Strange Health wins best health and wellbeing podcast award
The Conversation, CC BY Strange Health, a video podcast produced by The Conversation UK, has won the best health and wellbeing award at the Publisher Podcast Awards 2026. The judges said it was “an entertaining podcast with a winning combination of host discussion and academic specialists”. Hosted by Katie Edwards, a health and medicine editor […]
Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey reveals a darker, less triumphant heroism
Warning: this review contains spoilers for The Odyssey. Christopher Nolan’s US$250m (£187m), three-hour epic starring Matt Damon as the Greek king fighting his way home from Troy took more than $264m on its opening weekend – comfortably tripling the opening take of his Oscar-winning Oppenheimer in 2023. It has earned Nolan the best reviews of […]
Soft plastic recycling laws have been delayed – an expert explains why
RymanStudio/Shutterstock Mandatory kerbside collection of soft plastic (crisp packets, bread bags, plastic wrap) has just been pushed back from 2027 to 2030. On July 16, the UK government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) quietly confirmed this change. The reason, according to Defra, is that the facilities and infrastructure just aren’t ready to […]
How young people make their politics heard in Manchester
Sibrapid/Shutterstock Back in early 2017, Greater Manchester was preparing to hold the inaugural elections for its first directly elected mayor. At the time, we were part of an EU funded research project exploring youth participation in politics. We attended mayoral youth hustings organised by members of local youth councils. Candidates for the position – including […]
What the lotus flower reveals about veteran PTSD in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey
Warning: this article contains spoilers for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. In Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, Odysseus (played by Matt Damon) is lost not only at sea, but within his own memories. On the island of the nymph Calypso (Charlize Theron), eating lotus flowers offers him relief from the trauma of Troy, allowing him to forget […]
Burnham and Trump – what the new prime minister should remember about UK-US ties
Michael Tubi/Shutterstock The hard work of government has begun for Andy Burnham. The new prime minister will be forced to confront a multitude of thorny issues, among which is the question of the UK’s partnership with the US. So what will the so-called “special relationship” look like in the Burnham-Trump era, and how can Burnham […]
Why Odysseus couldn’t just say: ‘I’m home’
Warning: this article contains spoilers for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Ten years at Troy. Ten more lost at sea. When Odysseus finally reaches Ithaca – in Homer’s poem and again, played by Matt Damon in Christopher Nolan’s new film – he doesn’t walk through the door and say who he is. He lies. He invents […]
What the sudden demise of the UK’s department of science means for the future of research
The obituaries were being written before the body was cold. Within hours of Prime Minister Andy Burnham confirming that Whitehall’s responsibilities for science and technology would be absorbed into a new Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (DBIST), Sir Paul Nurse, president of the Royal Society, was on Radio 4 warning that “science isn’t […]
Storms that built a graveyard: ancient monsoons created a spectacular dinosaur fossil site
Around 80 million years ago, a stretch of tropical coastline in what is now north-eastern Italy was lashed by monsoon rains and tropical cyclones. Those storms swept dinosaur carcasses, crocodiles, plants and river mud onto a tidal flat, where the tides and a film of microbes sealed everything away with extraordinary preservation. My colleagues and […]
One in ten medicines worldwide could be fake or substandard – here’s how to protect yourself
Shidlovski/Shutterstock.com Anyone who has bought medicine online may have wondered whether what arrived in the post was really what they’d paid for. They are not alone. A recent global survey found that around 60% of people fear their medicines could be fake – and the unsettling truth is that they have good reason to. About […]