Full Story

In Guardian Australia’s new weekly podcast, lifestyle editor Alyx Gorman, culture editor Steph Harmon and editorial assistant Michael Sun tackle the infinite scroll of the internet – and bring you the best of their tabs. In episode one, ‘real life influencer’ Flex phones in to explain how #sponcon is creeping into our everyday – and Harmon and Gorman subject Sun to a gentle Succession-themed quiz

Over the next fortnight millions of kids in Victoria and NSW are returning to school early, after both states hit their 70% double-dose target ahead of schedule. However, with Covid-19 still spreading in both states, and Victoria recently experiencing record-high case numbers, some teachers and parents say schools aren’t ready to reopen. Jane Lee speaks to reporter Cait Kelly and a primary school teacher in Victoria about the risks of returning to school, and what’s being done to make sure classrooms are safe

In mid-August, as the Taliban took Kabul and thousands of desperate Afghans attempted to flee the country, the international sporting community became particularly worried about one group of athletes – the women’s national football team. Known worldwide as activists and symbols for equality, their lives were suddenly in danger. Audio producer Ellen Leabeater speaks to the global team of activists, lawyers, politicians and footballers who banded together to evacuate the athletes and bring them to Australia.

Australia’s Covid-19 vaccination certificates can be displayed digitally on a series of apps, developed by both state and federal governments. However experts claim they’re able to hack into these apps and fake these certificates – all in under 10 minutes. Laura Murphy-Oates speaks to software engineer Richard Nelson and reporter Josh Taylor about the key flaw that’s undermining this whole system

Scientists treating depression and a range of other mental illnesses have been running controlled trials using MDMA and psychedelic drugs such as LSD, and the results have been encouraging. Dr Robin Carhart Harris, head the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London, discusses his work showing how psilocybin (or magic mushrooms) can be used to assist psychotherapy for difficult-to-treat depression. Dr Rachel Yehuda, director of the Center for Psychedelic Psychotherapy and Trauma Research at Mount Sinai school of medicine in New York, discusses her success in trials using MDMA as a treatment for PTSD

In the final episode of our three-part series, we speak to Pacific politicians fighting it out with much larger, wealthier and more heavily polluting countries on the world stage; Pacific leaders facing the gargantuan task of attempting to relocate entire villages, infrastructure and even burial grounds as communities are threatened; and legal experts about what options Pacific countries have for compensation, to find out what the future is for the Pacific in the face of the climate crisis. An impossible choice: when climate change arrives at your door – podcast episode 1 An impossible choice: leave your island or fight to stay? – podcast episode 2 In Samoa we are born into land, climate change threatens to take it away from us ‘My father will go down like the captain of the Titanic’: life on the Pacific’s disappearing islands

In the second part of our special podcast series, we travel across the Pacific to islands in Papua New Guinea where people are being forced to leave due to rising sea levels, and to the tiny nation of Tuvalu where people are fighting to remain. We speak to islanders who have been forced to make devastating decisions due to a climate crisis not of their making ‘My father will go down like the captain of the Titanic’: life on the Pacific’s disappearing islands An impossible choice: when climate change arrives at your door – podcast episode 1 An impossible choice: what does the world owe the Pacific? – podcast episode 3 In Samoa we are born into land, climate change threatens to take it away from us

In the first episode of this three-part series, we look at how families, communities and Pacific leaders are facing huge decisions about the future of their islands and trying to figure out if they can stay on their land – land that defines their identity, on which their ancestors are buried – or whether they’ll be forced to leave In Samoa we are born into land – climate change threatens to take it away from us An impossible choice: leave your island or fight to stay? – podcast episode 2 An impossible choice: what does the world owe the Pacific? – podcast episode 3 ‘My father will go down like the captain of the Titanic’: life on the Pacific’s disappearing islands

In the first week of October, China flew warplanes into Taiwan’s air defence zone more than 100 times, leading Taiwanese officials to say tensions were at their worst in 40 years. Subsequently, Australia’s former prime minister Tony Abbott arrived in Taipei and delivered a controversial speech which China’s embassy in Canberra labelled a ‘despicable and insane performance’. Laura Murphy-Oates speaks to foreign affairs and defence correspondent Daniel Hurst about why Abbott went to Taiwan, and what this moment means for Australia’s approach to conflict in the Indo-Pacific

As the world begins to move away from coal, with more countries vowing to be coal-free by 2030, Australia stands in stark contrast. The federal environment minister Sussan Ley recently approved four new coal projects in one month. This is despite a recent federal court ruling that the minister has a duty to protect children from the climate crisis. Laura Murphy-Oates speaks to barrister Chris McGrath and environment reporter Lisa Cox about how and why these coal projects were approved – and the future of Australia’s relationship with coal