The Week Unwrapped podcast: brain hacking, renting and genetic IQ

Why is Elon Musk connecting people to computers? Is intelligence genetic? and can rent controls ever work?

Brain
(Image credit: SpaceX)

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:

Brain hacking

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Elon Musk’s Neuralink, the secretive company developing brain-machine interfaces, showed off some of the technology it has been developing to the public for the first time this week. But why is the serial entrepreneur interesting in connecting the human brain to computers?

Read our full briefing here.

Rent rises

This week, the Berlin authorities bought nearly 700 flats back from private ownership as part of an attempt to crack down on rising rental costs. But what has driven the state to such apparently drastic action? And can rent controls ever work?

Genetic IQ

Leading behavioural geneticist Robert Plomin is proposing to screen the genetic profiles of 5,000 toddlers from poorer families and provide extra resources and support to those who seem the most and least likely do well in school. His claims about the impact of genetics on achievement raise wide-reaching questions for teachers, parents and - crucially - education policy makers.

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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