Counterpoint

Could mental illness be more than dysfunction? How do animals gain and hold power? What does water want and why are rewilding inverterbrates?

Has American life become stupid? If it has what does it have to do with Twitter and Facebook? Why are more and more Chinese moving to the countryside? Superheroes, they have been around forever so why are the cureent movies getting a bit of h

Hey you, yes you, you're wonderful. Yes, you really are. Does trashy media rot your brain? Diversity is all the rage but is it worth it and are we really better than animals?

Can we lighten our mental load by being cheerful? What is oikophobia and why might it be dangerous? Are inventors disrupters? Do they need to be? Would you take a placebo? What if it actually worked?

Tackling key social, economic and cultural issues in Australian life, challenging assumptions.

Is the European Union still united? Does it matter? Why do Buddhists kill and is there any hidden meaning behind the giving and receiving of gifts? Did you know that moving endangered species might actually save them?

Can we compare the propaganda of culture in Stalinist Russia to today? Why do social media followers resemble birds and can a flood ever be a good thing. Plus the sand battery and how it may just transform clean energy

Why aren't there more women in power in China? How we can use anxiety to our advantage and why all invasive species aren't bad....except the cane toad.

Is Russia on the verge of collapse? It's our life, shoudl it also be our death? What should we do with any excess masks and gloves and COVID-19 in animals - we give it to them.

Why did Putin really invade Ukraine? For Russia or for himself? How much influence has America had over China? They've certainly embraced social media and influencers but to what extent?

Are we really going through an energy transition or has the use of coal actually increased over recent years? Why is ASEAN so divided right now? What is behind the glittery facade of A.I. and why have some creatures remained unchanged for millions and millions of years?

What happens in the school run by Britain's strictest head teacher? Here's a hint...ssshhhh. AI can be the stuff of nightmares but did you know it can also write a book, just put it in a couple of lines and it will write a story based on what you asked for. Perhaps in the language of Shakespeare or maybe Austen. What's better being strong r being shrewd. In the animal world that difference matters and shrewdness wins almost every time.

Are Australian cities in decline and if they are is it because of COVID-19 or bad planning decisions? Are we in an environmental paradox with mining for car batteries? W hat happened when India introduced some cheetahs and just how sacred are cows in India?

Has the invasion of Ukraine created an opportunity for revitalising the West? Are the United States and China living through a gilded age? Is the rush for electric cars ruining the environment and is doing good things is good for you, isn't it?

How will China balance it's no-limit friendship with Russia in light of events in Ukraine? ESG is the new business buzz but what does it mean and how will it work? Plus what did kids play with in ancient times and why might fish poo help with coral bleaching?

How are Russian sanctions viewed in Russia and what role does luck play in war and life? Plus how do we know what we don't know and how do we know we need to know it?

One of the tensions in the world right now is wether or not China will invade Taiwan. If that did happen two immediate risks would be '(a) potential disruptions to digital flows from vulnerable submarine cables with landing stations in Taiwan and (b) the delay or disruption of container shipments in the Taiwan Strait, South China Sea, and East China Sea'. reminds us that 'Taiwan has an outsized role in the global advanced semiconductor chip industry, and disruptions to the supply of these chips or to US companies’ digital communications with Taiwanese partners would unsettle the US tech sector and nearly every industry that uses advanced computer chips'. That' people’s day-to-day lives increasingly rely on wireless connectivity, but the bedrock of the internet is submarine cables lining the ocean floor'. She says that 'new evidence reveals the points of interest for China, which include economic centers, potential military locations, and submarine cable landing stations' and believes that we need to 'work with Taiwanese authorities and other Indo-Pacific allies and partners to improve security for submarine cables and their landing stations, as well as engage in contingency planning for container shipping trafficThen, (at 18 mins) we tend to think that hygiene was not as significant in medieval times as it is today. But, as points out, 'the filthiness of medieval people should not be exaggerated. Much evidence shows that personal hygiene mattered..., that they made an effort to keep clean. Popular advice books recommended washing the hands, face and teeth on rising, plus further handwashing throughout the day'. They were also told to frequently launder their clothes and to change their underwear every day.That is, unless you were a member of the clergy. They embraced lice and other parasites as a sign of devotion, 'concealing their penitential garments, and the creatures that lived in them, under their splendid vestments.Also, (at 29 mins) if you were due to have an operation you would expect the hospital to be clean and as germ free as possible. The operating theatre itself would be pristine and the risk of infection from airborne germs, minuscule. It wasn't always like that. Richard Hollingham takes us back to before things were clean, when 'surgeons wore their outdoor coats, the bed linen wasn’t washed regularly, they carried their instruments around in their pockets. Some surgeons even proudly reused bandages and dressings between patients, preferring not to waste valuable hospital resource'. This all changed, he explains, with Joseph Lister and carbolic acid, first poured directly into the wound and then as a spray in the operating theatre to stope the spread of germs. Between Lister and Florence Nightingale, who insisted on' the importance of handwashing, hygiene and ventilation, as well as how to make patients feel comfortable and cared-for'., the operating theatre became a much safer place.Then, (at 43 mins) Amanda gets on her soapbox to rant about our energy use.Finally (at 44 mins) how much water do plants actually need to grow? reminds us that 'plants are mostly made up of water – about 80% by weight. So we might expect plants would need around four grams of water for each gram of dry mass to achieve their ideal level of hydration'. They need a lot more 'water to grow. To produce one gram of new dry mass, a plant needs about 300 grams of water'. He tells us about stomata which is on the leaves, and what happens when they open and shut'. He tells about a 15 year study that has been looking at stomata and says that ' it appears plants can effectively control water loss from their leaves while stomata remain open, allowing carbon dioxide to continue diffusing into the leaf to support photosynthesis. And that 'over the coming decades, global warming will make the atmosphere increasingly thirsty for evaporated water. We are pleased to report that nature may yet reveal secrets that can be harnessed to boost plant production with limited water resources'.

What does God smell like? Maybe violets or perhaps freshly made coffee? Why do we have to die and why were we all moved by the images the James Webb telescope? Also rewilding, bringing the bison and other large animals back to where they belong.

Are there really reasons to be cheerful? Maybe or maybe not but smile, it's infectious! Are liberalism and conservatism different sides of the same coin? Does nudge theory work and how can our animals cross the road without being hit by a car?

Do you know how fabulous you are? How truly wonderful your existence is? Take a moment and bask in the wonder that is you. Then have a think about innovators, do they have to be disruptive and even if they do, are they actually, more than anything else, clever marketing people? Is ageing a disease and why tree planting projects aren't always a good thing.

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, where to next for democracy and autocracy divide in Europe? What happens when Chinese female students go home after studying abroad. Do we really need to do hard things more often and what do the tn lids have to say about that?

It doesn't always seem as if China is a part of the real world. Usually, it is seen as representing a different 'other' to us. Why is that? Are you a tolerant person and what does that even mean? Is being tolerant more difficult than being indifferent? When did Australian children get to read about Australian fairy rather than European ones filled with Kings and Queens and castles?

Is Russian oil in decline, and if it is, is it the result of the war with Ukraine? One of the distinguishing features of the invasion of Ukraine was the amount of people willing to take up arms to defend their homeland. Would you be prepared to do the same? The 'Plant Destroyer' is here to stay and would be better off thinking of ourselves as Earth's Aunties' and Uncles?

China's rapidly evolving social media industry is being used to influence audiences within and beyond it's territory. How invasive is it and can anything be done? There used to be a bit of a digital regime in Asia, what happened to it? Plus can Indigenous knowledge of fire and the land be called science? How could it not. And might the genetics of ancient tress be the thing that saves them?

In 1990 Boris Yeltsin gave a speech in Kyiv to announce that Ukraine was free at last. What happened? The crises we face today are global in nature and more frequent, do we need a global approach to fix them? Does trashy media really rot your brain? People have being say that it does ever since the invention of the printing press but is it true? Plus the fascinating history and hopeful survival of the nautilis.

In the wake of COVID and the war in Ukraine is it time to rethink global supply chain models? Is the war putting green tech progres in jeopardy? China's populations is shrinking and ageing, what does that mean for China and the world? What does recently discovered children's rock from the Ice Ages tell us about their lives and their place in the family?

Is Myanmar both a tragedy and a wicked problem and what does it mean for the promised 2023 election? If it goes ahead will it be free and fare or a farce? If the US goes to war with China should Australia follow? Perhaps we need to look back to go forward. The fascinating history of the smile, especially in art and is there an alternative to wind farms? Sure is..flying a kite!

What does having a worthwhile life mean? Is it all about academic achievement and a high wage or it something more? How dangerous and how prevalent is piracy in Southeast Asian waters? Hint, just under a half of all pirate attacks so far this year have occurred in these waters. Superhero movies have recently had their share of naysayers but have they got it all wrong? Space is not the vast empty nothingness we think it is. To protect it should we start thinking of space as an eco-system?

Is it time to decolonize Russia? What is the best and worst city to be living in right now? Hint one is Vienna and the other is Damascus. We trust our plumbers but not our politicians, why is that? And the stinging nettle plant, sure the sting has a bite but the potential uses for this plant are endless.

Why has Russia's military been so weak against Ukraine? Is this a new thing or more of a case of ever thus? Antarctica is the most protected and yet the most threatened place on earth. How do we solve this paradox? Did you know that there has been a surge in saltiness in all inhabited continents today. How has it gotten this bad and have we left it too late to do anything? How quickly are wild animals evolving and adapting to problems such as climate change? Quicker than you think.

Has American life become 'uniquely stupid? If so how did it happen and what does it have to do with a like button? We need to start feeding the earth, after all it feeds us, but with what? We have the answer in our bodies right now. The world wars produced some of the greatest poetry we know, why have recent conflicts not done the same?

What is China saying on social media about the war in Ukraine? Might the war offer opportunities to revive the WTO? The planet is now a political entity, how did that happen? Plus we are on the verge of a green steel revolution. If so, how will it work?

What does French President Emmanuel Macron actually stand for? What is Macronism? Why are some shipping companies avoiding the rules and regulations when it comes to the breaking up of ships and what are they doing instead? Nothing good. Plus Chinese people are moving from the city to the country in search of a better life and the gross yet amazing things that animals do to find a mate and to protect themselves.

Asa result of the invasion of Ukraine should Australia be looking to strengthen its relationship with Europe? Diversity is all the rage but is it all that it's meant to be? Do human beings really have a higher moral value than animals and how much could we learn if instead of architects digging up castles and tombs of noblemen and queens, they concentrated on how the ordinary people lived in ancient times.

What if anything can China and Xi learn from the invasion of Ukraine? Were the reports that said that COVID had brought the end of the era of globalisation greatly exaggerated? Do you get FOMO and should we be able to experiment and fail at work sometimes?

Does Australia have a fuel security problem? Is there a human cost to decarbonising the global economy and how high is it? Why are Indigenous voices missing from the space race and what can be done to fix it and what is life like in Transnistria and other breakaway states?

Might the Shanghai lockdown be the beginning of the end for Xi? What are the UN doing about the situation in Ukraine and what might the hugely successful way Ukrainians' have used the internet during this war mean for Big Tech? Plus lighting the way forward using plants and animals.

It used to be that most startups could be found in Silicon Valley or Seattle, that is no longer the case. Now they can be found almost anywhere. How did that happen? History has a habit of repeating itself; why don't we notice? We also haven't noticed that we are losing the sounds of birds and animals and if we don't start paying attention there will only be the sounds of sile

Can we compare Putin's leadership with that of the Queen? What is oikophobia and do you have any? Plus women in military bands and how about some boiled tongue for dinner tonight?

Does the rules-based international order actually exist or is it just a bit of a myth? What about the grey zone or even natural laws? Do they work, can they be broken and why do they matter? Plus placebo's. They can actually work even when you know it's a placebo.

Does on-line hate speech really lead to real world extremism? What effect does banning this kind of hate speech have and could it be just as potentially harmful as the speech itself?

In these confusing and confronting times might there be some ancient wisdom that we could turn to that will help guide us through? Have Russia and Ukraine always been so inextricably linked? Are there limits to libertarianism and are all natural disasters the result of climate change?

The Dutch are famous for more than clogs and tulips and cheese, they are also famous for free speech. This contributed to making the Dutch Republic an early modern epicentre of art, learning, publishing, philosophy, and science. What do our Asian neighbours think about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and what does the invasion mean for cyberwarfare. Are you happy? Or maybe content? Which is better?

What is hot capital and why is it on the rise? How big is the threat of chemical waste in our oceans and what can we do about it? Not all fringe ideas are nonsense, some will lead to something important but how do we tell the difference and what happened to the tree seeds on Apollo 14? Are they lost?

The world is full of brilliant jerks, that is people who are leaders that have distasteful traits. How do we balance the very best of them with the very worst? Plus the growth and growth of the Chinese space program and do you hear that bird chirping? Is it saying anything in particular? Probably.

Where are all of the used masks and personal protective equipment, along with used test kits and discarded vaccine syringes ending up? The ocean. Why? What does history tell us about dictators, particularly in China and Russia, and does that help explain what is happening in both countries now? Why 'Do Your Research' is so manipulative and the worst year on record...it's not 2020, 21 or 22.

Can we use the same methods as intelligence officers do to help plan for our own future? Did you know that India has some of the most spectacular fossils on the planet, including the Rajasaurus narmaadensis? Plus has work taken over our lives and laughing out loud at the wrong time.

What is Putin really doing on the Ukraine border? Trying to start a war or a conversation? In their opposition to nuclear power, have environmentalists become a bigger threat to effective climate policy than deniers? Plus Victorian era values in our inventors and entrepreneurs and why if you care about animals you should eat them .

Chinese children have some new text books featuring Grandpa Xi. They feature his wisdom and caring nature but what is behind the every growing personality cult of Xi Jinping? Why are wealthier countries trying to stop fossil fuel projects in Africa? Afterall the average Tanzanian used only one-sixth the electricity consumed by a typical American refrigerator. Plus the wonderful Hudsonian Godwit and the clever tricks of the Opossum

If we looked back at ourselves in 10,000 years time what would we think of now and how we get here? What is the difference between a liberal and a progressive and where did the concept of a seven day week come from? What can we learn from statues and what do they really represent?