Eavesdrop on Experts

Workplace bullying. Chances are we’ve all seen or experienced it at least once in our lives. From the extreme of sexual or physical assault, to the subtler eye-rolls that exist in the ‘grey area’ of bullying.

Dr Victor Sojo, a lecturer and Research Fellow at the Centre for Workplace Leadership at the University of Melbourne, says all these negative behaviours can lead to a toxic work environment and, as a result, impact on productivity.

“At the most basic level within organisations, people need to make rules clear about what behaviour is acceptable and what behaviour is not acceptable,” he says.

And the #MeToo movement is increasingly defining what’s not acceptable. Dr Sojo says that’s giving people who have been feeling marginalised, disrespected and abused the opportunity to speak up.

“We need more women in positions of power so that they could actually have a voice about how we are going to manage the situation. This is very important, because right now, I’m a guy talking about this.”

Episode recorded: December 21, 2018.

Interviewer: Louise Bennet.

Producer and editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-production: Silvi Vann-Wall and Dr Andi Horvath.

Banner: Shutterstock.

When we talk about bushfires in Australia, we talk about the devastation. But Professor Cristina Montiel Molina from the Complutense University of Madrid says we need to re-think that.

“We don’t consider fire a natural element in our lives, but it’s a part of landscape,” says Professor Molina. “We don’t really know how to live with fire.”

In fact, Professor Molina says that mega fires we’ve experienced in Europe, Australia, Chile and California in recent years are our own fault - as result of poor decisions around spatial planning, land management and fire policies. And, in order to manage the risk posed by fire, we have to change our attitude.

Episode recorded: December 19, 2018.

Interviewer: Steve Grimwade.

Producer and editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-production: Silvi Vann-Wall and Dr Andi Horvath.

Banner image: Shutterstock.

The Australian city of Melbourne has been voted the world’s most liveable city numerous times - but does that status make those of us who live here complacent about the city’s long-term future?

Professor Lars Coenen is the inaugural City of Melbourne Chair of Resilient Cities - an initiative between the City of Melbourne and University of Melbourne. The aim is to strengthen the city’s resilience in the face of sustainability challenges like global warming. But key to creating a sustainable city is innovation, done in a purposeful way that contributes to our societies, cities and our regions. And that, says Professor Coenen, is where Australia needs to raise its game.

Episode recorded: November 29, 2018.

Interviewer: Steve Grimwade.

Producer and editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-production: Dr Andi Horvath and Silvi Vann-Wall.

Banner image: Shutterstock.

Professor Roy Robins-Browne, renowned vaccinologist who retired from the University of Melbourne late last year, and Professor Myron (Mike) Levine, a microbiologist from University of Maryland are “scientific soulmates”.

The two met in 1979, when Professor Robins-Browne’s interest in the varieties of E. coli that cause diarrhoea took him to the Center for Vaccine Development of the University of Maryland in Baltimore. At this time, Professor Levine was working in developing countries on the epidemiology, treatment and prevention of infectious diseases.

Both believed this disease was caused by a pathogen - they just had to convince the rest of the world.

Episode recorded: November 19, 2018.

Interviewer: Dr Andi Horvath.

Producer and editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-production: Dr Andi Horvath and Silvi Vann-Wall.

Banner image: Shutterstock.

The Justice For LB campaign, which was launched following the death of 33-year-old Connor Sparrowhawk in a British residential unit, has made the issue of preventable deaths among people with an intellectual disability more visible. It’s an issue that can be solved; and that it’s time to start addressing it, say researchers and campaigners. Dr Andi Horvath chats with prominent UK campaigners Dr George Julian and Chris Hatton about what needs to change.

For more information about Connor Sparrowhawk and the Justice For LB campaign, visit justiceforlb.org

Episode recorded: November 12, 2018.

Interviewer: Andi Horvath.

Producer and editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-production: Dr Andi Horvath and Silvi Vann-Wall.

Banner image: Shutterstock.

A farm labourer and builder’s mate in England, a porter in Scotland, a new immigrant in Israel; Professor Nigel Rapport’s fieldwork has offered him opportunities to explore the precious reality of human individuality in a wide range of circumstances.

Episode recorded: October 18, 2018.

Interviewer: Steve Grimwade.

Producer and editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-production: Dr Andi Horvath and Silvi Vann-Wall.

Banner image: Jeremy Bishop/Unsplash.

Biologist Professor Randy Schekman received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2013, along with colleagues, for his work on cell membrane vesicle trafficking - a major transport system within our cells. A passionate advocate of the scientific method and open-access journals, Professor Schekman argues that science needs to be vocally defended now, more than ever.

Episode recorded: September 19, 2018.

Interviewer: Dr Andi Horvath.

Producer and editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-production: Dr Andi Horvath and Silvi Vann-Wall.

Banner image: Shutterstock

“Just being able to say beautiful words, to put beautiful words together, is a way of moving through time and living your life and holding onto your life more valuably.”

Professor David Mason, former Poet Laureate of Colorado, on why poetry is so ubiquitous and important.

Episode recorded: September 17, 2018.

Interviewer: Dr Andi Horvath.

Producer and editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-production: Dr Andi Horvath and Silvi Vann-Wall.

Banner image: Taylor Ann Wright.

Politics in the digital age is increasingly being shaped by tech-savvy activists; the Edward Snowdens and Julian Assanges of the world. But it’s when these ‘nerds’ join with others that true change happens - like Spain’s Indignados movement becoming a force in the country’s mainstream political system. Dr John Postill discusses his new book The Rise of Nerd Politics in this new episode of Eavesdrop on Experts.

Episode recorded: September 4, 2018.

Interviewer: Steve Grimwade.

Producer and editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-production: Dr Andi Horvath and Silvi Vann-Wall.

Banner image: Getty Images.

“If you knock on a door and it doesn’t open, keep knocking. It’s persistence that gets results in journalism.”

The Boston Globe’s Editor At Large, Walter V Robinson, was famously immortalised by Michael Keaton in the Oscar-winning movie Spotlight, about his team of investigative reporters that lifted the lid on institutional child sexual abuse in Boston’s Catholic Church. Here he discusses the importance of investigative reporting, and the challenges it faces today.

Episode recorded: June 1, 2018.

Interviewer: Louise Bennet.

Audio engineering: Arch Cuthbertson.

Producer and editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-production: Dr Andi Horvath and Silvi Vann-Wall.

Banner image: Front page of the Sunday Boston Globe on May 8, 2016, featuring details of abuse at a private school in New England. Picture: Getty Images.