The Conversation Weekly

Each week we talk to academic experts around the world to help unpick the context behind the headlines – and hear from scholars carrying out brand new research about how the world works. A podcast from The Conversation. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Tracks

The science of sugar – why we're hardwired to love it and what eating too much does to your brain	49:03	20/01/22
Crypto countries: Nigeria and El Salvador's opposing journeys into digital currencies	44:58	13/01/22
2022 science preview: mRNA vaccines, asteroid missions and collaborative robots	46:54	05/01/22
How the arts can help us come back together again	52:39	16/12/21
Peering into the history of the universe: astronomers explain why the James Webb Space Telescope is such a big deal	45:29	09/12/21
Planet pharma: what the industry got out of COVID	41:46	02/12/21
How abortion access is changing around the world	43:42	25/11/21
Glasgow Climate Pact: what happened at COP26 and what it means for the world	50:15	18/11/21
Ten years to 1.5°C: how climate anxiety is affecting young people around the world	39:48	11/11/21
Tigray: the devastating toll of Ethiopia's vicious year of war	46:29	04/11/21
Degrowth: why some economists think abandoning growth is the only way to save the planet	36:48	28/10/21
Taiwan: what is China's long-term strategy?	46:39	21/10/21
Explaining the 2021 Nobel Prizes: how touch works, a better way to make medicine and the fiction of Abdulrazak Gurnah	44:06	14/10/21
New clues to consciousness + AI helps finish Beethoven's 10th symphony	47:31	07/10/21
Germany election winners, losers, and how the Greens emerged as kingmakers + the benefits of saunas	39:59	30/09/21
Have climate change predictions matched reality?	46:01	23/09/21
Why is Justin Trudeau more popular abroad than in Canada? + Clues on why mosquitoes bite some of us more than others	41:49	16/09/21
Haiti's history of cascading crises and political fragility	44:21	09/09/21
Back to school with COVID: how to keep children safe	43:18	02/09/21
The origins of the Taliban	40:59	26/08/21
The biological switch that could turn neuroplasticity on and off in the brain	15:38	19/08/21
Al-Shabaab: why women join the Islamist militant group	13:08	12/08/21
How we created fake smells to trick predators and save endangered birds	16:01	05/08/21
Four-day week: has its moment arrived? + How Nairobi’s informal settlements got their names	38:24	29/07/21
Olympics: the ultimate limits of human performance + lessons from 1920 Antwerp games	46:32	22/07/21
Science of lab-grown and plant-based meat + Indonesia's child smoking problem	37:27	15/07/21
Tough justice for international war crimes + why sarcasm is tricky for kids	41:45	08/07/21
UFO report: from shrouded history to a data-driven future – podcast	43:26	01/07/21
Fire, tsunami, pandemic: how to ensure societies learn lessons from disaster	41:26	24/06/21
How Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro brought the military back to the centre of politics + archaeological garbage investigators	37:30	17/06/21