Doomscroll Remedy podcast

24:32

“I don't think anyone really wakes up one day, gasping for breath and thinking everyone else is a lizard.” Like Molly, you probably know someone who has tried to convince you that vaccines are full of mind-controlling nanobots, or that 5G towers are really being used to brainwash us. Maybe you’ve even heard some that actually make you stop and think: like, maybe something supernatural is going on in the Bermuda Triangle? A lot of people have lost faith in traditional institutions of power and are searching for answers that make sense of an often out-of-control world, even if those answers don’t make much sense either. The conversation around conspiracy theories – and the people who believe in them – quickly becomes an ‘us and them’ joke, full of eye rolls and unhelpful arguments. We’re trying to cut a path to a time before the conspiracy memes and comment threads to understand why this is happening, and what you can do to keep the conversation open. +++ Doomscroll Remedy is a University of Queensland podcast, produced by Deadset Studios. Hosted by Stephen Stockwell. Produced by Grace Pashley, Krissy Miltiadou and Rachel Fountain at Deadset Studios, in partnership with consulting producer Zoe McDonald and commissioning editor Greta Usasz at The University of Queensland.…

Doomscroll Remedy

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Why am I like this? What happens to our bodies and brains when anxiety takes over 25:39

3 years ago25:39

25:39

What’s been keeping you up at night lately? Is it the pandemic? Has work been stressing you out lately? Or the fact your Great Aunt thinks the world is run by lizard people? Oh, or maybe it’s the fact that the ocean’s full of plastic – that seems like something you should probably be worried about, doesn’t it? And now you’re probably not feeling great – maybe your chest is a little tighter than before. How do you usually get over that feeling? What’s really happening in our body when anxiety takes over? Lots of us don’t even need a reason to feel anxious: some of us are just built like that. Turns out, humans actually evolved with this anxiety thing to help us survive as a species, and our brains learned some pretty neat ways to use fear in order to keep us alive. But what use is it to us now? And how can we manage it, so it still serves a purpose in our modern world? +++ Doomscroll Remedy is a University of Queensland podcast, produced by Deadset Studios. Hosted by Stephen Stockwell. Produced by Grace Pashley, Krissy Miltiadou and Rachel Fountain at Deadset Studios, in partnership with consulting producer Zoe McDonald and commissioning editor Greta Usasz at The University of Queensland. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land on which this show was made.…

Doomscroll Remedy

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Storms that bring fire – using artificial intelligence in Australia’s bushfire crisis 21:37

3 years ago21:37

21:37

When you’re on the frontline of a raging bushfire, every second counts. Life-saving decisions have to be made in seconds, and anyone who’s lived through a bushfire can tell you the difference 5, 10 or 15 minutes can make. Even if you haven’t lived it, most Australians remember the images of glowing red skies, smoke-blanketed cities and angry thunderstorms that, instead of rain, brought more fire. The Black Summer bushfires of 2019-2020 brought discussions about Australia’s changing climate to the forefront of the national consciousness, leaving many of us overwhelmed by the scale of the problem and how often we’ll be facing it in the future. We'll take you to where that deadly fire season started in Queensland: a little holiday town on the coast where fire spread with alarming speed. You’ll also meet the UQ researchers using artificial intelligence to support firefighters, communities and families to make those 5, 10 or 15 minutes count. Doomscroll Remedy takes you to the edge of the existential crises that keep us up at night and introduces you to the experts working to solve them. +++ Doomscroll Remedy is a University of Queensland podcast, produced by Deadset Studios. Hosted by Stephen Stockwell. Produced by Grace Pashley, Krissy Miltiadou and Rachel Fountain at Deadset Studios. The consulting producer is Zoe McDonald and commissioning editor at The University of Queensland is Greta Usasz. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land on which this show was made.…

Doomscroll Remedy

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Not so fantastic: is there plastic in my brain? 19:42

3 years ago19:42

19:42

"I think we've been quite naïve in terms of how we've dealt with plastic and how we've let it contaminate every sphere of the environment: from the highest points of the Himalayas to the deep ocean trenches, we find plastic now." Professor Kevin Thomas has been studying plastic since before it was cool, and he’s right – once it hits the tallest mountain peak and the bottom of the ocean, it gets a bit hard to ignore. And yeah, it's unsightly and terrible for the environment, but what about the stuff you can’t see? When plastic breaks down, it doesn’t go away – it just gets smaller. It also leaches chemicals, and we have no idea what either of these things do to our bodies. Scary, right? It’s why The University of Queensland and the Minderoo Foundation have joined forces to try to find out how tiny pieces of plastic (and the chemicals used to make it) could end up inside us, and what it means for human health. Travel with us from a beach on the west coast of Wales to a world-first lab in Brisbane to chart the unknown waters of micro and nanoplastics. Should you be using that plastic water bottle that’s been baking in your car over summer? Truth is: we don’t really know yet. But we’re figuring it out for you. Doomscroll Remedy takes you to the edge of the existential crises that keep us up at night and introduces you to the experts working to solve them. +++ Doomscroll Remedy is a University of Queensland podcast, produced by Deadset Studios. Hosted by Stephen Stockwell. Produced by Grace Pashley, Krissy Miltiadou and Rachel Fountain at Deadset Studios, in partnership with consulting producer Zoe McDonald and commissioning editor Greta Usasz at The University of Queensland. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land on which this show was made.…

Doomscroll Remedy

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Stop the doomscroll spiral – meet the people living through the existential threats that keep us up at night, and the ones trying to solve them 2:59

3 years ago2:59