SWI Podcasts

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Channel • 10 Shows

Natural Sciences

Natural Sciences

Updated 28 Jul
Society & Culture

Society & Culture

Updated 11 hr ago
Society & Culture

Society & Culture

Updated 9 hr ago

Science

Science

Updated weekly
Politics

Politics

Every two weeks
Natural Sciences

Natural Sciences

Updated 28 Jul
Politics

Politics

Updated 18 Aug
Medicine

Medicine

Updated 25 Jun
Medicine

Medicine

Updated weekly
Society & Culture

Society & Culture

Updated 11 hr ago

18/02/2025

Ep 1 - The Promise

Send a text Luis Daniel suffers from a rare blood cancer. Could promising stem cell research, and a baby be the chance he’s been looking for? Banking his baby’s cord blood offers an opportunity to secure a potential cure. He looks to a leading company based in Switzerland to help him protect himself and his family. An original SWI swissinfo.ch trilingual podcast series in collaboration with Piz Gloria Productions, Futur Proche and Studio Ochenta.
04/03/2025

Ep 3 - The Program

Send a text Tatiana and Ratko prepare to move their frozen stem cells but things don’t go as planned. Perhaps the company and its marketing aren’t everything they’ve been promised? Families around Europe begin asking questions about their cells, and where and how they’re being stored. Swiss authorities are alerted and arrange an inspection. What they discover sets off an international quest. An original SWI swissinfo.ch trilingual podcast series in collaboration with Piz Gloria Productions, Futur Proche and Studio Ochenta.
25/02/2025

Ep 2 - Seeds Of Hope

Send a text Tatiana and her husband Ratko choose cord blood banking in Switzerland for their daughter’s cells. They seek out a top US university conducting research in stem cell transplants and are offered a rare opportunity to be part of this leading-edge program. An original SWI swissinfo.ch trilingual podcast series in collaboration with Piz Gloria Productions, Futur Proche and Studio Ochenta.
11/03/2025

Ep 4 - The Hunt

Send a text Luis Daniel, Tatiana and Ratko investigate in multiple European jurisdictions. The international band of families turns to Antoine Harari and Valeria Mazzucchi, two journalists based in Geneva, to give them the answers they can’t get from a company in turmoil. Luis Daniel visits Poland looking for assurances that his daughter's stem cells can help him cure his cancer before it's too late. An original SWI swissinfo.ch trilingual podcast series in collaboration with Piz Gloria Productions, Futur Proche and Studio Ochenta.
18/03/2025

Ep 5 - In Limbo

Send a text Families across Europe feel like they’re being held hostage. Who owns their cells? Do they have any rights? They fight back with the only thing they do have: their own tenacity and an international network of sleuths. An original SWI swissinfo.ch trilingual podcast series in collaboration with Piz Gloria Productions, Futur Proche and Studio Ochenta.
9 Jun

What’s the point of foreign aid?

Send us Fan Mail On our Inside Geneva podcast this week, we host a debate on a key question: what’s the point of foreign aid? “What’s the point of mobilising taxpayers’ money and sending it to faraway countries to assist vulnerable people? And how do you sell that to your own taxpayers?” says Gilles Carbonnier, former Vice-President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). There are more conflicts and greater needs, yet donor countries want to spend less. “What’s the point of mobilising taxpayers’ money and sending it to faraway countries to assist vulnerable people? And how do you sell that to your own taxpayers?” says Gilles Carbonnier, former Vice-President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). There are more conflicts and greater needs, yet donor countries want to spend less. Do we think some people’s tragedies are less important than others? If a child is in pain in Khartoum, that’s exactly the same as a child being in pain in New York or London. If a mother is grieving in Gaza, that’s exactly the same as a mother grieving in Geneva,” says Chris Lockyear, former Secretary General of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF). How can aid agencies better explain what they do? “What defines us is humanity, and humanity means we cannot stay idle when we see others suffering. We have to act and do something to try to protect them, assist them and prevent suffering, regardless of where this happens,” says Carbonnier. Listen to the full episode on Inside Geneva. Get in touch! Email us at insidegeneva@swissinfo.chTwitter: @ImogenFoulkes and @swissinfo_enThank you for listening! If you like what we do, please leave a review or subscribe to our newsletter. For more stories on the international Geneva please visit www.swissinfo.ch/ Host: Imogen Foulkes Production assitant: Claire-Marie Germain Distribution: Sara Pasino Marketing: Xin Zhang
28 Apr

Challenges to press freedom

Send us Fan Mail On Inside Geneva this week, we mark Press Freedom Day. Is there anything to celebrate? Irene Khan, UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression: “The role of journalists has never been under such pressure, and the sector itself is suffering. So these are very, very important times to take a deep breath and make sure that freedom of expression, and media freedom as part of that, is protected, because it is an extremely important pillar of democracy.” Increasingly, journalists are being attacked simply for reporting the facts. Antoine Bernard, Reporters Without Borders: “We are in times where facts have become a target; hence, journalists have become more of a target, and this means that they are the ones who are suffering most from the growing polarisation of the public debate.” And are people manipulating press freedom and freedom of expression? Chris Morris, CEO, Full Fact: “Regulating information is a really difficult thing to do well. Getting the right balance between the absolute need to protect freedom of expression and the need to protect people from harm online is really difficult.” Irene Khan, UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression: “You have the First Amendment warriors talking about freedom of speech without any limit. But what they actually mean is freedom of speech for me, but not for you. Because when that happens, when you have freedom of speech without any barriers, then what happens is that we’ve seen a surge of hate speech, attacks against migrants, and terrible misogynist attacks against women politicians.” Join host Imogen Foulkes on Inside Geneva. Get in touch! Email us at insidegeneva@swissinfo.chTwitter: @ImogenFoulkes and @swissinfo_enThank you for listening! If you like what we do, please leave a review or subscribe to our newsletter. For more stories on the international Geneva please visit www.swissinfo.ch/ Host: Imogen Foulkes Production assitant: Claire-Marie Germain Distribution: Sara Pasino Marketing: Xin Zhang
26 May

Is aid failing?

Send us Fan Mail On this week's Inside Geneva podcast episode, we take stock of aid cuts and what they mean for new crises such as Ebola. “It is a catastrophe. It is not an opportunity. But now we have an obligation to transform the system: there’s no other way the humanitarian system can survive this crisis without any change,” says Professor Karl Blanchet from the University of Geneva. A new report says aid delivery must change, but huge cuts are not the way. “The suspension of funding by major donors, not only the United States but also the UK, Germany and others, [means that] there are going to be excess deaths. Millions of people are going to die who should not have died because of these funding cuts,” says Professor Esperanza Martinez from the Australian National University. What happens in a crisis like Ebola if aid funding is driven by ‘anti-diversity’ ideology? “Every process in society follows a gendered pattern, so it is often going to be women who are the caretakers of the sick. It is going to be women who are washing the bodies of the dead and preparing them for burial,” says Hannah Reinl from the Geneva Gender Champions organisation. Who stands to lose the most from the world’s only superpower withdrawing from aid organisations such as the World Health Organization (WHO)? “If the US had not withdrawn from the WHO, then we would have been part of the WHO’s response. Which means that when the WHO learned about this, the US government would have learned about it as well. Instead, [US Secretary of State] Marco Rubio is saying that he did not find out about this until ten days later. Well, maybe we should not have pulled out of the WHO, and we would have found out about it earlier,” says Nicholas Enrich, a former USAID official and author of Into the Wood Chipper. Join Imogen Foulkes on Inside Geneva to listen to the full interviews. Get in touch! Email us at insidegeneva@swissinfo.chTwitter: @ImogenFoulkes and @swissinfo_enThank you for listening! If you like what we do, please leave a review or subscribe to our newsletter. For more stories on the international Geneva please visit www.swissinfo.ch/ Host: Imogen Foulkes Production assitant: Claire-Marie Germain Distribution: Sara Pasino Marketing: Xin Zhang
3 Mar

Inside Geneva: what justice means for women in Afghanistan

Send us Fan Mail In August 2021, the Taliban took back control in Afghanistan. Women face unprecedented repression. They can’t go to school or work; public parks are banned to them; they are not allowed to speak or sing too loudly. Are we turning away? “This is the time for the international community and for other countries, especially the EU, to step in and to make sure they respond to the crisis in Afghanistan and stand with the women of Afghanistan and to do everything they can to protect their rights,” says Fereshta Abbasi, from Human Rights Watch. Diplomats in Geneva have backed a powerful UN fact-finding mission for Afghanistan. “As an ambassador, and as a woman, [I know that] women have fought for decades if not centuries for their rights, and I also personally do not want to see a back-peddling on those rights that we, and generations of brave women before us, have fought for for so long,” says Deike Potzel, EU Ambassador to the UN in Geneva. Women inside Afghanistan need to know there is support. “Women and girls in Afghanistan resist in ways that don’t form a single movement. It’s about 1,000 quiet and important uprisings and day-to-day revolutions: a resistance that is fierce and creative to show that they exist and that they will never accept that kind of domination,” says Sahar Fetrat, an Afghan campaigner for women’s rights. The fact-finding mission can gather evidence and hold Afghanistan’s government and individual Taliban leaders to account. But ordinary women across Europe can help too. “Here in Europe, in Geneva, we have the wonderful opportunity to actually make our voices heard and to be heard. So use that chance, get engaged. Open your eyes and then do something,” says Potzel. Join some inspiring women talking to Imogen Foulkes on Inside Geneva. Get in touch! Email us at insidegeneva@swissinfo.chTwitter: @ImogenFoulkes and @swissinfo_enThank you for listening! If you like what we do, please leave a review or subscribe to our newsletter. For more stories on the international Geneva please visit www.swissinfo.ch/ Host: Imogen Foulkes Production assitant: Claire-Marie Germain Distribution: Sara Pasino Marketing: Xin Zhang
12 May

Who controls landmines and drones?

Send us Fan Mail On Inside Geneva, we look at weapons contamination and the harm it causes. “We have at least one casualty every single day in Afghanistan – someone killed or injured –and it is most likely a child,” says Nick Pond, from the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. From old conflicts to new. “Ukraine is the breadbasket of Europe and billions of square metres of land are suspected to be contaminated, which means they can’t be farmed,” says Paul Heslop, from the UN Mine Action, Ukraine. And from old weapons to new. “This is proliferating well beyond Ukraine. Ukraine and Russia are the two leaders in drone technology, but the level of proliferation is scary,” says Sean Moorhouse, from Mine Action, UN Development Programme. In response to Russian aggression, the Baltic states are pulling out of the landmine convention. “We did not say yes to landmines; we said no to unilateral disarmament constructs,” says Jonatan Vseviov, Secretary General, Estonian Foreign Ministry. But others are joining. “We heard that Lebanon will be joining the convention. This is a massive achievement and a massive push for the convention itself,” says Rana Elias, from the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining. As warfare changes, weapons contamination becomes more complicated. Who is responsible when a weapon fails to hit its target and harms someone years later? Who should pay for the clean‑up? And are we turning away from our opposition to indiscriminate weapons? Join host Imogen Foulkes on Inside Geneva to listen to the full episode. Get in touch! Email us at insidegeneva@swissinfo.chTwitter: @ImogenFoulkes and @swissinfo_enThank you for listening! If you like what we do, please leave a review or subscribe to our newsletter. For more stories on the international Geneva please visit www.swissinfo.ch/ Host: Imogen Foulkes Production assitant: Claire-Marie Germain Distribution: Sara Pasino Marketing: Xin Zhang

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