The Week Unwrapped podcast: Fake breasts, African Google and bad medicine

What is Breast Implant Illness? Why is Google Maps being given a Nigerian accent? And why is France ending reimbursements for homeopathy?

171124-the-week-unwrapped-podcast-788.jpg
(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:

Fake breasts

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Plastic surgeons are calling for more research into breast implant illness (BII) a little-understood condition linked to symptoms ranging from hair loss to chronic pain and fatigue. Tens of thousands of women say they developed health problems after going under the knife, yet BII is not officially recognised - and some doctors doubt it even exists. So do implants pose a real threat?

Read our full briefing on BII here.

Bad medicine

This week, a group of 45 French MPs have written an open letter in favour of homeopathy and in opposition to the government’s decision this month to end all state reimbursement of the medicine by 2021. Will they convince the health minister to roll her decision back or is the country beginning to turn its back on alternative therapies?

African Google

With its young and rapidly growing population, Africa is ripe for a digital revolution - and Google wants in. The tech giant has unveiled raft of new products tailored to users in Nigeria, from apps designed for low-RAM phones to directions with local accents - but how pure are its motives? And does it matter?

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.