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 S10The permanently imperfect reality of hybrid work   After a few years of post-pandemic confusion, the debate over return-to-office seems to have landed on widespread hybrid work. Throughout 2023, organisations tried a largely new way of working at scale – whether that's a common model of a fixed three days in office with two at home, or other flexible patterns.Workers are generally in favour of hybrid work. For example, in a September 2023 survey of 2,428 global workers by employee-experience research firm Leesman, seen by the BBC, 94% reported liking hybrid working – in principle. November 2023 data, surveying 141,793 US workers, also shows employees now want to work from home an average of around 2.75 days a week, approximately only a half-day more than employers intend.
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S60Marie NDiaye on Trying to Define Goodness  The narrator of your story “The Good Denis” (which was translated, from the French, by Jordan Stump) learns from her aging mother, who may have dementia, that as a young child she was cared for by a man she has never heard of, whose goodness was unrivalled. How did this premise come to you?It’s always difficult for me to say where the idea for a story comes from. It’s a mixture of nebulous memories, dreams, random news items I’ve read in the papers. This story is not autobiographical, but I suppose it was in part (a small part!) inspired by the fact that my mother is now old and our conversations are stranger than they used to be.
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S39Who was Leonard Bernstein, the man at the centre of Bradley Cooper's Maestro?  “Maestro” is a word that resonates across concert music. From the Italian word for master, it is applied most frequently to a respected and established conductor of operas and orchestras but can also be used to refer to virtuoso instrumentalists. Despite its gendered form (male), the term has been regularly applied to female conductors, instrumentalists and others who have achieved significant artistic recognition.
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S54Who is Queensland's next premier, Steven Miles?  When Queensland’s Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk resigned over the weekend, she indicated her preferred successor would be her deputy, Steven Miles. He promptly nominated for the leadership. He avoided a leadership contest between himself, Health Minister Shannon Fentiman and Treasurer Cameron Dick.
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S9 Set Ambitious but Realistic Environmental Goals  Our special report on innovation systems will help leaders guide teams that rely on virtual collaboration, explores the potential of new developments, and provides insights on how to manage customer-led innovation.Our special report on innovation systems will help leaders guide teams that rely on virtual collaboration, explores the potential of new developments, and provides insights on how to manage customer-led innovation.The authors held a series of focus groups with experienced sustainability leaders at a dozen large companies. They investigated how leaders go about setting goals, adapting them, and communicating them to stakeholders. In particular, they sought to learn how much companies engage with internal and external stakeholders, how goals drive performance, and what happens when they don’t reach their goals or they decide to change them.
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S37How getting a second opinion can stop you being ripped off  You leave your car at the mechanic for a routine service ahead of your summer escape to the coast. When your mobile rings, you are stricken by unwelcome news: the mechanic goes through a list of parts that urgently need replacing to avoid a breakdown in the middle of the freeway. After accepting your fate, you never learn whether you really needed to replace those parts, or if the mechanic has just ripped you off. Services like these - for which it remains unclear whether the service was really needed - are what economists call “credence goods”. Credence goods markets are a hotbed for questionable practices. The typical advice for consumers is to get a second opinion and check the reviews.
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S35Was King Herod the Great really so 'great'? What history says about the bad guy of the Christmas story  King Herod will sound familiar to anyone who’s heard the Christmas story. King of Judea when Jesus of Nazareth was born, the ruler attempts to find and kill the baby after hearing that the “King of the Jews” has just been born.Tricked by the Magi, the wise men whom Herod had sent to determine where the infant was, a raging Herod decreed that all children 2 and under who live near Bethlehem are to be killed. The Gospel of Matthew contains the famous account of this “slaughter of the innocents,” and of Mary, Joseph and Jesus’ flight to Egypt.
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S63The U.N. Announces the Hottest Year  When 2023 began, it seemed likely to be just one more year in the ongoing collapse of the world’s climate system. We were at the tail end of a long La Niña cold period in the Pacific, which meant that, although global temperatures had been near record levels for the past few years, they hadn’t quite topped 2016, the period of the last strong El Niño, which brought the hottest year to date—not to mention considerable havoc from Australia to Alaska. Amid signs of that Pacific warm current starting to build anew, climatologists looked ahead to next year as the time when all hell might break loose. Experts said it was possible that in 2024 we could go past 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures—the mark that we had pledged to try to avoid at the Paris climate summit just eight years ago.Instead, dire things began happening much, much sooner. This spring, the keepers of various data sets pointed out that sea-surface temperatures around the globe were setting records. In July, a buoy off the Florida Keys recorded what some meteorologists believe is the highest marine temperature ever measured, setting in at 101.1 degrees, which is right about where people keep their hot tubs. That extreme heat soon moved onshore; because the northern hemisphere has more land than the southern, this is always the time of year when consolidated global temperatures reach their height. And on July 3rd scientists reported that, if you averaged in all the earth’s weather stations, ships, ocean buoys, and satellites, as an expert explained to the Washington Post, the planet had recorded the hottest day in the history of measurements. Thermometers stretch back only a few centuries, but scientists are good at assembling proxy markers from glacial cores and lake sediments; they said that this may have been one of the hottest days in at least a hundred and twenty-five thousand years, which takes us about back to the point when people began using shells as decorations. July 4th was hotter, and then July 6th broke the record again. As for the year as a whole, data from the World Meteorological Agency show that, as the U.N. Secretary-General, António Guterres, told the global climate talks in Dubai last week, we can safely say, even with weeks to go, that 2023 will take the title.
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S61A Podcast Memorial Service  On Saturday afternoon, a crowd gathered at Caveat, a subterranean space on the Lower East Side, for Four Interviews and a Funeral—an event mourning and celebrating “Death, Sex & Money,” Anna Sale’s long-running podcast from WNYC Studios, which, owing to steep budget cuts, will end in its current form this month. Attendees sat at little round tables, eating popcorn and drinking ginger beer. Many of them wore glasses and held giveaway tote bags. “This crowd feels very public radio,” a man at my table said. “But, in the spirit of podcasting, a little less geriatric.” Several attendees worked for companies that had recently had major layoffs, audio and otherwise, and who didn’t know what their own futures held. The mood was elegiac, anxious, appreciative. As the show began, the WNYC-affiliated Outer Borough Brass Band—saxophone, trumpet, trombone, tuba, drums—played New Orleans-style jazz, and Sale, forty-three, danced onstage, in a sleeveless navy dress and red shoes. The crowd’s cheering was intense.“It’s O.K.!” Sale told the room, as the cheering settled down. “I’m not dead, the members of the ‘Death, Sex & Money’ team are not dead, and we don’t even know if the show is dead. However, we know something is ending.” In 2023, there were dramatic layoffs at New York Public Radio and WNYC, Pushkin, NPR, and many other media companies. Last week, Spotify, which had already dismantled much of what remained of the once-great podcast studio Gimlet, which it acquired, in 2019, for two hundred and thirty million dollars, essentially finished it off, cancelling two of podcasting’s most beloved shows: Connie Walker’s “Stolen,” which this year won both a Peabody and a Pulitzer, and Jonathan Goldstein’s “Heavyweight,” one of the best podcast series ever made. Around the same time, Tyler Goodson, the struggling small-town-Alabama protagonist of “Serial” ’s “S-Town,” from 2017, died after a shoot-out with police. In the podcasting community, the sense of loss was palpable. The “magical moment” of “expanded possibility, when audio exploded, about ten years ago”—the so-called podcast boom, when “Death, Sex & Money” began—“is closing,” Sale said. “Something new is coming up. We don’t know what that is yet. So we wanted to have a party that feels a little bit like a variety show and a little bit like a memorial service.”
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S11A Royal crisis: The shocking moment King Edward VIII announced his abdication to the nation  "At long last I am able to say a few words of my own," was how the royal, who the day before was known as King Edward VIII, began a BBC radio broadcast that would not just stun the listening public but reshape the future of the monarchy. Over the next seven minutes he explained how he had decided voluntarily to abdicate the throne, the first English monarch to do so, in order to marry the woman he loved, US socialite Wallis Simpson.More like this:- What kings wore from Tudor times to now- The paintings that helped Henry VIII pick wives- The Crown review: A 'clumsy, predictable end' to the Royal Family drama
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S13Kenya at 60: the patriotic choral music used to present one version of history - podcast  Kenya is marking 60 years since its independence from British colonial rule on December 12, 1963. Each year, the country celebrates the occasion with a national holiday, Jamhuri Day. And for much of the past 60 years, patriotic choral music has been a regular feature of those celebrations. In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, we explore how much one song can tell you about the politics of a new nation – and who controls what gets remembered and what gets forgotten.
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S69 'Elden Ring' DLC and 5 Other Games Missing From the 2023 Game Awards  More than in past years, the 2023 Game Awards felt chock-full of world premieres, trailers, and updates on some of the biggest games in the industry. There were also, of course, awards given out and some great speeches from the evening’s winners (even if they weren’t given the time they deserved). But even with all that going on, there were still several conspicuous no-shows. Here are the six biggest games that surprisingly didn’t appear at the 2023 Game Awards, despite how hotly anticipated they are and their history of showing up at the Game Awards.The sequel to Kojima Productions' first game was revealed at the 2022 Game Awards with a luxurious four-minute trailer. But it has been a year with no more information on the game being released, leaving fans to anticipate a potential trailer at this year’s awards. Kojima did show up during the show to reveal a new trailer, but the big surprise was that it wasn’t for Death Stranding 2. Instead, Kojima announced OD, a new project in partnership with Xbox and Jordan Peele, starring actors including Hunter Schafer (Euphoria).
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S38S45Why Russians still support Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine  Russian president Vladimir Putin has announced he intends to run in the 2024 presidential election. Putin is almost certain to win what would be his fifth term as Russian president. The news comes as little surprise. Putin has led Russia for 24 years and polls suggest Russia’s ongoing military campaign in Ukraine has bolstered support for him.
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S43S68S34Serbian election: another win for the Serbian Progressive Party will threaten peace in Europe  The outcome of Serbia’s parliamentary elections on December 17 will have profound implications for peace in Europe. Though somewhat obscured by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and more recently the crisis in Gaza, tensions in the Balkans have risen sharply in recent months. Should Serbs reelect the main party of government, the likelihood of regional conflict will increase. The Serbian Progressive Party (SPP) has been in government since 2012. Formed in 2008, the SPP was initially seen as a pro-EU-integration party that would lead Serbia towards the west.
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S66S32Ukraine war: stakes are high for EU and Ukraine ahead of crucial European summit  When the EU’s heads of state and government come together in Brussels for their final European Council meeting of the year on December 14 and 15, their agenda is likely to be dominated by the war in Ukraine. As you’d expect, the war has an agenda item of its own – but it is also central to discussions on enlargement, the budget and European defence. Decisions made at this meeting will have far-reaching implications – not only for Ukraine but also for the EU.
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S67The Golden Globes Just Gave a Big Awards Boost to Sci-Fi and Superhero Movies  It’s starting to become clear that genre TV and movies need their own stage to shine. Sure, there are the Oscars and the Emmys, but they have all sections of the medium competing with each other. Genre pictures like Everything Everywhere All At Once can take home the top prize, but it’s become a very occasional occurrence. But an unlikely hero is emerging that may give the subgenre the dedicated award — and awards show — it deserves.Efforts to previously acknowledge genre-specific filmmaking have proven disastrous in the past. In 2022, the Oscars introduced two new categories: Fan Favorite and “Cheerworthy Moment,” which bafflingly included moments from decades-old movies like Dreamgirls and The Matrix. Unsurprisingly, because both these awards were decided through social media voting by the public, Zack Snyder (and his rabid fanbase) walked away with both, leaving Oscar viewers wondering what “The Flash Entering the Speed Force” actually meant.
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S12Benjamin Zephaniah: how the poet's linguistic anarchy and abolitionist politics impacted education - and me  Like so many others who work in education, I was devastated to hear the news of Benjamin Zephaniah’s death. His work has profoundly shaped our understandings of race, language and education – and his work continues to have enormous influence in classrooms around the world.I first encountered Benjamin’s writing when I was at secondary school. Our English teacher used his poetry to explore issues of local and global injustices. Like him, she encouraged us all to challenge normative ways of using language and reject the linguistic hierarchies that shape schools. She, like Benjamin, saw teaching as a political act.
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S47Antimicrobial resistance now hits lower-income countries the hardest, but superbugs are a global threat we must all fight  Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the World Health Organization’s most urgent health challenges for the next decade. While AMR is a global threat, a tale of two worlds emerges, highlighting the heightened vulnerability of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Misuse of antimicrobials worldwide has accelerated the evolution of antimicrobial resistance. For instance, in many countries, antibiotics are available over the counter, and even when their use is more regulated, the Centers for Disease Control has estimated that in the United States, one in three antibiotic prescriptions were unnecessary.
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S53Child abductions can be hard to identify, and people may not know they are witnessing a serious crime  On a summer’s day in January 1970, three-year-old Cheryl Grimmer was kidnapped from Fairy Meadow Beach in Wollongong, New South Wales. This is the last time Cheryl was seen. Cheryl remains missing, 53 years later. She is one of the 2,500 people considered to be a long-term missing person in Australia.In 2020, the New South Wales government offered a $1,000,000 reward to anyone who could provide information to help locate and arrest the person who abducted Cheryl. Yet, even with this large reward, witnesses were not forthcoming. The only information witnesses at the beach on that day could provide about the girl’s kidnapper was that they were an unknown male.
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S59Celebrating Christmas on December 25 began as early as 2 century CE, history shows  Most people, including Christians, believe the origin of Christmas is the pagan feasts to worship the solar god Sol Invictus, Saturn’s god Saturnalia, or the Persian solar god adopted by the Romans, Mithras.Academically, this view is also known as historical religions theory. The theory suggests the Catholic Church in Rome, Italy, began celebrating Christmas on December 25 in 336 CE to replace the pagan celebrations.
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S55Human trafficking, sexual abuse and exploitation: the 'loss and damage' from climate change a fund will not compensate  Violence against women and children, including sexual abuse and exploitation, remains a taboo subject in the policy debates attended by international delegates at COP28, the latest round of the UN climate negotiations in Dubai. However, the connections between climate change and gender-based violence, including human trafficking, are real and already blight lives worldwide.Countries at COP28 have agreed to set up a loss and damage fund which would pay poor nations for the irreparable harm caused by the deteriorating climate. How can we compensate non-economic loss and damage – the impacts of climate change that cannot be easily measured in monetary terms?
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S31Dopamine menus: the science behind the trend - and how it might help people with ADHD  Menus are usually something you’d expect to come across in a restaurant. But one social media influencer went viral recently for sharing a different kind of menu – a “dopamine menu” or dopamenu. The dopamine menu concept comes from a 2020 YouTube video by Jessica McCabe (How to ADHD). In her video, she suggests that dopamine menus are a tool that people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can use when they find they need stimulation – but may be at a loss for what to do. Each person can design their menu based on what they like, dividing it into appetisers, mains, sides and desserts.
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S49S48What the Blue Jays can learn from missing out on the Shohei Ohtani sweepstakes  This past weekend, Toronto Blue Jays fans experienced a roller coaster of emotions when it seemed like Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani was going to sign with Toronto, only to be heartbroken after he signed a US$700 million, 10-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers.The Blue Jays wanted Ohtani for a number of reasons. Ohtani is a rare breed in baseball — not only is he one of the best pitchers in MLB, with an ERA of 3.14 in 2023, but he’s also a prolific hitter. His unique skill set has drawn comparisons with baseball legend Babe Ruth.
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S21Changing the lyrics to hit songs might be increasingly noticeable - but it's a longstanding musical practice  Electronic dance music band The Prodigy are the latest act to attract attention for changing the lyrics to a longstanding hit in recent live shows. They now repeat the opening line “change my pitch up” in place of the song’s title “Smack My Bitch Up”. The song’s been a source of controversy since its release in 1997 – BBC Radio One only played an instrumental version of and it received only limited airplay at all.Changing song lyrics is an increasingly common phenomenon, although not as recent as headlines might suggest.
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S44S46S14Climate change: if warming approaches 2  As delegates discuss the climate crisis in Dubai for COP28, the dazzling variety of life found on Earth hangs in the balance. Our world has warmed by roughly 1.2°C since the pre-industrial period. Many species are already exposed to increasingly intolerable conditions, driving some populations to die off or contract at the hottest edges of their geographic ranges. Biodiversity is feeling the heat in all ecosystems and regions, from mountain tops to ocean depths.
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S6510 Years Later, 'Doctor Who' Might Have Just Solved One Of Its Weirdest Mysteries  Although the Doctor Who 60th-anniversary specials weren't as stuffed-to-the-gills with as many cameos as fans maybe would have liked, the final David Tennant and Catherine Tate special, “The Giggle,” did, seemingly create a new paradigm that could solve a mystery the show set into motion 10 years ago.In “The Day of the Doctor,” the 11th Doctor (Matt Smith) met a seemingly much older incarnation of himself, known only as “The Curator,” played by 4th Doctor actor, Tom Baker. But how does the Doctor eventually become The Curator? The surprising ending of “The Giggle” may have the answer. Spoilers ahead.
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S29South Africa leads the continent in offering more paternal leave to fathers. How to make sure both parents benefit  A South African high court has ushered in a new era of parental leave with a landmark ruling that new parents can share four months of parental leave, previously available only to mothers. The case against the Minister of Labour was initiated by Werner and Ika van Wyk as first respondents, and advocacy group Sonke Gender Justice as third respondent. My organisation Equimundo: Center for Masculinities and Social Justice was commissioned to write an expert affidavit on international good practices regarding parental leave, and we drew mainly on the criteria of good leave policies set out in the MenCare Parental Leave Platform for the affidavit.
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S52S50More than mental illness. How the NDIS review could help people with psychosocial disability  The review into the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has been released and it recommends some big changes. This is not a report that just moves the deck chairs – it changes the whole layout of the ship, including its approach to psychosocial disability. The NDIS refers to mental illness as psychosocial disability when it is severe and disabling. Clear definitions point out psychosocial disability is not a diagnosis in itself. It has a functional impact and presents barriers to equality when someone with a mental health condition interacts with a social environment. It can affect their ability to work, learn, socialise or care for themselves.
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S20How cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger became the scents of winter holidays, far from their tropical origins  Regardless of how you celebrate end-of-year holidays, food is probably central to your winter festivities. And a trio of spices – cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger – feature in many dishes and drinks and are an unmistakable part of the scent profile we associate with the holiday season.As a plant scientist, I was curious to know how these spices, grown in the tropics, became so closely associated with the Northern Hemisphere’s winter holidays. Just as cranberries’ fall harvest makes them a natural choice for Thanksgiving, I thought that perhaps the seasonality of spice harvest had something to do with their use during the winter months.
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S15S36In A Kind of Confession, Alex Miller drops the 'mask of fiction' to reveal the intricate depths of a writing life  Alex Miller’s A Kind of Confession is subtitled “the writer’s private world”. It is comprised of excerpts from his notebooks, diaries and selected letters. Spanning 1961 to 2023, these documents sit at a small but decisive distance from the author, having been curated by his wife, Stephanie Miller. I was wary, at first, of “confession” and “private world”. These words seemed to task the reader with divining Miller’s private life. But the book’s James Baldwin epigraph – “All art is a kind of confession” – disrupted this notion. Gentle teasing is by no means inconsistent with Miller’s fiction, where all is not as it seems.
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