The Week Unwrapped podcast: Bio-weapons, Mongolians and bad education

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:

Mongolia

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A recent visit to Mongolia by Donald Trump’s new defence secretary has shone a spotlight on Washington’s campaign to strengthen ties with Ulaanbaatar. So what does the US stand to gain from the relationship - and is the little-known Asian nation destined to be the next global power player?

Ethnic bio-weapons

Cambridge researchers have warned that governments worldwide are failing to address the potential threat of deadly bioweapons designed to target certain ethnic groups based on their genetic differences. But following decades of similar doomsday prophesies, does the science back up these terrifying claims?

The decline of English

As A-level students across the UK finally received their results this Thursday, educators were warned that English A-level entries have dropped by 13% since the introduction of “tougher” GCSEs - prompting the question, what’s gone wrong? Have students been lured by the irresistible pull of STEM subjects instead? Or have fact-based analyses of texts such as An Inspector Calls simply proved too dull for many?

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