The COVID Conversation

Meet the inventor of an amazing implant that delivers some independence to people paralysed by conditions such as Motor Neuron Disease. Also this episode: the cancer-like growth of cyber-squatting and how to protect yourself against it; and a new lighting system in a neo-natal unit that keeps the doctors awake at night, and the babies happily asleep. Plus, how obesity works against the brain’s ability to heal itself.

News media here and abroad have reported – or fretted by way of speculation – that our children, who have spent months remote-learning, have been falling so woefully behind, it’s going to affect them for the rest of their lives. It’s a disaster. Is that true? This episode we're asking three experts to put the COVID impact on families and on learning into some perspective. We ask: to what extent do parents, teachers and children need to manage their expectations of one another and of themselves? With the end of the school year looming, this is a timely investigation.

Most women under 30 think there is a vaccine for ovarian cancer, and there is not. A Melbourne chemistry researcher tells how some energy drinks contain high levels of a carcinogenic agent: it’s turning up by accident as a by-product of the manufacturing process and until now the makers were probably unaware it was happening. An even stranger tale is that of the ghost of an exploding star that has been haunting earth for 33,000 years. Meet the bird that saves its biggest songs for the full moon. Find out why women are clamming up about their birth experiences. And ponder how technology is changing the social dynamic of mental health care because of COVID-19.

In the latest episode of our health and science podcast, we learn why our sun might have a long, lost evil twin. AI technology under development that can predict violent attacks on women. An Australian company's innovative bid to transform heart valve technology. God brought to life as an algorithm. And more.

In the latest episode of our health and science podcast, we learn why seahorses need a big dance floor, how jealousy in our friendships helps keep society together, why drinking water might hold the key to lowering the suicide rate, some vitamin news, why the stockmarket thrives while the real world does not, and we meet the Australian scientists who are developing an insurance policy in case a COVID-19 vaccine is slow in coming.

In the latest episode of our health and science podcast, we meet a scientist experimenting with a kitchen sink COVID-19 vaccine, we find out why dingoes are getting bigger, what teeth have to say about us when we die and more.

Invisibility cloaks for fish, red-light therapy success for declining eyesight, the good news about corona babies, and more.

Historian Dale Blair gives some context to Captain Cook, and tells of the redemptive story of Confederate General who deserves to be well remembered.

Criminologist Emma Ryan says Australian police lack oversight in their use of tasers. She says we need a new plan for what minimum force actually means.

With the decline of religion and the rise of the individual, how do home-made notions of right and wrong make for a good society?

We first knew Stephen Curry as the loveable teenage optimist Dale Kerrigan from The Castle. Now, in the age of COVID-19, he has a family of his own.

The pandemic has seen many young people move home with their parents, some with their own children. The reliance on support from the older generation seems bound to get deeper.

COVID-19 put some doctors out of business. Now, says Dr Chris Moy, Australians need to see their GPs at the first sign of a sore throat or running noise as part of keeping the virus contained.

Are people inherently built for a privacy take-over by technology? Where did the idea of privacy come from and how can it be protected? As discussed by Professors of Law Jeannie Paterson and Megan Richardson.

Living National Treasure Tim Costello talks about the silver linings to be found in the pandemic and why Nick Cave has turned to prayer.

Facing up to the ethical challenges of who survives, and who keeps their jobs, Dr Simon Longstaff says there are no easy answers, or certainties, when looking to do the right thing.

An expert in public policy and innovation, Professor Kishore talks about the problem of loneliness, the use of technology to solve human frailties, and the need to boldly rethink about the way we plan our economy to make it more resilient ahead of future crises.

The famed Nobel Laureate talks about why we will get a vaccine and what happens if we don't. He teases apart why our immune system so often lets us down and explains some of the complicating factors of a virus that he says isn't so mysterious. He also lets fly with what's making him angry.

For more than twenty years, David Chalke has taken the pulse of Australia's cultural attitudes and what we have faith in. COVID-19 has both upended and confirmed some of our prejudices. He says we're now living more in the 18th century. But what does the future hold when the plague is over?

Respected psychologist and social commentator Lyn Bender talks about how the radical change we’re experiencing in our world mirrors the challenge facing clients who lie on her couch. Everyone wants to know when their world will be fixed. But the world has changed. And the way we see it needs to change too, so we can emotionally survive life with the virus. And then, says Lyn Bender, we can make a workable peace with our new situation.