The Conversation Weekly17 Feb 2022

Sahel security: what a wave of military coups means for the fight against jihadi groups in West Africa

Military juntas have seized power in a series of coups in recent months in Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso. We ask three experts what the coups mean for the war against jihadi insurgents in the Sahel – and for the future of French and European soldiers in the region.

Featuring Folahanmi Aina, PhD candidate at King's College London in the UK, Mady Ibrahim Kanté, lecturer at the University of Legal and Political Sciences of Bamako in Mali and Thierry Vircoulon, a researcher at the University of Paris in France.

And, we talk to researcher looking for ways to alleviate discrimination faced by people who speak English with a foreign accent. Shiri Lev-Ari, a lecturer in psychology at Royal Holloway University of London in the UK, explains why people might discriminate against non-native speakers even if they are not prejudiced – and what to do about it. (From 31m40s)

And Jack Marley, an environment editor for The Conversation in Newcastle, England, recommends some recent articles on the ethical questions raised by eating meat. (From 43m40s)

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode available here.

Further reading

Mapping the contours of Jihadist groups in the Sahel

In the Sahel, France is being pushed out (in French)

France has started withdrawing its troops from Mali: what is it leaving behind?

Here’s why people might discriminate against foreign accents – new research

Cow documentary shows the need for fundamental legal rights for animals

The meat paradox: how your brain wrestles with the ethics of eating animals

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(290)

Loonies and bins: Britain's long love affair with novelty politics

It's pretty grim when your main political opponent is a man with a bin for a head.That's the situation that's faced Nigel Farage in the Clacton byelection in the UK.Count Binface has pledged to nation...

13 Aug 23min

The soviet origins of shadow libraries

Balázs Bödö's first interaction with a shadow library was when, as a young professor at university in Budapest, he was faced with a dilemma: what should he teach his students? "Do I condemn my student...

6 Aug 20min

A window into the murky world of peptides

Timothy Piatkowki was scrolling when a targeted ad landed in his feed. Cheap peptides! Straight from the factory! Naturally, he started a chat with the dealer and found himself deep in the world of a ...

30 Jul 18min

Save our brains: how dangerous is sport?

With growing evidence about concussion, repetitive head impacts and long-term brain disease, have we underestimated the risks of sport all along? How did we get here, what do we really know about head...

23 Jul 16min

How Manchester shaped Andy Burnham, the UK's incoming prime minister

Three months ago, Andy Burnham’s desk was filled with the business of running Greater Manchester. Buses. Housing. Policing. This mayoral region in the north of England is home to 3 million people and ...

16 Jul 27min

How celebrities like Taylor Swift are fighting back against AI deepfakes

When Taylor Swift launched her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, in October 2025, she recorded two short clips to promote it. One for Amazon Music began with “Hey, it’s Taylor Swift”. Another, for...

9 Jul 25min

The anatomy of a super El Niño

El Niño has begun and forecasters predict a more than 60% chance that the naturally occurring phenomenon could become a very strong, or super El Niño later in 2026.El Niño begins with warmer water in ...

2 Jul 21min

Cockroach party hits nerve with angry young Indians

A new youth protest movement in India that started as online satire is now staging an ongoing sit-in in New Delhi calling for the resignation of India’s education minister.The Cockroach Janta Party (C...

25 Jun 25min