The Week Unwrapped: Electric trees, government weed and skywriting
Could leaves power the homes of the future? Why isn’t legal cannabis catching on? And will British skies soon fill with messages?
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:
Skywriting
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
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.
The UK government is considering the legalisation of skywriting, six decades after it was banned during the Cold War. If it goes ahead, we could see advertisements, marriage proposals and other messages written in the sky by the summer. Can the dying art be revived to take aviation to dizzy new heights or is it just pie in the sky?
Electric trees
Catalina Lotero, an industrial designer, believes we can harness the static electricity produced naturally when leaves brush against each other to power homes in remote off-grid communities. The technology is in its early stages, but Lotero says a single tree could provide enough electricity for seven homes.
Legal weed
Cannabis was legalised in Canada 18 months ago, but the nation’s marijuana black market is booming. Weed aficionados point to high prices and poor quality as the reason they are sidestepping legal traders, favouring instead their old dealers. The boon for underground dealers, meanwhile, has wiped billions of dollars off the values of the industry’s largest companies, in a collapse that is being compared to the dotcom bubble.
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.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
How safe are cruise ships in storms?
The Explainer The vessels are always prepared
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
What message is Trump sending with his Cabinet picks?
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION By nominating high-profile loyalists like Matt Gaetz and RFK Jr., is Trump serious about creating a functioning Cabinet, or does he have a different plan in mind?
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Wyoming judge strikes down abortion, pill bans
Speed Read The judge said the laws — one of which was a first-in-the-nation prohibition on the use of medication to end pregnancy — violated the state's constitution
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Cannabis users ‘can wake up during surgery’
feature And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden Published
-
The Week Unwrapped: Korean succession, terror by algorithm and German disquiet
podcast Could a 10-year-old girl rule North Korea? Will an Isis victim upend web law? And why is Germany upset with its Oscars contender?
By The Week Staff Published
-
The Week Unwrapped: Chinese chips, the Pope in Africa and podcasting
podcast Is China losing the microchip war? What is the Vatican doing in South Sudan? And has the podcast tide turned?
By The Week Staff Published
-
The Week Unwrapped: Sex and health, the Earth’s core and another new year
podcast Is the NHS failing British women? What’s going on at the centre of our planet? And what’s in a date?
By The Week Staff Published
-
The Week Unwrapped: Antisocial Saudis, hormone therapy and retro tech
podcast Why is Saudi Arabia investing in – and banning – social networks? Will new research make life easier for trans women? And is the future of technology dumb?
By The Week Staff Published
-
The Week Unwrapped: AI in court, Germans in Taiwan and ghostwriters
podcast Could artificial intelligence replace lawyers? What does Taiwan want from Germany? And are ghostwriters becoming less ghostly?
By The Week Staff Published
-
The Year Unwrapped: White refugees, Aegean islands and celebrity gossip
podcast Was 2022 the year of the white refugees? What’s really going on in the Aegean sea? And why are we so obsessed with showbiz scandals?
By The Week Staff Published
-
The Week Unwrapped: Tracking apps, BTS and stay-at-home girlfriends
podcast Does China’s U-turn mark the end of Covid-tracking apps? Has South Korean pop passed its peak? And are we really seeing the rise of the stay-at-home girlfriend?
By The Week Staff Published