Counterpoint - ABC RN

Is Myanmar both a tragedy and a wicked problem and what does it mean for the promised 2023 election? If it goes ahead will it be free and fare or a farce? If the US goes to war with China should Australia follow? Perhaps we need to look back to go forward. The fascinating history of the smile, especially in art and is there an alternative to wind farms? Sure is..flying a kite!

What does having a worthwhile life mean? Is it all about academic achievement and a high wage or it something more? How dangerous and how prevalent is piracy in Southeast Asian waters? Hint, just under a half of all pirate attacks so far this year have occurred in these waters. Superhero movies have recently had their share of naysayers but have they got it all wrong? Space is not the vast empty nothingness we think it is. To protect it should we start thinking of space as an eco-system?

Is it time to decolonize Russia? What is the best and worst city to be living in right now? Hint one is Vienna and the other is Damascus. We trust our plumbers but not our politicians, why is that? And the stinging nettle plant, sure the sting has a bite but the potential uses for this plant are endless.

Why has Russia's military been so weak against Ukraine? Is this a new thing or more of a case of ever thus? Antarctica is the most protected and yet the most threatened place on earth. How do we solve this paradox? Did you know that there has been a surge in saltiness in all inhabited continents today. How has it gotten this bad and have we left it too late to do anything? How quickly are wild animals evolving and adapting to problems such as climate change? Quicker than you think.

Has American life become 'uniquely stupid? If so how did it happen and what does it have to do with a like button? We need to start feeding the earth, after all it feeds us, but with what? We have the answer in our bodies right now. The world wars produced some of the greatest poetry we know, why have recent conflicts not done the same?

What is China saying on social media about the war in Ukraine? Might the war offer opportunities to revive the WTO? The planet is now a political entity, how did that happen? Plus we are on the verge of a green steel revolution. If so, how will it work?

What does French President Emmanuel Macron actually stand for? What is Macronism? Why are some shipping companies avoiding the rules and regulations when it comes to the breaking up of ships and what are they doing instead? Nothing good. Plus Chinese people are moving from the city to the country in search of a better life and the gross yet amazing things that animals do to find a mate and to protect themselves.

Asa result of the invasion of Ukraine should Australia be looking to strengthen its relationship with Europe? Diversity is all the rage but is it all that it's meant to be? Do human beings really have a higher moral value than animals and how much could we learn if instead of architects digging up castles and tombs of noblemen and queens, they concentrated on how the ordinary people lived in ancient times.

What if anything can China and Xi learn from the invasion of Ukraine? Were the reports that said that COVID had brought the end of the era of globalisation greatly exaggerated? Do you get FOMO and should we be able to experiment and fail at work sometimes?

Does Australia have a fuel security problem? Is there a human cost to decarbonising the global economy and how high is it? Why are Indigenous voices missing from the space race and what can be done to fix it and what is life like in Transnistria and other breakaway states?

Might the Shanghai lockdown be the beginning of the end for Xi? What are the UN doing about the situation in Ukraine and what might the hugely successful way Ukrainians' have used the internet during this war mean for Big Tech? Plus lighting the way forward using plants and animals.

It used to be that most startups could be found in Silicon Valley or Seattle, that is no longer the case. Now they can be found almost anywhere. How did that happen? History has a habit of repeating itself; why don't we notice? We also haven't noticed that we are losing the sounds of birds and animals and if we don't start paying attention there will only be the sounds of sile

Can we compare Putin's leadership with that of the Queen? What is oikophobia and do you have any? Plus women in military bands and how about some boiled tongue for dinner tonight?

Can we compare Putin's leadership with that of the Queen? What is oikophobia and do you have any? Plus women in military bands and how about some boiled tongue for dinner tonight?

Can we compare Putin's leadership with that of the Queen? What is oikophobia and do you have any? Plus women in military bands and how about some boiled tongue for dinner tonight?

Does the rules-based international order actually exist or is it just a bit of a myth? What about the grey zone or even natural laws? Do they work, can they be broken and why do they matter? Plus placebo's. They can actually work even when you know it's a placebo.

Does on-line hate speech really lead to real world extremism? What effect does banning this kind of hate speech have and could it be just as potentially harmful as the speech itself?

In these confusing and confronting times might there be some ancient wisdom that we could turn to that will help guide us through? Have Russia and Ukraine always been so inextricably linked? Are there limits to libertarianism and are all natural disasters the result of climate change?

The Dutch are famous for more than clogs and tulips and cheese, they are also famous for free speech. This contributed to making the Dutch Republic an early modern epicentre of art, learning, publishing, philosophy, and science. What do our Asian neighbours think about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and what does the invasion mean for cyberwarfare. Are you happy? Or maybe content? Which is better?

What is hot capital and why is it on the rise? How big is the threat of chemical waste in our oceans and what can we do about it? Not all fringe ideas are nonsense, some will lead to something important but how do we tell the difference and what happened to the tree seeds on Apollo 14? Are they lost?

The world is full of brilliant jerks, that is people who are leaders that have distasteful traits. How do we balance the very best of them with the very worst? Plus the growth and growth of the Chinese space program and do you hear that bird chirping? Is it saying anything in particular? Probably.

Where are all of the used masks and personal protective equipment, along with used test kits and discarded vaccine syringes ending up? The ocean. Why? What does history tell us about dictators, particularly in China and Russia, and does that help explain what is happening in both countries now? Why 'Do Your Research' is so manipulative and the worst year on record...it's not 2020, 21 or 22.

Can we use the same methods as intelligence officers do to help plan for our own future? Did you know that India has some of the most spectacular fossils on the planet, including the Rajasaurus narmaadensis? Plus has work taken over our lives and laughing out loud at the wrong time.

What is Putin really doing on the Ukraine border? Trying to start a war or a conversation?  In their opposition to nuclear power, have environmentalists become a bigger threat to effective climate policy than deniers? Plus Victorian era values in our inventors and entrepreneurs and why if you care about animals you should eat them .

Chinese children have some new text books featuring Grandpa Xi. They feature his wisdom and caring nature but what is behind the every growing personality cult of Xi Jinping? Why are wealthier countries trying to stop fossil fuel projects in Africa? Afterall the average Tanzanian used only one-sixth the electricity consumed by a typical American refrigerator. Plus the wonderful Hudsonian Godwit and the clever tricks of the Opossum

If we looked back at ourselves in 10,000 years time what would we think of now and how we get here? What is the difference between a liberal and a progressive and where did the concept of a seven day week come from? What can we learn from statues and what do they really represent?

Is there such a thing as the mind and if there is where is it? Do you believe in weird things? What will the world look like after humans? Will there still be life? There is a lot of plastic in the ocean and so far we don't have any method to remove to remove it. Why not?

Did you know that each year around 4.5 million people are bitten by venomous snakes resulting in 138,000 deaths? How can we stop that? Are the hand gestures that we use when speaking universal or do they differ from country to country? What happened when the first women in America to become dean of a medical school took her students to a clinical medical lecture and how important was Iceland in the second World War?

Have you heard of seafood slavery? Right now thousands of men are stuck on boats at seas, what will happen to them? How innovative is language and just how and why does it change? How did Ancient Rome treat outsiders and the various ethnic tribes surrounding it? How important are black swans to both European and Indigenous history?

Have you ever walked out of one room and into another and forgotten why you were there? Should we be planting more and more trees wherever there is a space or should we be thinking more carefully about where to put them? Are bees and other insects about to die out, never to return

Was the decline of the Roman Empire a very good thing for humanity? We can learn a lot about a population by what they flush down their toilets. Why are Americans so hesitant to engage in waste water studies? How can you argue well and why do you need to and why does the Japanese Navy have a Curry Friday? ?

How much have captives' or slaves influenced those who took them? It turns out, quite a lot! What makes someone a genius? High IQ or something else? Why do we think think that Africa didn't have scripts and what has it got to do with the fall of Carthage? Anyone for a glass of zesty lime green tree ant infused gin?

Did gunpowder change the world, especially the Medieval World? What is an emotion and why is it so complicated. The changing nature of loss aversion and poo. We generate a lot of it, what can we do with it?

Why is Iran joining the Shanghai Cooperation organisation? How easy is it to succumb to tyranny? The changing way wars will be fought and the remarkable story of Dr Alice Hamilton.

Right now it seems like everybody wants to be engaged with Southeast Asia, where does Australia fit in? Is longtermism a dangerous way to think? Who was Benjamin Jetsy and what does he have to do with the smallpox vaccine and a new citizen science project in Tasmania that is helping with conservation.

Does ASEAN have a position on Myanmar? Are you a fox or a hedgehog when it comes to globalization? What makes a good literary hoax and is the recent one in Spain harmless or not? Will our dogs survive if humans are no longer on the earth?

Can positive discrimination do more harm than good? Mandatory vaccinations have been around for centuries so just how effective are they? Do humans perceive time differently to nature and why are birds egg coloured?

Is there more to AUKUS than nuclear powered submarines? What is China doing in Guinea in West Africa and what does it mean for Australia? What is the Non-Aligned Movement and what happened at it's 60th anniversary commemorative summit and how does a country chose what its national language will be?

Does the Biden Presidency have a plan for the Indo-Pacific? Doesn't seem like it. Can the Bible be read as work of literature rather than a scripture? How important were female healthcare givers in the medieval world and do humans and animals have the same moral value?

Power can good and bad. How can we make sure that it's good? Responsibility is key. Madam Curie changed the world with the discovery of radium including how old the earth could be and how long it might last. Opossums play dead when they need to but what do we mean by playing dead and the wonderful world of birds.

How did the 'culture wars' begin and what keeps it going? It's more than the left/right divide. How much of Angela Merkel's success can be attributed to the fact she is a scientist? What is tongue therapy and why are being people getting their tongues cut? There is a lot of plastic in the ocean and so far we don't have any method to remove to remove it. Why not?

Working from home over the last 18 months or so has been one of the greatest disruptions to work in generations, so what have we learnt about the way in which we work? When we say The West what do we actually mean? Can you toilet train a cow and why would you want to? The fabulous tale of a an eagle that lived in South Australia around 25 million years ago.

Is there more to AUKUS than nuclear-powered submarines? The COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Australia has depended on ordering vaccines from overseas. Why can't we make our own? Is there a link between cancel culture and torture and can air pollution be captured and turned into something else?

Do the shifting demands of climate change, COVID and China mean that we need some new thinking around trade, investment and the economy? Is it time to open our borders and stop being fortress Australia? Did you know that adding rock dust to soil can help get carbon into the ground and the fascinating and cautiously optimistic world of tuna.

Has the US withdrawal from Afghanistan created a power vacuum in the region that will be filled by either China or Russia and what might that mean for the Gulf states? Is there such a thing as the mind and if there is where is it? Indigenous technology could benefit all of society and could help us all connect with Indigenous culture that continues to grow. Is there any future for the fishers and seabirds in Patagonia?

After the seemingly chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan should the United States pivot away from nation-building and toward global governance? Mass vaccinations mean that the end of COVID-19 is coming ever closer. Does the thought of reopening society make you anxious? Are the hand gestures that we use when speaking universal and the fascinating history of a most unlikely bird of prey.

Are we about to see a new kind of globalisation or it already here? Who is ranked first in the Economist Intelligence Unit's Safe City Index of 2021 and did any cities in Australian make the top ten? The dangers of light pollution and how did the Orangutan get its name?

Although a military conflict between China and Australia is highly unlikely, if it did happen would we be prepared? The story of ANZUS and Percy Spender and might you be a Luddite? Should you be one? Can todays woke ideology be compared to Stalinist Russia?

Has civil society become a luxury good? How can you argue well and why do you need to? Did you know that there are still people who believe that the earth is flat and why has the night sky dimmed?

Are there foreign agents working in Australia right now and if so, where are they from? We have a huge supply of rare-earth minerals in this country so why are we exporting them rather than manufacturing them? What happened when the smallpox vaccine was rolled out and what do you think birds use to make their nests nowadays?

Who are the sense-makers today? It used to be the clergy and the educated class including journalists but who is it now? Does society really benefit by acting in your own self interest or are we more connected than we ever thought possible? Are bees and other insects about to die out, never to return and how much do we really know about Neanderthals and their children?