The Conversation Weekly

Chronic pain affects hundreds of millions of people around the world. But the opioid crisis in North America led many health care providers to realize they relied too heavily on drugs to help patients manage their pain.In this episode, a pain management specialist discusses new developments in pain treatment and why there’s hope for patients with chronic pain. Rachael Rzasa Lynn Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus speaks to Amanda Mascarelli Senior Health and Medicine Editor at The Conversation in the US about emerging chronic pain treatments.This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive editor. Full credits available here. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation. To support what we do, please consider donating to The Conversation.Further reading:New treatments offer much-needed hope for patients suffering from chronic painChronic pain can be objectively measured using brain signals – new researchUnderstanding that chronic back pain originates from within the brain could lead to quicker recovery, a new study findsHow cannabis and psilocybin might help some of the 50 million Americans who are experiencing chronic pain

Across the world, fans will soon be tuning in at all hours of the day and night to watch the Paris Olympics. In a world where on-demand media streaming is now increasingly the norm, sport is something of a rarity. It’s watched live, often with other people. Can something as simple as watching a sporting competition at the same time bring people closer together? In this episode, we explore this question with a Garriy Shteynberg an associate professor of psychology at the University of Tennessee in the US who studies the impact of shared experiences.We're running a listener survey to hear what you think about the podcast. It should take just a few minutes of your time and we’d really appreciate your thoughts. You can fill it in here.This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive editor. Full credits available here. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation. To support what we do, please consider donating to The Conversation.Further reading and listening:‘Collective mind’ bridges societal divides − psychology research explores how watching the same thing can bring people togetherHow to depolarise deeply divided societies – podcastMore coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics across The Conversation

A few days after Labour leader Keir Starmer was elected British prime minister on July 4 with a landslide victory, ending 14 years of Conservative-led rule, a coalition of left-wing parties came out on top in the French legislative elections. It was a good week for the left in this corner of Europe.In this episode, we’ve brought together an expert from each country to help analyse the results and what they tell us about the right in French and British politics. Featuring Tim Bale, Professor of Politics, Queen Mary University of London and Safia Dahani, post-doctoral researcher in sociology at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.We're running a listener survey to hear what you think about the podcast. It should take just a few minutes of your time and we’d really appreciate your thoughts. You can fill it in here.This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive editor. Full credits available here. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation. To support what we do, please consider donating to The Conversation.Further reading:French elections: ‘Power will shift from the presidential palace to the National Assembly and the Senate’« La légitimation de l’extrême droite est autant le fait d’autres partis que de l’espace médiatique »Starmer must seize the chance to rethink the UK-Europe relationship – here’s how he can do itTory wipeout delivers landslide Labour victory: what the experts say

Seagrass, a marine plant that flowers underwater, has lots of environmental benefits – from storing carbon to preventing coastal erosion. In this episode, we speak to Isabel Key, a marine ecologist at the University of Edinburgh in the UK, about her work recording the soundscape of Scottish seagrass meadows to uncover more about the creatures living within them.She also explains how this is the first step in the development of a seagrass sound library and potentially even artificial intelligence tools that could help us better understand the sounds of the sea. This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive editor. Full credits available here. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation. To support what we do, please consider donating to The Conversation. Further reading:Seagrass meadows are rapidly expanding near inhabited islands in Maldives – here’s whyMeet the world’s largest plant: a single seagrass clone stretching 180 km in Western Australia’s Shark BaySeagrass is a marine powerhouse, so why isn’t it on the world’s conservation agenda?

We’re bringing you an extra episode this week from Don’t Call Me Resilient, another podcast from The Conversation. Hosted by Vinita Srivastava at The Conversation in Canada, Don’t Call Me Resilient is your weekly dose of news and current events through a sharply-focused anti-racist lens.In this episode Vinita talks to Nisrin Elamin about the ongoing war in Sudan, which has displaced more than 10m people. Elamin, an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology and African Studies at the University of Toronto in Canada, says that in the absence of a properly functioning government and looming famine, grassroots groups are stepping in to help people survive. This episode originally aired on May 30, 2024.You can listen to or follow Don’t Call Me Resilient on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcasts.Further reading and listening: Iran’s intervention in Sudan’s civil war advances its geopolitical goals − but not without risksSudan’s descent into chaos sets stage for al-Qaida to make a return to historic strongholdSudan’s civil war is rooted in its historical favouritism of Arab and Islamic identity

3D-printed guns are now appearing the world over, including in the hands of organised criminals in Europe and anti-junta rebels in Myanmar. Made using a 3D printer and a few metal parts that can be easily sourced online, these shadow guns are untraceable, and becoming a popular choice for extremists too. In this episode, we talk to researcher Rajan Basra at King's College London about this clandestine world, and about his hunt to uncover the real identity of the man who designed the world's most popular 3D-printed gun, the FGC-9. Read an article by Basra from our Insights series about his research too. This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware with assistance from Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive editor. Full credits available here. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.Further readingWhat are ‘ghost guns,’ a target of Biden’s anti-crime effort?American gun culture is based on frontier mythology – but ignores how common gun restrictions were in the Old West

A controversial British government plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda has been central to the UK’s response to a recent sharp increase in the number of people making the dangerous journey across the English Channel in small boats. But if the Conservative party lose the general election in early July, the Rwanda plan is likely to be abandoned.In this episode, two experts in UK immigration policy explain how the Rwanda plan became such a crucial part of the immigration debate in the UK. And how, whatever happens in the election, it’s already shifting the wider conversation in Europe about how to deal with migrants and asylum seekers.Featuring Nando Sigona, professor of international migration and forced displacement and director of the Institute for Research into International Migration and Superdiversity at the University of Birmingham and Michaela Benson, professor in public sociology at Lancaster University. They're both co-hosts of the Who do we think we are? podcast. This episode also includes an introduction from Avery Anapol, one of the politics team at The Conversation in the UK.This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany with assistance from Katie Flood. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive editor. Full credits available here. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.Further reading and listening: Is the Rwanda plan acting as a deterrent? Here’s what the evidence says about this approachRwanda asylum deportation plan faces more delays – how did we get here?Bespoke humanitarian visa schemes like those for Ukraine and Hong Kong can’t replace the asylum systemI’ve spent time with refugees in French coastal camps and they told me the government’s Rwanda plan is not putting them off coming to the UKMore coverage of the UK general election

It’s one of the biggest puzzles in cosmology. Why two different methods used to calculate the rate at which the universe is expanding don’t produce the same result. Known as the Hubble tension, the enigma suggests that there could be something wrong with the standard model of cosmology used to explain the forces in the universe. Now, recent observations using the new James Webb Space Telescope are shaking up the debate on how close the mystery is to being resolved.In this episode, Vicent J. Martínez, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Valencia in Spain, and his former teacher, Bernard J.T. Jones, emeritus professor of astronomy at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, explain why the Hubble tension matters so much for our understanding of the universe. Also featuring Lorena Sánchez, science editor at The Conversation in Spain. This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive editor. Full credits available here. A transcript will be available shortly. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.Further reading and listening: Tensión sobre la tensión de Hubble (in Spanish)Great Mysteries of Physics: a mind-blowing podcast from The Conversation The universe is expanding faster than theory predicts – physicists are searching for new ideas that might explain the mismatchCosmological models are built on a simple, century-old idea – but new observations demand a radical rethink

If you’ve ever experienced a state of creative flow, perhaps when writing, playing music, or even gardening, you’ll know that it feels like everything just clicks into place. But what is actually happening inside the brain? In this episode, we speak to a neuroscientist who scanned the brains of jazz musicians as they were improvising, and revealed the secret ingredients need to achieve a state of flow. Featuring John Kounios, professor of psychological and brain sciences at Drexel University in the US, plus an introduction from Kate Kilpatrick, Philadelphia editor at The Conversation in the US.This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany, with assistance from Katie Flood. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive editor. Full credits available here. A transcript is available here. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.Further reading and listening: Brain scans of Philly jazz musicians reveal secrets to reaching creative flowFlow: people who are easily absorbed in an activity may have better mental and cardiovascular healthThe biological switch that could turn neuroplasticity on and off in the brain – podcast