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The Conversation

A show for curious minds, from The Conversation. Each week, host Gemma Ware speaks to an academic expert about a topic in the news to understand how we got here.

The Conversation Weekly

In around ten minutes on April 8, the Israeli military hit more than 100 targets across Lebanon. Israel called the attack Operation Eternal Darkness and said it struck Hezbollah command and control centres. The Lebanese government said at least 300 people were killed and 1,000 injured.

Israel has a powerful and lethal army, and it’s been defending itself against attacks from Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. But why has it chosen such brutal military aggression?

One historian, Yaron Peleg, believes the answer to this question lies in the early days of Zionism in the 19th century, when many Jews who arrived in Palestine were fleeing antisemitism in Europe. In defiance, they began a cultural revolution, emphasising military strength and honouring Biblical Jewish heroes.

But in the wake of the Holocaust, Peleg, who is a professor of modern Hebrew studies at the University of Cambridge in the UK, thinks Israel’s view of itself began to change. He tracks how he sees Israel’s self‑image changed from self‑reliance to aggressive militarism, and how that history helps to explain the way it wages war today.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and the executive producer was Gemma Ware. Mixing by Eleanor Brezzi and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the full credits for this episode and 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.

Mentioned in this episode:

Voices of the South

Israel’s history shapes how it wages war

For 16 years, Viktor Orbán built an illiberal democracy in Hungary. Orbán and his Fidesz party managed to take control of many of Hungary's levers of power, from the judiciary to state-owned media, and weakened the institutions that could keep them accountable. Now, his regime has been ended by a former Fidesz insider, Péter Magyar, who managed to unite Hungarians to secure a two-third majority in the country's parliament.

So how did Peter Magyar manage to beat his former boss? And what does Magyar's victory mean for the European Union, where Orbán was a belligerent, pro-Russian voice at the leaders' table.

We speak to Zsolt Enyedi, professor of political science at the Central European University and an expert in Hungarian politics.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood. Gemma Ware was the host and executive producer. Mixing by Eleanor Brezzi and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the full credits for this episode and 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.

He exposed corruption and walked across Hungary. Now Péter Magyar has defeated a powerful state machineWhat Viktor Orbán’s election loss means for Putin, Trump and the rise of right-wing populismViktor Orbán’s election loss shows the limits of his propaganda machine

Mentioned in this episode:

The We Society

Tackling the big questions through a social science lens, the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences brings you some of the best ideas to shape the way we live. Join acclaimed journalist and Academy president Will Hutton, as he invites guests from the world of social science to explore the stories behind the news and hear their solutions to society’s most pressing problems.

Voices of the South

How former insider Péter Magyar ousted Hungary’s Viktor Orbán

If you have teenagers in your life, they’ll probably have heard of the PSL scale. Or at least the language associated with it. Chad. Stacy. Normie. Subhuman.

The PSL scale is a pseudoscientific attractiveness rating system used by looksmaxxers, men in a part of the manosphere who can go to extreme methods to change their appearance.

The roots of this rating system lie in misogynistic online forums used by incels or involuntarily celibates, but now it’s all over social media. So how did the language of incels, and this one way of quantifying attractiveness and beauty, go so mainstream?

In this episode, we speak to Jordan Foster, an associate professor of sociology at MacEwan University in Alberta, Canada, who researches social media, beauty and masculinity. He explains the origins of the PSL scale, where it fits into the manosphere, and how some looksmaxxing influencers are making money off it.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood and Gemma Ware was the executive producer. Mixing by Eleanor Brezzi and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the full credits for this episode and 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.

What parents need to know to talk to their children about the manosphereHow ‘looksmaxxing’ self-improvement apps are marketing misogyny to young menMen can get out of the manosphere. Here’s what former incels say about why they leftFrom gym to jawline: What looksmaxxing says about modern masculinity

Mentioned in this episode:

The We Society

Tackling the big questions through a social science lens, the We Society Podcast from the Academy of Social Sciences brings you some of the best ideas to shape the way we live. Join acclaimed journalist and Academy president Will Hutton, as he invites guests from the world of social science to explore the stories behind the news and hear their solutions to society’s most pressing problems.

The pseudoscientific scale looksmaxxers use to rate each other

From a fish and chip shop in regional Queensland to the heart of Australian politics: this is the unlikely story of One Nation, Australia's most controversial minor party.

For thirty years, One Nation and Pauline Hanson have been ridiculed, dismissed and shut out. Now, no one is laughing. This week we're running the first episode of The Making of One Nation, a new series from The Conversation hosted by Ashlynne McGhee. She explores how a party built on fear and grievance thrived, died and rose again to upend Australian politics.

Hanson's infamous 1996 maiden speech to the Australian Senate — warning that Australia was "being swamped by Asians" — still echoes through Australian political life.

But who was Pauline Hanson before she became a phenomenon, and what did she actually represent? Was she a cause of a new kind of politics, or a symptom of one already forming?

We hear from Anna Broinowski, documentary maker and senior lecturer at the School of Art, Communication and English at the University of Sydney, who made a documentary and wrote a book about Hanson.

Follow The Making of One Nation to make sure you don't miss more episodes in the coming weeks.

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.

The Making of One Nation: the unlikely rise of Australia’s Pauline Hanson

Final preparations are underway for NASA’s Artemis II mission, the first crewed mission around the Moon for more than 50 years. Four astronauts, three men and one woman, will spend 10 days aboard the Orion spacecraft, going further into space than any other humans as they orbit the Moon and return to Earth.

The mission is the next step of the Artemis programme, which plans to land astronauts back to the Moon by 2028. China has its own programme targeting a full crewed mission to the lunar surface by 2030.

In this episode, we speak to Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University about why the US is going back to the Moon. Pace worked in space policy for the George W. Bush Administration, followed by a stint at NASA before his appointment as the executive secretary of the National Space Council during the first Trump administration, where he worked on the launch of the Artemis programme.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood and Gemma Ware was the executive producer. Mixing by Eleanor Brezzi and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the full credits for this episode and 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.

NASA’s Artemis II mission will take an astronaut crew around the Moon – a space policy expert describes the long road to launchNasa’s Artemis II mission is crucial as doubts build that America can beat China back to the MoonNASA announces a big shake-up of the Artemis Moon programNASA’s Artemis II crewed mission to the Moon shows how US space strategy has changed since Apollo – and contrasts with China’s closed programNASA’s Artemis II plans to send a crew around the Moon to test equipment and lay the groundwork for a future landing

Artemis II: NASA’s long road back to the Moon

The day after the US began bombing Iran, US Central Command confirmed it had used a new, cheap type of kamikaze drone called a Lucas for the first time in a combat operation. These drones were made in America, but their roots actually lie in Iran – they are reverse engineered copies of an Iranian drone called a Shahed that the Russians have also been using to bomb Ukraine.

In this episode, PhD researcher and military expert Arun Dawson at King's College London explains how the Iranians developed the Shaheds, why the US decided to copy them, and what role these low-cost drones might play in the future of warfare.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware was the executive producer. Mixing by Eleanor Brezzi and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the full credits for this episode and 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.

Not just Patriot interceptors: A defense expert explains the various weapons US and allies use to defend against missiles and dronesDrones over Ukraine: What the war means for the future of remotely piloted aircraft in combatIran war shows how AI speeds up military ‘kill chains’The US is using repurposed Iranian drone technology to attack Iran – a military expert explains why

Mentioned in this episode:

The Making of an Autocrat

Search "The Conversation Weekly" for our new series: The Making of an Autocrat.
Is America watching its democracy unravel in real time? In The Making of an Autocrat from The Conversation, six of the world’s pre-eminant scholars reveal the recipe for authoritarian rule. From capturing a party, to controlling the military, Donald Trump is borrowing from the playbook of strongmen thoughout history. This is the story of how democracies falter — and what might happen next.

How the US cloned Iran's drones

Six years ago, as countries around the world went into COVID lockdowns, the air got cleaner. Factories slowed down, roads emptied and aeroplanes were grounded. As people stayed home, the world burned fewer fossil fuels and so carbon dioxide emissions dropped.

But something else was also happening in the atmosphere. Levels of methane, an extremely potent greenhouse gas that warms the planet even faster than CO2, rose faster in 2020 than at any point since records began in the 1980s. And methane levels kept on rising during 2021 and 2022.

Ever since, scientists have been trying to piece together what caused this sudden mysterious increase in methane. Now, they think they have the answer – and it was partly due to COVID lockdowns.

In this episode, we speak to Philippe Ciais, a researcher at the Laboratory for Environmental and Climate Science at Université Paris-Saclay in France, and one of the authors of a new study in the journal Science about the spike in methane levels, who explains how they solved the mystery.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood and Gemma Ware was the executive producer. Mixing by Eleanor Brezzi and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the full credits for this episode and 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.

Pourquoi les émissions de méthane ont-elles bondi de 2020 à 2023 ? Une étude permet enfin de répondreWhy fixing methane leaks from the oil and gas industry can be a climate game-changer – one that pays for itselfCoronavirus lockdowns cut global carbon emissions by an estimated 7% – what happens now?Methane emissions are at new highs. It could put us on a dangerous climate path

Mentioned in this episode:

The Making of an Autocrat

Search "The Conversation Weekly" for our new series: The Making of an Autocrat.
Is America watching its democracy unravel in real time? In The Making of an Autocrat from The Conversation, six of the world’s pre-eminant scholars reveal the recipe for authoritarian rule. From capturing a party, to controlling the military, Donald Trump is borrowing from the playbook of strongmen thoughout history. This is the story of how democracies falter — and what might happen next.

Voices of the South

Mystery covid methane spike solved

As Israel and the US continued to bomb Iran after killing the country's supreme leader Ali Khamenei, Iran lashed out at its neighbours with multiple drone strikes, including against the US embassy in Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia and Iran have a long and bitter rivalry. Yet, in recent years, the Saudis had begun building new diplomatic relationship with Iran, even as they and other Gulf states continued to host American military bases, and court American investment.

Now the Gulf states find themselves in the middle of the very regional conflict many of its leaders hoped to avoid. It's one which threatens longstanding efforts to cement the Gulf as a hub for finance, travel and tourism, and as an oasis of security.

Were they blindsided? Or did some actually want the US to attack Iran? With the US and Israel seemingly calling the shots, what will the Gulf states do now?

In today's episode, we speak to Simon Mabon, a professor of international relations at Lancaster University in the UK and expert in Saudi-Iran relations, about how the Gulf's delicate balancing act between the US and Iran came toppling down.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood. The executive producers was Gemma Ware. Mixing by Eleanor Brezzi and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the full credits for this episode and 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.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Making of an Autocrat

Search "The Conversation Weekly" for our new series: The Making of an Autocrat.
Is America watching its democracy unravel in real time? In The Making of an Autocrat from The Conversation, six of the world’s pre-eminant scholars reveal the recipe for authoritarian rule. From capturing a party, to controlling the military, Donald Trump is borrowing from the playbook of strongmen thoughout history. This is the story of how democracies falter — and what might happen next.

Was the Gulf blindsided on Iran?

South Korea’s very low birth rate and ageing population have long served as a cautionary tale for other governments worried that they’ll see similar demographic challenges.

But now, for the second year running, more people in South Korea are having children. The 6.8% rise in births in 2025 is the largest rise since 2007, and has taken the country’s total fertility rate to 0.80, up from 0.75 in 2024. The news is being cautiously celebrated, but with South Korea’s overall population still shrinking, it is yet to reverse its demographic fortunes.

In this episode, we speak to Stuart Gietel-Basten, a demographer and professor of social science and public policy at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, about how South Korea has got to this point and some of the structural issues the country still faces.

This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware and Katie Flood. Mixing by Eleanor Brezzi and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the full credits for this episode and 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.

Japan is not the only country worrying about population decline – get used to a two-speed worldChina’s population decline is a result of decades of botched family planning measures and will have global implicationsSouth Korea’s gender imbalance is bad news for men − outnumbering women, many face bleak marriage prospects

Mentioned in this episode:

The Making of an Autocrat

Search "The Conversation Weekly" for our new series: The Making of an Autocrat.
Is America watching its democracy unravel in real time? In The Making of an Autocrat from The Conversation, six of the world’s pre-eminant scholars reveal the recipe for authoritarian rule. From capturing a party, to controlling the military, Donald Trump is borrowing from the playbook of strongmen thoughout history. This is the story of how democracies falter — and what might happen next.

South Korea's birth rate is rising, but the population is still shrinking

As the 21st century dawned, a newly-elected Vladmir Putin was making friends on the world stage. He smiled for photo ops at G8 meetings, and was the first foreign leader to call George W. Bush after the attacks of 9/11, offering his support against terrorism.

So what changed? To understand Russia's view of the world now – and its continued aggression towards Ukraine – it helps to know more about the psyche of the country and its leader.

In today's episode, we talk to James Rodgers, a reader in international journalism at City St George's, University of London, about how a festering sense of national humiliation after the collapse of the Soviet Union hardened Putin's tough man regime and led Russia to turn its back on the west.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware with editing help from Ashlynne McGhee. Mixing by Michelle Macklem and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the full credits for this episode and 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.

Vladimir Putin’s history war where truth is the first casualtyThe painful post-Soviet transition from communism to capitalism – Recovery podcast series part fiveIn pushing for Ukraine elections, Trump is falling into Putin-laid trap to delegitimize Zelenskyy

Mentioned in this episode:

The Making of an Autocrat

Search "The Conversation Weekly" for our new series: The Making of an Autocrat.
Is America watching its democracy unravel in real time? In The Making of an Autocrat from The Conversation, six of the world’s pre-eminant scholars reveal the recipe for authoritarian rule. From capturing a party, to controlling the military, Donald Trump is borrowing from the playbook of strongmen thoughout history. This is the story of how democracies falter — and what might happen next.

The pseudoscientific scale looksmaxxers use to rate each other

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