What does it take to elevate women's sport? We dive into the unique landscape of women's sports in New Zealand with special guest Erin Roxburgh, Deputy Chair of Women in Sport NZ. Erin, is a current squad member of the New Zealand Women's Indoor and Beach Handball teams and is currently a lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington and future director at Sport NZ, shares her personal journey and expert insights into the funding and governance structures that shape the sporting world down under. We discover the surprising role of gaming funds and how it compares to more commercial models, using basketball and rugby as case studies. We also explore the relatively recent professionalization of sports in Aotearoa and what the future holds. Whether you're a sports enthusiast or simply curious about the forces behind the game, this episode offers a thought-provoking look at the challenges and opportunities in the future of women's sport.

Erin Roxburgh Profile: https://people.wgtn.ac.nz/erin.r.roxburgh

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How much do we really talk about sex in our relationships — and when should we? In this episode, Sahir and Olivia sit down with relationships researcher Katie Knowles to unpack the psychology of sex disclosure, why most people in relationships hover around a "3.5 out of 5," and how attachment styles can shape what we share (and what we don’t). We go on to discuss some surprisingly relatable results from Katie's current research and where the future of intimacy and relationships is headed.

Katie Knowles recently published a research paper reviewing all the present literature around sexual self disclosures.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/388959085_Meta-Analyzing_People's_Self-Disclosure_of_Sexual_Information_to_Romantic_Partners

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Professor Tony Marson of the University of Liverpool talks to Beth and Sahir about Epilepsy, a neurological disorder characterized by recurrent seizures, which are sudden, abnormal electrical activity in the brain. We discuss the types of epilepsy, what are its causes and how it manifests across time, what the current treatments for epilepsy are and what the future of epilepsy research looks like.

This episode is part of our ongoing collaboration with the British Neuroscience Association, Liverpool Neuroscience Group and The Brain Charity.

https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/people/anthony-marson

Public Events run by LNG: https://meetings.bna.org.uk/BYOBLiverpool/

BNA Festival of Neuroscience: https://meetings.bna.org.uk/bna2025/

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In the build to the International Festival of Neuroscience being held in Liverpool from the 27th to 30th of April, 2025. We spoke to Dr. Dorothy Tse of Edge Hill University about her incredible research aimed at understanding memory, preventing dementia and promoting healthy ageing. We speak about the Tse Lab's work in understanding how prior knowledge can help in developing new memories and the importance of public input in all their research activities.

Episode in collaboration with the British Neuroscience Association, Liverpool Neuroscience Group and The Brain Charity.

Public Events run by LNG: https://meetings.bna.org.uk/BYOBLiverpool/

BNA Festival of Neuroscience: https://meetings.bna.org.uk/bna2025/

Dr. Dorothy Tse: https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/person/dr-dorothy-tse/staff/

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Individuals' psychopathic personality traits can have negative effects on the people around them. Aaron Hissey of Victoria University of Wellington discusses his research on whether the negativity of someone's psychopathic personality crosses over to their partner and then spills over into their partner's workplace. We discuss some of the incredible associations he found including some potential benefits of dating a psychopath.

Read the article here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39928490/

Anatomy of a Psychopath: https://smoothbrainsociety.com/2022/04/29/2-the-anatomy-of-a-psychopath-associate-prof-hedwig-eisenbarth/

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Autism, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication. Dr. Calum Hartley of Lancaster University talks us through ASD and come of the misconceptions people have about it. We cover Dr. Hartley's research on language development in children with autism and cover some other research with regards to the negative interactions people with autism often face in the criminal justice system.

Dr. Calum Hartley: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/psychology/about-us/people/calum-hartley

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Angela Kibia, Researcher at King's College London, talks about the work being carried out by the SAFE project aimed towards developing education and group support for Black families and carers supporting a relative with psychosis. Highlighting the importance of all those who care for someone with a mental health condition and what we can do to better support them.

Experiences from participants from the SAFE project https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4DcFShrLLE

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/exploring-the-experiences-of-carers-from-black-communities-1

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Behrouz Boochani and Abdul Samad Haidari speak about their journeys as refugees, the systems which demonize asylum seekers as criminals, Manus Prison Theory and structural oppression, and the role of art, literature and storytelling in resistance an healing.

Guest Profiles:

Behrouz Boochani is a Kurdish-Iranian journalist, human rights defender, writer, film producer and research fellow at Canterbury University. He, along with Omid Tofighian, developed the Manus Prison Theory which is a framework to understand offshore detention facilities and how this system functions as a form of systemic violence and oppression against asylum seekers. Behrouz himself was detained at Manus Island for two years after its official closure in 2019 and his memoir, No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison, won the Victorian Prize for Literature and the Victorian Premier's Prize for Nonfiction in January 2019.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/31/writing-from-manus-prison-a-scathing-critique-of-domination-and-oppression

Abdul Samad Haidari is journalist, poet and refugee advocate. From the Hazara community in Afghanistan, he was forced to flee Afghanistan on multiple occasions having spent his childhood as a refugee in Pakistan and Iran before returning. His journalism had a particular focus on women and children's rights, terrorist group actions, transparency and accountability in government, and the systematic persecution of minority groups in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. He spent 9 years in a refugee camp in Indonesia before making in to New Zealand. The podcast title "I am but more than a refugee" is an homage to one of the poems in his recent book. "The Unsent Condolences"

https://abdulsamadhaidari.wixsite.com/site/books

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