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:
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.
A polio breakthrough
Africa has been declared free of "wild polio" in a historic milestone for scientists fighting the disease, leaving Afghanistan and Pakistan as the last two strongholds standing in the way of global eradication. How did they do it? And with vaccine-derived polio still popping up across the continent, could taking our foot off the pedal cause a resurgence of the disease?
Virtual soldiers
The Ministry of Defence is working with a company called Improbable to build a “single synthetic environment” - in other words, a complete digital replica of the country based on live data from the national grid, mobile phone networks, food supply companies and many other sources. The theory is that it will give the government a more realistic and comprehensive way to plan their response to natural disasters, cyber attacks and pandemics.
Corporate nomads
With offices around the world sending staff home, some intrepid workers have begun to wonder if there is a better alternative to working from the living room. Digital nomads, people without fixed abode who travel the world working remotely, are on the rise. So does it truly afford non-stop freedom or is it really too good to be true?
You can subscribe to The Week Unwrapped on the Global Player, Spotify, Apple podcasts, SoundCloud or wherever you get you get your podcasts.
-
Helsinki's year of zero road fatalitiesUnder the Radar Finland's 'Vision Zero' safety strategy 'shifts responsibility for crashes from road users to the designers of the road system'
-
Critics' choice: Outstanding new Japanese restaurantsFeature An all-women sushi team, a 15-seat listening bar, and more
-
Why do Dana White and Donald Trump keep pushing for a White House UFC match?TODAY'S BIG QUESTION The president and the sports mogul each have their own reasons for wanting a White House spectacle
-
‘Irony’ as Zoom calls staff back to officefeature And other stories from the stranger side of life
-
The U.S. veterinarian shortage crisisSpeed Read With an anticipated shortage of 15,000 vets by 2030, it will be harder to get care for pets
-
Company teaches mask-wearers to smile againfeature And other stories from the stranger side of life
-
Global happiness has been 'remarkably resilient' over the past three yearsfeature
-
Ministers considered killing all cats during pandemicfeature And other stories from the stranger side of life
-
The Week Unwrapped: Korean succession, terror by algorithm and German disquietpodcast 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?
-
The Week Unwrapped: Chinese chips, the Pope in Africa and podcastingpodcast Is China losing the microchip war? What is the Vatican doing in South Sudan? And has the podcast tide turned?
-
The Week Unwrapped: Sex and health, the Earth’s core and another new yearpodcast Is the NHS failing British women? What’s going on at the centre of our planet? And what’s in a date?
