The Conversation Weekly

Our dependence on fossil fuels is one of the biggest challenges to overcome in the fight against climate change. But production and consumption of fossil fuels is on the rise, and expected to peak within the next decade. We speak to two researchers who examine the political challenges of transitioning to a world after oil, and what it means for those states who rely on oil for resources.Featuring Caleb Wellum, Assistant Professor of U.S. History, at the University of Toronto in Canada, and Natalie Koch, Professor of Human Geography at the University of Heidelberg, in Germany. This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced and written by Mend Mariwany who is also the show's executive producer. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.Further reading: For developing world to quit coal, rich countries must eliminate oil and gas faster – new studyCOP27 flinched on phasing out ‘all fossil fuels’. What’s next for the fight to keep them in the ground?Ending the climate crisis has one simple solution: Stop using fossil fuels

Social isolation and loneliness are increasingly becoming a societal problem, as they increase polarization and impact on our physical health. In 2018, two years before the pandemic, the United Kingdom created a ministerial portfolio for loneliness. Japan, where nearly 40 per cent of the population report experiencing loneliness, began a similar position in 2021. We speak to three researchers who invite us to more deeply consider loneliness and social isolation, and their impacts on our health and society. Featuring Ananya Chakravarti, an associate professor of the history of emotions at Georgetown University in Washington in the US, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University in the US, and Kate Mulligan, an assistant professor at the Dalla Lana School of Health in Canada.This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany, who is also the show’s executive producer. Eloise Stevens does our sound design and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.Further reading: Why loneliness is both an individual thing and a shared result of the cities we createTechnology is alienating people – and it’s not just those who are olderPeople feel lonelier in crowded cities – but green spaces can help

Despite the many biological differences between people of different sexes, races, ages and life histories, chances are that if two people walk into a doctors office with the same symptoms, they are going to get the same exact treatment. As you can imagine, a whole range of treatments – from drugs to testing – could be much more effective if they were designed to work with many different kinds of bodies, not just some abstract, generic human. We speak to three researchers who are looking at ways to make medicine more precise. It starts with simply making sure that clinical trial participants look like the actual patients a drug is meant to treat. And in the future, precision medicine could help each person get medical care that is tailored to their own biology, just like a custom shirt.Featuring Jennifer Miller, professor of medicine at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, in the US, Julia Liu, professor of medicine at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, in the US, and Keith Yamamoto, head of Precision Medicine at the University of California San Francisco in the US. This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced and written by Katie Flood. Mend Mariwany is the show's executive producer. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.  Full credits for this episode are available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.Further reading: Yes, Black patients do want to help with medical research – here are ways to overcome the barriers that keep clinical trials from recruiting diverse populationsWomen are 50–75% more likely to have adverse drug reactions. A new mouse study finally helps explain why

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the demographics of cities shifted. As stay-at-home orders, remote work and bubbling reduced social interaction, and restaurants, venues and arts destinations shut down temporarily, people started reconsidering their decision to remain in a big city. We spoke with two urban theorists about why people were leaving larger cities for smaller ones, how authenticity was marketed using social media influencers, and why smaller and mid-sized cities are underrated.Featuring Avi Friedman, a professor of architecture at McGill University in Montréal, Canada, and David A. Banks, lecturer in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Albany in New York, US. This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced and written by Mend Mariwany who is also the show's executive producer. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.  Full credits for this episode are available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.Further reading: Kampala, Kigali and Addis Ababa are changing fast: new book follows their distinct pathsTo build sustainable cities, involve those who live in themThe era of the megalopolis: how the world’s cities are mergingAs big cities get even bigger, some residents are being left behind

Whether you’re looking at tropical forests in Brazil, grasslands in California or coral reefs in Australia, it’s hard to find places where humanity hasn't left a mark. The scale of the alteration, invasion or destruction of natural ecosystems can be mindbogglingly huge. Thankfully, researchers, governments and everyday people around the world are putting more effort and money into conservation and restoration every year, but the task is large. How do you plant a billion trees? How do you restore thousands of square miles of wetlands? How do you turn a barren ocean floor back into a thriving reef? In some cases, the answer lies with certain animals – called ecosystem engineers – that can kick start the healing. We talk to three experts about how ecosystem engineers can play a key role in restoring natural places and why the human and social sides of restoration are just as important as the science.Featuring Josh Larsen, associate professor in water science at the University of Birmingham in the UK, Dominic McAfee, a postdoctoral researcher in marine ecology at the University of Adelaide in Australia, and Andy Kliskey, professor of landscape architecture and Co-director of the Center for Resilient Communities at the University of Idaho in the US.This episode was produced by Katie Flood. The executive producer is Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.Further reading: Beavers can do wonders for nature – but we should be realistic about these benefits extending to peopleBeavers are back: here’s what this might mean for the UK’s wild spacesPlaying sea soundscapes can summon thousands of baby oysters – and help regrow oyster reefsOnce the fish factories and ‘kidneys’ of colder seas, Australia’s decimated shellfish reefs are coming back

During the years of suffering and tragedy that defined the Warsaw Ghetto in the midst of World War II, a team of Jewish doctors secretly documented the effects of starvation on the human body when the Nazis severely limited the amount of food available in the Jewish ghetto.Featuring Merry Fitzpatrick, an assistant professor at Tufts University who studies food security and malnutrition.This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and hosted by Dan Merino. The executive producer is Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.Further reading: Warsaw Ghetto’s defiant Jewish doctors secretly documented the medical effects of Nazi starvation policies in a book recently rediscovered on a library shelf Starving civilians is an ancient military tactic, but today it’s a war crime in Ukraine, Yemen, Tigray and elsewhere

Across the globe, health-care workers have gone on strike to protest the stress placed on them by the global COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn, pushing already-strained services beyond their limits. These labour actions are part of the challenges faced by countries attempting to provide welfare services to their populations. We talk to three experts about why social welfare services are being cut, and what actions governments may need to take to ensure better access. Featuring Miguel Niño-Zarazúa, senior economics lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London in the UK,  Christine Corlet Walker, a research fellow at the Center for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity at the University of Surrey, also in the UK, and Erdem Yörük, assistant professor at Koç University in Istanbul in Turkey.This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood. The executive producer is Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.Further reading: Better income assistance programs are needed to help people with rising cost of livingCOVID-19 holds lessons for the future of social protectionDegrowth: why some economists think abandoning growth is the only way to save the planet – podcast

Reindeer's noses may not glow red, but these cold-loving creatures have evolved the ability to change the color of their eyes to help them thrive in northern winters. A neuroscientist explains how he discovered that a part of the reindeer eye called the tapetum lucidum is perfectly adapted to the dim, blue in the Arctic.Featuring Glen Jeffery, a professor of neuroscience at the Institute of Opthamology at University College London in the UK.This episode was produced by Katie Flood. The interim executive producer is Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.Further readingHow reindeer eyes transform in winter to give them twilight visionFive ways reindeer are perfectly evolved for pulling Santa’s sleigh

If you want to know what happened in the earliest years of the universe, you are going to need a very big, very specialized telescope. Much to the joy of astronomers and space fans everywhere, the world has one – the James Webb Space Telescope. In this episode, we talk to three experts about what astronomers have learned about the first galaxies in the universe and how just six months of data from James Webb is already changing astronomy.Featuring Jeyhan Kartaltepe, Associate Professor of Astrophysics at Rochester Institute of Technology, Jonathan Trump, Associate Professor of Physics at University of Connecticut and Michael J. I. Brown, Associate Professor in Astronomy at Monash University.This episode was produced by Katie Flood and Daniel Merino, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. It was written by Katie Flood and Daniel Merino. Mend Mariwany is the show’s executive producer. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.Further reading:James Webb Space Telescope: what astronomers hope it will reveal about the beginning of the universe – podcastBlueWalker 3, an enormous and bright communications satellite, is genuinely alarming astronomersIs the James Webb Space Telescope finding the furthest, oldest, youngest or first galaxies? An astronomer explainsTwo experts break down the James Webb Space Telescope’s first images, and explain what we’ve already learnt

How do you get a country to change its national diet? That’s what China has been trying by introducing potato as a staple as part of an effort to improve food security. In this episode, we talk to three experts about why countries need to shift what their citizens eat, and what the optimum diet for our planet might be. Featuring Xiaobo Xue Romeiko, assistant professor of Environmental Health Sciences at University at Albany, State University of New York in the US, Paul Behrens, associate professor of energy and environmental change at Leiden University in The Netherlands and Marco Springmann, professor of climate change food systems and health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the UK, and a senior researcher at the University of Oxford. This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood with sound design by Eloise Stevens. It was written by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware is the show's executive producer. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.Further reading:Our food system is at risk of crossing ‘environmental limits’ – here’s how to ease the pressureWar in Ukraine is pushing global acute hunger to the highest level in this centuryOffering more plant-based choices on menus can speed up diet change