5 podcasts to make you feel smarter
It’s getting hot in here
Summer is coming. And boy, can we feel it. Since 2013, Australia has experienced four out of the five hottest years on record since 1901. The odds of that happening are 1.1 million to 1, or half the likelihood as getting struck by lightning. What’s going here?
Learn more about the wild effects of climate change on our weather and learn how you can stay cool without an air conditioner. Listen to Ollie Jay’s talk now.
Rethinking poverty
Inequality is on the rise. Globally, 42 people earn as much as $3.7 billion, while 4 billion people earn less than $5 per day. And saving money becomes harder when accounting for the 2.5 billion people who don’t have bank accounts. So how can we counteract this drastic gap?
From innovative sanitary pads to accessible banks, listen to Ranjit Voola discuss how big business can transform challenges into opportunities and help alleviate the burden of poverty worldwide.
The old and the beautiful
Artist Chris Fox takes us back to 1932 when Wynyard Station was first opened, designed by none other than the Harbour Bridge maestro himself, John Bradfield. As part of the station development, Bradfield introduced novel internal infrastructure– a wooden escalator, which ferried passengers around Wynyard until it was replaced in 2017.
Join Chris as he discusses the evolution of Wynyard Station in the context of his artwork, The Interloop. Listen to the podcast now.
What are you weighting for?
When you think of weightlifting, you probably don’t picture nursing home residents doing deadlifts. Well, that’s exactly what Maria Fiatarone Singh set out to do 30 years ago as part of research into geriatric weight training. The results were astonishing, with ninety-year-old participants doubling their muscle strength and demonstrating marked improvements in their physical capacities.
Listen to Maria’s talk as she discusses the surprising benefits of weightlifting, not only for physical health but also mental wellbeing.
Naturally disastrous
There’s a common misconception about hazards and disasters. The two terms have been linked together so often that they might as well be interchangeable, when in fact, they infer very different things. The term hazard refers to the potential for damage, whereas disaster is an event that requires assistance beyond the local community.
In this podcast, Dale Dominey-Howes explains just how dangerous planet earth is, in the context of the biggest disasters of all time. Listen to his talk now.
Stay in the know
You can catch up with all the podcasts from this and previous years of Raising the Bar on SoundCloud, iTunes, or your favourite podcasting app.
