The Conversation

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Channel • 21 Shows

News Commentary

News Commentary

Updated weekly
Nutrition

Nutrition

Updated weekly
Nature

Nature

Updated weekly
Kids & Family

Kids & Family

Updated weekly
News

News

Updated 28/04/2020
Science

Science

Every two months
Politics

Politics

Updated twice weekly

6 DAYS AGO

Trump v Leo: the war of words over a just war

After Donald Trump took to social media to lambast Pope Leo's criticism of the Iran war, the pontiff told journalists "I'm not afraid of the Trump administration". Part of the war of words between Trump and Leo is a question over whether the Iran war is a just one. Just war theory, first articulated by St Augustine in the fifth century, outlines the church’s moral guidelines for political and military leaders to consider before choosing to go to war. But it’s not static, and the church’s own position has become more restrictive in recent years. In this episode, Gerard Powers, the director of Catholic Peace Building Studies at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, explains how the Catholic church’s just war tradition evolved and the influence it’s had on US military thinking. Powers was a senior advisor on international policy for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops during the Iraq war, and was involved in efforts to persuade the Bush administration not to invade. He sets out the difficulty now facing Catholics serving in the US military, whose archbishop has now spoken out against the war they’re being asked to fight This episode was produced by Katie Flood and Mend Mariwany and the executive producer was Gemma Ware. Mixing by Eleanor Brezzi 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.

6 days ago

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27 min
17 FEB

Meet the mites that live on you: from demodex to dust mites and scabies

You are not alone in your own skin. Millions of microscopic creatures live there too. Our skin is home to entire ecosystems of microscopic life. Bacteria and fungi get most of the attention, but mites are there too. Among the most common are demodex mites, tiny eight-legged relatives of spiders that live inside hair follicles and pores, especially on the face. Almost all adults carry them. In this episode we explore what these microscopic housemates are actually doing on our bodies and why the idea of them can feel so unsettling. While demodex may be harmless, there are plenty of other mites that can cause problems, from dust mites, to scabies. Hosts Katie Edwards and Dan Baumgardt turn this week to Alejandra Perotti, professor of invertebrate biology at the University of Reading, who studies the relationship between mites and humans. Strange Health is a podcast from The Conversation is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. Full credits for this episode available here. If you like the show, please consider donating to support our work. You can sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation here. Hosts: Katie Edwards from The Conversation and Dan Baumgardt, University of Bristol Executive Producer: Gemma Ware Editing and mixing: Sikander Khan Artwork: Alice Mason Invisible skin mites called Demodex almost certainly live on your face – but what about your mascara?How often should you really be washing your bedding? A microbiologist explainsScabies outbreak in UK and Europe – what you need to know

17 Feb

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34 min
11/05/2024

Why do some trees lose their leaves and others don't?

As spring started springing, and leaves started to reappear on the trees, Robi-Jo wanted to find out why some trees lose their leaves and others don't. He joined our host Eloise to ask Paul Ashton, a botanist at Edge Hill University in the UK, who took them into the secret life of our big, leafy friends! The Conversation's Curious Kids podcast is published in partnership with FunKids, the UK's children's radio station. It's hosted and produced by Eloise and Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Full sound credits available here. If you have a question for an expert, email us at curiouskids@theconversation.com or record it and send your question to us directly at funkidslive.com/curious. And explore more articles from our Curious Kids series on The Conversation. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

11/05/2024

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17 min
26 FEB

South Korea's birth rate is rising, but the population is still shrinking

South Korea’s very low birth rate and ageing population have long served as a cautionary tale for other governments worried that they’ll see similar demographic challenges. But now, for the second year running, more people in South Korea are having children. The 6.8% rise in births in 2025 is the largest rise since 2007, and has taken the country’s total fertility rate to 0.80, up from 0.75 in 2024. The news is being cautiously celebrated, but with South Korea’s overall population still shrinking, it is yet to reverse its demographic fortunes. In this episode, we speak to Stuart Gietel-Basten, a demographer and professor of social science and public policy at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, about how South Korea has got to this point and some of the structural issues the country still faces. This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware and Katie Flood. Mixing by Eleanor Brezzi 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. Japan is not the only country worrying about population decline – get used to a two-speed worldChina’s population decline is a result of decades of botched family planning measures and will have global implicationsSouth Korea’s gender imbalance is bad news for men − outnumbering women, many face bleak marriage prospects Mentioned in this episode: The Making of an Autocrat Search "The Conversation Weekly" for our new series: The Making of an Autocrat. Is America watching its democracy unravel in real time? In The Making of an Autocrat from The Conversation, six of the world’s pre-eminant scholars reveal the recipe for authoritarian rule. From capturing a party, to controlling the military, Donald Trump is borrowing from the playbook of strongmen thoughout history. This is the story of how democracies falter — and what might happen next.

26 Feb

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28 min
20/04/2024

Do whales sneeze?

Do whales sneeze? That's what ten-year-old Guy from Sydney wanted to know. He joined our host Eloise to ask Vanessa Pirotta, a wildlife scientist at Macquarie University in Australia who is also an expert in whale snot! The Conversation's Curious Kids podcast is published in partnership with FunKids, the UK's children's radio station. It's hosted and produced by Eloise Stevens and Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Full sound credits available here. If you have a question for an expert, email us at curiouskids@theconversation.com or record it and send your question to us directly at funkidslive.com/curious. And explore more articles from our Curious Kids series on The Conversation including a print version of the story in this episode. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

20/04/2024

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12 min
9 APR

The pseudoscientific scale looksmaxxers use to rate each other

If you have teenagers in your life, they’ll probably have heard of the PSL scale. Or at least the language associated with it. Chad. Stacy. Normie. Subhuman. The PSL scale is a pseudoscientific attractiveness rating system used by looksmaxxers, men in a part of the manosphere who can go to extreme methods to change their appearance. The roots of this rating system lie in misogynistic online forums used by incels or involuntarily celibates, but now it’s all over social media. So how did the language of incels, and this one way of quantifying attractiveness and beauty, go so mainstream? In this episode, we speak to Jordan Foster, an associate professor of sociology at MacEwan University in Alberta, Canada, who researches social media, beauty and masculinity. He explains the origins of the PSL scale, where it fits into the manosphere, and how some looksmaxxing influencers are making money off it. This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood and Gemma Ware was the executive producer. Mixing by Eleanor Brezzi 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. What parents need to know to talk to their children about the manosphereHow ‘looksmaxxing’ self-improvement apps are marketing misogyny to young menMen can get out of the manosphere. Here’s what former incels say about why they leftFrom gym to jawline: What looksmaxxing says about modern masculinity

9 Apr

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30 min
26 MAR

Artemis II: NASA’s long road back to the Moon

Final preparations are underway for NASA’s Artemis II mission, the first crewed mission around the Moon for more than 50 years. Four astronauts, three men and one woman, will spend 10 days aboard the Orion spacecraft, going further into space than any other humans as they orbit the Moon and return to Earth. The mission is the next step of the Artemis programme, which plans to land astronauts back to the Moon by 2028. China has its own programme targeting a full crewed mission to the lunar surface by 2030. In this episode, we speak to Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University about why the US is going back to the Moon. Pace worked in space policy for the George W. Bush Administration, followed by a stint at NASA before his appointment as the executive secretary of the National Space Council during the first Trump administration, where he worked on the launch of the Artemis programme. This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood and Gemma Ware was the executive producer. Mixing by Eleanor Brezzi 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. NASA’s Artemis II mission will take an astronaut crew around the Moon – a space policy expert describes the long road to launchNasa’s Artemis II mission is crucial as doubts build that America can beat China back to the MoonNASA announces a big shake-up of the Artemis Moon programNASA’s Artemis II crewed mission to the Moon shows how US space strategy has changed since Apollo – and contrasts with China’s closed programNASA’s Artemis II plans to send a crew around the Moon to test equipment and lay the groundwork for a future landing

26 Mar

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27 min
2 APR

The Making of One Nation: the unlikely rise of Australia’s Pauline Hanson

From a fish and chip shop in regional Queensland to the heart of Australian politics: this is the unlikely story of One Nation, Australia's most controversial minor party. For thirty years, One Nation and Pauline Hanson have been ridiculed, dismissed and shut out. Now, no one is laughing. This week we're running the first episode of The Making of One Nation, a new series from The Conversation hosted by Ashlynne McGhee. She explores how a party built on fear and grievance thrived, died and rose again to upend Australian politics. Hanson's infamous 1996 maiden speech to the Australian Senate — warning that Australia was "being swamped by Asians" — still echoes through Australian political life. But who was Pauline Hanson before she became a phenomenon, and what did she actually represent? Was she a cause of a new kind of politics, or a symptom of one already forming? We hear from Anna Broinowski, documentary maker and senior lecturer at the School of Art, Communication and English at the University of Sydney, who made a documentary and wrote a book about Hanson. Follow The Making of One Nation to make sure you don't miss more episodes in the coming weeks. 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.

2 Apr

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26 min
16 APR

How former insider Péter Magyar ousted Hungary’s Viktor Orbán

For 16 years, Viktor Orbán built an illiberal democracy in Hungary. Orbán and his Fidesz party managed to take control of many of Hungary's levers of power, from the judiciary to state-owned media, and weakened the institutions that could keep them accountable. Now, his regime has been ended by a former Fidesz insider, Péter Magyar, who managed to unite Hungarians to secure a two-third majority in the country's parliament. So how did Peter Magyar manage to beat his former boss? And what does Magyar's victory mean for the European Union, where Orbán was a belligerent, pro-Russian voice at the leaders' table. We speak to Zsolt Enyedi, professor of political science at the Central European University and an expert in Hungarian politics. This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood. Gemma Ware was the host and executive producer. Mixing by Eleanor Brezzi 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. He exposed corruption and walked across Hungary. Now Péter Magyar has defeated a powerful state machineWhat Viktor Orbán’s election loss means for Putin, Trump and the rise of right-wing populismViktor Orbán’s election loss shows the limits of his propaganda machine Mentioned in this episode: Voices of the South

16 Apr

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31 min
27/04/2024

How high can I jump on the Moon?

Imagine you’re lucky enough to travel all the way to the Moon, and you’re bouncing around in your space suit, exploring. How high could you jump? That’s what Miles, aged nine, from London, wanted to know. And so he joined our host Eloise to ask Jacco von Loon, an astrophysicist at Keele University in the UK to find the answer! The Conversation's Curious Kids podcast is published in partnership with FunKids, the UK's children's radio station. It's hosted and produced by Eloise Stevens and Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Full sound credits available here. If you have a question for an expert, email us at curiouskids@theconversation.com or record it and send your question to us directly at https://funkidslive.com/curious. And explore more articles from our Curious Kids series on The Conversation including a print version of the story in this episode. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

27/04/2024

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15 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.