By Eloise Stevens, Host, The Conversation's Curious Kids podcast, The Conversation
Gemma Ware, Head of Audio, The Conversation UK, The Conversation
A few years ago, 10-year-old Guy was driving along the Australian coast when he saw whales, spouting water up into the air. He was amazed. “Then my brother farted, and then I wondered if whales fart,” says Guy.
Guy joined our host Eloise to put his question to Vanessa Pirotta, a wildlife scientist at Macquarie University in Australia on this week’s episode of The Conversation’s Curious Kids podcast.
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By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
The Liberals seem to be unable to resist damaging infighting just as things seemed to be looking up in Victoria.
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Palestinians stand behind a barrier as Israeli forces block farmers from accessing their lands in Halhul town near Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, on November 20, 2025. © 2025 Mosab Shawer/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images The European Union’s obligation to ban trade with Israel’s illegal settlements is not in question. But its leadership’s will to comply has long been.Following growing pressure from civil society, trade unions, legal scholars, some EU governments and members of the European Parliament, and a series of unilateral bans by some…
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By Samuel Cornell, Honorary Research Fellow in Public Health, The University of Queensland
Rob Brander, Professor, UNSW Beach Safety Research Group, School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, UNSW Sydney
Sharks are front of mind for many Sydneysiders and coastal New South Wales residents. In January, a teenager died amid a spate of attacks in and around Sydney. This month, a woman was bitten by a large great white while swimming close to shore and between the flags at Coogee Beach.
These incidents have made many swimmers and surfers fearful of
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By Jeannie Marie Paterson, Professor of Law (consumer protections and credit law), The University of Melbourne
A legal expert explains the allegations against Amazon Australia and US – and why the new case is already making global headlines.
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By Global Voices Central & Eastern Europe
In the Balkans, tradition is often deemed to be fixed and patriarchal. Yet the region’s history, folklore and popular memory contain more complicated examples of the fluidity of gender roles.
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By Sanné Mestrom, Senior Lecturer, DECRA Fellow, Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney
At the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia annual showcase of leading Australian artists under 35, eight artists turn loss into the labour of making.
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By Mark Cully, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
The history of immigration policy in Australia is full of yes-no contradictions: fear jostling with hope, exclusion with openness.
Australia has been pulled in different directions by the strength of its British ties and the demands of its Asia-Pacific geography. The British and their descendants, never meaningfully reconciling with the original sin of having invaded a continent, then constantly added people to it, most of them in their own image.
Writing about the Immigration…
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By Benjamin Wagner, Research Fellow - Forest Resilience and Adaptation, The University of Melbourne
Craig Nitschke, Professor in Forest and Landscape Dynamics, The University of Melbourne
Kaitlyn Hammond, Postdoctoral fellow, University of Northern British Columbia
An alpine ash forest is a sight to behold.
Alpine ash (Eucalyptus delegatensis) is a tall eucalypt species that grows in the cool, wet mountains of south‑eastern Australia.
These forests store large amounts of carbon in their wood and soils. They help regulate water flows into major rivers and dams, and provide habitat for a wide range of birds, mammals and insects.
Mainland alpine ash forests are now formally listed as endangered.…
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By Christopher J. Watterson, Research Fellow, Foreign Policy and Defence, US Studies Centre, University of Sydney
The dust has now settled on the ostentatious summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang earlier this month. But perhaps the biggest takeaway was what was left unsaid.
Chinese readouts from the summit conspicuously excluded any mention of denuclearisation in North Korea (meaning North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons). This signals a shift away from a decades-long policy goal of…
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