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As research into psychedelics and their medical uses <a href="https://theconversation.com/psychedelic-drugs-how-to-tell-good-research-from-bad-189923">makes a comeback</a>, scientists are having to deal with the legacy – both scientific and social – of a 40-year nearly total freeze on psychedelics research. </p>
<p>In this episode of “<a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly</a>” podcast, 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.</p>
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<p>According to a poll done in the summer of 2022, nearly <a href="https://today.yougov.com/topics/society/articles-reports/2022/07/28/one-in-four-americans-have-tried-psychedelic-drugs">30% of U.S. residents have tried at least one psychedelic drug</a> in their lifetime. Whether from personal experience, hearing about the experiences of friends or widespread depictions in the media, many people will have either tried to describe a psychedelic trip or heard someone else describe one. The language commonly used in these descriptions is, for lack of a better word, often quite trippy. </p>
<p>“A key function of the ego is to identify differentiation,” says <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7_MD_w0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">Robin Carhart-Harris</a>, a neurologist and psychologist at the University of California, San Francisco, and one of the world’s leading psychedelics researchers. “And when that function breaks down, it’s replaced with a sense of de-differentiation, a sense of unity, like everything is interconnected in a web of relationships. That’s not nothingness, it’s sort of everythingness.” </p>
<p>Many psychedelics researchers use an approach called “the mystical framework” to assess psychedelic experiences. Researchers who use this framework <a href="https://www.trippingly.net/lsd-studies/2018/5/22/the-mystical-experience-questionaire-30-questions">give participants in psychedelics studies a survey</a> as a way to define and categorize the experience. The survey asks participants to rate how strongly they felt certain phenomena during their trip, including feelings like the “certainty of encounter with ultimate reality (in the sense of being able to 'know’ and ‘see’ what is really real at some point during your experience).”</p>
<p>But some researchers, such as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=kw2savEAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Josjan Zijlmans</a>, at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands, think the mystical framework poses some problems. </p>
<p>“I think the experience that people are trying to describe is very valuable, but calling it mystical is a misnomer,” Zijlmans says, “because mysticism in general is associated with many vague and supernatural concepts, which I think shouldn’t be part of this sort of scientific endeavor.” </p>
<p>According to Zijlmans, there is no reason researchers couldn’t come up with more precise language to define psychedelic experiences. However, this language, and psychedelics generally, have a long contentious history when it comes to associations with spiritual and counterculture ideas – as well as scientific ones. </p>
<p>“There was an enthusiasm for psychedelics in the ‘20s and '30s, but it never really captured a lot of attention,” explains <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=2iChS8UAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Wayne Hall</a>, a professor of health and behavioral sciences at the University of Queensland in Australia. “Back then, you didn’t need an ethics committee to approve research. You didn’t need a clinical trial protocol. You just tried out the drugs on your patients to see if they worked.”</p>
<p>Early enthusiasm and experimentation produced some far-out ideas and strong advocates, such as <a href="https://psychology.fas.harvard.edu/people/timothy-leary">the Harvard psychologist Timothy Leary</a> and others. But during the '60s and '70s, the attitude toward psychedelics changed. </p>
<p>“There was the fear that you might end up like Timothy Leary. If these drugs could do this to a Harvard professor, what might they do to you?” says Hall. “If you want a promising career, then you’d be wise to stay away from these drugs.” As a result of this shift – and strong government pushback against the use of psychedelics recreationally as well as medically – research almost stopped entirely from the '70s to the early 2000s.</p>
<p>Today, psychedelics research is undergoing a resurgence. Listen to the full episode to find out how the legacy of the '60s and '70s, though fading, is still influencing the world of psychedelics today, for better or worse. </p>
<p>This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. The executive producer was Gemma Ware. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. </p>
<p>You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/?hl=en">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also sign up to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>. A <a href="https://theconversation.com/psychedelic-research-balancing-trippyness-with-a-new-scientific-rigor-the-conversation-weekly-podcast-transcript-192640">transcript of this episode is available here</a>. </p>
<p>You can listen to “The Conversation Weekly” via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a>, or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191502/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robin Carhart-Harris is scientific advisor to a number of new companies and not-for-profits that are seeking to develop psychedelic therapy and bring it to market. These include Beckley Psytech, Journey Colab, Journey Space, Mindstate, Usona, Synthesis and Mydecine. He has previously received funding from the Medical Research Council. Wayne Hall received AUD 5,000 for writing a briefing paper on psychedelic drugs for the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at University of New South Wales, which receives funding form the Australian government.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Josjan Zijlmans does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Today’s psychedelics researchers still have to deal with the fallout of the decadeslong freeze on research. Listen to ‘The Conversation Weekly’ podcast.Daniel Merino, Assistant Science Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationGemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.