The Take

Woolly mammoths went extinct several thousand years ago. But if a new company gets its way, something like the woolly mammoth could walk the Earth again within the decade. Colossal Biosciences, a new biotechnology company, announced in September that it had raised $15m to genetically modify an Asian elephant so that it has the cold-tolerant traits of a woolly mammoth. Their plan has been received with a mix of scepticism, excitement and controversy.

In this episode: 

• Ben Lamm (@federallamm), co-founder and CEO of Colossal (@ItIsColossal)
• Dr. Tori Herridge (@ToriHerridge), evolutionary biologist at the London Natural History Museum (@NHM_London)
• Dr. Joe Bennett (@Joe_Ecology), professor at Carleton University

Connect with The Take: 

Twitter (@AJTheTake), Instagram (@ajthetake) and Facebook (@TheTakePod)

A buildup of troops on the border of Ukraine and Russia is worrying the world. The fear is war, but parts of Ukraine are already caught in the crossfire. Pro-Russia separatists are battling Ukrainian soldiers and have been for almost eight years. We go to Donbas, Eastern Ukraine with Al Jazeera correspondent, Charles Stratford to hear what people there are living through now and their thoughts on what may happen in the days ahead.

In this episode: 

• Charles Stratford (@stratfordch), Al Jazeera correspondent covering Eastern Ukraine
• Mansur Mirovalev (@mirovalev), a freelance correspondent based in Kyiv, Ukraine

Connect with The Take: 

Twitter (@AJTheTake), Instagram (@ajthetake) and Facebook (@TheTakePod)

Unmarked graves, lost family members, and a reckoning long overdue – it’s a story familiar to Indigenous peoples in both Canada and the United States, where residential schools for native children ripped apart tribal nations. The US boarding school system was even more extensive than Canada’s, but much less is known about it, and its history is often surrounded by a culture of silence. So what will it take for a reckoning in the US?

In this episode: 

• Kavitha Chekuru (@KaviChek), producer for Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines (@AJFaultLines)
• Denise Lajimodiere (@DLajimodiere), author and academic 
• Eleanor Hadden, descendant of boarding school students

Connect with The Take: 

Twitter (@AJTheTake), Instagram (@ajthetake) and Facebook (@TheTakePod)

Mehray Mezensof's husband is one of an estimated million Uighurs being detained in China.  Several countries accuse China of committing crimes against humanity, including genocide, and on December 9, a people's tribunal in the UK ruled that to be true.

In this episode:

• Mehray Mezensof (@Mehray_T), wife of a detained Uighur man
• Sir Geoffrey Nice, chairman of the Uyghur Tribunal (@TribunalUyghur)

Connect with The Take: 

Twitter (@AJTheTake), Instagram (@ajthetake) and Facebook (@TheTakePod)

Radwan Fouad Jomaa lives in Denmark with his wife and three kids. He moved there from Syria, where he was born and raised. After opposing the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, he fled, fearing the worst. Denmark says his hometown, Damascus, is safe, though, and Syrian refugees must return. What will happen to the Syrians in Denmark?

In this episode: 

• Radwan Fouad Jomaa, Syrian in Denmark
• Florian Elabidi (@FlorianElabdi), a Danish journalist who reports about politics, conflicts, and migration in Europe, the Middle East and Africa

Connect with The Take: 

Twitter (@AJTheTake), Instagram (@ajthetake) and Facebook (@TheTakePod)

Today we’re assessing the global reaction to the Omicron variant and the allegations of injustice that surround it. 

In this episode:

• Fahmida Miller (@FahmidaMiller), Al Jazeera’s correspondent in South Africa
• Carol Bouwer (@bouwercarol), South African businesswoman and TV personality

Connect with The Take: 

Twitter (@AJTheTake), Instagram (@ajthetake) and Facebook (@TheTakePod)

Barbados is now the world’s newest republic, bucking the British queen for its first Barbadian president. Now that the festivities are over, we look back at the history of slavery England imposed on Barbados, and ask questions about reparations. And we speak to several Barbadians about what kind of republic Barbados hopes to be.

In this episode: 

• Suleiman Bulbulia, a Barbadian Businessman
• David Denny, activist and General Secretary for the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration
• Ronnie Yearwood, lecturer in law at the University for the West Indies 

Connect with The Take: 

Twitter (@AJTheTake), Instagram (@ajthetake) and Facebook (@TheTakePod)

For weeks after the military took over Sudan on October 25, an internet shutdown made it hard to speak with people inside the country. But even as a communications blackout meant news was only trickling out of Sudan, the situation on the ground was rapidly changing. After weeks of pressure from the streets of Sudan, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok was removed from house arrest and reinstated on November 21. The internet is back, but protests have continued. Is the political crisis in Sudan over?

In this episode: 

• Hiba Morgan (@hiba_morgan), Al Jazeera correspondent

• Samahir El Mubarak, spokesperson for the Sudanese Professionals Association

Connect with The Take: 

Twitter (@AJTheTake), Instagram (@ajthetake) and Facebook (@TheTakePod)

In 1981, the first case of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was diagnosed. The virus that causes AIDS, became a thing to be feared for people in the LGBTQ+ community, who also became a scapegoat for its existence.

On World AIDS Day, we remember that even when things have changed since then in the treatment and prevention of HIV and AIDS, activists around the world have learned that this epidemic is also a battle for access to sexual and reproductive healthcare, and it’s still a fight against stigma.

In this episode: 

• Dázon Dixon Diallo (@DazonDiallo), Founder of SisterLove, Inc., a women's HIV/AIDS & Reproductive Justice organization in Atlanta and South Africa 
• Justin C. Smith, Director of the Campaign to End AIDS at Positive Impact Health Centers (@PIHC_Atlanta)

Connect with The Take: 

Twitter (@AJTheTake), Instagram (@ajthetake) and Facebook (@TheTakePod)

Videos of the mysterious migrating herd of elephants in China became an internet sensation earlier this year, but their very existence points to a deeper environmental problem, one that we're seeing escalate wherever elephants roam. 

In this episode:

• Dr. Josh Plotnik (@CCCAnimals), assistant professor of psychology at Hunter College of City University of New York (CUNY)

Connect with The Take: 

Twitter (@AJTheTake), Instagram (@ajthetake) and Facebook (@TheTakePod)