The Conversation Documentaries

What’s the difference between a living collection of matter, such as a tortoise, and an inanimate lump of it, such as a rock? They are, after all, both just made up of non-living atoms. The truth is, we don’t really know yet. Life seems to just somehow emerge from non-living parts. Featuring Jim Al-Khalili , professor of physics at the University of Surrey, and Sara Imari Walker , professor of phy...

It is hard to shake the intuition that there's a real and objective physical world out there. If I see an umbrella on top of a shelf, I assume you do too. And if I don't look at the umbrella, I expect it to remain there as long as nobody steals it. But the theory of quantum mechanics, which governs the micro-world of atoms and particles, threatens this commonsense view. Featuring Chiara Marletto ,...

Interest in the multiverse theory, suggesting that our universe is just one of many, has spiked since the movie Everything Everywhere All At Once was released. The film follows Evelyn Wang on her journey to connect with versions of herself in parallel universes to stop the destruction of the multiverse. The multiverse idea has long been an inspiration for science fiction writers. But does it have...

Imagine a universe with extremely strong gravity. Stars would be able to form from very little material. They would be smaller than in our universe and live for a much shorter amount of time. But could life evolve there? It after all took human life billions of years to evolve on Earth under the pleasantly warm rays from the Sun.  Now imagine a universe with extremely weak gravity. Its matter...

Without a sense of time, leading us from cradle to grave, our lives would make little sense. But on the most fundamental level, physicists aren't sure whether the sort of time we experience exists at all. We talk to three experts and find out if time could potentially be moving backwards as well as forwards.   Featuring Sean Carroll , Homewood professor of natural philosophy at Johns Hopkins...

There are many competing theories about what causes Alzheimer's disease. For more than 30 years, Ruth Itzhaki has been accumulating evidence that viruses are involved in its development in the brain. We investigate this evidence in the third and final episode of Uncharted Brain: Decoding Dementia , hosted by Paul Keaveny and Gemma Ware from The Conversation. Featuring interviews with Ruth Itzhaki...

Dementia doesn’t just affect older people. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a form of dementia that athletes from a whole range of sports can develop. It’s now at the centre of a number of legal challenges involving sports from rugby to American football. In the second episode of Uncharted Brain: Decoding Dementia, hosts Gemma Ware and Paul Keaveny from The Conversation find out about the...

Scientists have been doing an array of regular health checks on the same group of people since they were born in 1946 – the world's longest running cohort study. Now the brains of some of its participants are revealing new insights into the risk factors for Alzheimer's disease.  We find out more in the first episode of Uncharted Brain: Decoding Dementia , a new series from The Anthill hosted...

Uncharted Brain: decoding dementia is a new series from The Conversation exploring new research unlocking clues to the ongoing mystery of how dementia works in the brain. In this three-part series, hosted by journalists Paul Keaveny and Gemma Ware from The Conversation, we'll delve into some of the findings from the world's longest continuously running cohort study, hear about the trauma of famili...

A good negotiation is supposed to leave everyone feeling a little unsatisfied. So what happened at the world's biggest one – over the future of our planet? In part five, and our final episode of Climate fight: the world’s biggest negotiations , host Jack Marley reports from Glasgow where he spoke to academics who have been researching the UN climate negotiations for decades, and the people represe...

Locked out of conferences and company boardrooms, young people have tried to influence the international response to the climate crisis with strikes and protests. In part four of Climate Fight, the world's biggest negotiation , we explore what effect this youth activism has, and where the movement will go next. Featuring Harriet Thew, researcher in climate change governance at the University of Le...

In the shift away from fossil fuels, how do countries make sure not to widen inequalities in the process? In part three of our series Climate fight: the world’s biggest negotiations , we travel to the Cumbrian town of Whitehaven on England’s north-west coast that could soon host the UK’s first deep coal mine in more than three decades. We talk to local people for and against the mine, as well as e...

In part two of Climate Fight: the world’s biggest negotiation , we’re talking to experts about the grand goal of the negotiations: reaching net zero emissions by 2050. We explore what net zero means, and the technologies that will be needed to get the world there. Featuring Mercedes Maroto-Valer , assistant deputy principal for research & innovation and director of the Research Centre for Carb...

In the first episode of our new series Climate fight: the world's biggest negotiation , we're talking about climate finance – money pledged by the world's richest countries to help the poorest parts of the world adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change. Where is it being spent and is it really working? Featuring Jessica Omukuti , COP26 Fellow in Climate Finance at the University of York...

How will we actually tackle the climate crisis? And who gets to decide? As Glasgow gets ready to hold the COP26 climate summit in November, The Anthill Podcast is launching Climate fight: the world's biggest negotiation , a new podcast series taking you inside the fight for our planet's future. We'll speak to some of the academic experts influencing climate policy, and to some of the people around...

The 2008 financial crisis resulted in the worst global recession since the second world war. The collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers in September 2008 caused a meltdown of the global financial system. Money markets froze and there was a major credit crunch as the ability to borrow money suddenly dried up.  To stop contagion and make sure other major financial institutions didn’t co...

In this fifth episode of Recovery , a series from The Anthill Podcast exploring key moments in history when parts of the world recovered from a major crisis or shock, we’re looking at what happened in the former Soviet Union during the transition from communism to capitalism in the 1990s. When the USSR was finally dissolved at the end of 1991 it was a massive shock to the system for millions of pe...

In this fourth episode of Recovery , a series from The Anthill Podcast exploring key moments in history when the world recovered from a major crisis or shock, we’re looking at what happened in the UK after the second world war. The second world war decimated landscapes, killed tens of millions of people and left many more unable to work, in need of long-term healthcare and help to rebuild their li...

In this third episode of Recovery , we’re looking at what happened after the combined shocks of the Spanish flu and world war one. It was called the Spanish flu because the first reports of the virus were in Spanish newspapers, due to wartime censorship restrictions elsewhere. The 1918-19 flu was the worst pandemic in human history. More than half the world’s population was infected. Estimates for...

In this second episode of Recovery , a series from The Anthill Podcast exploring key moments in history when the world recovered from a major crisis or shock, we’re looking at what happened after the earthquake, tsunami and fires that devastated Lisbon in 1755 and shocked Europe. In 1755, the grand and prosperous city of Lisbon was devastated by a huge earthquake. The Portuguese capital we see tod...

Welcome to Recovery, a new series from The Anthill podcast, exploring key moments in history when the world recovered from a major crisis or shock. In this first episode, we find out what happened after one of history’s worst epidemics, the Black Death. This was the name given to the bubonic plague that hit Europe in the late 1340s. Somewhere between a third and half of Europe's population died fr...

We all want the global recovery from the coronavirus pandemic to be swift and painless. But history tells us that isn’t always possible. When the world has suffered a massive shock to its system before – be that a pandemic, a war, an economic crisis – the rebuilding can take decades. There will be missteps along the way. More people will suffer. But past recoveries can also offer us lessons about...

A number of conspiracy theories  have sprung up  in relation to the coronavirus pandemic. The false idea that the virus is somehow  linked to the rollout of 5G technology  has led to a number of attacks on broadband infrastructure and engineers. We explore this and many others in the sixth and final part of our Expert guide to conspiracy theories. Media expert Marc Tuters talks...

Conspiracy theories might be entertaining but they can also be dangerous. Sadly, what often starts off as a bit of fun can turn sour quite quickly – even if it’s laughing about the idea that Rihanna or Katy Perry are part of the Illuminati. We find out how. This episode delves into some of the psychology behind what makes conspiracy theories dangerous. It also explores the relationship between con...

Part four of the  Expert guide to conspiracy theories  from  The Anthill podcast  explores whether the internet has been a game changer in helping conspiracy theories go viral. First, though, we find out how conspiracy theories spread before platforms like Facebook and YouTube came along and gave everyone the power to broadcast their thoughts to the world. It’s important to dif...