There are lots of advantages to renting rather than buying but one of the pitfalls is you have to live with your landlord's style choices. But just because you are renting does not mean you can’t adapt it to your own personal style without jeopardising your deposit. So here are some tips and advice about how to put your own flair into a temporary space. 

First of all, if you do want to make changes like painting walls, adding wallpaper or putting up shelves you need to ask for permission from your landlord. Although these can be aesthetic and useful they can also be pricey and once you move out the landlord might ask you to put things back to how they were so it is worth considering carefully if you really need or want these changes. But there are lots of things you can do without making permanent adjustments to your home. 

How can I personalise my rental home? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions!

To listen to the last episodes, you can click here:

Do penises really get bigger in the summer?

Why do we get brain freeze?

What is this new toxic trend looksmaxxing all about?

A podcast written and realised by Amber Minogue.

In partnership with upday UK.

First broadcast: 09/03/2023

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Many men feel self-conscious about the size of their penis, and it’s often down to constant comparisons with other men, driven by pornography.

Interestingly, some men have noticed that their penis appears bigger during warmer weather, and online discussions of this have led to the phenomenon becoming known as "summer penis."

Is there any basis to those claims though? Just how much bigger can it get then? What determines penis size? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions!

To listen to the last episodes, you can click here:

How can social media exposure lead to vicarious trauma?

Why is laughing contagious?

How does the Matthew Effect help us understand class inequalities?

A podcast written and realised by Joseph Chance.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream” goes the popular tongue twister, based on a song written in the 1920s by American musicians Howard Johnson, Billy Moll, and Robert A. King.

And ice cream is indeed the perfect cold treat for a hot summer’s day, isn’t it? Except when it gets too cold! Sometimes, with the very first mouthful, the sudden chill of brain freeze rushes to your head, causing a sharp pain that lasts a few seconds. Brain freeze is also known as “ice cream headache” because that’s usually what causes it, but it can also come on when drinking chilled beverages.

It sure makes for an uncomfortable few seconds, doesn’t it?! Do you have any tips to prevent brain freeze? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions!

To listen to the last episodes, you can click here:

How can social media exposure lead to vicarious trauma?

Why is laughing contagious?

How does the Matthew Effect help us understand class inequalities?

A podcast written and realised by Joseph Chance.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Beauty standards evolve over time, often influenced by social media. While beauty is typically associated with femininity, men are also subject to these pressures. Enter looksmaxxing, a new trend on TikTok where men strive to meet certain beauty standards, often to dangerous extremes. This trend, which borders on the masculinist movement, involves men doing everything they can to enhance their physical appearance by idealizing specific criteria.

Looksmaxxers aim for a square jawline, ultra-defined facial features, and sculpted muscles. According to looksmaxxing standards, male beauty is purely objective: jaw shape, muscle definition, and beard care are all crucial. This ideal is often linked to high testosterone levels. 

What does this mean? How did looksmaxxing start? What does looksmaxxing say is the ideal male? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions!

To listen to the last episodes, you can click here:

Why are some people clumsier than others?

What is Quantum medicine and is it a scam?

How to follow the beach flag system?

A podcast written and realised by Amber Minogue.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brits have just experienced the hottest June on record, according to the Met Office. The average mean temperature across the UK was 15.8°C, nearly a full degree higher than the previous record.

July is also expected to be hotter than average, and a heatwave isn’t out of the question. So it’s important to be prepared for high temperatures, especially at home.

What is the ideal temperature to have at home? When should I be airing my home during hot spells? Are there any other tips ? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions!

To listen to the last episodes, you can click here:

How can social media exposure lead to vicarious trauma?

Why is laughing contagious?

How does the Matthew Effect help us understand class inequalities?

A podcast written and realised by Joseph Chance.

First broadcast: 12/07/2023

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever found yourself laughing at a completely inappropriate moment? If so, you know just how embarrassing it can be. And it gets even worse when you make eye contact with someone else and they start laughing too. It then becomes twice as hard to stop.

Much like a strong flu, a powerful and genuine laugh can quickly spread to an entire group! When someone starts laughing spontaneously, their joy can be infectious, causing everyone at the table to laugh, sometimes without even knowing what started it.

Is there really a physical explanation behind it? It just always seems to happen at the worst times, doesn’t it? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions!

To listen to the last episodes, you can click here:

Why are some people clumsier than others?

What is Quantum medicine and is it a scam?

How to follow the beach flag system?

A podcast written and realised by Joseph Chance.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Social media has been part of our daily digital lives for nearly two decades now, and while there are plenty of positives associated with it, there’s also an undeniably dark side.

Recent years have brought to light the sometimes traumatic work experience of social media moderators who have to review content that’s flagged as potentially harmful or offensive. Back in 2018, German directors Hans Block and Moritz Riesewick released a documentary called The Cleaners, which looked into just that and would go on to win several awards. 

Where did the concept come from? What if you don't work in a high-exposure field? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions!

To listen to the last episodes, you can click here:

Why are some people clumsier than others?

What is Quantum medicine and is it a scam?

How to follow the beach flag system?

A podcast written and realised by Joseph Chance.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“The rich get richer and the poor get poorer”, the saying goes. And there’s actually a name for that phenomenon: the Matthew Effect. The term was first coined by sociologists Robert K. Merton and Harriet Zuckerman in 1968, in relation to how “already eminent scientists were given disproportionate credit in cases of collaboration or of independent multiple discoveries.”

In other words, if a group of scientists made a discovery together, with equal input, the most famous one would tend to get the most credit. Unfair, right? But sadly true! The Matthew Effect was not limited to scientific citations. Other researchers found that it also applied to wealth and status in society.

Where does the Matthew part come from? How do rich people get richer? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions!

To listen to the last episodes, you can click here:

Why are some people clumsier than others?

What is Quantum medicine and is it a scam?

How to follow the beach flag system?

A podcast written and realised by Joseph Chance.

First broadcast: 10/05/2023

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Musculoskeletal disorders, like back pain and arthritis, are recognized as occupational diseases in Western countries which have a large office workforce. The UK’s Health and Safety Executive lists some of the causes of these disorders as repetitive work, particularly using the same hand or arm action, carrying out a task for a long time and working with display screen equipment.

Pain or stiffness in the muscles, tendons, nerves, back, wrists or neck can appear little by little when certain office equipment is missing, or not set up correctly. Let’s discuss some tips that can improve office posture.

What about my office chair? Is there a right way to sit in front of your computer? What about the rest of my equipment? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions !

To listen to the last episodes, you can click here:

Should you really drink hot drinks when it’s hot?

Could insects replace meat?

How can I stop my plants from dying?

A podcast written and realised by Joseph Chance.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

According to The Telegraph, Brits eat an average of 220g of meat per day, which is almost double the global average. And agriculture is responsible for 12% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions according to government figures from 2022. 

So it’s clear that our food consumption can have a real impact on the environment. While red meat is often labelled as the worst offender environmentally, in reality things aren’t quite so simple.

Can we agree on exactly what types of meat we mean when we say "red meat"? Do all red meats have the same environmental impact? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions!

To listen to the last episodes, you can click here:

Why are some people clumsier than others?

What is Quantum medicine and is it a scam?

How to follow the beach flag system?

A podcast written and realised by Joseph Chance.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices