Why? with Emma Kennedy

Time travel was once the holy grail of science fiction, but scientists have now shown that time travel into the future is theoretically possible – so why not backwards? If we can use the quirks of physics to move into the future “faster” than we’d get there anyway, could it be possible to move into the past? And if time travel in either direction became possible, what would it do to our world… and ourselves? 

Emma Kennedy asks Jim Al-Khalili, famed for The Life Scientific and professor of theoretical physics at the University of Surrey, and Nikk Effingham, professor of philosophy at the University of Birmingham, about our days of future past. 

Buy Nikk’s book Does Tomorrow Exist?: A Debate through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund Why? by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too. 

Check out Jim’s Radio 4 show The Life Scientific. 

WHY? is presented by Emma Kennedy. Produced by Eliza Davis Beard. Audio production and theme music by Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group editor: Andrew Harrison. Artwork by James Parrett. Additional music is from Artlist.io. WHY? is a Podmasters Production. 

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Many of us are obsessed with true crime documentaries and podcasts, and actively seek out the most gruesome details of horrific murder, torture and kidnapping. It’s all pretty horrible – so why are we drawn to it? Does ‘evil’ really exist – and if so, what does it look like? Are people born evil or do they become it over time? 

Emma Kennedy is joined by forensic psychiatrist Dr Sohom Das and the UK’s top expert on serial killers, criminologist Professor David Wilson to uncover why we are so obsessed with evil. 

Buy Dr Das’ book In Two Minds: Shocking true stories of murder, justice and recovery from a forensic psychiatrist and Professor Wilson’s My Life with Murderers: Behind Bars with the World’s Most Violent Men through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund Why? by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too. 

WHY? is presented by Emma Kennedy. Produced by Eliza Davis Beard. Audio production and theme music by Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group editor: Andrew Harrison. Artwork by James Parrett. Additional music is from Artlist.io. WHY? is a Podmasters Production. 

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Most of us could list a few physical attributes for our ideal romantic partner – like preferring blondes or men over 6ft tall. But is having a ‘type’ real? If so, how does it develop? Is it biological, or socially constructed? And is the rhetoric of ‘types’ actually dangerous?  

Emma Kennedy speaks to University of California Davis Psychology Professor Paul W. Eastwick, and Not My Type: Automating Sexual Racism in Online Dating author and University of Michigan Assistant Professor Apryl Williams, about the psychology and sociology of who we’re attracted to.  

Buy Apryl’s book Not My Type: Automating Sexual Racism in Online Dating through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund Why? by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too. 

Listen to Paul's new podcast Love Factually here.

WHY? is presented by Emma Kennedy. Produced by Eliza Davis Beard. Audio production and theme music by Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group editor: Andrew Harrison. Artwork by James Parrett. Additional music is from Artlist.io. WHY? Is a Podmasters Production. 

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The Moon captivates the human imagination, inspiring artistic creativity, religious fervour and scientific exploration. But what if it were destroyed in some cosmic accident – or by scientific meddling? What would happen to the Earth and its inhabitants? And could humanity survive without it?  

Emma Kennedy talks to two space experts – award-winning astrophysicist Professor Ethan Siegel and astronomy journalist Dr. Stuart Clark – about the implications of an enormous cosmic event. 

Check out Ethan's Starts with a Bang blog here.

Buy Stuart Clark's Beneath the Night: How the Stars Have Shaped the History of Humankind and Ethan Siegel's Infinite Cosmos through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund WHY? by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.  

WHY? is presented by Emma Kennedy. Produced by Eliza Davis Beard. Audio production and theme music by Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Artwork by James Parrett. Additional music is from Artlist.io. WHY? is a Podmasters Production.   

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Most of us think we’re too smart, stable and strong-willed to join a religious cult, or to cut ourselves off from our families to join a group devoted to a charismatic leader. But clearly somebody’s joining them. So why do people willingly give up their free will and independence to join cults? Do they realise what they’re getting themselves into? And how do they get out?

Emma Kennedy is joined by world-leading cult deprogrammer Rick Alan Ross and NXIVM cult survivor Sarah Edmondson to explore the strange allure of the cult mindset.   

Buy Sarah Edmondson’s book Scarred: The True Story of How I Escaped NXIVM, the Cult That Bound My Life through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund WHY? by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.

You can watch Sarah’s fantastic Ted Talk here.

WHY? is presented by Emma Kennedy. Produced by Eliza Davis Beard. Audio production and theme music by Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Artwork by James Parrett. Additional music is from Artlist.io. WHY? is a Podmasters Production.  

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The podcast for curious minds. Every Thursday, Emma Kennedy delves into the science and psychology of why we are the way we are. Emma is joined by leading experts and some of science's brightest minds to answer the big questions you never knew how to ask.

Why do people join cults? Why do we need the moon? Why are we drawn to evil? Why do we have fetishes?

Find out all of this and more on Why? from the makers of Oh God, What Now?, The Bunker and Paper Cuts.

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ALERT! Get yourself over to the Oh God, What Now? YouTube channel right now for all-night second-screen coverage of the election with all your favourite presenters. Coverage starts just before 10pm and runs til late… or early!

And if you’ve got questions, Tweet us at @OhGodWhatNowPod. The panel will answer as many as they can.

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From Terminators and Cylons to the War Droids from Star Wars, military robots are staples of science fiction. But they’re already here in the real world too. The US, China and Russia are all investing efforts into military machines – but they won’t be the gun-toting humanoids we see onscreen. Would taking human fighters off the battlefield increase the peace? Or should we be gravely concerned about this new era of international war?  

Today on Why?, Emma Kennedy speaks to Kelsey Atherton, an award-winning military-tech journalist and Chief Editor of the International Policy Journal.  

• “Militaries are deeply invested in the idea that things flow from the top.... The more autonomy you give a machine the harder it is to put in command and control.” - Kelsey Atherton 

• “If a robot makes an error, it’s on the person who programmed it… these weapons are brought to battle with errors built in.” - Kelsey Atherton 

WHY? is written and presented by Emma Kennedy. Produced by Anne Marie Luff and Eliza Davis Beard. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Artwork by James Parrett. Music by DJ Food. WHY? is a Podmasters Production. 

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It’s been 52 years since humans last stepped onto the moon, and NASA is determined to set up a permanent base there. But there are huge challenges to overcome - not least surviving brain-damaging solar radiation and bone-wasting partial gravity.  

Today on Why?, Luke Turner speaks to Clive Neal, Professor of Planetary Geology at Notre Dame University currently working with NASA on their next moon mission and find out exactly how they plan to build a long-lasting habitat.  

• “What we’ve learned during and since Apollo, is that the moon is a very hostile environment, but now we understand the nature of that hostility. And that understanding is key to being able to keep humans alive on the surface of the moon – not only to survive, but to thrive.” - Clive Neal 

• “Radiation and humans don’t miss in the long term. Radiation is much more intense in the lunar environment. So a human habitat on the moon would have to be buried beneath about two meters of regolith to protect them.” - Clive Neal 

Written and presented by Luke Turner. Produced by Anne-Marie Luff and Eliza Davis Beard. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Artwork by James Parrett. Music by DJ Food. WHY? is a Podmasters Production. 

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Most of us would like to live for as long as possible, given we’re in good health. But the definition of a long life is changing, and the rapid advancement of anti-ageing technologies could transform the idea of immortality from fantasy to reality. So the question isn’t so much can we live forever, but should we?

Anna Machin talks to Dr Stephen Cave, Director of the Institute for Technology and Humanity at the University of Cambridge, and co-author of Should You Choose To Live Forever? A Debate, to find out.

• “If we’re serious about pursuing longer lives, we have to get really, really serious about making those lives sustainable”.

• “With life-extension and anti-ageing technologies, the effects will be enormous. Many of them will be beyond what we can imagine right now. If we’re going to pursue them, we need to think of what we can do to maximise the benefits, and manage the risks.”

WHY? is written and presented by Anna Machin. Produced by Eliza Davis Beard and Anne-Marie Luff. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Artwork by James Parrett. Music by DJ Food. WHY? is a Podmasters Production.

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