The Conversation Weekly

The Conversation

A show for curious minds, from The Conversation. Each week, host Gemma Ware speaks to an academic expert about a topic in the news to understand how we got here.

Subscribe Listen in podnod RSS feed Show website

288 episodes
Updated Thursday

Episodes288

Newest first

Feb 24, 2025 · 38 min
Scam Factories Ep 2: Inside the operation
A few weeks after Ben Yeo travelled to Cambodia for what he thought was a job in a casino, he found himself locked up in a padded room. “It’s a combination between a prison and a madhouse,” he remembers. He was being punished for refusing to conduct online scams. Scam Factories is a podcast and multimedia series taking you inside Southeast Asia's brutal fraud compounds. The Conversation collaborated for this series with three researchers: Ivan Franceschini, a lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Melbourne, Ling Li, a PhD candidate at Ca' Foscari University of Venice, and Mark Bo, an independent researcher. In the second episode, Inside the Operation, we explore the history of how scam compounds emerged in Southeast Asia and who is behind them. We hear about the violent treatment people receive inside through the testimonies of two survivors, Ben, and another man we're calling George to protect his real identity. The podcast series was written and produced by Gemma Ware with production assistance from Katie Flood and Mend Mariwany. Sound design by Michelle Macklem. Leila Goldstein was our producer in Cambodia and Halima Athumani recorded for us in Uganda. Hui Lin helped us with Chinese translation. Editing help from Justin Bergman and Ashlynee McGhee. Rise of an industry: part 2 of Scam Factories Locked in: the inside story of Southeast Asia's fraud compounds
Feb 23, 2025 · 32 min
Scam Factories Ep 1: No skills required
Scam factories is a special three-part series taking you inside Southeast Asia's brutal fraud compounds. Hundreds of thousands of people are estimated to work in these scam factories. Many were trafficked there and forced into criminality by defrauding people around the world. The Conversation collaborated for this series with three researchers: Ivan Franceschini, a lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Melbourne, Ling Li, a PhD candidate at Ca' Foscari University of Venice, and Mark Bo, an independent researcher. In episode 1, our researchers travel to a village in Cambodia called Chrey Thom to see what these compounds look like. And we hear from two survivors about how they were recruited into compounds in Laos and Myanmar. The podcast series was written and produced by Gemma Ware with production assistance from Katie Flood and Mend Mariwany. Sound design by Michelle Macklem. Leila Goldstein was our producer in Cambodia and Halima Athumani recorded for us in Uganda. Hui Lin helped us with Chinese translation. Editing help from Justin Bergman and Ashlynee McGhee. Locked in: the inside story of Southeast Asia's fraud compounds
Feb 20, 2025 · 29 min
Tariffs: the winners and losers
As the Trump administration ratchets up its threat to slap tariffs on allies and economic rivals alike, the world is bracing for another wave of costly economic disruption. This protectionist shift is all the more remarkable given how the US championed trade liberalisation for decades. So what does it actually take for a country to use protectionism to grow its economy? Some developing countries have successfully used tariffs to do so, while others have struggled. In this episode, we talk to Jostein Hauge, a development economist at the University of Cambridge in the UK, about who wins and who loses from tariffs and protectionism. 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. Further reading: How protectionism can help developing countries unlock their economic potential Tariffs are back in the spotlight, but skepticism of free trade has deep roots in American history Trump’s tariff gambit: As allies prepare to strike back, a costly trade war looms Will Trump’s tariffs boost the US economy? Don’t count on it
Feb 13, 2025 · 27 min
How does decentralised social media work?
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. Further reading: 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
Feb 6, 2025 · 36 min
Where support for Germany’s far-right AFD is growing and why
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. Further reading: 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
Jan 30, 2025 · 30 min
How close are quantum computers to being really useful?
Quantum computers have the potential to solve big scientific problems that are beyond the reach of today’s most powerful supercomputers, such as discovering new antibiotics or developing new materials. But to achieve these breakthroughs, quantum computers will need to perform better than today’s best classical computers at solving real-world problems. And they’re not quite there yet. So what is still holding quantum computing back from becoming useful? We speak to quantum computing expert Daniel Lidar at the University of Southern California in the US about what problems scientists are still wrestling with when it comes to scaling up quantum computing, and how close they are to overcoming them. This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware and Katie Flood with production assistance from Mend Mariwany and sound design by Michelle Macklem. 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: What is quantum advantage? A quantum computing scientist explains an approaching milestone marking the arrival of extremely powerful computers We’re getting closer to having practical quantum computers – here’s what they will be used for Quantum computers are like kaleidoscopes − why unusual metaphors help illustrate science and technology
Jan 23, 2025 · 23 min
A wildfire warning from California's Ice Age past
Firefighters in Los Angeles continue to battle devastating wildfires that have killed at least 27 people and left thousands of homes destroyed. Today, we’re revisiting an interview we ran in late 2023 with Emily Lindsey, a paleoecologist who works at the La Brea tar pits archaeological site in Los Angeles, about a wildfire warning from southern California’s ice age history. The interview originally aired in November 2023. This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens and Michelle Macklem. 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: Human use of fire has produced an era of uncontrolled burning: Welcome to the Pyrocene A changing climate, growing human populations and widespread fires contributed to the last major extinction event − can we prevent another? How Santa Ana winds fueled the deadly fires in Southern California
Jan 16, 2025 · 32 min
Silicon Valley’s bet on a future of AI-enabled warfare
From Gaza to Ukraine, today’s war zones are being used as testing grounds for new systems driven by artificial intelligence. Billions of dollars are now being pumped into AI weapons technology, much of it from Silicon Valley venture capitalists. In this episode, we speak to Elke Schwarz, a reader in political theory at Queen Mary University of London in the UK who studies the ethics of autonomous weapons systems, about what this influx of new investment means for the future of warfare. This episode was written and produced by 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 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: The Silicon Valley venture capitalists who want to ‘move fast and break things’ in the defence industry Gaza war: Israel using AI to identify human targets raising fears that innocents are being caught in the net War in Ukraine accelerates global drive toward killer robots
Jan 9, 2025 · 29 min
How the world fell in love with plastic without thinking through the consequences
Every year, 400 million tons of plastic are produced worldwide, and every year, approximately 57 million tons of plastic waste is created. And yet in November, the latest round of negotiations to agree the first legally binding international treaty on plastics pollution collapsed. So what can we really do about the plastics pollution problem? In this episode we sat down with Mark Miodowonik, professor of materials and society at UCL in the UK, to understand the history of plastic, how it’s shaped our lives, and what can be done to make sure more plastic is recycled and less ends up polluting the planet. This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood 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 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: Can you trust companies that say their plastic products are recyclable? US regulators may crack down on deceptive claims The plastic recycling system is broken – here’s how we can fix it If plastic manufacturing goes up 10%, plastic pollution goes up 10% – and we’re set for a huge surge in production Time is running out for a treaty to end plastic pollution – here’s why it matters
Jan 2, 2025 · 37 min
Brain implants, agentic AI and answers on dark matter: what to expect from science in 2025
In a special episode to start 2025, we’ve brought together three science editors from The Conversation’s editions around the world to discuss what to look out for in the world of science and technology in the coming year. Host Gemma Ware is joined by Paul Rincon from The Conversation in the UK, Elsa Couderc from The Conversation in France and Signe Dean from The Conversation in Australia. This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware and Katie Flood with sound design by Michelle Macklem. 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 and listening Has Nasa found evidence of ancient life on Mars? An expert examines the latest discovery Several companies are testing brain implants – why is there so much attention swirling around Neuralink? Two professors unpack the ethical issues Nuclear fusion record broken – what will it take to start generating electricity? Podcast Quantum computers are like kaleidoscopes − why unusual metaphors help illustrate science and technology
Dec 19, 2024 · 26 min
How Zimbabwe reached the point of abolishing the death penalty
Zimbabwe is on the cusp of abolishing the death penalty after its Death Penalty Abolition Bill was approved by the senate on December 12. The bill is now sitting on the desk of Zimbabwe’s president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, a known opponent of the death penalty, waiting for his assent. In this episode, we speak to two experts on the death penalty, Carolyn Hoyle and Parvais Jabbar from the University of Oxford's Death Penalty Research Unit, who explain how Zimbabwe got here and what abolition means for both the country, and the continent. This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware and Mend Mariwany with sound design by Michelle Macklem. 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 Zimbabwe’s likely to abolish the death penalty: how it got here and what it means for the continent Kenyan prisoners on death row weren’t deterred by the threat of the death penalty: new research findings Why the death penalty is losing favour in sub-Saharan Africa
Dec 12, 2024 · 27 min
Why distrust in powerful politicians is part of a functioning democracy
Surveys suggest that in many western democracies, political trust is at rock bottom. But is it really such a bad thing for people living in a democracy to distrust their government? In this episode, we talk to political scientist Grant Duncan, visiting scholar in politics at City St George's, University of London, about why he thinks a certain level of distrust and scepticism of powerful politicians is actually healthy for democracy. And about how populists, like Donald Trump, manage to use people’s distrust in political elites to their advantage. This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware, Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood with sound design by Michelle Macklem. 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 Don’t trust politicians? That may not be such a bad thing Why people vote for politicians they know are liars Trusting societies are overall happier – a happiness expert explains why
Dec 5, 2024 · 26 min
How do animals understand death?
An orca that pulled along the corpse of its baby for 17 days. An opposum that plays dead to fool predators. And a chimpanzee that cleaned the teeth of its dead baby. Observations of behaviours like these suggest animals have a complex relationship with death. In this week’s episode, we speak to Susana Monsó, an associate professor of philosophy at the National Distance Education University in Madrid, Spain, about the different ways animals understand death. 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. Further reading Los animales entienden la muerte más de lo que se pensaba What the grieving mother orca tells us about how animals experience death Elephant calves have been found buried – what does that mean?
Nov 28, 2024 · 32 min
The story of one Amazon warehouse in the UK that pushed to unionise
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. Further reading: 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
Nov 21, 2024 · 27 min
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 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
Nov 14, 2024 · 25 min
The controversy over cod fishing in Canada
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. Further reading: 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
Nov 7, 2024 · 31 min
Gangsters who leave their gang behind for something new
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. Further reading: 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
Oct 31, 2024 · 32 min
What is motivating Americans as they decide who to vote for
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. Further reading: 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
Oct 24, 2024 · 21 min
Origins of South Australia’s mysterious pink sands revealed
Take a walk along a beach in parts of South Australia, and you may come across unusual patches of pink sand. When a team of geologists began analysing samples of this mysterious sand to find out where it comes from, their search took them back through time to a previously undiscovered mountain range in Antarctica. In this episode Sharmaine Verhaert, a PhD candidate in earth sciences at the University of Adelaide, explains how the discovery was made. This episode was produced by Gemma Ware, Katie Flood and 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. Further reading: South Australia’s enigmatic pink sand was born in ice-covered Antarctic mountains, new research shows Australian amber has revealed ‘living fossils’ traced back to Gondwana 42 million years ago The Anthropocene epoch that isn’t – what the decision not to label a new geological epoch means for Earth’s future
Oct 17, 2024 · 24 min
MicroRNA: Victor Ambros on the discovery that won him the Nobel prize
Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun were awarded the 2024 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for their discovery of microRNA, tiny biological molecules that tell the cells in our body what kind of cell to be by turning on and off certain genes. In this episode, we speak to Ambros, who is professor of natural sciences at UMass Chan Medical School in the US, about the discovery that led to his Nobel prize and find out what he’s researching now. And we hear from Justin Stebbing, professor of biomedical sciences at Anglia Ruskin University in the UK, about how a deeper understanding of microRNA is opening up new avenues for potential treatment of diseases such as cancer. This episode was produced by Gemma Ware, Katie Flood and 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. Further reading: MicroRNA − a new Nobel laureate describes the scientific process of discovering these tiny molecules that turn genes on and off MicroRNA is the Nobel-winning master regulator of the genome – researchers are learning to treat disease by harnessing how it controls genes Nobel prize in medicine awarded for discovery of microRNAs, the molecules that control our genes Full coverage of the 2024 Nobel prizes on The Conversation