Do you really know?

What is environmental racism? We’ve covered a lot of environmental issues on Do You Really Know? so regular listeners will be well aware of how the climate crisis is affecting the whole planet. But it’s important to also note how these problems don’t affect everyone equally. People in developing countries, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere, are already feeling the impact on their income, phy...

We might like to think of our Western countries as progressive, and take pride in how our societies have evolved in recent decades to become more inclusive in many ways, including equality between men and women. The 2010s saw movements like #MeToo encourage women to make their voices heard. You could be forgiven for assuming that attitudes have shifted and that misogyny is thankfully on the declin...

Having an orgasm triggers a cascade of physiological responses, including the tightening of muscles in the pelvic and genital regions, and the release of various hormones and neurotransmitters. It sets the heart racing, ramps up breathing, and sends blood rushing to the penis or clitoris, causing them to become erect. Of course reaching orgasm isn’t guaranteed. Before it happens, there's typically...

Overthinking can be a real cause of anxiety for some people. Have you ever struggled to get to sleep at night with all the thoughts running through your head? Does my new boss like me? Am I even cut out for this job? My kid just brought home a bad report card; are they going through a rough patch, or is it a sign of something more serious? Basically, your mind goes into overdrive and you feel like...

Ever thought about making your fridge as stylish as your wardrobe or living room? Afterall presentation is important. Welcome to the world of fridgescaping, a trend that’s taking TikTok by storm.  It’s all about transforming your fridge into a piece of art. Gone are the days of a simple, functional pantry. Now, you can adorn your fridge with beautiful vases, garlands, and even photos. How Does Fri...

You might be surprised to learn that the famous “www” in website addresses didn’t originate in Silicon Valley or New York, but at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, known as CERN for short, which is situated on the French-Swiss border close to Geneva.  It was 1989 when British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee came up with the idea for a hypertext system. Essentially, it was a way to...

What fun it is to have an imaginary friend to blame when you get into mischief! If you have children, you may have experienced a rather amusing situation where your little one blames a friend from their imagination for the mess in their room or a broken object. At times like these, it’s hard to reprimand them, especially if they seem genuinely convinced of their innocence. The appearance of an ima...

With the rise of dating apps, it seems more common to have sex without being in love. Sex for sex's sake, promises to be mindless and commitment-free. In short: pleasure without the risk of pain, but this might not be the whole story.  Experts suggest that this trend reflects a deeper change in society. The separation of sex from love and emotional attachment is part of a broader societal shift to...

You may have seen headlines in recent weeks about a deeply shocking French court case. A man has admitted drugging his wife with powerful sedatives over a period of a decade and inviting as many as 80 local men to rape her during that time.  Due to the effects of the drugs she had been subjected to, the woman Gisèle Pélicot, had no idea of what was happening to her. The case has led to increased a...

You may well have been told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so you shouldn’t skip it. But did you know that prior to the industrial revolution, all people would eat for breakfast was leftovers from the previous day, typically meat and eggs. Even then that was only if they were hungry. Otherwise they wouldn’t eat at all. These days, a typical breakfast in the Western world is...

Let’s take a moment to consider a concept which highlights both the scale of the climate crisis and inequalities between different areas of the world. Discussions around ecological debt are closely linked to that of overshoot and the overuse of planet Earth's resources. Every year we continue to consume too many resources, and pollute the planet. If we consider that as mounting ecological debt, le...

Maybe you’ve considered going vegetarian in the past for ethical reasons, linked to the environment or animal welfare for example. But you may have had second thoughts, out of fear of your body being prone to dietary deficiencies. A lot of people assume that going veggie leads to deficiencies and potential health problems. But that’s not necessarily true. It really comes down to how you eat, which...

YouGov data from 2019 showed that 49% of Brits shower once per day, while 20% do so 4 to 6 times per week. And 6% even shower more than once per day! That’s despite dermatologists saying that we don’t really need to shower every day. According to health professionals, both routines come with certain benefits. You might want to know the pros and cons of each option. For example, a morning shower ca...

Picture the scene: a woman is sitting in a bar, when a man comes up to try to talk to her. She finds him attractive, but acts disinterested and more or less ignores him, in order to not seem desperate. The man gives up and leaves the woman alone, but she then feels dissatisfied that he hasn’t persisted. It might seem like a counterintuitive approach, but according to American psychotherapist Ellno...

Popular fantasy might suggest that we need to have hours of sex in order to be satisfied, but is that actually true? A study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine in 2005 looked into intravaginal ejaculation latency time among 500 heterosexual couples from five different countries. Now intravaginal ejaculation latency time might sound like a complicated term, but basically it just means how...

What's your relationship with spiders like? Some people are pretty terrified of them, and for many their first reaction is to grab something to squash them with. Most likely, encountering spiders at home is a regular occurrence, and they're actually more beneficial than you might think. Aren’t they dangerous though? What are the benefits of having spiders in my home then? Why do they come into my...

What is de-extinction? The process of de-extinction is all about bringing extinct species back to life. It became known in the 2010s, thanks to an ambitious plan from American geneticist George Church, who dreamed of resurrecting the woolly mammoth, an animal which has been extinct for 3700 years. Fast forward to the 2020s and Church’s bioscience startup Colossal is now eding closer towards making...

“If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”. If you’re obsessed with having a tidy work environment, you may want to consider that that quote comes from none other than Albert Einstein, one of the most renowned geniuses in human history. Given that Mark Twain, Thomas Edison, and even Steve Jobs were also known for working in messy environments, you...

Have you ever been on an aeroplane and wondered how on earth a vehicle weighing tens of thousands of kilograms can even take off, let alone stay in the air for hours on end? Well, whatever the type of plane is, the basic principle is pretty much the same. It has to overcome the pull of gravity, the force that draws everything towards Earth’s centre. What does an aeroplane need to fly then? How so?...

Most of us have to go through a painful breakup at some point in our life. Even if you thought you’d found your soulmate, started planning a grand future together and so on, sometimes things simply don’t work out. Maybe your partner ended it unexpectedly, or maybe you did so yourself. But one question that often rears its head is whether it’s a good idea to remain friends after the breakup. It mig...

If the mere smell of a good cup of coffee is enough to get you out of bed, you might want to rethink your early morning ritual. According to nutritionists, drinking coffee right after waking up can have harmful effects. While you might rely on it to wake you up and give you energy, consuming it this early can actually make you more tired. Isn’t coffee a stimulant? What happens when you drink coffe...

French novelist Alexandre Dumas first published The Count of Monte Cristo as a novel in 1844, and it went on to gain a reputation as one of the most compelling stories ever written. It was adapted into film at least nine different times between 1912 and 2002, according to Wikipedia, not to mention a couple of notable miniseries along the way, and even a Simpsons parody episode. What’s the story ab...

Since January 2026, Afghanistan has been operating under a new Code of Criminal Procedure, and for women, the situation has deteriorated further. In some cases, the law now allows a husband to legally administer corporal punishment to his wife. The provision comes from a new legal text introduced by the Taliban, published on January 4, 2026. The Afghan human rights NGO Rawadari obtained a copy and...

In the days of yore, clothes were scrubbed with soap, brushes, and sheer elbow grease. But today, laundry detergents have revolutionized the way we clean our garments. These modern marvels remove stains without requiring Herculean effort. But navigating the overwhelming array of choices in the detergent aisle can be overwhelming.  The French consumer magazine 60 millions de consommateurs carried o...

On average the human heart beats at a rate of 1.16 times per second, or 100 times per minute. Sometimes the heart rate gets faster, slower or is irregular. And the older we get, the more likely we are to experience heart palpitations. The first thing to underline is that these palpitations are completely normal and harmless 90% of the time. Furthermore even if they’re particularly intense, that do...