Across Europe, far-right movements are gaining ground. By normalising nationalist rhetoric and challenging democratic institutions, these parties raise comparisons with former periods of fascism on the continent. Between 1943 and 1945, when Nazi forces occupied northern Italy, ordinary people in towns and villages across the country took up arms against fascism in one of Europe’s largest resistance movements. Now, 80 years later, in many of these same towns, anti-fascist sentiment remains unusually strong. In this episode, we speak to political scientist Juan Masullo at Leiden University, who’s been finding out about the enduring legacy of these partisan movements. This episode was hosted by Gemma Ware and written and produced by Mend Mariwany. Sound design and mixing by Eloise Stevens 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.
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How Europe dropped the ball on its own defence
The language from European leaders was fawning and obsequious. At one point, the head of Nato, Mark Rutte, even called Donald Trump “daddy”. But when the US president left the Nato summit in late June, there was a sigh of relief that he had not made any more angry criticism of the alliance. And after months of American pressure, Nato members agreed to increase their spending on defence to 5% of GDP by 2035. So how did Europe become so unable to defend itself that it was forced to resort to outright flattery of an American president?In this episode, we report from the recent Siena Conference on the Europe of the Future in Italy about how the EU dropped the ball on its own defence and what its options are now. Featuring Ana E. Juncos, professor of European politics and the University of Bristol in the UK, Francesco Grillo, academic fellow at Bocconi University in Italy, and François Lafond, former assistant professor at Sciences Po University in France and a former advisor to the Western Balkans.This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware with assistance from Katie Flood and Mend Mariwany. Sound design and mixing by Eloise Stevens 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.
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Autism, RFK Jr and avoiding disability surveillance
Robert F Kennedy Jr caused controversy in April by promising to find a cause for autism by September. Claims by the new US secretary for health and human services that autism is a “preventable disease” with an environmental cause, contradict a body of research that suggests autism is caused by a combination of genetic and external factors.The US government announced that to support its new research effort into autism it would build a “data platform” involving data on claims, medical records and consumer wearables. In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, we speak to Amy Gaeta, a research associate at University of Cambridge in the UK who studies disability surveillance. Gaeta talks us through some of the strategies people are using to avoid potential surveillance, from self-diagnosis, to withholding information or being careful with the language they use to describe themselves. This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Sound design and mixing by Eloise Stevens 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.
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Self-censorship and what drives it
Faced with the choice in their daily lives, their work or their politics, why do some people decide to keep quiet, to censor themselves in anticipatory obedience, even if they’re not ordered to do so? In this episode we talk to self-censorship expert Daniel Bar-Tal at Tel Aviv University about what drives people to censor themselves, and its consequences for society.This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Sound design and mixing by Eloise Stevens 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.
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Cash for releasing sharks has a catch
As Jaws marks its 50th anniversary, sharks continue to get a bad rap. Film after film portrays them as terrifying hunters, the bane of surfers and swimmers. But in Indonesia, sharks are the hunted. It’s the world’s largest shark-fishing nation, with more species of sharks found in Indonesian waters than in any other country.So Indonesia was the ideal place for conservation scientist Hollie Booth at the University of Oxford to test out a new idea: would paying fishermen to release any sharks and rays caught accidentally in their nets help to keep more alive? Listen to Booth and her colleague M. Said Ramdlan in Indonesia discuss the unintended consequences of the incentive programme. This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware with assistance from Katie Flood and Mend Mariwany. Sound design and mixing by Eloise Stevens 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.
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.
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