The Week Unwrapped podcast: Vaping, toilets and TED talks

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:

Vaping

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A second person has died in the US from a severe lung illness after vaping. The patient’s lung infection was consistent with a syndrome thought to be connected to e-cigarette use that has swept the US this summer, affecting more than 200 people around the country. So is vaping less safe than we had previously thought?

Read our briefing on the health impacts of e-cigarettes here.

Toilets

Sales of Japanese-style toilets, with water jets and warm air, have been doubling in Europe every year since 2009, and one of the manufacturers, Toto, now has sales offices in the UK, France and Germany. People tend to be conservative in their bathroom habits, so this marks a significant shift - and one which could have a positive environmental impact. According to the US Natural Resource Defense Council, 15% of all deforestation is caused by toilet paper production.

TED talks

A new study out this week found that women and non-white speakers are underrepresented on the TED stage, and more than half of TED talks are given by white men. Talks about inequality, and those presented by female speakers, also get more negative feedback on YouTube. Researchers says that “gaps in representation can create a misleading perception of science and the respective topics discussed in these talks.” So is TED too white, male and exclusive?

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