Do you really know?

What is squirting? Thanks for asking! OK, so from their teenage years onwards most men get used to fluid shooting out of their genitals on a regular basis. But female ejaculation is a thing too, and it’s known colloquially as squirting. Most often, it’s when a woman expels fluid from the vulva either before or during an orgasm. It’s generally seen as a pleasurable sensation, even when it doesn’t h...

What are Fan Tokens? Thanks for asking! Even if you’re not a football fan, you can’t have missed the news of Lionel Messi’s recent transfer to Paris Saint Germain in mid-August. But you may not have heard details of the star’s €30M sign-on package at PSG, a significant proportion of which was paid in the club’s Fan Token cryptocurrency. The move led to a spike in PSG trading, with the token value...

What is terraforming? Thanks for asking! If you’re a fan of sci-fi, the idea of terraformation should be familiar. It refers to all the techniques and technologies which aim to transform the surface of a planet, making it suitable for human inhabitation. Basically, it means making a planet similar to Earth. To make a Hollywood comparison, that’s exactly the purpose of the Weyland-Yutani company in...

What is a deepfake? Thanks for asking! “Seeing is believing”, as the old saying goes, but in this day and age, you can never quite be sure, especially when viewing something online. Deepfaking is a technique used to create fake videos of real people, with the help of AI technology.  They’ve got a lot of attention in recent years, often as a source of light-hearted entertainment. But experts have a...

What is empty nest syndrome? Thanks for asking! With the summer holiday season drawing to a close, many university students are preparing to leave home for the first time and head to campus accommodation. While they’re enjoying freshers week, chances are their parents may be finding it unsettling that their child is no longer present at home. That’s even more likely when it’s their last child who’...

What is air rage? Thanks for asking! Many of us have not set foot on an aeroplane for quite some time, and the idea of being crammed alongside other passengers for a long flight is potentially unnerving, what with Covid still circulating.  Of late, a number of amateur clips have gone viral, showing passengers becoming aggressive and sometimes even violent towards fellow fliers or airline staff. Su...

What are silent discos? Thanks for asking! I don’t know about you but I sure miss partying the night away. In the age of social distancing, most of us can barely remember what it’s like to be part of a crowd dancing together in a club. While we wait for life to slowly get back to how it was pre-Covid, you might be interested to know about another kind of party. Even your neighbours are unlikely to...

What is the Ebola virus? Thanks for asking! On August 14th, an Ebola virus case was detected in the Ivory Coast, for the first time in over a quarter of a century. The infected person was an 18-year old woman who had travelled over 900 miles by bus from Guinea, a country which had already seen an Ebola outbreak in early 2021, leading to 12 deaths. The consequences of Ebola returning to the Ivory C...

What is a QR code? Thanks for asking! QR codes have likely never been used more than in the Covid age. They’ve become ubiquitous especially since the NHS started using them for its test and Trace app. These odd black-and-white grids may all look alike, but in fact every QR code is unique. QR codes, or quick response codes to give them their full name, were first invented by Japanese engineer Masah...

What are the Paralympics? Thanks for asking!   The Paralympic Games got underway yesterday, with 4,400 competitors in Tokyo, including 227 representing Great Britain. Just like the Olympic Games of last month, the Paralympics are taking place behind closed doors because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The latest edition will see athletes compete at 22 disciplines, including taekwondo and badminton for t...

What is sapiosexuality? Thanks for asking! What are you most attracted to when looking for someone to date? Social status? A sense of humour? Good looks? Well, those are all positive traits for sure, but for sapioseuxals there’s one quality which trumps all others, and that’s intelligence. The word comes from the Latin word “sapien”, which means wise. Sapiosexuals don’t fall in love at first sight...

What is OnlyFans? Thanks for asking! The platform OnlyFans announced on Thursday 19 August its decision to ban "all sexually explicit content" from October. OnlyFans is a digital content platform which operates on a subscription model. As with social media platforms, when you follow a user, you get access to that person’s content. Since being launched in the UK in 2016, the service has drawn criti...

What is the Taliban offensive? Thanks for asking!   The Taliban’s offensive against the Afghan government, which began back in May, accelerated dramatically in the last 10 days, leading to the group taking complete control of the country.  As of August 13th, the Islamist military group only held 132 of Afghanistan’s 398 districts, according to BBC research. But three days later, capital city Kabul...

What is sexsomnia? Thanks for asking! We all know someone who talks in their sleep, or occasionally sleepwalks around the house, perhaps even heading to the kitchen to prepare a nighttime snack. These kinds of episodes aren’t especially rare. But some forms are relatively unknown, one of which is sexsomnia. It’s a form of parasomnia, which means undesirable behaviour which occurs while falling asl...

What is the IPCC report? Thanks for asking! There may still be a minority of doubters out there, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to deny the existence of climate change and its disastrous consequences.  The summer months of July and August have once again seen extreme and unprecedented weather events, like the North American heat dome we discussed in a recent episode, the fires witnessed...

What is rape culture? Thanks for asking!   Society generally sees rape as one of the most heinous crimes that exists. But the sociological theory of rape culture suggests that sexual assault continues to be so common precisely because of certain attitudes on gender and sexuality. Certain myths and misconceptions are handed down from generation to generation, ending up embedded in cultural norms. T...

What is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? Thanks for asking! During the Covid-19 pandemic, governments around the world have taken it on themselves to judge what’s essential or not for their citizens. Think of non-essential shops, businesses, products and leisure activities, for example. Restrictions based on these judgements have evolved constantly during various stages of lockdown or closures. At an...

What is the Covid vaccine pill? Thanks for asking!   Summer 2021 has seen Covid-19 vaccine campaigns making steady progress around the world. As of the start of August, 15% of the global population had been fully vaccinated. While health authorities in some countries are considering a third dose by injection, Oravax Medical, a subsidiary of Israeli pharmaceutical company Oramed, is hoping to produ...

What is the black fungus epidemic? Thanks for asking! Since May 2021, India has been faced with an additional epidemic on top of Covid-19. It’s that of a black fungus, also known as mucormycosis. This rare infection spreads among Covid patients, first of all attacking their faces, in particular the nose, sinuses or eyes, before moving onto the brain and lungs. According to AFP, India has recorded...

What is geophony? Thanks for asking! Taking its name from the Greek prefix geo, as in the earth and phony as in sound, geophony could be most simply described as part of Planet Earth’s music. It’s a component of the soundscape that has surrounded us humans ever since we have been present on Earth.  We owe the concept to experts like Canadian composer and environmentalist Raymond Murray Schafer, wh...

What is Earth Overshoot Day? Thanks for asking!  July 29th saw an unwelcome landmark in the calendar as we reached Earth Overshoot Day. It might sound like a celebration, but the reality is a lot more troubling.  Earth Overshoot Day marks the point during a year at which humans have used up all the planet’s resources. To use a budgeting analogy, from that day onwards, we’re effectively living on c...

What is Godwin’s Law? Thanks for asking! The events of the Holocaust are part of the compulsory curriculum in many countries across the world, especially in Europe. Indeed, it’s pretty rare to come across any adult who hasn’t heard of the unique horrors that took place.  Most people would agree that comparing recent Covid-19 restrictions and vaccination campaigns to Nazi atrocities is at best extr...

What are the Puppy Blues? Thanks for asking! You’ve no doubt already heard of the baby blues, a nice-sounding euphemism for the rather unpleasant postpartum depression. Well, some new pet owners have started talking of puppy blues in the same way, to describe the sadness they sometimes feel after adopting a new furry companion. The puppy blues might be behind increased animal abandonment rates dur...

What are blue zones? Thanks for asking! Humans have wondered about the secrets behind longevity since the beginning of time. Well, as it turns out, the world’s five blue zones offer some revealing insight into this mystery. In these regions, people seem to live longer than in the rest of the world. Researchers have sought to understand the unique lifestyles that may be behind this phenomenon. Let’...

What is Niksen? Thanks for asking! Ever had one of those days when you just feel like doing nothing at all? Well, increasingly we as humans are wired to be doing something all the time. We might even feel guilty when not dedicating every last moment of our day to accomplishing tasks from a written or imaginary to-do list. Technology no doubt has a role to play, what with us being connected almost...