Conversation press releases

The Shepherd Disney movie

The Shepherd: Disney’s ghostly new Christmas tale evokes the eerie qualities of Britain’s abandoned Second World War airfields

From Charles Dickens to M.R. James, Christmas has a long association with ghost stories. In The Shepherd – part of Disney+’s festive fare for this year – we have an evocative addition to the genre.
A gold star featuring the name of actor Cary Grant

Archie: Cary Grant drama doesn’t shy away from the actor’s dark side

Towards the end of Archie, a new four-part ITV drama about the life of Cary Grant, the actor (played at this stage by Jason Isaacs) muses: “Leave the past in the past where it belongs. If you’re not careful, it becomes a trap.” Yet the series suggests that, even at the height of his Hollywood fame, Grant could never truly forget his deprived origins in Bristol as a boy called Archibald Leach.
myanmar police standing in a line

Myanmar’s military junta appears to be in terminal decline

Myint Swe, the acting president of Mynamar’s military government, has warned that the country “will be split into various parts” after his armed forces suffered huge territorial losses to resistance fighters recently. His response was to call on Mynamar’s people to support his military forces, a call that is likely, based on previous experience, to fall mainly on deaf ears.
The Kenyan and United Kingdom flags

King Charles in Kenya: despite past tensions, the visit is a sign of a strong relationship with Britain

King Charles’ visit to Kenya this week is the British monarch’s first to a Commonwealth nation since his coronation in September 2022. The visit comes during the country’s 60th anniversary of independence from Britain.

Doing laundry by hand sheds just as many microfibres as machine washing – new research

Between 6,500 and 87,000 tonnes of microfibres are shed during domestic laundering every year in the UK. Many of these minuscule fibres end up in rivers and oceans, with devastating consequences for aquatic animals and environments.
Man sat on the floor hiding his face in a book as a shadow-like ghost creeps across the wall behind him.

The book that haunts me – seven experts on the scariest thing they’ve ever read

A truly scary story never really leaves you. It lurks in long evening shadows, calls out through mysterious bumps in the night and blows down your neck whenever you feel a sudden shiver.
a man with a hot drink, smiling to the camera

The ‘male menopause’ – what you need to know

East Midlands Ambulance Service is reportedly giving men up to a year of paid leave for “andropause related issues”, which some are calling the “male menopause”.

How Europe’s authoritarian populists maintain the illusion of a free press

Authoritarian leaders might be good at damaging democracy, but unless they are pure dictators they often still need to worry about winning elections. In the last few years, Europe has seen the rise of a number of authoritarian populists who rely on winning mass support among ordinary people – as opposed to just rigging the vote.

Every science lab should have an artist on the team – here’s why

I’ve been conducting scientific research with experts who specialise in advanced microscopy at Nottingham University for more than ten years. But I’m not a scientist – I’m an artist and lecturer in illustration.

Coffy: how Blaxploitation star Pam Grier helped lead the way for strong resilient women in film

When Pam Grier’s breakthrough movie Coffy was released in 1973, American International Pictures was clearly confident that her eponymous character was a supercharged heroine who would excite filmgoers.

How rape myths and unconscious biases prejudice the judicial system against women – and rape survivors in particular

It is well documented that women who are sexually assaulted, or raped, rarely report the crime to the police. The US charity, the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, has shown that one in six women in the US has been the victim of rape or attempted rape, yet two in three rapes go unreported. For women under 25, that figure drops to one in five.

Women’s World Cup: how better sports diplomacy can help women’s football grow

The 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup is set to be the biggest yet. Co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, the event is projected to have over a million spectators and 2 billion television and digital viewers.
A stock image of a woman taking notes.

Seven techniques to avoid weight regain, approved by experts

Losing weight is challenging. But as anyone who has ever successfully lost weight knows, it’s avoiding weight re-gain that’s the real challenge.

Three COVID-era lessons to help support employee wellbeing in times of crisis

The workplace challenges encountered during COVID lockdowns seem like a distant memory. People have since moved on to focus on more immediate crises such as the rising cost of living and the war in Ukraine. But organisations can learn a lot from how they acted during COVID to help protect employee wellbeing.
Women footballers play the sport

Women’s World Cup will highlight how far other countries have closed the gap with US – but that isn’t the only yardstick to measure growth of global game

The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup begins on July 20, 2023, in Australia and New Zealand, and the U.S. enters the soccer tournament in a familiar position: favorites.

An image of a human on some weighing scales

Body mass index: why practitioners are relying on it less when looking at a patient’s health

Body mass index has long been used by doctors as the standard method for measuring health – and often still is. But earlier this month, the American Medical Association (AMA) adopted a new policy that cautions medical professionals from using the body mass index (BMI) as a stand-alone clinical tool during patient consultations. In 2022, England’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) also made similar changes to obesity guidelines, recommending that waist-to-hip ratio be used alongside BMI.

An illustration of a man and woman sat back to back with speech bubbles above their heads that contain scribbles, to imply they are arguing.

Four ways to have hard conversations with your friends – without making things worse

It’s painful to watch someone you care about make what you perceive as bad life choices – we all want what’s best for our loved ones. This can be particularly hard when they are dating someone you don’t think is good, or right for them.

Cormac McCarthy: a powerful writer who beautifully wrote about apocalypse and extinction

Endings, extinctions, last things preoccupied Cormac McCarthy from the start to the recent close of his 60-year career as a writer of fiction and, occasionally, drama for stage or screen.
Woman with eyes closed and a vector of a brain overlaying the photo. Image courtesy of Getty Images.

Technology is radically changing sleep as we know it

From sleep trackers to wakefulness drugs, the 21st century has seen an influx of new technology that could radically alter the way we sleep.

How Erdoğan framed his science and tech ‘great achievements’ as part of election campaign

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has ruled Turkey for the last 21 years. In the first few terms of his rule, Turkey experienced significant economic growth and a reduction in inequality. This was widely believed to be a reason for Erdoğan’s long-term popularity.

The Diplomat: Netflix show suggests the US-UK special relationship needs some TLC

Netflix’s new political drama, The Diplomat, is focused on the trials and tribulations of Kate Wyler (Keri Russell), a new American ambassador to Britain. It begins with a deadly attack on a British aircraft carrier and then follows the twists and turns of a joint US and UK attempt to find the culprits.

How the brain stops us learning from our mistakes – and what to do about it

You learn from your mistakes. At least, most of us have been told so. But science shows that we often fail to learn from past errors. Instead, we are likely to keep repeating the same mistakes.

UK waters are too polluted to swim in – but European countries offer answers

Almost all of the UK’s waterways are polluted. In 2022, a House of Commons Committee report on the state of UK rivers concluded that no river in England was free from chemical contamination. Only 14% of UK rivers had a “good” ecological status.

How racism and inequality affect even ‘desirable’ EU migrants in the UK

"Everyone knows Italy, as soon as you come here they’ll be like, 'Oh Italian, cool! I’ve been there,' so it’s a way of chatting, breaking ice [
] but I don‘t know if it’s the same for other foreigners. Like my friend from Bulgaria, if she says, 'I’m from Bulgaria,' people are like, '[silence] I’ve never been there.'"

Why Britain’s new CPTPP trade deal will not make up for Brexit

The UK recently announced that it will join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), giving British businesses access to the 11 other members of the Indo-Pacific trade bloc and bringing its combined GDP to ÂŁ11 trillion.