The Conversation Weekly

Dating apps are having a rocky moment, with some of the biggest struggling to attract paying users. In this episode, we hear from researchers exploring how dating apps have changed modern dating and the expectations around it. And we find out why some dating app users aren’t actually there looking for love, but keep on swiping anyway.

Featuring Treena Orchard, associate professor at the School of Health Studies at Western Univer...

In the second of two episodes on geoengineering, we hear the case against trying to reflect sunlight to cool the Earth.

Solar radiation modification has attracted attention and investment in recent years as a way to potential reverse the effects of climate change, but it remains a controversial idea.

We hear from researchers pushing a non-use agreement for solar geoengineering who explain why they believe these types of techn...

Geoengineering, the modification of the climate using technological interventions to reverse climate change, is a hugely divisive issue and we’ve decided to explore it in two episodes.

In this first episode, we talk to scientists working on potential geoengineering technologies who argue the case for conducting research into these interventions. We speak to Shaun Fitzgerald, director of the Centre for Climate Repair at the Univ...

As we take a short production break in August, we're re-running an episode from 2023 about Neanderthals, and what new discoveries about their research could tell us about Homo Sapiens.

For generations, Neanderthals have been a source of fascination for scientists. This species of ancient hominim inhabited the world for around 500,000 years until they suddenly disappeared 42,000 years ago. Today, the cause of their extinction re...

As The Conversation Weekly takes a short production break in August, we're bringing you a recent episode from our partners at the Borders and Belonging podcast about Japan’s evolving stance on immigration.

With a rapidly ageing population and a shrinking workforce, Japan is facing an unprecedented crisis: by 2030, it's projected to have a shortfall of nearly 6.4 million workers. But despite Japan’s reputation for being closed of...

A chance to hear an episode from the first season of The Conversation's Curious Kids, a new podcast where kids from around the world get to ask their questions direct to experts.

In this episode: do you think your dog is the cutest thing you've ever seen? Ten-year-old Grace does! But why? She joins our host Eloise and psychologist Deborah Wells from Queen's University Belfast to find out!

You can read an article of this...

Momentum is growing against clauses in investment treaties that permit companies to sue a state if it decides to keep fossil fuels in the ground. In this episode, we revisit the secretive world of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), which some experts are worried could jeopardise global efforts to save the climate and cost countries billions of dollars in the process.

Kyla Tienhaara, Canada research chair in economy and e...

Chronic pain affects hundreds of millions of people around the world. But the opioid crisis in North America led many health care providers to realize they relied too heavily on drugs to help patients manage their pain.

In this episode, a pain management specialist discusses new developments in pain treatment and why there’s hope for patients with chronic pain. Rachael Rzasa Lynn Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, University...

Across the world, fans will soon be tuning in at all hours of the day and night to watch the Paris Olympics. In a world where on-demand media streaming is now increasingly the norm, sport is something of a rarity. It’s watched live, often with other people.

Can something as simple as watching a sporting competition at the same time bring people closer together? In this episode, we explore this question with a Garriy Shteynberg ...

A few days after Labour leader Keir Starmer was elected British prime minister on July 4 with a landslide victory, ending 14 years of Conservative-led rule, a coalition of left-wing parties came out on top in the French legislative elections. It was a good week for the left in this corner of Europe.

In this episode, we’ve brought together an expert from each country to help analyse the results and what they tell us about the...

Seagrass, a marine plant that flowers underwater, has lots of environmental benefits – from storing carbon to preventing coastal erosion. In this episode, we speak to Isabel Key, a marine ecologist at the University of Edinburgh in the UK, about her work recording the soundscape of Scottish seagrass meadows to uncover more about the creatures living within them.

She also explains how this is the first step in the development of ...

We’re bringing you an extra episode this week from Don’t Call Me Resilient, another podcast from The Conversation. Hosted by Vinita Srivastava at The Conversation in Canada, Don’t Call Me Resilient is your weekly dose of news and current events through a sharply-focused anti-racist lens.

In this episode Vinita talks to Nisrin Elamin about the ongoing war in Sudan, which has displaced more than 10m people. Elamin, an assista...

3D-printed guns are now appearing the world over, including in the hands of organised criminals in Europe and anti-junta rebels in Myanmar. Made using a 3D printer and a few metal parts that can be easily sourced online, these shadow guns are untraceable, and becoming a popular choice for extremists too. 

In this episode, we talk to researcher Rajan Basra at King's College London about this clandestine world, and about his ...

A controversial British government plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda has been central to the UK’s response to a recent sharp increase in the number of people making the dangerous journey across the English Channel in small boats. But if the Conservative party lose the general election in early July, the Rwanda plan is likely to be abandoned.

In this episode, two experts in UK immigration policy explain how the Rwanda plan be...

It’s one of the biggest puzzles in cosmology. Why two different methods used to calculate the rate at which the universe is expanding don’t produce the same result. Known as the Hubble tension, the enigma suggests that there could be something wrong with the standard model of cosmology used to explain the forces in the universe. Now, recent observations using the new James Webb Space Telescope are shaking up the debate on how close...

If you’ve ever experienced a state of creative flow, perhaps when writing, playing music, or even gardening, you’ll know that it feels like everything just clicks into place. But what is actually happening inside the brain? In this episode, we speak to a neuroscientist who scanned the brains of jazz musicians as they were improvising, and revealed the secret ingredients need to achieve a state of flow. 

Featuring John Kouni...

Snake bites kill tens of thousands of people around the world each year. But we still use techniques invented in the late 19th century to make antivenom, and each bite needs to be treated with antivenom for that specific type of snake.

We hear from two scientists whose recent breakthroughs – and failures – could save many more lives and help achieve the holy grail: a universal antivenom. Featuring Stuart Ainsworth, senior lectur...

After six weeks of voting in the world’s largest democracy, on June 4, Indians will learn who is to be their next prime minister. Narendra Modi, standing for a third term, is the frontrunner. Critics of Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party argue that India’s democracy has been hollowed out during his premiership. Thousands of Indians have taken to the streets to protest against Modi’s policies.

For Indrajit Roy, professor of glob...

A growing number of countries now permit some form of assisted dying and politicians in a number of others, including Ireland, Scotland and France, are now seriously debating it.

In Canada, where medical assistance in dying, known as MAID, became legal in 2016, the government intends to extend eligibility to people whose sole reason for ending their life is mental illness. But the planned expansion, now twice delayed, is controv...