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:
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Violence and mental health
Lawyers for the gunman who has pleaded guilty to killing 17 people at a school in Florida in 2018 have claimed that his “brain was irretrievably broken” by a difficult childhood and that he should therefore be spared the death penalty. The legal argument has sparked a debate in the US about the link between mental illness and mass shootings, amid fears that people could be stigmatised or discouraged from seeking help.
Danish adoptions
A group of 53 people from South Korea who were adopted by families in Denmark as children have filed an application with authorities in Seoul calling for an investigation into the circumstances around their adoptions. In the 60 years that followed the end of the Korean war, South Korea was accused of “exporting” hundreds of thousands of children who weren’t orphans to families overseas for adoption. Could an inquiry spark a wider national reckoning with this troubling history?
Doppelgangers
A photographic project seeking out people who look alike has led to the publication of a scientific research paper. Published in Cell Reports this week, the study found that people who look very similar tend to share more DNA than other members of the population. Other biological characteristics, such as their microbiomes and epigenomes, which are more affected by the environment than by DNA, were no more likely to be similar. What does this tell us about nature and nurture, and does it have a deeper significance?
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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?
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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?
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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?
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The Week Unwrapped: Antisocial Saudis, hormone therapy and retro techpodcast 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?
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The Week Unwrapped: AI in court, Germans in Taiwan and ghostwriterspodcast Could artificial intelligence replace lawyers? What does Taiwan want from Germany? And are ghostwriters becoming less ghostly?
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The Year Unwrapped: White refugees, Aegean islands and celebrity gossippodcast 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?
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The Week Unwrapped: Tracking apps, BTS and stay-at-home girlfriendspodcast 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?
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The Week Unwrapped: Africa alert, ticket touts and the words of the yearpodcast Is South Africa at risk of terrorist attacks? Why are ticket touts in such high demand? And are we really in a ‘permacrisis’?
