Since Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter in 2022, many users have looked for alternatives, fuelling a wave of online migration from the social media platform.

How do alternative platforms such as Mastodon or Bluesky differ from traditional social media, and what does the future hold for these online spaces? In this episode, we speak to Robert Gehl, Ontario Research Chair of Digital Governance at York University, Canada, about the evolving landscape of decentralised social media.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Mend Mariwany with assistance from Katie Flood and Gemma Ware, Sound design was by Michelle Macklem, 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.

• Bluesky isn’t the ‘new Twitter,’ but its resemblance to the old one is drawing millions of new users
• Decline of X is an opportunity to do social media differently – but combining ‘safe’ and ‘profitable’ will still be a challenge

As Germany heads towards elections on February 23, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AFD) is polling in second place on 20% of the national vote. The AFD's roots are in nationalistic and racist movements. It continues to take an ultra anti-immigration stance and is calling for "demigration" – effectively the deportation of migrants. 

In this episode, Rolf Frankenberger, an expert on right-wing extremism at the University of Tübingen in Germany, talks to Laura Hood, senior politics editor at The Conversation, about where the AFD draws its support from and what type of Germany it wants to return to.

This episode was Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware with sound design by Michelle Macklem. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up for The Conversation Europe's newsletter to get the best from our European scholars in a weekly digest.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, which is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

• What happened in the German parliament and why is the far right hailing it as a ‘historic’ moment?
• The far-right is rising at a crucial time in Germany, boosted by Elon Musk
• AfD: how Germany’s constitution was designed with the threat of extremism in mind

The online retail giant Amazon is known for its resistance to unions. In this week’s episode, we tell the story of what happened at one warehouse in Coventry in the UK when its workers tried to gain official recognition for the GMB union, one of the country’s biggest labour unions.

We talk to Tom Vickers, a sociologist at Nottingham Trent University in the UK, who spent weeks observing workers’ efforts to unionise at the warehouse as part of a research secondment with the GMB. And John Logan, a professor of labor and employment Studies at San Francisco State University in the US, explains why some companies, many of them American, are so doggedly anti-union. The episode also includes an introduction from Sarah Reid, business and economy editor at The Conversation in the UK.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood 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.

• I spent months with Amazon workers in Coventry before they narrowly voted against unionising. This is what I learned
• Amazon still seems hell bent on turning workers into robots – here’s a better way forward
• Amazon, Starbucks and the sparking of a new American union movement

Conserving or protecting natural resources, like landscapes or products, can involve limiting people's access or use. When natural resources are connected to cultural, religious or spiritual practices, conservation needs to consider both biological and cultural diversity. Indian or red sandalwood, highly valued for its wood and oil, is a natural resource with significant economic and cultural value. The fragrant wood is used for carvings, furniture and in buildings, while the oil distilled from its heartwood has perfume, incense and medicinal applications. We speak with a chemist, an environmental historian and an environment and society researcher on why cultural preservation is key to the sustainable management of natural resources like sandalwood.

Featuring Danny Hettiarachchi, chemist and adjunct research fellow at the University of Western Australia, Ezra Rashkow, an environmental and South Asian historian at Montclair State University in the US,, and Jules Pretty, professor of environment and society at the University of Essex in the UK. 

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced and written by Nehal El-Hadi and Mend Mariwany, who is also the show’s executive producer. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading: 

• Loved to death: Australian sandalwood is facing extinction in the wild
• Handing power to fishers could lead to more sustainable fishing
• Why haven’t Madagascar’s famed lemurs been saved yet?

We speak with three researchers who study how climate research is funded to find out whether the pomp and circumstance of high-profile climate innovation prizes outweighs the actual research they fund, or whether they actually play an important role in the larger effort to find climate solutions.

Featuring David Reiner, University Senior Lecturer in Technology Policy at the Cambridge Judge Business School; Abbas Abdul, Researcher at the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex; and Mark Maslin, professor of Earth System Science at University College London.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood. The executive producer is Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading: 

• Earthshot prize: five winners that will help solve major environmental problems
• Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time

In an era of ceaseless notifications from apps, devices and social media platforms, as well as access to more information than we could possibly consider, how do we find ways to manage? And is the way that we think, focus and process information changing as a result? We speak with three researchers who study human-computer interaction, technology design and literacy about how all of these demands on our attention are affecting us, and what we could possibly do about it.

Featuring Maryanne Wolf, director of the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice at the University of California, in the United States, Kai Lukoff, assistant professor at Santa Clara University, US, and Daniel Le Roux, a senior lecturer at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced and written by Mend Mariwany, who is also the show’s executive producer. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading: 

• Ping, your pizza is on its way. Ping, please rate the driver. Yes, constant notifications really do tax your brain
• Can reading help heal us and process our emotions – or is that just a story we tell ourselves?
• There are challenges but also potential benefits of digital distractions
• To navigate the dangers of the web, you need critical thinking – but also critical ignoring

Both the U.S. and China have plans to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon. You might be wondering: why now? The answer to that is the relatively recent discovery of water on the Moon. The question of how humanity will establish a Moon base is perhaps a deeper and more important one. We speak with two people, a planetary scientist who studies lunar geology and a scholar who works on space law and politics, about the challenges facing nations as humanity heads to the Moon.

Featuring Mahesh Anand, Professor of Planetary Science and Exploration at The Open University in the UK, and Michelle L.D. Hanlon, Professor of Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi in the US.

This episode was written by Katie Flood and produced by Dan Merino and Katie Flood. The executive producer is Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading: 

• Lunar mining and Moon land claims fall into a gray area of international law, but negotiations are underway to avoid conflict and damage to spacecraft
• Space law hasn’t been changed since 1967 – but the UN aims to update laws and keep space peaceful
• Water on the Moon: research unveils its type and abundance – boosting exploration plans

If you like The Conversation Weekly, we encourage you to check out two limited series podcasts produced by The Conversation: Fear & Wonder and Great Mysteries of Physics. Available on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen to your podcasts.

On March 19, 2003, the United States led an unlawful invasion into Iraq, occupying the country for over eight years until the official withdrawal of troops throughout 2011. It is estimated that around 405,000 deaths occurred as a direct result. Most of these deaths were of Iraqi civilians, hundreds of thousands of others were injured, and over nine million displaced. The invasion was followed by the rise of sectarian violence that followed between 2006 and 2010, and the Islamic State group’s occupation in parts of the country from 2013-17. We speak to two researchers who examine the impact the invasion and conflict have had on the lives of Iraqis.

Featuring Sana Murrani, associate professor in spatial practice with a background in architecture and urban design at the University of Plymouth, UK, and Inna Rudolf, senior research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Divided Societies, King's College London in the UK. 

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced and written by Mend Mariwany, who is also the show’s executive producer. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading: 

• It’s been 20 years since the US invaded Iraq – long enough for my undergraduate students to see it as a relic of the past
• Young people in the Middle East struggle to see a promising future
• Iraq food protests against spiralling prices echo early stages of the Arab Spring

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 past
• Four misconceptions about quantum physics

When ChatGPT burst onto the technology world in November 2022, it gained 100 million users within just two months after its launch. The technology itself is fascinating, but part of what makes ChatGPT uniquely interesting is the fact that essentially overnight, most of the world gained access to a powerful generative artificial intelligence that they could use for their own purposes. We speak with researchers who study computer science, technology and economics to explore how the rapid adoption of technologies has, for the most part, failed to change social and economic systems in the past – but why AI might be different, despite its weaknesses.

Featuring Daniel Acuña, Associate Professor of Computer Science, at the University of Colorado Boulder in the US, Kentaro Toyama, Professor of Community Information at the University of Michigan, also in the US, and Thierry Rayna, Professor of Innovation and Entrepeneurship Management, École polytechnique in France. 

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced by Katie Flood and Dan Merino, and also written by Katie Flood. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Mend Mariwany is the show's executive producer. Full credits for this episode are available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading: 

• AI could make more work for us, instead of simplifying our lives
• Unlike with academics and reporters, you can’t check when ChatGPT’s telling the truth
• I tried the Replika AI companion and can see why users are falling hard. The app raises serious ethical questions

An international team of biologists has discovered a tiny new species of owl, called the Príncipe scops owl, living in a remote forest on an island off the west coast of Africa.

Featuring Bárbara Freitas, a Ph.D. fellow who studies bird evolution at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood and hosted by Dan Merino. The interim executive producer is Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.

Full credits for this episode are available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading: 

• We discovered a new species of owl – but we already think it’s in danger
• Mini creatures with mighty voices know their audience and focus on a single frequency

Our dependence on fossil fuels is one of the biggest challenges to overcome in the fight against climate change. But production and consumption of fossil fuels is on the rise, and expected to peak within the next decade. We speak to two researchers who examine the political challenges of transitioning to a world after oil, and what it means for those states who rely on oil for resources.

Featuring Caleb Wellum, Assistant Professor of U.S. History, at the University of Toronto in Canada, and Natalie Koch, Professor of Human Geography at the University of Heidelberg, in Germany. 

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced and written by Mend Mariwany who is also the show's executive producer. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading: 

• For developing world to quit coal, rich countries must eliminate oil and gas faster – new study
• COP27 flinched on phasing out ‘all fossil fuels’. What’s next for the fight to keep them in the ground?
• Ending the climate crisis has one simple solution: Stop using fossil fuels

Social isolation and loneliness are increasingly becoming a societal problem, as they increase polarization and impact on our physical health. In 2018, two years before the pandemic, the United Kingdom created a ministerial portfolio for loneliness. Japan, where nearly 40 per cent of the population report experiencing loneliness, began a similar position in 2021. We speak to three researchers who invite us to more deeply consider loneliness and social isolation, and their impacts on our health and society. 

Featuring Ananya Chakravarti, an associate professor of the history of emotions at Georgetown University in Washington in the US, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University in the US, and Kate Mulligan, an assistant professor at the Dalla Lana School of Health in Canada.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany, who is also the show’s executive producer. Eloise Stevens does our sound design and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading: 

• Why loneliness is both an individual thing and a shared result of the cities we create
• Technology is alienating people – and it’s not just those who are older
• People feel lonelier in crowded cities – but green spaces can help

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.

• ‘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 humanity
• Lucy, 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 

Despite the many biological differences between people of different sexes, races, ages and life histories, chances are that if two people walk into a doctors office with the same symptoms, they are going to get the same exact treatment. As you can imagine, a whole range of treatments – from drugs to testing – could be much more effective if they were designed to work with many different kinds of bodies, not just some abstract, generic human. We speak to three researchers who are looking at ways to make medicine more precise. It starts with simply making sure that clinical trial participants look like the actual patients a drug is meant to treat. And in the future, precision medicine could help each person get medical care that is tailored to their own biology, just like a custom shirt.

Featuring Jennifer Miller, professor of medicine at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, in the US, Julia Liu, professor of medicine at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, in the US, and Keith Yamamoto, head of Precision Medicine at the University of California San Francisco in the US. 

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced and written by Katie Flood. Mend Mariwany is the show's executive producer. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.  Full credits for this episode are available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading: 

• Yes, Black patients do want to help with medical research – here are ways to overcome the barriers that keep clinical trials from recruiting diverse populations
• Women are 50–75% more likely to have adverse drug reactions. A new mouse study finally helps explain why

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the demographics of cities shifted. As stay-at-home orders, remote work and bubbling reduced social interaction, and restaurants, venues and arts destinations shut down temporarily, people started reconsidering their decision to remain in a big city. We spoke with two urban theorists about why people were leaving larger cities for smaller ones, how authenticity was marketed using social media influencers, and why smaller and mid-sized cities are underrated.

Featuring Avi Friedman, a professor of architecture at McGill University in Montréal, Canada, and David A. Banks, lecturer in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Albany in New York, US. 

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced and written by Mend Mariwany who is also the show's executive producer. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.  Full credits for this episode are available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading: 

• Kampala, Kigali and Addis Ababa are changing fast: new book follows their distinct paths
• To build sustainable cities, involve those who live in them
• The era of the megalopolis: how the world’s cities are merging
• As big cities get even bigger, some residents are being left behind

Whether you’re looking at tropical forests in Brazil, grasslands in California or coral reefs in Australia, it’s hard to find places where humanity hasn't left a mark. The scale of the alteration, invasion or destruction of natural ecosystems can be mindbogglingly huge. Thankfully, researchers, governments and everyday people around the world are putting more effort and money into conservation and restoration every year, but the task is large. How do you plant a billion trees? How do you restore thousands of square miles of wetlands? How do you turn a barren ocean floor back into a thriving reef? In some cases, the answer lies with certain animals – called ecosystem engineers – that can kick start the healing. We talk to three experts about how ecosystem engineers can play a key role in restoring natural places and why the human and social sides of restoration are just as important as the science.

Featuring Josh Larsen, associate professor in water science at the University of Birmingham in the UK, Dominic McAfee, a postdoctoral researcher in marine ecology at the University of Adelaide in Australia, and Andy Kliskey, professor of landscape architecture and Co-director of the Center for Resilient Communities at the University of Idaho in the US.

This episode was produced by Katie Flood. The executive producer is Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading: 

• Beavers can do wonders for nature – but we should be realistic about these benefits extending to people
• Beavers are back: here’s what this might mean for the UK’s wild spaces
• Playing sea soundscapes can summon thousands of baby oysters – and help regrow oyster reefs
• Once the fish factories and ‘kidneys’ of colder seas, Australia’s decimated shellfish reefs are coming back

During the years of suffering and tragedy that defined the Warsaw Ghetto in the midst of World War II, a team of Jewish doctors secretly documented the effects of starvation on the human body when the Nazis severely limited the amount of food available in the Jewish ghetto.

Featuring Merry Fitzpatrick, an assistant professor at Tufts University who studies food security and malnutrition.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and hosted by Dan Merino. The executive producer is Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.

Further reading: 

• Warsaw Ghetto’s defiant Jewish doctors secretly documented the medical effects of Nazi starvation policies in a book recently rediscovered on a library shelf 
• Starving civilians is an ancient military tactic, but today it’s a war crime in Ukraine, Yemen, Tigray and elsewhere

Across the globe, health-care workers have gone on strike to protest the stress placed on them by the global COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn, pushing already-strained services beyond their limits. These labour actions are part of the challenges faced by countries attempting to provide welfare services to their populations. We talk to three experts about why social welfare services are being cut, and what actions governments may need to take to ensure better access. 

Featuring Miguel Niño-Zarazúa, senior economics lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London in the UK,  Christine Corlet Walker, a research fellow at the Center for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity at the University of Surrey, also in the UK, and Erdem Yörük, assistant professor at Koç University in Istanbul in Turkey.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood. The executive producer is Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading: 

• Better income assistance programs are needed to help people with rising cost of living
• COVID-19 holds lessons for the future of social protection
• Degrowth: why some economists think abandoning growth is the only way to save the planet – podcast

Reindeer's noses may not glow red, but these cold-loving creatures have evolved the ability to change the color of their eyes to help them thrive in northern winters. A neuroscientist explains how he discovered that a part of the reindeer eye called the tapetum lucidum is perfectly adapted to the dim, blue in the Arctic.

Featuring Glen Jeffery, a professor of neuroscience at the Institute of Opthamology at University College London in the UK.

This episode was produced by Katie Flood. The interim executive producer is Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading

How reindeer eyes transform in winter to give them twilight vision

Five ways reindeer are perfectly evolved for pulling Santa’s sleigh

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 James Webb Space Telescope. In this episode, 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.

Featuring Jeyhan Kartaltepe, Associate Professor of Astrophysics at Rochester Institute of Technology, Jonathan Trump, Associate Professor of Physics at University of Connecticut and Michael J. I. Brown, Associate Professor in Astronomy at Monash University.

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. Full credits for this episode are available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

• James Webb Space Telescope: what astronomers hope it will reveal about the beginning of the universe – podcast
• BlueWalker 3, an enormous and bright communications satellite, is genuinely alarming astronomers
• Is the James Webb Space Telescope finding the furthest, oldest, youngest or first galaxies? An astronomer explains
• Two experts break down the James Webb Space Telescope’s first images, and explain what we’ve already learnt

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, 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. 

Featuring Xiaobo Xue Romeiko, assistant professor of Environmental Health Sciences at University at Albany, State University of New York in the US, Paul Behrens, associate professor of energy and environmental change at Leiden University in The Netherlands and Marco Springmann, professor of climate change food systems and health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the UK, and a senior researcher at the University of Oxford.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood with sound design by Eloise Stevens. It was written by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware is the show's executive producer. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

• Our food system is at risk of crossing ‘environmental limits’ – here’s how to ease the pressure
• War in Ukraine is pushing global acute hunger to the highest level in this century
• Offering more plant-based choices on menus can speed up diet change 

In the latest episode of Discovery, an ongoing series where we explore the stories behind new research discoveries from around the world, we hear about how a Muslim celebrity footballer helped reduce Islamophobia. In this episode, Salma Mousa, assistant professor of political science at Yale University in the US, explains how she found a "Mo Salah effect" and why she's now testing how durable it is.

This episode was produced and written by Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our other producers are Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. 

More episodes of our Discovery series will be published via The Conversation Weekly every couple of weeks. 

Further reading and listening:

How to depolarise deeply divided societies – podcast

Brazil’s iconic football shirt was a symbol of Bolsonaro – here’s how the World Cup is changing that

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 we talk to three experts studying trends in youth drinking to find out why and explore the questions this raises about the way young people see themselves and their place in the world. 

Featuring Amy Pennay, research fellow at La Trobe University in Australia, Jonas Raninen, a researcher at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Emeka Dumbili a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Nigeria.

This episode was produced by Katie Flood, Dan Merino and Mend Mariwany. It was written by Katie Flood and Dan Merino. The executive producer is Gemma Ware. Eloise Stevens does our sound design and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

• Why are young people drinking less than their parents’ generation did?
• Some young Nigerians say heavy drinking is fun: controls must keep pace with culture
• Should I give my teen alcohol? Just a sip, the whole can, or none at all?

For generations, cod fishing was a way of life in Newfoundland and Labrador, the easternmost province in Canada. But in 1992, after cod stocks in the north Atlantic plummeted, the federal government imposed a moratorium on cod fishing. It was to last for 32 years until June 2024, when the government lifted the ban in a controversial decision.

In this episode we speak to Tyler Eddy, a research scientist in fisheries science at Memorial University of Newfoundland, to shed light on what’s happened. It's a story that offers a cautionary tale for those politicians trying to balance the complex demands of protecting ecosystems that also support substantial economies.

This episode was produced by Katie Flood and Gemma Ware. Sound design was 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.

• The federal government has lifted the moratorium on Northern cod fishing after 32 years
• The Atlantic: The driving force behind ocean circulation and our taste for cod
• Tiny oceanic plankton adapted to warming during the last ice age, but probably won’t survive future climate change – new study

Mental illnesses like 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. 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. 

Featuring Rachel A. Davis, a psychiatrist and researcher at University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in the US and her patient Moksha Patel, a physician and professor at the University of Colorado who has severe obsessive compulsive disorder. We also hear from Joseph J. Fins, a neuroethicist and professor of medicine at Wei Cornell Medical College, part of Cornell University in the US and Jacinta O'Shea, a neuroscientist and associate professor at the University of Oxford.

This episode was produced by Katie Flood, Dan Merino and Mend Mariwany. It was written by Katie Flood and Dan Merino. The executive producer is Gemma Ware. Eloise Stevens does our sound design and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

• Deep brain stimulation can be life-altering for OCD sufferers when other treatment options fall short
• Patients suffering with hard-to-treat depression may get relief from noninvasive magnetic brain stimulation
• Brain stimulation can rewire and heal damaged neural connections, but it isn’t clear how – research suggests personalization may be key to more effective therapies

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 in the In the third and final part of Uncharted Brain: Decoding Dementia.

Featuring Ruth Itzhaki, professor emeritus of molecular neurobiology at the University of Manchester in the UK, Dana Cairns, a postdoctoral research fellow at Tufts University in the US and Davangere P. Devanand, director of geriatric psychiatry and professor of psychiatry and neurology, Columbia University Medical Center in the US.

The series is hosted by Paul Keaveny and Gemma Ware and was initially published via The Anthill podcast from the team at The Conversation in the UK.

Uncharted Brain was produced by Tiffany Cassidy with sound design by Eloise Stevens. The executive producer is Gemma Ware. The Conversation Weekly theme music is by Neeta Sarl.

Further reading:

• My work investigating the links between viruses and Alzheimer’s disease was dismissed for years – but now the evidence is building
• We’ve been studying the same people for 76 years – this is what we’ve found out about Alzheimer’s disease
• Alzheimer’s disease: surprising new theory about what might cause it

In the second of a three-part series, Uncharted Brain: Decoding Dementia, we explore chronic traumatic encephalopathy, 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.

Featuring Matthew Smith, a senior lecturer in sport and exercise psychology at the University of Winchester in the UK and Lisa McHale, director of family relations at the Concussion Legacy Foundation.

The series is hosted by Paul Keaveny and Gemma Ware and was initially published via The Anthill podcast from the team at The Conversation in the UK.

Uncharted Brain was produced by Tiffany Cassidy with sound design by Eloise Stevens. The executive producer is Gemma Ware. The Conversation Weekly theme music is by Neeta Sarl.

Further reading:

• Sport-induced traumatic brain injury: families reveal the ‘hell’ of living with the condition
• The risk of concussion lurks at the Super Bowl – and in all other sports
• Tackling in children’s rugby must be banned to curb dementia risks

This week we're running a three-part series called Uncharted Brain: Decoding Dementia exploring new research searching for answers to how dementia works in the brain and the damage it leaves behind. 

The series is hosted by Paul Keaveny and Gemma Ware and was initially published via The Anthill podcast from the team at The Conversation in the UK.

In the first episode, we explore how a study which began just after the end of the second world war is revealing new insights into the risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease. Featuring Marcus Richards, professor of psychology in epidemiology and Jonathan Schott, professor of neurology, both at UCL in the UK and David Ward, one of the cohort study participants.

Uncharted Brain was produced by Tiffany Cassidy with sound design by Eloise Stevens. The executive producer is Gemma Ware. The Conversation Weekly theme music is by Neeta Sarl.

Further reading:

• We’ve been studying the same people for 76 years – this is what we’ve found out about Alzheimer’s disease
• Alzheimer’s disease: surprising new theory about what might cause it
• New Alzheimer’s drug slows cognitive decline – and may be available as early as next year

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. 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. 

Featuring John Kelechi Ugwuanyi, senior lecturer in archaeology and tourism at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka, Farai Chabata, visiting lecturer in heritage studies at the University of Zimbabwe and senior curator of ethnography for the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe and Aribiah David Attoe, lecturer in philosophy at the University of Witwatersrand.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood. The executive producer is Gemma Ware. Eloise Stevens does our sound design and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading

• Germany is returning Nigeria’s looted Benin Bronzes: why it’s not nearly enough
• 3D printing is helping museums in repatriation and decolonisation efforts
• ‘Restitution’ of looted African art just continues colonial policies - much more is at stake

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 we speak to a political scientist and a philosopher trying to find answers to that question. 

Featuring Jennifer Lynn McCoy, professor of political science at Georgia State University in the US and Robert B. Talisse, professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University in the US.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood. The executive producer is Gemma Ware. Eloise Stevens does our sound design and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. Read a transcript of this episode. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading and listening:

• Democratic and Republican voters both love civility – but the bipartisan appeal is partly because nobody can agree on what civility is
• Extreme political polarization weakens democracy – can the US avoid that fate?
• Brazil election: what I saw on the streets made me cautiously optimistic

Welcome to the first episode of Discovery, a new series via The Conversation Weekly where we hear the stories behind new research discoveries from around the world. In this episode, Ruth Mace, professor of anthropology at University College London in the UK, explains how her research with the families of Tibetan monks in China suggests celibacy might have some surprising evolutionary advantages. 

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. 

More episodes of our Discovery series will be published via The Conversation Weekly every couple of weeks. 

Further reading:

• Celibacy: its surprising evolutionary advantages – new research

Humans do a lot of different things to the environment, and there aren’t many natural processes that can rival the scale of changes brought on by human activity. In this episode, we speak to three experts who study different ways that human action – from radiation to pollution to urbanization – is affecting how plants and animals evolve, and how humanity has become the single biggest driver of evolutionary changes on Earth. 

Featuring Germán Orizaola, a biologist at the University of Oviedo in Spain, Andrew Whitehead, a professor of environmental toxicology at University of California, Davis in the US and Marc Johnson, a professor of biology at the University of Toronto in Canada.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and Daniel Merino and the executive producer is Gemma Ware. Eloise Stevens does our sound design and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading and listening:

• Chernobyl black frogs reveal evolution in action
• Russian capture of Ukraine’s Chornobyl nuclear plant threatens future research on radioactivity and wildlife
• To avoid humans, more wildlife now work the night shift

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, 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. 

Featuring Dave Cook, PhD candidate in anthropology at UCL in the UK, Adrián Hernández Cordero, head of sociology at Metropolitan Autonomous University in Mexico and Fabiola Mancinelli, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Barcelona in Spain.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. Read a transcript of this episode. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading and listening:

• As countries ranging from Indonesia to Mexico aim to attract digital nomads, locals say ‘not so fast’
• 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
• The great remote work experiment – what happens next? Podcast      

Soon after Jair Bolsonaro’s election as president of Brazil in 2018, he began making it a lot easier for people in the country to buy guns. In this episode, we speak to two experts about Brazil’s boom in private gun ownership and why it’s exacerbating fears about political violence ahead of a run-off presidential election on October 30. 

Featuring Erika Robb Larkins, associate professor of anthropology and director of the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University in the US and Juliano Cortinhas, professor of international relations at the University of Brasilia in Brazil.

This episode was produced by Gemma Ware and Mend Mariwany, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. Read a transcript of this episode. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading and listening:

• Brazil: inside Jair Bolsonaro’s militarised democracy – podcast 
• Bolsonaro’s first-round election bounce back reminds us why populist leaders are so popular
• Another stress test for democracy: The imminent election crisis in Brazil
• Brazil election: how the political violence of the country’s history has re-emerged

What happens when a gangster leaves their life on the street? How do they transition to something new? We find out through the life stories of two people who joined them as young men and came out the other side. 

Featuring an interview with Gaz, a former gang member in Sierra Leone, and Dennis Rodgers, a research professor at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, Switzerland who leads a global research project on gangs.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware. Sound design was 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.

• Gangs’stories: The Sierra Leonian gangster who gave up violence and drugs for poetry
• Gangs’stories : A glimpse of hard lives around the world
• From dealing drugs to selling tortillas: the surprising future of former gang members

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. 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.

Featuring Kyla Tienhaara, Canada research chair in economy and environment at Queen's University, Ontario in Canada, Emilia Onyema, reader in international commercial Law at SOAS, University of London in the UK, Lea Di Salvatore, PhD researcher at the University of Nottingham in the UK and Maria-Rita D'Orsogna, anti-oil activist and professor of mathematics at California State University, Northridge in the US.

This episode was produced by Gemma Ware and Mend Mariwany, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript is also available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

• How treaties protecting fossil fuel investors could jeopardize global efforts to save the climate – and cost countries billions
• Energy charter treaty makes climate action nearly illegal in 52 countries – so how can we leave it?
• British investors could sue Australia over climate action if UK joins trans-Pacific trade pact

As research into psychedelics and their medical uses makes a comeback, scientists are having to deal with the legacy – both scientific and social – of a 40-year near total freeze on psychedelic research. In this episode, 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.

Featuring Robin Carhart-Harris at the University of California, San Francisco in the US; Wayne Hall, at the University of Queensland in Australia; and Josjan Zijlmans at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript is also available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

• Psychedelic drugs: how to tell good research from bad
• AI maps psychedelic ‘trip’ experiences to regions of the brain – opening new route to psychiatric treatments
• Psychedelics: how they act on the brain to relieve depression

The Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica is one of many bodies of ice that are melting, but this massive glacier is uniquely important when it comes to sea level rise. In this episode we talk to three experts studying the glacier in Antarctica to find out what's happening and why it's so significant.

Featuring Yixi Zheng, a PhD candidate in Oceanography at the University of East Anglia in the UK, Ted Scambos, a senior research scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder and Paul Holland, an ocean and ice scientist at the British Antarctic Survey.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript is also available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

• Ice world: Antarctica’s riskiest glacier is under assault from below and losing its grip
• Antarctica’s ‘doomsday’ glacier: how its collapse could trigger global floods and swallow islands
• Ice shelves hold back Antarctica’s glaciers from adding to sea levels – but they’re crumbling

For thousands of years, people living in parts of the world used to high temperatures have deployed traditional passive cooling techniques in the way they design their buildings. But "modern" styles of architecture using concrete and glass often usurped local building techniques better suited to hotter climates. In this episode, we explore why that happened, and how some architects are championing traditional techniques to help keep buildings cool.

Featuring Anthony Ogbuokiri, senior lecturer in architectural design at Nottingham Trent University in the UK, Vyta Pivo, assistant professor of architecture at the University of Michigan in the US and Susan Abed Hassan, professor of architectural engineering at Al-Nahrain University in Baghdad, Iraq.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript is available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading:

• Cities like Lagos need building designs that don’t just copy global styles
• Tiny algae could help fix concrete’s dirty little climate secret – 4 innovative ways to clean up this notoriously hard to decarbonize industry
• How to keep buildings cool without air conditioning – according to an expert in sustainable design

M was a double agent during the cold war, working on the side of the west. But when the Iron Curtain fell, he felt abandoned by the secret services he risked his life for.

M's story is told by Eleni Braat, associate professor of international history at Utrecht University and Ben de Jong, research fellow at Leiden University. They've been interviewing him in depth for their research on what happens to spies when their secret service days come to an end.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced by Gemma Ware and Mend Mariwany. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here.

Further reading:

• John Le Carré: authentic spy fiction that wrote the wrongs of post-war British intelligence
• How ordinary people are convinced to become spies
• Revealed: the panic that followed the defection of the Cambridge spies

As the latest Jurassic World Dominion film hits cinemas, we’re re-running a story originally aired in 2021 about what dinosaurs really looked liked – and how scientists' understanding of their appearance keeps evolving. 

Featuring Maria McNamara, professor of palaeobiology at University College Cork in Ireland and Nicolas Campione, senior lecturer in paleaobiology at the University of New England in Australia.

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode available here.

Read a transcript of the original version of this story.

Further reading:

• Jurassic World Dominion: a palaeontologist on what the film gets wrong about dinosaurs
• Dinosaur embryo discovery: rare fossil suggests dinosaurs had similar pre-hatching posture to modern birds
• Nocturnal dinosaurs: Night vision and superb hearing in a small theropod suggest it was a moonlight predator
• The discovery of two giant dinosaur species solves the mystery of missing apex predators in North America and Asia

A little update about The Conversation Weekly podcast and what we'll be up to over the next few months.

If you've not yet completed our listener survey, we'd love to hear what you think about the show. It should take about five minutes to complete. Thank you!

India and Pakistan have been sweltering under an unprecedented heatwave, the severity of which scientists attribute to climate change. In this episode we explore how much worse heatwaves in the region could get and how farmers can prepare for it.

Featuring Alan Thomas Kennedy-Asser, a research associate in climate science at the University of Bristol in the UK, Andrew King, a senior Lecturer in climate science at the University of Melbourne in Australia and Shruti Bhogal, who's just finished working as a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Cambridge in the UK.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available shortly.

Further reading

• India heatwave: why the region should prepare for even more extreme heat in the near future 
• How to survive a heatwave 
• A climate scientist on India and Pakistan’s horror heatwave, and the surprising consequences of better air quality
• Young Indian farmers are turning to an ancient crop to fight water stress and climate change

As Australians prepare to vote in federal elections on May 21, in this episode we explore how the country’s political landscape is shifting – and why it's not looking good for Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Featuring Michelle Grattan, a professorial fellow at the University of Canberra and political correspondent for The Conversation in Australia. Grattan, who is one of Australia's most respected political journalists, also hosts the Politics with Michelle Grattan podcast for The Conversation.

We'd love to hear what you think about The Conversation Weekly. Please let us know via our listener survey, which should take about five minutes to complete. Thank you!

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here.

Further reading

• How does Australia’s voting system work?
• In a year of endless floods, why isn’t disaster governance front and centre in the election campaign?
• If the polls are right, he may soon be the next Australian prime minister. So who is Anthony Albanese?
• ‘His beating heart is a focus group’: what makes Scott Morrison tick?

We'd love to hear what you think about The Conversation Weekly. Please let us know via our listener survey, which should take about five minutes to complete. Thank you!

Parents and doctors have known about childhood ADHD – attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – for decades, but it is only recently that the medical field has started to recognise, diagnose and seriously study ADHD in adults. In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, we explore what adult ADHD looks like, how it is diagnosed today and the many new treatments available to help those with the disorder live better lives.

Featuring Laura E Knouse an associate professor of psychology a the University of Richmond in the US, and Tamara May, senior research fellow at Monash University in Australia. 

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced by Mend Mariwany. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here.

You can also read a full transcript of this episode too.

Further reading

• ADHD looks different in adults. Here are 4 signs to watch for
• Why many women with autism and ADHD aren’t diagnosed until adulthood – and what to do if you think you’re one of them
• ADHD in adults: what it’s like living with the condition – and why many still struggle to get diagnosed
• These strategies and life hacks can help anyone with ADHD, as well as those who struggle with attention problems but don’t have a diagnosis

Amid deep political polarization and extreme campaign rhetoric, the U.S. presidential election on November 5 is likely to be decided by a small number of voters in swing states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan. But why is it so close?

In this episode Naomi Schalit, senior politics editor at the The Conversation U.S., speaks to Jesse Rhodes, associate professor of political science at UMass Amherst, who has been surveying Americans on the issues that matter to them, and their concerns as the election approaches. 

This episode was produced by Katie Flood with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Sound design was 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.

• Why vote for Harris or Trump? A cheat sheet on the candidates’ records, why their supporters like them and why picking one or the other makes sense
• US voters say they’re ready for a woman president − but sexist attitudes still go along with opposition to Harris
• Yes, sexism among Republican voters helped sink Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign

We'd love to hear what you think about The Conversation Weekly. Please let us know via our listener survey, which should take about five minutes to complete. Thank you!

When war breaks out, what does it mean for a country to remain neutral? In this episode we explore the advantages and disadvantages of neutrality – and what responsibilities come with the choice not to take sides. We talk to an historian about how an age of neutrality emerged in the 19th century and what lessons it has for the war in Ukraine. And we dig down into the reasons why one country – India – has decided to remain neutral on the conflict. 

Featuring Maartje Abbenhuis, professor of history at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, and Swaran Singh, professor of diplomacy and disarmament at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced by Gemma Ware and Mend Mariwany. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. You can read a transcript on The Conversation's website.

Further reading

• Why India chose a path of ‘proactive neutrality’ on Ukraine
• What does it mean to be ‘neutral’ over Ukraine – and what responsibilities come with it?
• As Ukraine war deepens great-power divisions, a revitalized non-aligned movement could emerge
• Russia’s war with Ukraine: Five reasons why many African countries choose to be ‘neutral’
• History may explain South Africa’s refusal to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is challenging the structures of international collaboration in space. In this episode, we talk to two experts about how space is entering a new era of international competition – and whether the existing laws are ready for what comes next. 

Featuring Kuan-Wei (David) Chen, executive director of the Centre for Research in Air and Space Law at McGill University in Canada and Svetla Ben-Itzhak, assistant professor of space and international relations at Air University in the US.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced by Gemma Ware. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode available here. A transcript is also available to read.

Further reading

• Space Blocs: The future of international cooperation in space is splitting along lines of power on Earth
• Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens space co-operation, business and security
• Ukraine war: how it could play out in space – with potentially dangerous consequences
• Russian invasion of Ukraine and resulting US sanctions threaten the future of the International Space Station

How much does your cultural background influence the way you react to music? Or whether you think a piece of music sounds happy or sad? That's what George Athanasopoulos and his colleagues decided to investigate. They travelled to a remote part of northwest Pakistan to spend time with the Kalash and Kho people who live there and find out how they reacted to western music. Athanasopoulos, an ethnomusicologist at Durham University in the UK, tells us what they discovered.

This episode is an extended version of an interview first published on February 3.

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode available here.

Further reading:

• How your culture informs the emotions you feel when listening to music
• The global music community must help Afghan musicians resist a Taliban music ban