Episode summary: Could an explosion in tea-drinking explain a decline in deaths in England during the industrial revolution? Professor Francisca Antman, an economist at the University of Colorado Boulder believes it might. Tim Harford discovers that dusting down the data from tea shipments and local...

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Episode summary: Why can’t we see the experts right in front of us, even when they’re saving our lives?

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Episode summary: A few months ago, Sheila Dillon opened a glass jar of chickpeas in her kitchen. Their taste was so different from those she had been eating for years from cans, she took to social media to find out why. The story that unfolded in the comments led back to the Spanish, and their way o...

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Episode summary: Trump’s improper dealing with Ukraine was what led to his first impeachment. While most of us were focused on the domestic political implications of Trump’s action, the country of Ukraine was put into jeopardy in a way that many didn’t fully realize until the recent Russian invasion...

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Episode summary: What the hell is “adversarial interopability”? Science fiction writer and prolific blogger Cory Doctorow thinks it’s going to set you free from Facebook, letting you take your data and pictures wherever you want to go. And he believes surveillance capitalism is standing in your way....

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Episode summary: New York’s new mayor recently announced a new strategy to fight crime. As the New York Daily News proclaims: BROKEN WINDOWS is back! In this ToE we examine the roots of this policing theory and the individuals who first planted it. We revisit CRIME FILES a Police Foundation TV show...

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Episode summary: S5 Ep3: A Woman Eating Or Not Eating with Claire Kohda

Episode summary: In the first of two programmes all about beans, Sheila Dillon asks if they could be the answer to our issues with health and global warming. We’re often told how eating less meat is crucial for a healthy lifestyle and a healthy planet. In response, supermarkets and food outlets have...

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Episode summary: The most consumed food product in Tunisia is a white bread flute, a baguette, sold at the price of 7 or 9 cents, depending on the size. At its best, it is like a cloud on the inside and crispy on the outside. This inaugural episode of Whetstone Audio Dispatch reporter Layli Foroudi...

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Episode summary: this week to share an episode from our friends’ podcast. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has an excellent show hosted by Cindy Cohn and Danny O’Brien called How to Fix the Internet. Our show has a lot in common with theirs – in fact it has so much in common that they had Ethan on...

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