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The Conversation Weekly

Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch in the White House
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How Rupert Murdoch helped to build brand Trump – podcast

Golda Meir and Richard Nixon in 1969.
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Origins of Israel’s nuclear ambiguity lie in a secret deal forged between Richard Nixon and Golda Meir – podcast

Battery cells for electric vehicles
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What will batteries of the future be made of? Four scientists discuss the options – podcast

Woman peeling adhesive tape off her mouth
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What makes some people self-censor while others speak out? Podcast

Amid alarm over a US ‘autism registry’, people are using these tactics to avoid disability surveillance – podcast
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Robert F Kennedy Junior standing next to a screen showing data on autism
Three scientists speak about what it’s like to have research funding cut by the Trump administration
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A sign saying science helps you held up by a protestor.
Where do cuts to USAID leave the future of foreign aid in Africa? Podcast
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People wait in line at a clinic.
How Europe dropped the ball on its own defence and was left fawning over Donald Trump – podcast
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Donald Trump and Mark Rutte surrounded by other EU leaders at the Nato summit

The world explained by experts

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Illustration of arrows plotting path through blocks mark tax to show tax avoidance.
The 15% solution

Why the global tax system needs fixing – podcast

Illustration of a hand holding a globe with multiple currencies

Four years after a 15% global minimum tax deal, the world remains divided on how to implement it – podcast

Mend Mariwany, The Conversation

A Hermes bag with a view of a city skyline behind
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Birkin v Wirkin: the backlash against the global elite and their luxury bags – podcast

New theories of Alzheimer’s taking the search for a cure in a different direction – podcast
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A doctor holding up MRI scans of a brain of someone with Alzheimer's
The enduring anti-fascist legacy of places that mark Italy’s wartime resistance – podcast
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A memorial in Stazzema in Italy to a Nazi massacre with the Tuscan hills behind.
Fake cures and vaccine passports for sale: the conspiracy communities in Brazil monetising the anti-vax movement – podcast
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Two protestors holding anti-vaccination signs in Brazil.
Cash for sharks: the unintended consequences of paying fishermen to release sharks caught in their nets – podcast
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A wedgefish caught in a net in Indonesia.
Why the US return to tariffs and protectionism ‘reeks of hypocrisy’ – podcast
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Shipping containes with barbed wire in front.
​A ‘Google maps for the sea’, sails ​and alternative fuels: ​the technologies steering shipping towards ​lower emissions
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A cargo ship burning fossil fuel

Scam Factories

Scam Factories: the inside story of Southeast Asia’s brutal fraud compounds

Scam Factories: the inside story of Southeast Asia’s brutal fraud compounds

‘It seemed like a good job at first’: how people are trafficked, trapped and forced to scam in Southeast Asia – Scam Factories podcast, Ep 1
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Buildings under construction in Sihanoukville.
‘Your life becomes a nightmare’: how scam operations exploit those trapped inside – Scam Factories, Ep 2
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A man who was trafficked to a compound praying.
‘I thought about escaping every day’: how survivors get out of Southeast Asia’s cybercrime compounds – Scam Factories, Ep 3
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A man who was trafficked to a scam compound.
Listen to all episodes of Scam Factories on The Conversation Weekly podcast
Illustration of evolution of humanity from primates to an unknown future with a blue light.
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How AI could influence the evolution of humanity – podcast

Warfare analytic operator using virtual reality glasses checking coordination of the military team with tablet device augmented device.
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Silicon Valley’s bet on AI defence startups and what it means for the future of war – podcast

An illustration of a little robot performing tasks on a computer.
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Brain implants, agentic AI and answers on dark matter: what to expect from science in 2025 – podcast

Elsa Couderc, The Conversation; Gemma Ware, The Conversation; Paul Rincon, The Conversation, and Signe Dean, The Conversation

A glimpse into a surreal abyss: how COVID ravaged a remote city in the Amazonian jungle – podcast
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A doctor in front of two oxygen tanks in Iquitos, Peru.
The PKK says it will lay down its arms. What are the chances of lasting peace between Turkey and the Kurds? Podcast
Supporters of a pro-Kurdish political party with flags in Turkey.
Decentralised social media offers an alternative to big tech platforms like X and Meta. How does it work? Podcast
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A phone with icons for Bluesky, Mastodon, X
How close are quantum computers to being really useful? Podcast
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A quantum computer

Climate and environment

Plastic waste at a recycling plant.
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How the world fell in love with plastic without thinking through the consequences – podcast

Iceberg in Arctic melting
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Geoengineering: the scientists who argue modifying the climate could buy the world time – podcast

Sun and clouds in an orange sky.
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Solar geoengineering: the risks and distractions of trying to reflect sunlight to cool the Earth – podcast

Flames and smoke in Los Angeles wildfires.
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How wildfire, humans and a warming climate led to the extinction of California’s big mammals 13,000 years ago – podcast

Fightback gains pace against trade deals fossil fuel investors can use to sue countries over climate action – podcast
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A woman holds up a sign that says Exit the Energy Charter Treaty.
Busy soundscapes of seagrass meadows and the animals that live there revealed in new recordings – podcast
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Busy soundscapes of seagrass meadows and the animals that live there revealed in new recordings – podcast
Why Canada’s decision to lift a ban on cod fishing in Newfoundland after 32 years is so controversial – podcast
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A fisherman fillets a cod.
From grieving orcas to opposums playing dead: how animals respond to death – podcast
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A baby orca among family.
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Stories behind research

A clinician holds a vial of a drug called lenacapavir
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HIV prevention: why a new injectable drug could be such a breakthrough – podcast

Himpathy: the psychology of why some people side with perpetrators of sexual misconduct – podcast
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Donald Trump in the lobby of Trump tower.
The emotional toll of dating apps and why they’re no longer about finding love – podcast
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A woman swiping on her phone.
Victor Ambros on the team effort behind his Nobel-prize winning discovery of microRNA – podcast
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Victor Ambros walking into a room with his wife Rosalind Lee
Sharing that moment: can collective experiences bring people closer together? Podcast
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Four people sitting on sofa watching TV.
Fear, hope and the economy: what is motivating Americans as they decide who to vote for – podcast
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Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
Stories of gangsters who’ve left their life on the streets behind – podcast
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A photo of a man in a farm holding some plants.
Why mpox in Africa was ignored for too long and children are dying as a result – podcast
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A woman holds her son who has mpox.
As Amazon workers prepare to strike on Black Friday, the story of one warehouse in the UK that pushed to unionize – podcast
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Amazon workers hold up a banner saying 'We demand the right to unionise'
Disassembled components of the FGC-9 shadow gun.
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Who designed the FGC-9? Unmasking the man behind the world’s most popular 3D-printed gun – podcast

Creative flow: what’s going on inside the brain when everything just clicks – podcast
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Illustration of jazz saxophonist.
Fifty years after the discovery of Lucy, it’s time to ‘decolonise paleoanthropology’ says leading Ethiopian fossil expert – podcast
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Close-up of a man holdiing a replica of an ancient hominin skull.
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The Conversation's Curious Kids

Northern lights in the sky.
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Does magic really exist? The Conversation’s Curious Kids podcast

Can chameleons change colour in their sleep?
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A chameleon.
If an asteroid hit Earth and all the humans died, would the dinosaurs come back?
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Illustration of a tyrannosaurus.
Do whales sneeze?
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A humpback whale breaching.
Why is my dog so cute?
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A puppy and a little girl.
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What happened to Nelson Mandela's South Africa?

What happened to Nelson Mandela’s South Africa? A new podcast series marks 30 years of post-apartheid democracy
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A man wearing a suit and tie raises his right hand to take an oath, wtacxhed by a male judge.
Part 1: After the euphoria of Nelson Mandela’s election, what happened next?
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A grey-haired and smiling man wearing a loose long-sleeved shirt holds a piece of paper above a ballot box, while other people stand around him
Part 2: South Africans tasted the fruits of freedom and then corruption snatched them away
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Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma
Part 3: Persisting inequality has made many young South Africans question the choices made by Nelson Mandela – podcast
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Two young men wearing graduation gowns lead protesters carrying placards saying 'We are young and capable'.
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Inside the Oslo Accords

Inside the Oslo accords: a new podcast series marks 30 years since Israel-Palestine secret peace negotiations
Inside the Oslo accords: a new podcast series marks 30 years since Israel-Palestine secret peace negotiations
Jan Egeland remembers the secret negotiations that led to the Oslo accords – podcast
Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin, Bill Clinton and Yasser Arafat, right, pose holding t-shirts that say seeds of peace.
Hanan Ashrawi and Yossi Beilin on what happened after the Oslo accords handshake – podcast
James Baker, Faisal Husseini, Zakaria Al-Agha, Sari Nusseibah and Hanan Ashrawi
Israel-Palestine: the legacy of Oslo and the future of a two-state solution – podcast
Tower blocks on a hill show the West Bank settlement of Modiin Ilit
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