The Week Unwrapped podcast: Rickets, torture and why all PR is good

Why is rickets on the rise in the UK? Why is support for torture growing around the world? And is it time to change the voting system?

TO GO WITH AFP STORY "Health-China-lifestyle,FEATURE" by Pascal Trouillaud Former patient Wang Lijun, now working at the clinic, looks at an X-Ray of another patient who recently has his legs
(Image credit: 2010 AFP)

Olly Mann and The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters from the past seven days.

In this week’s episode, we discuss:

Torture

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A Twitter spat has erupted after Washington’s newly upgraded International Spy Museum unveiled a display explaining the US use of torture on alleged terrorists in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Critics say the exhibition sanitises so-called enhanced interrogation techniques - so are they right?

Rickets

Rickets cases have more than doubled in the UK over the past decade, with 450 children now admitted to hospital each year. The condition was virtually eradicated in 1950s but now kids aren’t getting enough sunlight to produce the vitamin D they need. And it isn’t just kids who are spending too much time indoors. So how can we solve the growing problem?

Proportional representation

This week the results of the European Elections were announced and thanks to the D’Hondt method used in the elections, parties in the UK received the number of MEPs proportional to their share of the vote. Proponents of electoral reform say that all elections held in the UK should deploy a similar system, which they say more accurately reflects how people vote at the ballot box. So are we on the cusp of electoral change? Or will any future referendum on the issue go the same way as the 2011 AV referendum?

You can subscribe to The Week Unwrapped on iTunes, SoundCloud or wherever you get your podcasts. It is produced by Matt Hill and the music is by Tom Mawby.

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