The Conversation

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Channel • 20 Shows

Kids & Family

Kids & Family

Updated weekly
News Commentary

News Commentary

Updated weekly
Politics

Politics

Updated twice weekly
Physics

Physics

Updated weekly
Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Updated weekly
News

News

Updated 18/08/2022
News

News

Updated 28/04/2020

18 SEPT

Palestinian statehood: the route to recognition

With France, the UK, Australia and Canada expected to recognise an independent Palestinian state at UN General Assembly in New York, what are the origins of the state they plan to recognise? In this episode, Palestinian-American historian Maha Nassar from the University of Arizona describes the events leading up to the original declaration of Palestinian independence in 1988, including the compromises made within the Palestinian liberation movement. Nassar then traces how we've got to the point where more than 150 countries will recognise an independent Palestinian state – a move that she believes is more of a symbolic gesture than a meaningful route to Palestinian sovereignty. This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware with assistance from Katie Flood. Sound design and mixing by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the full credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation. If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

18 Sept

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29 min
26 JUN

Autism, RFK Jr and avoiding disability surveillance

Robert F Kennedy Jr caused controversy in April by promising to find a cause for autism by September. Claims by the new US secretary for health and human services that autism is a “preventable disease” with an environmental cause, contradict a body of research that suggests autism is caused by a combination of genetic and external factors. The US government announced that to support its new research effort into autism it would build a “data platform” involving data on claims, medical records and consumer wearables. In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, we speak to Amy Gaeta, a research associate at University of Cambridge in the UK who studies disability surveillance. Gaeta talks us through some of the strategies people are using to avoid potential surveillance, from self-diagnosis, to withholding information or being careful with the language they use to describe themselves. This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Sound design and mixing by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the full credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation. If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

26 Jun

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34 min
4 SEPT

How China is weaponising the history of WWII

As China invited world leaders to a vast military parade marking the end of the second world war on September 3, President Xi Jinping said China is "never intimidated by bullies" and would "stand by the right side of history". In a coded message about China's territorial ambitions over Taiwan, Xi added that "the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation was unstoppable". China and Taiwan both claim their forces bore the true burden of Chinese resistance against Japan during the second world war, and use this contested history to lay claim to power and territory. Now China is weaponising this history, pushing for a "correct" perspective of the war as it seeks to reshape the world order. In this episode, historian Meredith Oyen from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, explains how disagreements between China and Taiwan over who fought the Japanese more than 80 years ago are still raging and why China's military parade raised tensions with Taiwan up another notch. This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware with assistance from Katie Flood. Sound design and mixing by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the full credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation. If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

4 Sept

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25 min
08/03/2023

Is time an illusion?

Without a sense of time, leading us from cradle to grave, our lives would make little sense. But on the most fundamental level, physicists aren't sure whether the sort of time we experience exists at all. We talk to three experts and find out if time could potentially be moving backwards as well as forwards. Featuring Sean Carroll, Homewood professor of natural philosophy at Johns Hopkins University, Emily Adlam, postdoctoral associate of the philosophy of physics at Western University and Natalia Ares, Royal Society university research fellow at the University of Oxford. This episode was presented by Miriam Frankel and produced by Hannah Fisher. Executive producers are Jo Adetunji and Gemma Ware. Social media and platform production by Alice Mason, sound design by Eloise Stevens and music by Neeta Sarl. A transcript is available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation. Further reading: Quantum mechanics: how the future might influence the pastFour misconceptions about quantum physics

08/03/2023

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44 min
22/03/2023

Is there a multiverse?

Interest in the multiverse theory, suggesting that our universe is just one of many, has spiked since the movie Everything Everywhere All At Once was released. The film follows Evelyn Wang on her journey to connect with versions of herself in parallel universes to stop the destruction of the multiverse. The multiverse idea has long been an inspiration for science fiction writers. But does it have any basis in science? And if so, is it a concept we could ever test experimentally? Featuring Andrew Pontzen, professor of Cosmology at University College London, Katie Mack, Hawking chair in cosmology and science communication at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and Sabine Hossenfelder, research fellow of physics at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies. This episode is presented by Miriam Frankel and produced by Hannah Fisher. Executive producers are Jo Adetunji and Gemma Ware. Social media and platform production by Alice Mason, sound design by Eloise Stevens and music by Neeta Sarl. A transcript is available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation. Further reading: The multiverse: how we're tackling the challenges facing the theoryCurious Kids: how likely is it that there are parallel universes and other Earths?The multiverse: our universe is suspiciously unlikely to exist – unless it is one of many

22/03/2023

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41 min
13 MAR

The surreal story of how COVID took over a remote city in the Amazon

When the first cases of COVID-19 began to spread around the world in early 2020, people in Iquitos, a remote city in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, weren’t unduly worried. They assumed their isolation would protect them. It didn’t. Peru, and Iquitos, were hit fast, and hard. In a surreal situation, people were left to fend for themselves, fighting to get hold of oxygen on the black market for their loved ones and forced to put themselves in danger to survive. In this episode we speak to researcher Japhy Wilson from Bangor University in Wales who spent a year living in Iquitos, trying to understand what happened there during the pandemic. This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware with assistance from Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation. If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

13 Mar

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32 min
28 FEB

Chinese warships, a dirt file and a firming election date: election special episode with Amanda Dunn and Michelle Grattan

Chinese warships, a dirt file and a firming election date: election special episode with Amanda Dunn and Michelle Grattan Mentioned in this episode: Listen to Scam Factories on The Conversation Weekly 🔎 search for The Conversation Weekly Scam Factories takes you inside Southeast Asia’s brutal scam compounds. We meet the people lured into the industry, reveal how they become trapped and trafficked and track their desperate attempts to escape. We track the organised crime groups and corrupt politicians linked to the operations and chart the industry’s explosive growth: hundreds of thousands of people are being forced to scam. And we try to answer the question, are they victims or criminals, or can they be both?

28 Feb

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19 min
29/03/2023

Quantum mechanics: does objective reality exist?

It is hard to shake the intuition that there's a real and objective physical world out there. If I see an umbrella on top of a shelf, I assume you do too. And if I don't look at the umbrella, I expect it to remain there as long as nobody steals it. But the theory of quantum mechanics, which governs the micro-world of atoms and particles, threatens this commonsense view. Featuring Chiara Marletto, Research Fellow of Physics, and Christopher Timpson, Professor of Philosophy of Physics, both at the University of Oxford, and Marcus Huber, Professor of Physics, TU Wien. This episode is presented by Miriam Frankel and produced by Hannah Fisher. Executive producers are Jo Adetunji and Gemma Ware. Social media and platform production by Alice Mason, sound design by Eloise Stevens and music by Neeta Sarl. A transcript is available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation. Further reading: 'QBism': quantum mechanics is not an objective description of reality – it reveals a world of genuine free will

29/03/2023

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53 min
11/07/2024

What next for the French and British right?

A few days after Labour leader Keir Starmer was elected British prime minister on July 4 with a landslide victory, ending 14 years of Conservative-led rule, a coalition of left-wing parties came out on top in the French legislative elections. It was a good week for the left in this corner of Europe. In this episode, we’ve brought together an expert from each country to help analyse the results and what they tell us about the right in French and British politics. Featuring Tim Bale, Professor of Politics, Queen Mary University of London and Safia Dahani, post-doctoral researcher in sociology at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. We're running a listener survey to hear what you think about the podcast. It should take just a few minutes of your time and we’d really appreciate your thoughts. You can fill it in here. This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive editor. Full credits available here. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation. To support what we do, please consider donating to The Conversation. Further reading:French elections: ‘Power will shift from the presidential palace to the National Assembly and the Senate’« La légitimation de l’extrême droite est autant le fait d’autres partis que de l’espace médiatique »Starmer must seize the chance to rethink the UK-Europe relationship – here’s how he can do itTory wipeout delivers landslide Labour victory: what the experts say

11/07/2024

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40 min
21/11/2024

50 years since the discovery of ancient hominin fossil Lucy in Ethiopia, calls grow to decolonize paleoanthropology

It's been 50 years since the American paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson discovered the fossil of ancient hominin 'Lucy' in the Afar region of Ethiopia. The find took the story of human evolution back beyond 3 million years for the first time. Yet, despite largely centring on the African continent as the "cradle of mankind", the narrative of hominin fossil discovery is striking for its lack of African scientists. In this week's episode, Yohannes Haile-Selassie, director of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University in the US, explains why the story of ancient human origins is so western-centric, and why he's calling for the decolonisation of paleoanthropology. This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany with sound design by Michelle Macklem and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation. If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, which is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. And please do rate and review the show wherever you listen. Further reading:‘Deep inside, something told me I had found the earliest human ancestor; I went numb’ – Yohannes Haile-Selassie on his lifetime quest to discover ancient humanityLucy, discovered 50 years ago in Ethiopia, stood just 3.5 feet tall − but she still towers over our understanding of human origins Meet 3-million-year-old Lucy – she’ll tell you a lot about modern African heritage

21/11/2024

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28 min

Listen to experts explain the world around us and tell the stories behind brand new research. Podcasts from The Conversation, an independent source of news and views, sourced from the academic and research community. Shows in English, French and Bahasa Indonesia. Free to listen.