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The Conversation

A show for curious minds. Join us each week as academic experts tell us about the fascinating discoveries they're making to understand the world, and the big questions they’re still trying to answer. A podcast from The Conversation hosted by Gemma Ware.

The Conversation Weekly

From Gaza to Ukraine, today’s war zones are being used as testing grounds for new systems driven by artificial intelligence. Billions of dollars are now being pumped into AI weapons technology, much of it from Silicon Valley venture capitalists.

In this episode, we speak to Elke Schwarz, a reader in political theory at Queen Mary University of London in the UK who studies the ethics of autonomous weapons systems, about what this influx of new investment means for the future of warfare. 

This episode was written and produced by 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.

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.

Further reading:The Silicon Valley venture capitalists who want to ‘move fast and break things’ in the defence industryGaza war: Israel using AI to identify human targets raising fears that innocents are being caught in the netWar in Ukraine accelerates global drive toward killer robots

Silicon Valley’s bet on a future of AI-enabled warfare

Surveys suggest that in many western democracies, political trust is at rock bottom. But is it really such a bad thing for people living in a democracy to distrust their government?

In this episode, we talk to political scientist Grant Duncan, visiting scholar in politics at City St George's, University of London, about why he thinks a certain level of distrust and scepticism of powerful politicians is actually healthy for democracy. And about how populists, like Donald Trump, manage to use people’s distrust in political elites to their advantage.

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

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.

Further reading Don’t trust politicians? That may not be such a bad thingWhy people vote for politicians they know are liarsTrusting societies are overall happier – a happiness expert explains why

Why distrust in powerful politicians is part of a functioning democracy

Zimbabwe is on the cusp of abolishing the death penalty after its Death Penalty Abolition Bill was approved by the senate on December 12. The bill is now sitting on the desk of Zimbabwe’s president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, a known opponent of the death penalty, waiting for his assent.

In this episode, we speak to two experts on the death penalty, Carolyn Hoyle and Parvais Jabbar from the University of Oxford's Death Penalty Research Unit, who explain how Zimbabwe got here and what abolition means for both the country, and the continent. 

This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware and Mend Mariwany 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.

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.

Further reading Zimbabwe’s likely to abolish the death penalty: how it got here and what it means for the continentKenyan prisoners on death row weren’t deterred by the threat of the death penalty: new research findingsWhy the death penalty is losing favour in sub-Saharan Africa

How Zimbabwe reached the point of abolishing the death penalty

In a special episode to start 2025, we’ve brought together three science editors from The Conversation’s editions around the world to discuss what to look out for in the world of science and technology in the coming year. 

Host Gemma Ware is joined by Paul Rincon from The Conversation in the UK, Elsa Couderc from The Conversation in France and Signe Dean from The Conversation in Australia. 

This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware and Katie Flood 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.

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.

Further reading and listening Has Nasa found evidence of ancient life on Mars? An expert examines the latest discoverySeveral companies are testing brain implants – why is there so much attention swirling around Neuralink? Two professors unpack the ethical issuesNuclear fusion record broken – what will it take to start generating electricity? PodcastQuantum computers are like kaleidoscopes − why unusual metaphors help illustrate science and technology

Brain implants, agentic AI and answers on dark matter: what to expect from science in 2025

Every year, 400 million tons of plastic are produced worldwide, and every year, approximately 57 million tons of plastic waste is created. And yet in November, the latest round of negotiations to agree the first legally binding international treaty on plastics pollution collapsed.

So what can we really do about the plastics pollution problem? In this episode we sat down with Mark Miodowonik, professor of materials and society at UCL in the UK, to understand the history of plastic, how it’s shaped our lives, and what can be done to make sure more plastic is recycled and less ends up polluting the planet. 

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood 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.

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.

Further reading:Can you trust companies that say their plastic products are recyclable? US regulators may crack down on deceptive claimsThe plastic recycling system is broken – here’s how we can fix itIf plastic manufacturing goes up 10%, plastic pollution goes up 10% – and we’re set for a huge surge in productionTime is running out for a treaty to end plastic pollution – here’s why it matters

How the world fell in love with plastic without thinking through the consequences

Firefighters in Los Angeles continue to battle devastating wildfires that have killed at least 27 people and left thousands of homes destroyed. Today, we’re revisiting an interview we ran in late 2023 with Emily Lindsey, a paleoecologist who works at the La Brea tar pits archaeological site in Los Angeles, about a wildfire warning from southern California’s ice age history.

The interview originally aired in November 2023. This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens and Michelle Macklem. 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.

Further reading:Human use of fire has produced an era of uncontrolled burning: Welcome to the PyroceneA changing climate, growing human populations and widespread fires contributed to the last major extinction event − can we prevent another?How Santa Ana winds fueled the deadly fires in Southern California

A wildfire warning from California's Ice Age past

Quantum computers have the potential to solve big scientific problems that are beyond the reach of today’s most powerful supercomputers, such as discovering new antibiotics or developing new materials. But to achieve these breakthroughs, quantum computers will need to perform better than today’s best classical computers at solving real-world problems. And they’re not quite there yet. So what is still holding quantum computing back from becoming useful?

We speak to quantum computing expert Daniel Lidar at the University of Southern California in the US about what problems scientists are still wrestling with when it comes to scaling up quantum computing, and how close they are to overcoming them.

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

Further reading:What is quantum advantage? A quantum computing scientist explains an approaching milestone marking the arrival of extremely powerful computersWe’re getting closer to having practical quantum computers – here’s what they will be used forQuantum computers are like kaleidoscopes − why unusual metaphors help illustrate science and technology

How close are quantum computers to being really useful?

As Germany heads towards elections on February 23, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AFD) is polling in second place on 20% of the national vote. The AFD's roots are in nationalistic and racist movements. It continues to take an ultra anti-immigration stance and is calling for "demigration" – effectively the deportation of migrants. 

In this episode, Rolf Frankenberger, an expert on right-wing extremism at the University of Tübingen in Germany, talks to Laura Hood, senior politics editor at The Conversation, about where the AFD draws its support from and what type of Germany it wants to return to.

This episode was 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 for The Conversation Europe's newsletter to get the best from our European scholars in a weekly digest.

If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, which is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.
Further reading:What happened in the German parliament and why is the far right hailing it as a ‘historic’ moment?The far-right is rising at a crucial time in Germany, boosted by Elon MuskAfD: how Germany’s constitution was designed with the threat of extremism in mind

Where support for Germany’s far-right AFD is growing and why

Since Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter in 2022, many users have looked for alternatives, fuelling a wave of online migration from the social media platform. 

How do alternative platforms such as Mastodon or Bluesky differ from traditional social media, and what does the future hold for these online spaces? In this episode, we speak to Robert Gehl, Ontario Research Chair of Digital Governance at York University, Canada, about the evolving landscape of decentralised social media. 

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Mend Mariwany with assistance from Katie Flood and Gemma Ware, Sound design was by Michelle Macklem, and theme music 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, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.
Further reading:Bluesky isn’t the ‘new Twitter,’ but its resemblance to the old one is drawing millions of new usersDecline of X is an opportunity to do social media differently – but combining ‘safe’ and ‘profitable’ will still be a challenge

How does decentralised social media work?

As the Trump administration ratchets up its threat to slap tariffs on allies and economic rivals alike, the world is bracing for another wave of costly economic disruption. This protectionist shift is all the more remarkable given how the US championed trade liberalisation for decades. 

So what does it actually take for a country to use protectionism to grow its economy? Some developing countries have successfully used tariffs to do so, while others have struggled. In this episode, we talk to Jostein Hauge, a development economist at the University of Cambridge in the UK, about who wins and who loses from tariffs and protectionism. 

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Mend Mariwany with assistance from Katie Flood and Gemma Ware. Sound design was by Michelle Macklem, and theme music 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, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.
Further reading:How protectionism can help developing countries unlock their economic potentialTariffs are back in the spotlight, but skepticism of free trade has deep roots in American historyTrump’s tariff gambit: As allies prepare to strike back, a costly trade war loomsWill Trump’s tariffs boost the US economy? Don’t count on it

Tariffs: the winners and losers

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. In this week’s episode 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 of The Conversation Weekly 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 EuropeColonisation de l’Europe par Homo sapiens : une nouvelle étude rebat les cartes • (in French)
Neanderthals: the oldest art in the world wasn’t made by Homo sapiens

Neanderthals: what their extinction could tell us about Homo Sapiens

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