The Conversation Weekly

A rare and ancient plant has been waiting for its long-lost mate. The only known specimens of Encephalartos woodii, a rare and ancient species of cycad, are male, all clones of the same plant found over 100 years ago deep in a South African forest. Now a team of researchers is on a mission to find an elusive female version of the plant with the help of drones and artificial intelligence. 

In this episode we speak to Laura Cinti, a research fellow at the University of Southampton in the UK, about her determined quest to save the species – called the world's "loneliest" plant. 

The story in this episode came out of our series Plant Curious, exploring scientific studies that challenge the way you view plantlife. The episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with assistance from Katie Flood 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. A transcript is also available.

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.

• Searching for a female partner for the world’s ‘loneliest’ plant
• The silent conversations of plants
• Climate mapping can point to danger spots where new pest threatens Africa’s cycads 
• Thirsty tomatoes emit ultrasonic sounds – and other plants may be listening

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An epidemic of mpox in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, is spreading quickly, particularly among young children. Mpox is a serious, at times fatal, virus – and the world knows how to prevent it. There are effective vaccines stockpiled in many western countries. Yet, after an earlier global epidemic in 2022 was largely brought under control in Europe and North America, the ongoing battle to protect people in Africa from mpox was ignored.

In this episode we ask a virologist and a paediatrician why Africa's mpox crisis was so neglected and what needs to happen now to save lives, particularly children's. 

Featuring Nadia Adjoa Sam-Agudu, professor of paediatric infectious diseases at the University of Minnesota in the US and Wolfgang Preiser, head of the division of medical virology at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, with an introduction from Nadine Dreyer, health and medicine editor at The Conversation Africa.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with assistance from Katie Flood 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.

• Mpox in the DRC: children are at high risk – health expert explains why
• Mpox outbreak in Africa was neglected – it could now turn into the next global pandemic
• Mpox cases are soaring in Africa – what must be done to prevent a global pandemic
• Africa desperately needs mpox vaccines. But donations from rich countries won’t fix this or the next health emergency

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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 University in Canada, and Carolina Bandinelli associate professor in media and creative industries at the University of Warwick in the UK.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany, with assistance from Katie Flood and sound design by Michelle Macklem. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. 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. If you listen on PocketCasts, they've just launched the ability to rate shows here.

• Swipe right or left? How dating apps are impacting modern masculinity
• Dating apps are accused of being ‘addictive’. What makes us keep swiping?
• The problems with dating apps and how they could be fixed – two relationship experts discuss
• Dating apps: Lack of regulation, oversight and competition affects quality, and millions stand to lose

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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 technologies are a dangerous distraction from what needs to be done to reduce fossil fuel emissions. 

Featuring Chukwumerije Okereke, professor in global governance and public policy at the University of Bristol, and Co-Director at the Center for Climate Change and Development at Alex Ekwueme Federal University in Nigeria and Aarti Gupta, professor of global environmental governance at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. And responses from Shaun Fitzgerald at the Centre for Climate Change at the University of Cambridge in the UK

Listen to the first episode to hear scientists who argue modifying the climate can help buy the world time.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with assistance from Katie Flood 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.

Further reading:

• Not such a bright idea: cooling the Earth by reflecting sunlight back to space is a dangerous distraction
• Solar geoengineering might work, but local temperatures could keep rising for years
• Blocking out the sun won’t fix climate change – but it could buy us time
• The overshoot myth: you can’t keep burning fossil fuels and expect scientists of the future to get us back to 1.5°C
• Africa has vast gas reserves – here’s how to stop them adding to climate change

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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 University of Cambridge in the UK and Hugh Hunt, deputy director at the Centre, as well as Ben Kravitz, assistant professor of Earth and atmospheric sciences at Indiana University in the US. We're also joined by Stacy Morford, environment and climate editor at The Conversation in the US.

Part two, out tomorrow, will focus on the case against a particular type of solar geoengineering called solar radiation management.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood, 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.

Further reading:

• What could we do to cool the Arctic, specifically?
• Climate engineering carries serious national security risks − countries facing extreme heat may try it anyway, and the world needs to be prepared
• Blocking out the sun won’t fix climate change – but it could buy us time
• The overshoot myth: you can’t keep burning fossil fuels and expect scientists of the future to get us back to 1.5°C

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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 remains a mystery.

Archaeologist Ludovic Slimak at the University of Toulouse III, Paul Sabatier in France and his team have spent three decades excavating caves, studying ancient artefacts and delving into the world of Neanderthals and they've recently published provocative new findings. He tells us more about how Neanderthals lived, what happened to them and why their extinction might hold profound insights into the story of own species, Homo Sapiens.

This episode was produced and written by Mend Mariwany with assistance from Katie Flood. The executive producer was Gemma Ware. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript is now available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

Further reading: 

• Q&A with Ludovic Slimak, the archeologist who wants to rewrite the history of early humans in Europe
• Modern human DNA contains bits from all over the Neanderthal genome – except the Y chromosome. What happened?
• How Neanderthal language differed from modern human – they probably didn’t use metaphors
• The reconstruction of a 75,000-year-old Neanderthal woman’s face makes her look quite friendly – there’s a problem with that
• Why did modern humans replace the Neanderthals? The key might lie in our social structures

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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 off to migrants, there are signs that the country’s national immigration policy is starting to shift.

Each episode of Borders and Belonging takes an in-depth look at a different regional migration issue and puts it into a global context. They do this through interviewing people with deep knowledge and experience of the region, including a couple of academic experts. The show is hosted by Maggie Perzyna, a researcher with the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and integration programme at Toronto Metropolitan University in Canada.

This episode features Nicholas A. R. Fraser, a senior research associate at Toronto Metropolitan University, Ito Peng, professor of sociology and public policy at the University of Toronto and Nana Oishi, associate professor in Japanese Studies at the University of Melbourne.

Borders and Belonging is produced by CERC Migration in collaboration with Lead Podcasting. Sound design for this episode of The Conversation Weekly was by Michelle Macklem, with production by Mend Mariwany. Sign up for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation and to support what we do, please consider donating to The Conversation.

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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 episode here or explore more articles from our Curious Kids series on The Conversation.

The Conversation's Curious Kids podcast is published in partnership with FunKids, the UK's children's radio station. It's hosted and produced by Eloise. Gemma Ware is the executive producer.

Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation. To support what we do, please consider donating to The Conversation.

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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 environment at Queen's University, Ontario in Canada, comes back on The Conversation Weekly to update us on the latest resistance to these clauses.

Part of this episode was first aired in October 2022. You can listen to the original episode here. It was produced by Gemma Ware and Mend Mariwany, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. 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.

Further reading:

• How treaties protecting fossil fuel investors could jeopardize global efforts to save the climate – and cost countries billions
• Energy charter treaty makes climate action nearly illegal in 52 countries – so how can we leave it?
• How Clive Palmer is suing Australia for $300 billion with the help of an obscure legal clause (and Christian Porter)
• The Energy Charter Treaty lets fossil fuel firms sue governments – but its future is now in question 

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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 of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus speaks to Amanda Mascarelli Senior Health and Medicine Editor at The Conversation in the US about emerging chronic pain treatments.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive editor. Full credits available here. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation. To support what we do, please consider donating to The Conversation.

• New treatments offer much-needed hope for patients suffering from chronic pain
• Chronic pain can be objectively measured using brain signals – new research
• Understanding that chronic back pain originates from within the brain could lead to quicker recovery, a new study finds
• How cannabis and psilocybin might help some of the 50 million Americans who are experiencing chronic pain

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